Hunter mentions two pain points in particular that are deathblow to gaming and other sophisticated applications that require significant graphical juice (granted, Palm was more or less open from the start that games wouldn't be a priority at first). Developers can't use OpenGL ES to the tap the Pre's graphics hardware. For an idea of what a big deal OpenGL access is, see our posts spanking over everything the iPhone 3GS can do with OpenGL 2.0 that the original iPhone and 3G can't. Basically, anything requiring hardware graphics acceleration is screwed if it goes through the Mojo SDK, since they can't use OpenGL at all. (There are, of course, unofficial paths.)

Update: Another iPhone dev, Stephen Stroughton Smith, points out that the reason there's no OpenGL support is because the Pre doesn't an OpenGL graphics driver, so the entire OS uses software-based drawing and animation, despite the potent graphics chip inside.

The other gimpage, which is somewhat inexplicable, is that Palm limits polling of accelerometer data to 4Hz, or 4 samples a second—Hunter says you need at least 20Hz for "smooth inputs" and 50-100Hz for apps like his own gMeter iPhone app, which measures stuff like velocity and acceleration. So it's nearly useless.

Palm actually shoots itself in the foot two ways with a weak SDK. First, it limits developers who choose to make apps for the platform. Second, it pushes away devs who might be interested, like Hunter, who points out the very real opportunity Palm has to lure programmers away from the massively overcrowded App Store with the promise of a virgin ecosystem.

And we've still got a couple of months before Palm's App Catalog really opens. Which, even granting Palm's moving along quicker than Apple did after the original iPhone, they should be jumping at every possible advantage they can get to grow their ecosystem if they want to really claw their way into a mobile space that's not just increasingly crowded, but one where Apple's shadow seems to grow a little bit longer everyday. [Craig Hunter via Groober]

That's later than we'd like—the sooner the Pre starts building a robust developer community, the more likely the platform is to thrive—but to be fair, we had to wait a whole year for iPhone apps. In the meantime, they've got a trickle of apps that'll be hitting the App Catalog to keep Pre owners sated (sorta). Coincidentally, Palm's App Catalog will be launch right around the same time as Window Mobile's, so we should be in for an app-y fall. [WebOSdev via Palm]

Mojo is of the utmost importance to Palm: Without a huge and vibrant developer scene churning out tons of apps, the Pre might not excel as a platform enough to challenge the iPhone. The SDK that leaked is a beta, and some are warning potential developers to treat this version as a guide rather than a final release. Now the fun really begins—it's time to see what the Pre (and Pre community) can do. [PreInsiders, Thanks Pat!]

On the one hand, it's good news that they're going to get an SDK available in three or four months from launch. The iPhone took an entire year to get an SDK available. The bad news is you have to wait three or four months to get Palm Pre apps that aren't from people with closer relationships to Palm.

But, they're going to "accelerate" their early access program, letting in more developers into their inner circle. That's good news, since it means an increasing amount of apps between now and the general release of the SDK. [Palm blog]

There are a lot of new toys for developers, including some kind of emulator configuration thing called Android Virtual Devices, or AVDs, that apparently will make developers' lives way easier. That's cool for them, but what do we get?

April 2009

The Android 1.5 platform introduces many new features for users and developers. The list below provides an overview of the changes.
User interface refinements

* System-wide:
o Refinement of all core UI elements
o Animated window transitions (off by default)
o Accelerometer-based application rotations
* UI polish for:
o In-call experience
o Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
o SMS & MMS
o Browser
o Gmail
o Calendar
o Email
o Camera & Gallery
o Application management

Performance improvements

* Faster Camera start-up and image capture
* Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
* Smoother page scrolling in Browser
* Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New features

