Apple Gives Adobe The Finger With Its New iPhone SDK Agreement

Earlier today, Apple held its iPhone 4.0 event, where it showcased some of the new features the latest release of the mobile OS will offer. Just after that ended, Apple released a new beta SDK to developers, complete with a new developer license agreement. And nestled in that agreement is a passage that may have major implications for developers, and disastrous consequences for Adobe’s latest release of Flash: Apple has banned “applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer”.

So what does that mean? Apple may have just made the flagship feature of Adobe Flash CS5, which allows developers to port Flash applications to the iPhone, totally useless. John Gruber of Daring Fireball was the first to point out the change in the License Agreement. Here’s the relevant text:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

The ban appears to directly apply to the new Flash feature, but Adobe said it was still “looking into” the change when we asked them about it. Here’s the brief statement they sent us:

“We are aware of the new SDK language and are looking into it. We continue to develop our Packager for iPhone OS technology, which we plan to debut in Flash CS5.”

Should this affect Adobe, as Gruber believes it does, it would be a huge loss for the software maker — Adobe CS5 is due to launch in less than four days. It’s also an especially vicious move on Apple’s part, because it seems quite clear that Adobe didn’t know this was coming (they’ve spent many months marketing the upcoming feature, and it obviously took plentiful developer resources to build it). Adobe and Apple have been waging a vocal battle over the last few months, with tensions mounting as Apple announced that the iPad would not offer Flash support. The fact that Google and Adobe are now working tightly to improve Flash integration in Google Chrome probably doesn’t help.

There is still quite a bit of ambiguity as to who this might impact. One increasingly prominent tool that could be affected is Sequoia-backed Unity Technologies, which offers a platform for quickly designing three dimensional applications. In the original version of his post Gruber theorized that Unity may be affected, but he’s now less sure. Reached for comment, Unity gave us this statement:

“We have no indication from Apple that things are going to change. We have a great relationship with Apple and will do everything we can to comply with Apple’s TOS (also, these are ‘beta TOS’, and these easily get changed) so that we can provide uninterrupted service to our more than 120K users.”

In other words, nobody seems entirely sure what this means quite yet. But the backlash has certainly started. Many developers have taken to forums like Hacker News to voice their opinions, with the most up-voted comment stating “What a horseshit maneuver by Apple.” Some have taken to Twitter to denounce the move, with prominent developer Joe Hewitt (who was responsible for Facebook’s iPhone application for years) tweeting “So much for programming language innovation on the iPhone platform”.

If it wasn’t abundantly clear before, it certainly is now: Apple is playing dirty. It doesn’t care what the developer community thinks. It has the users, it has the media’s undying love, and it has an incredibly impressive line of products. If a developer decides to quit the iPhone over this move, that just means less competition for the rest of the developers looking to capitalize on the flourishing platform. The media may pick up on the story briefly, but most people don’t care, so it’ll move on. And the iPhone will keep selling like hotcakes.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/08/adobe-flash-apple-sdk/

iPad Hits a Bump: Wi-Fi Woes Point to Apple Bug

Some new owners of Apple's slate computer, the iPad, are having issues with the device's Wi-Fi connection. Multiple forum postings, both on Apple's own support site and elsewhere, have users reporting that they're experiencing weak signals in an area where their other Internet-connected devices have no issues. Another common complaint, which appears to be related, is a dropped connection. Some iPads lose their connection to the Wi-Fi network, then prompt the user to re-enter the network password. But doing so doesn't work. The only "fix" seems to be either shutting Wi-Fi off and back on again via the settings, or worse, rebooting the computer...err...iPad.

Network Password?

There doesn't seem to be any determinable factor connecting the users experiencing the problems - different models of the iPad are in use, different routers, different security settings, etc. However, one name came up dozens of times in the forums: Verizon FiOS. A number of the complaints came from customers of Verizon's high-speed, fiber-to-the-curb service known as FiOS. Along with TV and phone, Verizon provides Actiontec-branded Internet routers to establish the home's Ethernet (cabled) and wireless networks.

We got in touch with the company, who had yet to hear of the problem at the time. After much research on Verizon's part, including speaking with members of their hardware teams and call center operations, it appears the issue has simply not crossed their radar.

According to Verizon's Media Relations Director, Jim Smith, the call center has not received calls from iPad owners about failed connections on the iPad, although some have phoned in for help setting up WEP security connections on the devices. He did, however, hear from one person on his team who said Apple had advised iPad owners to turn off WEP security. We could not confirm this to be the case, but it does match up with a few of the recommendations found on user forums. Those forums are hosted on Apple.com, so this is where the confusion may lie. For example, a customer reading the forums may have mistakenly assumed these were suggested fixes from Apple itself, and not from other affected users.

