Some Thought's on Next Month's iPhone SDK

According to Steve, Apple is still planning on releasing the long and eagerly awaited iPhone SDK next month. In fact, in last week’s 1.1.3 update, we can already see some preliminary upgrades in anticipation of the onslaught of new applications, such as pagination and icon re-arrangement. I thought I would add a few of my own thoughts on the subject in anticipation.As it currently stands, no one outside of Apple is really sure what exactly the iPhone SDK will contain, and what opportunities and frameworks it will allow developers. For example, will Apple restrict development only to large, paying corporate developers, or will (hopefully) small shareware/freeware developers be able to take advantage of it.Additionally, it’s easy to assume Apple will require apps to be installed and managed through iTunes, so will this also mean apps have to be distributed through the iTunes Store too? If so, will Apple demand an income stream from 3rd-party apps, effectively eliminating the small, independent developers and any iPhone freeware (like what we have now with hacked, 3rd party apps.)? I hope not. Apple wants secure, managed, and signed code on the iPhone – so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Apple require developers to receive their permission to get an app to run on the iPhone, and to get this, I would imagine some sort of monetary exchange would be required. However, such circumstances would be very, very disappointing.Finally, will the SDK provide developers with full access to the iPhone’s software framework for full and rich applications (like the ones we have now), or will the SDK bring a Dashboard-esque environment isolated from the iPhone itself, only allowing developers (at least small ones) to create widgets in JavaScript. Amazing applications are not widgets, can’t be written in JavaScript or in a Dashboard environment. Again, this wouldn’t be too surprising, but it would be extremely disappointing.Apple, please give all of us iPhone users a full SDK allowing full and rich applications, not limited widgets! Additionally, please allow anyone who wants to develop an iPhone app, develop one. Apple, show us that you listen and care about your users, and your decisions aren’t all about corporate greed

Bad Apple: Charging for iPod Touch Firmware Updates

Earlier this week at MacWorld, Apple release a software update for the iPod Touch, providing some new features in addition to a few applications previously only available on the iPhone (such as Weather, Stocks, Notes, and Mail). This is all great, however, except for the fact that Apple decided to charge $20 for it. Here is just another example of the greedy, anti-consumer “Bad Apple” trend that has emerged in the last year or so. All I can say is that I hope this isn’t a trend that is reflected when it comes to future iPhone updates and 3rd-party applications developed with the upcoming iPhone SDK.Here are some additional recent examples of the greedy Bad Apple trend:

• iPhone-AT&T exclusivity: Giving consumers no choice, and locking them into a two year plan, with no hardware subsidies and no unlocks so Apple can receive hundreds of dollars in payback from AT&T. Win Apple, loose Consumer.
  
• iPhone Price Drop: less than two months after release, dropping the price and screwing all of their loyal early adopters
  
• iPod Game Re-buy: Releasing a software update on new iPods, requiring all owners of any iPod games to re-buy them if they want to continue using their purchases. Not good Apple, not good!
  
• Education Discount Reduction: In the past two years, Apple has eliminated any educational discounts on iPods and many accessories, and greatly reduced discounts on Mac hardware (from a couple hundred dollars to around $100) and on software (OS X costing $69.99 versus $100). Does Apple even care about me as a customer anymore? It would appear not.
  
• Update: Apple and AT&T requiring a contract extension to upgrade and activate a new 16GB iPhone. AT&T says a new contract will be signed, but should be backdated to the date of your original contract. Sounds fishy and very anti-consumer to me! A sign of things to come when the 3G iPhone gets released? Direct quote from iPhone Alley below:

"Mark Siegel, Executive Director of Media and Analyst Relations with AT&T, has informed iLounge in an email that , “If you upgrade from an 8 to a 16 GB iPhone, you sign a new contract. However, we automatically backdate it to the starting point of your contract on the 8 GB phone.” He added that the company “will make every effort to ensure that our reps provide customers with the correct information.”

I'd love to use Safari as my default Mac browser, but there are 3 features that are keeping me from it. Two features that would be easy for Apple to add, I might add, and at least one of which (bookmark separators) should have been available in Safari from the beginning considering it has been available in every other browser I can think of for as long back as I can remember.

• Bookmark Separators: (in both Safari and Mobile Safari) - come on Apple, why? This is my main gripe with Safari, considering I have a large bookmark collection and separators make organization so much easier!
  
• Bookmark Toolbar Extension: Having multiple levels of bookmarks in the bookmark toolbar, as opposed to having to use a drop down menu for bookmarks in excess of the toolbar space (think Camino or Firefox).
  

That's It! Easy, right? For the life of me, I don't understand Safari's lack of bookmark separators. Come on Apple, add the separators, and I know a lot of people will be very, very happy!Update: I went to apple.com/feedback to submit my issues with Safari to Apple, and plead with them to fix them and I noticed something interesting. Almost every Apple product provided a feedback link - except Safari. I could go on the WebKit page to submit feedback, but this may not be the proper place.