* On-screen soft keyboard
o Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
o Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
o User dictionary for custom words
* Home screen
o Widgets
+ Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
o Live folders
* Camera & Gallery
o Video recording
o Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
* Bluetooth
o Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
o Auto-pairing
o Improved handsfree experience
* Browser
o Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
o Copy 'n paste in browser
o Search within a page
o User-selectable text-encoding
o UI changes include:
+ Unified Go and Search box
+ Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen
* Contacts
o Shows user picture for Favorites
o Specific date/time stamp for events in call log
o One-touch access to a contact card from call log event
* System
o New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
o SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
o SIM Application Toolkit 1.0
* Google applications
o View Google Talk friends' status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
o Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
o Upload videos to Youtube
o Upload photos on Picasa

Whoa. Soft keyboard, widgets, video recording (with YouTube uploading capabilities!), updated browser features like tabs, system-wide UI polishing... This is a killer upgrade. So, uh, thanks, Google! [Phandroid, thanks trigatch!]

Here's a piece of what Ars is quoting from the new agreement:

You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise, create any Application or other program that would disable, hack or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so...

It also says that anyone using the SDK to develop software can then only get distribution through the App Store, and at Apple's sole discretion. As Ars points out, it's not going to dry up jailbreakers, but it will make those gray area developers a little more skeered of swerving from the path. [Ars Technica]

Now the good stuff. We've had two separate tipsters ping us with the rumors today, which Rose talked about last night during the live Diggnation show at SXSW in Austin.

The breakdown of unconfirmed rumors goes like this:

- Cut and paste in 3.0
- Users magnify or double tap a word to bring up cut and paste
- Pinch "boundaries" to select word(s); Rose called them "copy boundaries"
- Then you get option to cut, paste or copy

Also, the 3.0 update will have enough new features and additions to bring it up to the Palm Pre levels. Whatever Palm Pre has shown us so far, apparently, the iPhone will have too when 3.0 becomes official. That point remains a bit hazy right now, so anyone who was at Diggnation last night who can help elaborate a bit more would be awesome in my book.

Lastly, there will NOT be video, nor will there be MMS. Boo. This last point seems to contradict BGR's MMS rumor from the other day. [Thanks, Kyle and Abdul!]

But oh do we still have some ground to cover. I'm envisioning a world of platform-agnostic pizza acquisition apps on every web-connected device everywhere, and it's a world in which I'm pretty sure you'll want to join me in delicious reality.

Granted, we live in a pretty good time right now as far as zero-human-interaction, chainstore-pizzeria-to-mouth-in-shortest-time-possible pizza acquisition systems. You can go to any of the major chains' web sites and have a pie on the way in just a few minutes. Maybe a side of cheese sticks too? And hey, we're running out of Coke. Throw in a two liter. I can't be bothered to go out in this cold/rain/beautiful weather.

They'll even save your credit card number so you don't have to even think about money beyond the five seconds the subtotal is on the screen. And tip's on the card.

I will admit that I was late to embrace the online pizza ordering paradigm. I live in New York City, and I can literally walk to the end of my block and get a delicious hot NYC slice whenever I want it. That is, when the King doesn't feel like shuttering the doors for no clear reason at prime mealtimes. Which he does on a disappointingly frequent basis. But I've been doing it more lately—learned from a couple of friends who have Papa John's online ordering down to a science—and I must say I like.

Fitting with my wish, we also live in a pretty good time as far as being able to customize our devices with third-party applications. Pizza Hut has a Facebook app that can order your pizza. That's a good step, even though it's no different from the main websites, save for the ability to broadcast to all your friends when you place a couch order. But please, further. Take Netflix as an example. Watch Instantly is now on Blu-ray decks from LG and Samsung, the Xbox 360, the aforementioned TiVo and of course the dedicated Roku box, with more partnerships on the way. This is the model we should be following as far as pizza ordering is concerned—the path to the life that I've imagined.