Smith also told us that, as of now, Verizon has no evidence that the connection issues iPad owners are experiencing are related to Verizon's broadband services in any way. iPad users among the company's own employees have also not reported any trouble, he says.

Apple Bug Resurfaces

We typically believe that statements like these are just PR gloss-overs of an issue, but in this case, we tend to believe Verizon. The reason? This Wi-Fi bug is not a new issue. It happened to iPhone users, too, when the iPhone 3.0 software, a mobile operating system upgrade released via iTunes, was launched a year ago. Several iPhone owners then experienced issues that mimic those now being reported by iPad users. In July 2009, owners of the latest iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, which had launched the prior month, also reported similar issues. Despite rumors that the fix would be included in iPhone OS 3.1 in September 2009, the issues remained. There have even been three additional minor OS upgrades since then, to no avail.

Apparently this is a bug that Apple just can't quash.

As far as we can tell right now, some people are having limited success by either disabling WEP altogether on their wireless network - not a good idea from a security perspective as it opens up your home network to public access - or by setting their routers to "G" only, when formerly set to B/G or "mixed" mode. (To the non-technical, those letters refer to wireless networking standards. "G" routers are newer than "B" routers, but older than "N" routers. Routers can broadcast in B mode, G mode, N mode or a "mixed" mode where they support connections to devices of varying ages and supported standards.) For what's it worth, neither of those workarounds resolved the issue in my tests.

Unfortunately, adjusting router settings isn't something everyday, mainstream users would think to do. Many of them buy Apple products because they're marketed as devices that "just work." Hopefully, Apple will soon live up to the image they've created for themselves and fix the Wi-Fi bug for good. In the meantime, learn how to reboot your iPad.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ipad_hits_a_bump_wi-fi_woes_point_to_apple_bug.php

My 3-year-old daughter is my usability expert

SXSW2010 - My 3-year-old daughter is my usability expert from Dave Stanton on Vimeo.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/kids_on_the_web_innovation_from_unlikely_experts.php

Kids on the Web: Innovation From Unlikely Experts

"Advances in science and technology can launch from unassuming springboards," says a recent article in Scientific American, chronicling how brilliant thinkers "reached back to childhood to help them develop tiny transistors, study particle separation, make microfluidics devices, and fight cancer." More specifically, they reached for Etch A Sketch, Legos, Shrinky Dinks and balloons.

The modern era is intrigued by the possibility of finding answers in unexpected places. In fact, the allure of genius ex machina has gone so far as to revolutionize corporate innovation processes at large; they now accommodate - nay, solicit - user input.

Guest author Kim Gaskins is a writer for Latitude, an international research consultancy exploring how Web technologies can further enhance human experiences. Visit life-connected.com for other Latitude studies or to learn more about working with Latitude.

Dave Stanton of the Poynter Institute leads an SxSW session: "My Three-Year Old is my Usability Expert."

Are you the parent of a child 12 years old or under? Click here to take a survey about how kids perceive the Web.

Recently, PayPal's Developer Challenge crowdsourced ideas for better integrating payment into developers' own applications. And last year, Netflix awarded $1 million to the team that improved its recommendation algorithm by more than 10%. (Over 50,000 contestants entered the challenge.)

With so much impetus behind technological advancements, some innovative minds -- particularly in the areas of design and usability -- are looking back to a kind of vintage simplicity in distilling the problem and solution principles underlying their creations.

Last month at SXSW, Dave Stanton, a cognitive researcher and Technology Fellow at The Poynter Institute, ran a session entitled "My Three-Year Old is my Usability Expert."

In certain contexts, children's natural limitations turn to strengths. "Children are terrific UI testers because they haven't developed the language necessary to parse text instructions; they have to rely on visual cues," explains Stanton. "Children can help us balance intuitive interfaces with the domain-specific attributes designers use to convey personality."

Young children adopt a fundamentally different approach to technology. We can see this at work in simple ways - in the toddler who, accustomed to her mother's iPhone, instinctively approaches a laptop by swiping a finger across it. "We are moving toward more naturalistic interfaces utilizing feel, sound and sight for both user input and device feedback," describes Stanton. "I'm excited to see the elegant modes of human-computer interaction we can uncover by studying how children leverage these mechanisms in problem-solving scenarios."

