iLike iPhone Applications

iLike iPhone Applications
[19-10-2007]

How to have fun with your iPhone right now.

At last! Apple has finally promised developers the tools they'll need to create software that runs on the iPhone. But before programmers rush to their basements with Mountain Dew and laptops in hand, and before iPhone hold-outs queue up at Apple stores, pause and take a look at the calendar.

Apple won’t give software-makers the iPhone kit until February. That means the best new software likely won’t be ready until a few months after that.

What to do in the mean time? Check out some of the Web sites designed to be viewed on the iPhone screen. The good news: There are some cool ones out there, and they work especially well when the iPhone is within range of a strong wi-fi signal.

Of course, there will never be enough iPhone apps to satisfy everyone. The same hackers that volleyed back and forth with the company over tampering, disabling software updates, and circumventing of protections, will likely continue to press Apple for even more access to its devices.

Veterans of the smart-phone business, including Palm, Microsoft and Nokia, have always allowed software developers access to their hardware platforms. The happy result: Over the past five years, some 18,000 applications have been built to run on Microsoft's mobile operating software, points out Scott Rockfeld, group marketing manager for Microsoft’s Windows mobile communications business. "[When it comes to wine] I always feel like an idiot,” Rockfeld says. “Now there’s an application that allows me to sound real smart when ordering wine. Whether business or personal, it doesn’t matter. There are applications for you."

Developers are eager to make iPhone applications that will answer every whim that iPhone users have. In spite of Apple's too-tight controls over its devices, some developers' creative juices have already been flowing.

These guys worked within Apple’s constraints that limited application development to those that run on the Internet and can be safely visited by Apple’s homegrown Safari browser. They came up with some good stuff and Apple noticed.

Apple posted a Web site Oct. 11 that aims to be a directory for about 215 mobile sites designed by developers with the iPhone, and wi-fi-enabled iPod Touch, in mind.

Many of these take advantage of the iPhone’s assets: Other phones can pull up Facebook’s mobile site, for example, but none of those phones make the social networking site look, in some ways, even smoother than it does on a desktop computer. On the iPhone, Facebook addicts see a simple layout reduced to essential, finger-clickable information about friends, which can serve as a makeshift phone book. Photos are expandable, and can rotate sideways to take advantage of the iPhone’s big touch screen. It’s so easy to use that some iPhone owners might find themselves skipping over Facebook on the computer, in favor of Facebook in the hand.
Source: [Forbes]

Posted under: IPHONE SOFTWARE - IPHONE AT WORK - IPHONE DEVELOPMENT