So it is you, major pizza chains, that I address. Embrace our software-is-king future. Open up an API into your respective ordering systems, or better yet, tie them together into one magical mozzarella, tomato and dough delivery web framework. And after that's all set up, encourage the use of this API by manufacturers which will soon, in turn, make everything an application platform in order to respond to this exploding demand for pizza ordered from the couch. Don't just stop at an iPhone app—there's no reason there shouldn't be an App Store for every web-connected device in your home.

They say that where the porn industry goes, tech follows. And it's true. But I say let pizza, glorious pizza, be the trailblazer. Wake me up when this is how things are—I'll be asleep on my couch, surrounded by empty Papa John's garlic sauce cups.

The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one. Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while. It's kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real cheap and they are not selling as much.

I have to agree with him that eventually, these wonderproducts die, although looking at the numbers, it seems that it still has a lot of life inside because the consumer electronics market that saw the Walkman and the transistors radio are not the same as today's. But obviously, Apple sees the same thing and the iPhone and iPod touch are efforts to keep the momentum going.

He also had some words for the fanboys out there who never question Apple's decision and defend its failures no matter what:

[Steve Jobs and I] don't like the fact that it's a bit of a religion. I would like to have the users influence the next generation. With a religion you're not allowed to challenge anything. I want our customers to challenge us.

Amen. But maybe some customers are challenging Apple already in products like the iPhone which, without an SDK, saw a flourishing industry of not-official third-party applications that are still coming out to solve the cellphone development's limitations. Woz compares the iPhone SDK limitations to Google's Android in the interview:

Consumers aren't getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down. I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you're allowed.

Indeed, Señor Woz, indeed. Head to the Telegraph to check out the rest of this thoughts. [Daily Telegraph]

The bad news is that that's pretty much what the situation was a few months ago, so that's not really saying a whole lot. If it's spiffy enough to match Steve's criticisms, then maybe there's some hope, but the ball is in Apple's court, and it's been gathering dust there for a while. [AppleInsider]

To inspire developers, Sony's holding a competition for the best application. For your troubles, you could win either a Bravia 40-inch LCD TV, a Vaio TypeC laptop, or a Blu-Ray player, a Cybershot DSC-T77 or one of their new Walkman music players. Just get your app in before January 8th, 2009. [Sony Insider]

T-Mo notes that scaling back will help keep things manageable while offering an opportunity for developers to learn. However, the plan is to open up over time: Android and Sidekick would be available, advertising will be allowed as will access to deeper hardware and software features. Still, many developers will undoubedly view this as an overly cautious approach that won't help it gain any ground on Apple in the foreseeable future. It may not be much, but rumor has it that the T-Mobile app store will go live with Java, RIM and Windows Mobile by the end of the year. [mocoNews via Electronista]

London, UK — 3 September 2008— Sony Ericsson today published its Software Developer Kit (SDK) for Xperia™ X1 and invited developers and content creators to capitalize on the opportunities offered by developing mobile content for the phone. Whether it is music, photography, email or instant messaging, gaming, social networking or video applications, developers can now create a host of unique multi-media entertainment and content for the Xperia™ X1 for consumers to enjoy.

Xperia™ X1 brings a totally new experience to mobile phone users by introducing nine easy-to-use, interactive panels which sit on the touch screen interface of the phone.

Developers can use the Windows Mobile SDK, free of charge, to produce a wide variety of panels to meet the consumer’s demand for a rich, individualised multimedia experience on their phone. Users of the Xperia™ X1 will be spoilt for choice as they personalize their handset with panel applications to suit their mood and lifestyle. Whether it is a search engine, advanced calendar or social networking application, music or film catalogue, sports or news related content, the panels enable you to access any information – quickly and directly – with a simple tap on the 3” super high resolution touch screen.

“Sony Ericsson is committed to providing its customers with rich, open content environment to make their mobile experience more enjoyable and entertaining,” said Rikko Sakaguchi , CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson. “Making the Windows Mobile SDK available for free to developers and mobile content creators will accelerate the development of new panels and applications for the Xperia™ X1, offering consumer choice and personalisation.
The Xperia™ X1 will offer the richest mobile user experience, putting the world at the fingertips of the user.”

