Thursday, October 18, 2007

Big News from Apple: Leopard Release and iPhone SDK

This week has been exciting with regards to Apple. They announced the release date of Mac OS X v.10.5 "Leopard", and the iPhone SDK for open and accepted developers.

Leopard
I have been a proponent of Leopard for a long time, because the cool features within Leopard (and Leopard Server) have had me drooling. Not because they are anything new, but because many of the open source programs that are out there have a easy way to manage them. It also means that I get more training for the Apple Certification classes that are coming up in the Spring. All I can say is I can't wait to start playing with the OS once it's released. ^_^

iPhone SDK
Yes, Steve Jobs and his group finally saw the light based on the outcry of the iPhone 1.1.1 update that killed a lot of hacked iPhones. iPhone users want an Apple PDA, not just a phone with a new interface. Now, just as I had hoped, after the iPod Touch was released, the iPhone will be opened with an SDK to developers that are issued a specific key (probably, anyway).

The only problem I would have with it is: what are the criteria for the key? There are currently a lot of developers using the Jailbreak hack and SDK that was developed by hackers out there at the iPhone Dev Wiki. Will they be eligible for the key? Will it be handled the way the Widget program was handled, allowing just about anyone to develop as long as the software is virus free? I hope so. It would make life that much easier for the current developers, and will basically incorporate all the cool apps that already exist.

February will be an exciting time for Apple, if they do it right. Let's hope they do.

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