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Posts Tagged ‘Software Development Kit’

Prepare for an iPad App Explosion: Developer Activity Up 185%

Recent data from mobile analytics firm Flurry shows iPhone OS developer activity has increased by 185% since Apple announced their upcoming slate computing device known as the iPad earlier this year. By measuring new application starts within the Flurry community, the firm was able to determine significant increases in developer activity, including the largest spike ever in their recorded history during the month of January after the announcement occurred. The growth continued in February and now the company reports that a large proportion of the new applications they are seeing are custom version of existing applications tailored specifically for use on the iPad.

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When Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad on Friday, March 12th, the Apple.com website was updated with new information about the device. One of the most significant reveals was that iPad applications would soon have their own dedicated section within the iTunes App Store. The website text reads:

Browse a section of the store that features apps designed specifically for iPad. You’ll find hundreds that make the most of its large display, responsive performance, and Multi-Touch interface.

Although current iPhone applications will work on the new Apple device without modifications, developers who want to take advantage of the larger screen could use the updated iPhone SDK (software development kit) to modify their apps in order to release custom iPad-only versions. Now it appears that those who chose to do so will be rewarded for their efforts by having their apps made more visible via this new section of the iTunes Store. Considering that the number of  iPhone apps now in existence is somewhere near 140,000, being able to achieve this increased visibility will allow developers “the opportunity to establish an early presence on this new device and drive more downloads,” says Flurry.

Last week, we took a look at some of the iPad applications we’re looking forward to, including things like comic books, magazines and games, but there’s clearly a lot of others we haven’t even anticipated yet. We’re only days away from knowing what those will be: Apple’s iPad will be available for sale starting April 3rd, and along with its launch, the new iPad App Store will go live as well.

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Finalists Announced for SXSW’s 2010 Accelerator Competition

Last month we brought you information about a promotional package available to startups at this years South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) event, a popular place each year to launch new products. This year SXSWi will be holding their second annual Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator competition where a recently released list of 32 finalist companies representing innovative web technologies, entertainment, and social media (both business and personal) will battle for the chance to be named one of four champions.

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Among the notable innovative web technology finalists is metaio, a company on the cutting edge of augmented reality whose new Unifeye Mobile software development kit was announced just yesterday. From the entertainment category is Are You Watching This?!, an innovative product that will notify you or your DVR if a sporting event might become an “instant classic” using algorithms and live stats analysis.

Most of the applicants, however, represented the two social media categories, including Mobile Roadie, a mobile app development service like iSites or AppMakr which allows for the fast creation of iPhone and Android applications. Another social media startup vying for one of the top four spots at SXSWi is the popular Sequoia Capital-backed mobile contact sharing serivce Bump.

After the first day, 12 companies – three from each category – will be whittled from the original 32 pitches by a panel of judges. On day two, these twelve finalists will compete to be the winner of their respective category. Brad King, Dean McCall, Chris Sacca, and Tim Street will host the event which will be held March 15th and 16th in Austin, Texas. Though it’s obviously too late to apply, startups should pay close attention to the innovative technologies that come from the competition and look into applying for next year’s event.

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iPhone SDK updated: VoIP over 3G now permitted

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, SDK

It’s been a long time coming, but the last hurdle is gone — Apple has lifted the restrictions against 3G VoiP calls from the iPhone Software Development Kit.

The implications of this are pretty huge. Not only does this mean that VoIP apps like Skype [iTunes Link] can now be easily updated to allow VoIP access over 3G on the iPhone, it also means that the 3G-enabled versions of the new iPad should be able to take full advantage of VoIP over 3G as well. The iPad does come with a microphone and a speaker, so while you won’t be able to hold the device up to your ear like a phone (although it would be pretty funny to watch you try), calls over Skype or another VoIP program should theoretically be just as clear on the iPad as they are on the iPhone’s tiny speaker. This has the potential to really shake up the wireless industry, especially in the U.S. — with pay-as-you-go 3G on the iPad costing no more than $30 a month, the iPad suddenly seems like a very attractive alternative to the iPhone with its far more expensive (and contractually obligated) carrier plans.

iCall [iTunes Link] has already been updated with VoIP over 3G enabled, and with all restrictions now lifted, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before Skype and other VoIP apps follow.