Entertain yourself:

* Customise your Xperia™ X1 panels so you are a touch away from your favourite content – music, film, TV, sports
* Or, be the envy of your friends by watching TV or film clips in DVD quality on the three-inch high resolution touch-widescreen
* Get picture happy on the 3.2 megapixel camera and show the images in crystal clear clarity on the 800 X 480 pixels screen
* Access the latest 3D mobile games by simply touching a favourite gaming panel you have selected

Make your personal life a little easier:

* Access all your contacts and calendar entries wherever you are, as the Xperia™ X1 can automatically sync with your PC making sure you never miss a birthday, anniversary or meeting
* Search or book a holiday in your lunch hour by going online via a travel panel
* Add your local supermarket website and do your weekly food shop in just a few taps on the bus on the way home
* Read the latest restaurants reviews, look up cinema listings, call a friend or reply to personal email on the move using the full QWERTY keyboard
* Find that bar, restaurant or hotel using Assisted GPS and Goggle Maps™ for mobile when you’re on vacation or a business trip

Work on the move:

* Windows Mobile™ 6.1 makes working on the move easier with easy access to work emails and Microsoft® Office Mobile applications, such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint
* Always stay up-to-date with colleagues and important appointments by syncing the handset to Microsoft Outlook on your work PC

“The X1’s panels are a simple but immersive way of interacting with content, services and applications that will delight and engage consumers,” said Todd Peters, corporate vice president, Mobile Communications Marketing Group, Microsoft Corp. “Sony Ericsson’s X1 is a fantastic demonstration of how to harness the power of Windows Mobile to connect people to the things they care about most.”

Xperia™ X1
The Xperia™ X1 is the first product under Sony Ericsson’s new premium sub-brand Xperia™. Designed to meet consumers’ needs for a converged entertainment and mobile web communication experience, the Xperia™ X1 is an extremely stylish handset, with a striking arc-slider design, encased in real stainless steel, supported by a powerful panel multimedia ecosystem.

The Xperia™X1 can be personalised through its nine panel user interface to suit the user’s moods and lifestyle. Users can access content quickly and directly through the touch screen, easily switching between applications by touching one of the unique customisable panels.

Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X1 – A new era in mobile convergence

* Unique arc slider with 3.0” WVGA display and finger touch navigation
* Customisable panels
* Wide pitch easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard
* Four way navigation keys and optical joy stick for stressless browsing
* 3.2 megapixel camera
* DVD quality video and 3D Gaming capabilities
* Windows Mobile® capabilities such as Microsoft® Outlook Mobile, Internet Explorer® Mobile and Microsoft® Office Mobile: World, Excel, Powerpoint

Distribution information
The Sony Ericsson SDK for Windows Mobile™ 6.1 will be made available for easy download on the Sony Ericsson Developer World website: www.sonyericsson.com/developer.

Click on http://www.sonyericsson.com/x1panelvideo/ to see a video of Ramanath Bhat, Application and Product Planning for the Xperia™ X1, talk about the phone’s unique panel interface and the benefits of publishing the Windows Mobile SDK for Xperia™ X1.