In conjunction with ReadWriteWeb, Latitude Research is taking children's unique approach to technology one step further. "This project is a step toward understanding how children can help us generate abstract solutions with potential real-world applications," Stanton says.

As part of an open innovation study (whose lead analyst is Jessica Reinis), we're asking kids, age 12 and under, to create ideas for future Web technologies (or, more likely, to demonstrate the underlying, creative-thinking principles which beget these types of innovations) by drawing the answer to a simple question: What would be really fun or interesting to do on your computer or the Internet that you can't do right now?

"The difference between today's children and yesterday's was what technologies were available to them as they tried to make sense of the world around them," said ethnographer and social media researcher danah boyd, when we asked her how pervasive digital culture might be affecting younger generations. "But youth accept whatever contemporary technology is available and try to see if it makes sense in their lives. Adults are the ones who have to shift their understanding of the world based on technology." Naturally, we're interested to see how Web solutions can be informed by more technologically "intuitive" sensibilities when child becomes creator.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/kids_on_the_web_innovation_from_unlikely_experts.php

Farewell, Keyboard - Generation I Will Grow Up on Touchscreens

The analysts at Gartner must have been fairly impressed with the Apple iPad because their latest research report predicts that over 50% of the computers purchased for children will have touchscreens by 2015. In this case, Gartner defines children as those under the age of 15 or, as we like to call them, "Generation I." (This is the new, hipper terminology for children of the 2000's once dubbed "Generation Z" or "digital natives.") They're the ones born into a world where computers and cellphones are introduced as baby toys, where the iPod has always existed and where everyone they know can be found on Facebook. And now, it seems, they're going to grow up with computers in an entirely different way, too.

As a new parent myself, I'm simultaneously fascinated and fearful of the way technology has infiltrated our lives. My four-month-old loves to "color" on the iPad. (If only I had recorded that! I could have made Techmeme!) But on the other hand, I worry that one day she'll prefer her virtual touchscreen to crayons and blank paper. I wonder about the implications of bedtime stories read on a cold, metallic device instead of selected from a packed shelf of favorite books - tangible objects that can be grasped by little hands, objects which have a feeling of permanence in this world. Will the child who grows up playing on an iPad still enjoy a family game night of fold-out boards, plastic pieces and dice? Will she ever learn to shuffle a deck of cards?

When the computer was just a screen, keyboard and mouse, it remained, for all its usefulness, a tool. A means to an end. It was something you used at work, a replacement for pen and ink, a way to communicate with others in far off places, but ultimately, it was just a thing. Now, thanks to the mobile web, tablets and yes, Apple and their iToys, the computer isn't just a thing anymore. It's an everything. 160,000 applications and counting in the iTunes App Store with new iPad apps being added every day. The iPad can replace any real-world object you own: a book, a music player, a TV set, a DVD player, a coloring book, a board game, an artist's canvas, a notepad, a DJ's turntable, a globe, a map and so on.

And for the children being born into this new digital age, it will.

Whether or not the analysts at Garnter are right on the money about the percentages and timeframe in which this occurs - in addition to their guesstimates about touchscreen adoption, they're predicting over half of U.S. schools will specify touch and/or pen input within the next 5 years - they have at least pegged this trend accurately. Touch is the future.

And you, with your clickety-clackety keyboard and push-button mouse will be the "old fogie" whining about how you just can't adapt to typing on glass.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/farewell_keyboard_generation_i_will_grow_up_on_touchscreens.php

Google Earth Goes DROID

Google Earth for the Android phone is now available on the Verizon DROID, according to Peter Birch, writing on the Google LatLongBlog.

Google Earth for Android launched in early March, but the specific needs of adapting it for Verizon's phone and service took an extra month.

According to Birch, Google Earth for Android is compatible with most Android devices running 2.1. More Android phones will accommodate Google Earth as they adopt Android 2.1 or higher.

"Google Earth requires hardware floating-point acceleration, so it will run on devices such as DROID and Nexus One, but not on devices such as myTouch 3G and DROID ERIS."

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_earth_goes_droid.php

Apple Announces iPhone OS 4 with Support for Multitasking

During a presentation on Apple's Cupertino campus this morning, the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the next version of the iPhone operating system: iPhone OS 4. Apple will release a preview version to developers today and plans to release the OS to consumers in the summer. Among the new features in the OS are multitasking with the help of a new set of APIs. Developers will get access to over 1,500 new APIs, and users will see over 100 new features.