[Via Gizmodo]

TUAWiPhone SDK updated: VoIP over 3G now permitted originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TapLynx media-based iPhone app builder from NewsGator released

Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iPod touch

The iPhone app platform TapLynx from NetNewsWire was released yesterday, after months of anticipation. TapLynx provides you with a way to build media-rich iPhone applications without having to write any code. It’s basically NetNewsWire’s way of leveraging their RSS expertise along with their iPhone development skills, in the form of Brent Simmons.

Although TapLynx users don’t need Cocoa knowledge, if you’re a Cocoa developer you can use TapLynx to quickly add media management features to your app. In fact, NewsGator distributes TapLynx as a Software Development Kit, making its development roots fairly obvious. Beyond the ability to customize the user interface and choose the feeds you want your app to display, TapLynx offers the unique feature of being able to do remote updates to the app. This means that you can change a number of things in the app including the look-and-feel without requiring an update to be submitted to the frustratingly slow App Store.

Brent Simmons, the developer behind TapLynx, is the guy behind the perennial Mac favorite RSS reader, NetNewsWire. What many people don’t know is that before he did NetNewsWire he worked at UserLand, creating tools for developers. So in some ways this is Brent returning to his roots.

[Update] As commenters have pointed out, the pricing for TapLynx is a little over the top: $3,499US for an Enterprise license, which is the only type of license they offer. That makes the news of TapLynx’s release a little less interesting, in my opinion.

TUAWTapLynx media-based iPhone app builder from NewsGator released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM posts new BlackBerry widget APIs, dev kit

Continue reading RIM posts new BlackBerry widget APIs, dev kit

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM posts new BlackBerry widget APIs, dev kit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Developer Steals Customers’ Phone Numbers, Calls Them

Company calls customers in attempt to sell paid version of mobile app

Within iTunes’ user ratings section of iPhone application mogoRoad, a real-time traffic monitoring tool available in Switzerland, several users claim to have received phone calls from the development company behind the mobile software. Reportedly, the company is asking the app owners if they would like to purchase the paid version of the application. While unsolicited sales calls are annoying and intrusive, the bigger issue here is how did the company get its customers’ phone numbers to begin with? According to mogoRoad, the information came from Apple.

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The recipients of the unwanted calls said that they were contacted a few weeks after the initial installation of the mogoRoad application. An operator would then try to sell them the paid version of the mobile software. If pressed as to how the company got access to their phone number, the operator would generally respond that the information was provided by Apple.

That seems unlikely since Apple does not provide this sort of private information to App Store developers nor does it provide direct access to that information via the iPhone SDK (software development kit), the tool used by developers to build their mobile apps.

Apple Doesn’t Provide Phone Numbers, but They Do Provide Access

However, it’s not entirely inaccurate of the company to say that Apple did provide them with the customers’ phone numbers. Although Apple doesn’t directly give out this info, they do provide a relatively easy way for any app developer to retrieve mobile numbers from the phone. In other words, Apple didn’t give out the numbers in question, they just provided access to them. 

Although mogoRoad won’t admit it, the most likely explanation as to how they retrieved the phone numbers involves the use of an undocumented feature which allows any Apple iPhone/iPod Touch application to access the phone number of the device on which it is installed. In an article on tech blog Ars Technica from earlier this year, the process of doing so was described as “a shockingly easy thing to do:”

Apple sneaks in a hidden symbolic link between the app’s sandboxed preferences and a global preferences property list…Peek in Library/Preferences with "ls -a". You’ll find a symbolic link to /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist, which is where (among other items), you’ll find a preference called SBFormattedPhoneNumber. This preference provides exactly what the name implies: the user’s phone number formatted to the current locale.