0:02: Main menu is contained in a drawer that slides from the bottom of the screen
0:08: Multiple home screens can be flipped with touch gestures, a la the iPhone
0:20: Icons can be dragged from the main menu to build customized home screens. Dragging to the menu drawer trashes the home screen shortcut
0:38: Dialer screen, followed by the call behavior. Calls can continue in the background, and all functions that don't require data transfer can work concurrently (This is currently a software regulation, as 3g networks should theoretically allow for simultaneous voice and data usage).
0:53: Ongoing calls and other notifications can be accessed by dragging the taskbar down.
1:20: Browser displays Gizmodo. Rendering is quite good, page navigation is a fairly intuitive rehash of current touch-control schemes. It's not terrible good at guessing column widths during double-tap zooming, but seems very usable. Preview magnification feature is useful for smaller screens or text-heavy pages.
2:22: "Tabbed" browsing feature lays out a grid of pages, with previews
2:45: Google Maps app. As you can see, this is among the more polished apps, and will feel familiar to anyone who has used Google Maps on the desktop or mobile devices.
3:30: Google Maps Street View.
4:00: Home screen include widgets (Google Search, a clock and a picture frame are the only ones for now) that can be dragged around the home screen(s).
4:23: The music apps relies on a panel of icons (a recurring theme in Android)
4:30: Message composition is unremarkable, but there is no sign of an on-screen keyboard at the moment. This could be a customization catered the the first round of Android phones, at least one of which will have a slide-out keyboard.
5:12: The camera naturally doesn't work in the emulator, but there are currently very few options in its menus.
5:50: Wallpaper switching. This is one of the few areas where Android excels aesthetically. Wallpaper scrolls as home screens are switched, but at a slower rate that the icons. This creates a convincing illusion of depth.
6:11: The home screen can also be modified via the system menu, where you can choose to add applications, widgets and shortcuts, as well as change the wallpaper.

It's hard to pass judgment on Android in the condition it's in. What's there is impressive, but there are so many glaring omissions, at least from a consumer standpoint. There is a fantastic system for managing ongoing calls and system messages (via the pull-down taskbar) but no apps to take advantage of it. Email and IM would suit such a configuration beautifully, but neither is included in this release. And seriously, where is the calendar? The organizer? A video app? Youtube support?

Sure, these things could be left to the developer community, but Google already has messaging, email, video and calendar services, so it's reasonable to expect that they be included by default in Android. Before a public release, Android should at least possess a feature set comparable to your average candy bar phone, courtesy of Google, so that the eager open-source development community can devote their effort to creating new, innovative apps and modifications for the OS.

Objections aside, the progress is promising. In terms of usability, Android is much easier to navigate and customize than virtually all other mobile solutions. With a few more apps, Android will be a clear choice over Windows Mobile, skinned or not. You can download the SDK and play with the emulator yourself, if you want. Just a word of warning, though — explaining to your family or significant other that you're testing an emulated prerelease of an upcoming mobile OS is about as hard as it sounds. [Google Android, Android on Giz]

[SDK Download and Release Notes Thanks Jeff!]

The small team at id means that the company can only work on one game at a time, so they are toying with the idea of pairing up with a publishing partner to get a game running on the iPhone. However, Hollenshead is taking a cautious approach. He explains that games on the iPhone "are going to be competing with all of those other things you can do on the iPhone that are pretty cool" and that "It does raise the bar on what you need to do from a game standpoint."

So, when analyzing statements from Carmack and Hollenshead together, it seems that id Software definitely wants to bring games to the iPhone, but the two leaders have different viewpoints on the situation. Carmack is gung-ho and talking exclusive titles that are a "graphical tour de force" while Hollenshead is cautious and talking about porting titles that are already in development. We will just have to wait and see who gets their way. [Kotaku]

The framework is expected to roll in the fall. As TechCrunch points out, Facebook's iPhone SDK indicates that mobile is a big part of their vision—so expect to see a lot more Facebook on your phone (and other gear) in the near future. Hope you're into oversharing! [TechCrunch]

"There is a huge shortage of iPhone developers. Good thing there are books and classes to get new ones up to speed. Oh right: FUCKING NDA." More seriously, he points out that the NDA, unless lifted, threatens dev conferences like iPhoneDevCamp 2, where they'd get together to obviously talk about programming. The apps are out there, it's silly they still can't they talk about creating them. [Fucking NDA via TUAW]

Developers can’t touch or enhance iTunes or iPod functionality in any way, shape or form—they can’t even access your music directory, meaning you better like the way the iPod button works just the way it is. Don't expect any apps to use your wonderfully curated music library either.