Jobs also announced that Apple has already sold 450,000 iPads.

Note: This is a breaking news story. We will update this story throughout the morning as more news becomes available from the iPhone OS 4 event. Just reload this page to see the updates.

iPhone OS 4

New in iPhone OS 4

• Fast task switching
• Multitasking
• Folders
• Enhanced mail app
• Local push notifications
• Background location services
• Task completion in the background
• iBooks for iPhone
• Enterprise enhancement
• Game Center social gaming network
• iAd advertising network

In total, Apple has now sold close to 85 million devices that run the iPhone OS.

Developers, who will get access to the new OS today, will be able to access over 1,500 new APIs, including better APIs for in-app SMS, smarter ways to access the accelerometer and access to new users features like 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpapers, and access to Bluetooth keyboards.

iPhone OS 4 will also finally include support for multitasking. Jobs noted that Apple isn't the first company to bring this feature to the market, but wants "to be the best." A simple double-click on the home button will bring up a task menu at the bottom of the screen. This, however, is just a way to quickly switch between apps.

No Multitasking for iPhone 3G

Most of these newly announced features will run on the iPhone 3GS and third generation iPod touch, but users with an iPhone 3G or second generation iPod touch will not get access to the new multitasking features. Apple plans to release iPhone OS 4 for the iPad in the fall.

Background Apps

To run services in the background, as Apple's SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall noted, apps will have to access a new set of APIs. Music apps like Pandora will be able to stream their music in the background and use the iPod controls in the lock screen to control the playback. Until now, exiting an app like Pandora would stop the music playback. According to Pandora's developers, making the app background aware only took one day.

VoIP services like Skype will now also be able to run in the background.

Apple will now allow location services to run in the background. This will be a major boon for turn-by-turn direction services like Tom Tom and location-based social networks like Loopt, which Apple specifically mentioned during the event.

In addition, apps will also be able to send local push notifications and apps will be able to complete tasks like photo uploads in the background.

Folders

With iPhone OS 4, Apple is also introducing a new way to organize applications - something that those of us who have installed way too many apps on our phones will appreciate. Now, users will be able to organize apps into folders. To do this, you simply drag and drop apps on top of each other. The OS automatically creates a name for these folders (presumably based on the apps' categories in the App Store), but you can also edit the name yourself. Folders can also live in the dock. This will come in handy if you want to have all your games or news apps available at a moment's notice.

Enhanced Mail App

iPhone OS 4 will also bring an enhanced mail app with a unified inbox and the ability to organize emails by thread. In addition, users will finally be able to open attachments with apps.

Game Center

For gamers, Apple is introducing the Game Center, which is basically a social gaming network that will feature automatic matchmaking for multiplayer games, leaderboards and achievements.

iBooks Comes to the iPhone

After Apple introduced iBooks for the iPad, it was only a matter of time before the company would introduce iBooks for the iPhone. Just like the Kindle app, iBooks will sync pages and bookmarks between the iPad and iPhone. iPhone users will also be able to access the iBookstore right from their device.

iPhone in the Enterprise

For enterprise users, Apple is introducing a number of new features, including improved security courtesy of support for SLL VPN. Enterprises will now also be able to distribute apps wirelessly.

iAd

Unsurprisngly, Apple also announced its new iAd mobile advertising platform. According to Jobs, "most of this mobile advertising really sucks." According to Jobs, the best way to deliver mobile ads in not through search ads but inside mobile apps.

Jobs noted that Apple wants ads in apps to be even more interactive than on the Web. Currently, according to Jobs, people don't click on ads because it takes them out of the app. Given that iAd is a built-in OS-wide feature, however, Apple thinks that it can deliver a better experience for users. Jobs also took a swipe at Adobe and noted that these interactive ads will be developed in HTML5. Judging from Apple's demos during the event, these ads can be highly interactive and many of them resembled mini-games more than traditional display ads.

Apple will sell, host and deliver the ads and share 60% of the revenue with developers.

Update on the iPad: 450,000 Sold

At the beginning of his presentation, Jobs also recapped last week's launch of the iPad. According to Jobs, the company managed to sell 450,000 iPads since the device went on sale on Saturday. iPad users have downloaded over 600,000 books from the iBookstore and 3.5 million iPad apps from the App Store. It's not clear how many of these books were free books, however.

Jobs also announced that the App Store has now delivered over 4 billion apps to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users, and that there are close to 3,500 iPad apps in the store already.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apple_announces_iphone_40.php