In checking with multiple iPhone developers this morning, we confirmed that the trick still works as described above.

It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature

Believe it or not, this isn’t actually a security hole in need of patching – it’s more of a feature. “It’s important to remember that perfectly legit applications can reach your phone number plus your entire address book as well,” Ars Technica blogger Erica Sadun wrote back in January. “Applications can also obtain personal information from most of the iPhone file system…”

While the large majority of app developers out there would never do anything quite so nefarious as what mogoRoad did and undoubtedly wouldn’t want to risk alienating their customers in this fashion, it’s unsettling to know that they could. And every time you install a mobile app, you’re putting yourself at risk.

As of now, Apple hasn’t officially responded to requests for comment as to how they will proceed with regards to this situation, either to us or to the blog originally reporting this story, French site Mac4Ever. However, given that the development company has clearly abused an undocumented feature, that should be enough to get them booted out of the App Store…hopefully for good.

Many thanks to MacWord, which pointed us to this story.

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Nokia’s Ovi Software Development Kit released to invited and excited Javascripters
Nokia’s Ovi Store launched in late May — and then promptly crashed. The company has long-since gotten everything working smoothly and so is now so confident about its stability that it’s letting other developers in on the party. Coders proficient in HTML, CSS, and Javascript can apply for access to the beta SDK, invitations for which are being doled out right now. The navigation-focused kit includes a number of UI widgets and controls that will help any ‘ol app sport the clean, understated Nokia look, as well as things like the Ovi Navigation Player API, which makes nav-related apps much easier to get up and running. Nokia’s not giving any indication of just how long the line at the door is or what criteria it’s using to judge who gets past the red velvet rope into this shin-dig, but we’d recommend at least a shave and a clean shirt before applying. Vids excitedly discussing this wondrous new world are embedded below.

[Via Nokia Conversations]

Continue reading Nokia’s Ovi Software Development Kit released to invited and excited Javascripters

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s Ovi Software Development Kit released to invited and excited Javascripters originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s Ovi to Compete with iPhone App Store?

As of 2012, CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo wants Nokia to have 300 million service subscribers. In an aggressive first step, he’s planning on expanding the Ovi applications environment. But he needs to act quickly as in the past year the company’s shares have fallen by 50%. In a recent interview with the Financial Times Kallasvuo admits he is trying to change Nokia’s direction from being a handset provider to a service provider. With a formidable rival like Apple, it will certainly be an uphill battle.

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Apple iPhone owners can choose to download approximately 65,000 services from the App Store, meanwhile Nokia’s Ovi only offers 4,500 applications. According to the Financial Times, “While Apple has just one phone, Nokia is trying to put mobile applications on 75 of its handsets. It is a far more challenging task.” Nevertheless, Nokia aims to level the playing field with web technologies.

One way the company is hoping to catch up to Apple across all its devices is by hosting competitions to encourage Flash Lite-based development. Most recently, Nokia announced the finalists in its “Calling All Innovators” global developer competition. Categories include web applications and runtime widgets, Adobe Flash Lite-based applications, emerging market services and location-aware services utilizing Ovi Maps. While each of the category winners will receive cash awards, the Flash Lite category winner will receive an additional prize of $10,000 from Nokia’s Open Screen Project Fund. Nokia needs to fund efficient distribution across 75 devices and multiple platforms, and Adobe needs a mobile poster child to sing its deployment praises across mobile, desktop, and consumer electronics devices.

If Kallasvuo wants to increase Nokia’s revenue, he needs mobile developers to choose to work on web based applications before building their services with the iPhone software development kit. From here, the application marketplace that offers the best revenue split and most downloads is certain to come out on top. While no individual Nokia handset will compete against Apple’s iPhone or Research in Motion’s Blackberry Curve, the number of devices sold might tempt developers to make the switch.

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