Casualties: Instinctiv Shuffle, a smart shuffle application that learns your skipping behavior to figure what you actually wanna hear next. Tap Tap Revolution became the watered-down Tap Tap Revenge.

No processes can run in the background—apps have to completely quit when exited, completely contained in their little sandbox.

Casualties: IM is a popular example, but Apple’s upcoming push notifications will probably make them a moot rallying point. It also means that third-party copy-and-paste solutions won’t work, since you can’t move the text to another application. Also impossible is a fantasy app of ours, TrippWire, that would record phone conversations (all legal considerations aside).

Devs can't integrate apps or functions into the OS. Third-party apps will always be second-class citizens, and can't significantly alter iPhone functions, including accessing the calendar or SMS messaging or adding any content to the otherwise useless lock screen that appears when you wake up the phone.

Casualites: Intelliborn’s Mario Ciabarra lamented to us that the SDK actually doesn’t give you all the same APIs and tools as Apple, and is missing a whole bunch of critical ones that’d let you add content to the lock screen, access calendar events or mail, or change the way the iPhone responds to events, meaning there’s no way for him to build his app Intelliscreen (above) using the SDK. Instinctiv CEO Justin Smithline also told us that you simply "can't create a well-integrated app," like Instinctiv Shuffle. This set of restrictions "flies in the face" of Apple's own philosophy of the creating beautiful software with the best possible user experience, says Smithline.

Pirated games, movies or whatever are a no-no in the App Store, obviously.

Casualties: NES.app, or any emulator, really, dooming us to bloated, over-priced renditions of Tetris by videogame mega-publishers. Also off limits, a dedicated video streaming app for something like the old Stage6 or QuickSilverScreen, which traffics in content that’s, um, not legally spotless, to say the least.

A bit different than the piracy concern, apps using copyrights, trademarks or intellectual property of a major company are sticky, and the App Store will steer clear of them if they're not developed by the company itself.

Casualties: Apps like TiVoRemote would have to be developed by TiVo or else they'd have dicey prospects, at best. Basically anything involving a company’s intellectual property or trademarks from anyone but the company themselves. An app that'll stream movies from your Netflix "Watch Instantly" account by anybody but Netflix would be another obvious foul.

Devs don't have deep access to the hardware. Jonathan Zdziarski, creator of NES.app and author of a few iPhone books, told us "much of the lower-level functionality has been hidden" in the SDK so "if your application is going to meet the necessarily political requirements, these more powerful features are off-limits."

Casualties: Stuff like Camera Pro, which gives you a ridiculous amount of control over the camera, would have a hard time complying with SDK rules. More than that, Zdziarski says, Apple has "privatized" the CoreSurface framework, which is "making it very difficult for developers to write their own movie players, 2D games, and similar kinds of renderings," especially with performance approaching passable.

Apple's app review process is a complete mystery to developers and takes forever, which can affect app quality and horribly delays app updates.

Casualties: Aurora Feint's developers revealed to us, "How the whole review process [for applications] goes is unknown to us," and that Apple doesn't even tell developers how many times their app is downloaded—they’ve gotta figure it out by the size of the check or have the app report back. NetNewsWire's Brent Simmons related the cloak-and-dagger headaches to Wired, telling them that developers are "not supposed to discuss actually programming on the iPhone with anybody—even though that would raise the quality of the apps." Between July 11 and July 17, Simmons pumped out five updates to its application and none of them had showed up by the 17th.

Apple limits app testing to five devices, so there is basically is no beta testing.

Casualties: Us. We’re the beta testers. Aurora Feint’s developers told us that for app testing, “Apple requires special signing to be done that binds each app to a specific device for debugging purposes,” and it’s limited to five, so they "definitely had some people camping out in our offices" to test. Twitterific creator Craig Hockenberry notes that the iPhone app's crash report come to a dev in a form barely more comprehensible than Swahili, on top of lacking info about what's going on in the phone outside their app. And then, if you do have a fix, there's no way to test it, other than to release it out into the wild through the App Store, "the developer equivalent of playing Russian roulette."

