Fwd: Bug ID 4920605: iPhone openness

[Jesse T Youngblood]

Just got this announcement, straight from Apple's bug handling people. Cool stuff.

-Jesse

Begin forwarded message:

From: dev...@apple.com

Date: October 17, 2007 12:39:34 PM EDT

To: "Jesse Youngblood"  <Flam...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Bug ID 4920605: iPhone openness

Reply-To: dev...@apple.com

Hi Jesse,

This is a follow-up to Bug ID# 4920605 .  Apple has just announced via Apple HotNews an iPhone SDK will be made available to developers in February 2008.  

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http://www.apple.com/hotnews/

Third Party Applications on the iPhone

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]

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Best Regards,

The Bug Reporting Team 

Apple Developer Connection 

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THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NONDISCLOSURE

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Bug ID #: 4920605

Bug Title: iPhone openness

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<GMT12-Jan-2007 00:31:25GMT> Jesse Youngblood:

Summary:

You can't do any development for the iPhone.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Write a cool app

2. Try to compile for iPhone

Expected Results:

A binary that should work in the spiffy iPhone.

Actual Results:

No way to compile for the iPhone exists, so no binary is produced

Regression:

None known.