iPhone SDK

Now that the App Store has gone live and had some of its glitches worked out (that and I actually have an iPhone again), I’ve decided to take another crack at the iPhone SDK.

I’ve got a client who’s interested in deploying an order management/inventory system using the iPhone, now I’ve already set them up with the backend system that’s accessible through Mobile Safari, but both he and I would like to use an application layer on the phone to speed things up and offer more robust functionality.

Tags: iphone sdk

VLC Hits the iPhone

Heck. Freakin’. Yes.

VLC is one of the greatest pieces of media playing software around and it has been successfully ported to the iPhone!

Currently vlc4iphone is only been released to a select group of beta testers (ie. people who’ve given this guy money), but hopefully there will be a more public beta release soon.

Codec support is limited to MPEG / MPG, AVI, MP3. However, the developer (zodttd) is planning on adding support for FLAC, OGG, and is also looking into supporting VCD, DivX, WMA, WMV.

Tags: VLC, vlc4iphone, zodtdd

.Me - Apple’s missing link

Except it’s not.

It’s a nice thought that the revamp of .Mac will yield a brilliant and usable service to connect everything in your digital life, but the likelihood of that happening just isn’t very high.

Colin Pape of Seeking Alpha thinks that Mobile Me (or .Me as some are calling it) is going to be the magic bullet for Apple, and it will suddenly tie all their products together. I’m sure that’s what Apple is aiming for, but they’ve neglected .Mac for so long that I’m not sure an overhaul and a new name is going to be enough to breathe life into it.

On the other hand, some rumors suggest that Apple will be turning .Me over to Google for a portion of it’s revenue. Though with Steve’s ego, I find this hard to believe. It’s a nice idea though, imagine a Google run service that would allow for unlimited email/file storage and instant syncing of your contacts/calendar/photos/email/music from your phone (iPhone or Android) to the web, and your home or office computer.

While the promise of an easy solution all in one place is nice, why pay for it? Nothing .Mac currently offers is worth the yearly fee, you can easily find free or cheap alternatives to most everything it offers.

Only time will tell I suppose. I’d be more than happy to be wrong on this, the more innovative products and services Apple launches the better.

[ In the interest of full disclosure, I currently hold stock in Apple ]

Tags: .Mac, .Me, Mobile Me

Data Roaming

Okay, even though I’m on a camping trip I’ve been using my iPhone during the car ride. Now my question is this, I have data roaming turned off, but is there still a chance AT&T might sock me extra for my data usage? Their website says that data coverage is provided in this area through partner coverage, but excessive usage may result in termination of your service or additional charges.

I guess my question is more along the lines of what constitutes excessive use?

Tags: AT&T

3G iPhone coming June 9th

Everyone on the net is claiming to have an insider who has tipped them off as to the launch date of the 3G iPhone, whether or not any of those claims are legit there is a very good chance the 3G iPhone will be released on June 9th.

That leads me to the obvious question… Will you be buying one?

[poll=3]

Tags: 3G, Apple, iPhone, Rumors

iSlsk Patch Updated

I’ve received a few emails from people who can’t get the Firewire GUID patch for iSlsk to work. So I’ve rewritten the patch and posted an update to Installer.

In order to fully test it, I restored my iPhone to stock 1.1.4 firmware, jailbroke it and installed both iSlsk and the Firewire GUID patch and it seems to be working. If anyone is still having problems, please contact me and we’ll get things sorted out.

p.s. Remember to refresh your sources to get the update!

Tags: iPhone, iPod touch, iSlsk, Repo, Updates

iPhone World Domination

Here’s a complete list (as of 5/17/08) of all the countries the iPhone is currently sold in/soon to be sold in. Pretty impressive.

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Dominican Republic
• Egypt
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland
• India
• Italy
• Jordan
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Phillippins
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Various countries in Latin America

Couple that with the 3G iPhone launch and Apple might actually make their goal of 10m iPhones sold by the end of the year.

The iPhone is amazing

Further proof that the iPhone is the greatest phone on the planet‚ĶFirst a little back story, my girlfriend teaches a drama class, and said drama class was preforming a series of one act plays. At the last minute they realized that they didn’t have all of the sound effects they needed. Enter the iPhone.

They needed a dog barking. The iPhone has a ringtone of a dog barking.

They needed an old telephone ringing. The iPhone has it (actually named Old Phone).

They needed an old car horn. And you guessed it, the iPhone has it.

So using nothing more than default ringtones and an iPhone held up to a wireless mic I was able to provide sound effects at the last minute for a theatrical production. And that ladies and gentleman is why the iPhone is just so amazing.

For the life of me though, I cannot figure out why anyone would choose to include a dog barking as a ringtone…

New theme added

Ed has submitted another theme, xudaz, which is now available via the repo.

Hijinks Reviews: Kate

Pros: Easy to use settings interface, adds a few nice functions.
Cons: Not worth the price. Or the possibility of bricking of your iPhone.

Platform: iPhone

Version reviewed: 1.3

Developed by: Rip Dev (ripdev.com)

Pricing: Subscription based. $20 for 6 months, $35 for 1 year, $45 for lifetime subscription.

The developers of Kate (formerly Caterpillar) describe it as being “a commercial package of tools and toys to extend your iPhone”. While offering an all in one approach and slick settings management, Kate doesn’t really bring much to the table that can’t be gained from using multiple free packages.

Admittedly though, there is a certain appeal to only having to install one program to do a bunch of things. Read more…