On the upside, Apple appears to be launching a beta testing program soon that'll let devs test apps on up to 100 devices, which jibes with what Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem alluded to in a conversation with us. Hopefully it does roll out in the next couple days, as expected. But even then, putting beta software on a device will require the iPhone or iPod serial number, and will still have to snagged through the App Store.

Apple's number one priority is Apple.

Casualties: Basically anything that threatens any of the iPhone’s core functions or key profit centers. Opera told us they aren't developing for the iPhone because the SDK doesn't allow apps "that interpret code, which is essentially what the browser does." Mozilla CEO John Lilly is more acidic in this month’s Wired saying, “Apple makes it too hard” but they’re using “a business argument masquerading as a technological” one. Any formats not supported by Apple essentially don’t exist. AT&T has implied to us that it’s Apple that’s not allowing laptop tethering, though there’s obviously network considerations for the carrier, so we're reasonably, but not totally, sure. The NY Times makes it clear that distributors of free music or video will have it tough too, so don’t expect a MyWaves or a Hulu app until the rules get clearer. Steve Jobs told the NYT that this does represent a competitive threat. "We will compete” with developers’ apps, he said blatantly.

As anyone running the 2.0 software knows, there are definite stability issues, lending a lot of credence to Apple's sandbox for applications—could you imagine it being more unstable? On the other hand, the massive anticipation for the Pwnage 2.0 tool, the vast universe of applications we’re missing out on—not just pirated goodies, but honest-to-God mission-critical wares—shows the SDK clearly doesn't provide everything we need it to. And it might never. But the black market app economy can and does fill the void. Apple might seek to shut it down, but the iPhone's two-class app economy may prove to be its greatest strength.

Related: Gizmodo's Essential Iphone Apps

You're proud of the work you've put into your iPhone SDK application. Show us what you did. Email your entry to tips@gizmodo.com with the subject "iPhone SDK App Contest: Name of App" with the name of your app there. Each entry should include screenshots (as many as it takes to properly illustrate your program) as well as a 1 paragraph description telling us what it's all about. We'll showcase the best ones here for the world to gawk at.

We also know that there are tons of very cool applications such as Sling that might not even be approved by Apple as an official SDK app. That's why we're taking entrants for unofficial (jailbroken) apps as well. Send those in to tips@gizmodo.com with the subject "iPhone Unofficial App Contest: Name of App". Essentially, we'll be getting a weird kinda sorta head-to-head that pits bigger name companies/development teams against hackers.

Update: Well, the App Contest was inconclusive, thanks to Apple's NDA and the subsequent effect of no developer being able to submit their app to us. Our de-facto winners are listed in our favorite iPhone apps.

He believes that Apple is only "trying to protect itself" (from litigation presumably) so the verbiage in the SDK would not be an obstacle. I'm no lawyer, but the clause in the SDK seems pretty air tight to me, so I would take what was said in this interview with a grain of salt. Still, you have to think that developing for the iPhone represents a golden opportunity—so if there is a way, I'm sure someone will find it. [Mac Generation - translated]

This fifth beta release of the iPhone SDK includes a complete set of tools, compilers, frameworks, and documentation for creating iPhone OS applications. These tools include the Xcode IDE, and the Instruments analysis tool, among many others. With this software you can develop applications that run on iPhone and iPod touch using the included iPhone Simulator.

[Apple]

On top of Office apps, TellMe, which Microsoft picked up last year, does voice recognition software, mostly for Windows Mobile, but their general manager said that they're "absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can, get TellMe out there on the iPhone." So yes, Microsoft plans to be all over your iPhone. [Fortune via AppleInsider]

[Editor's note: The iPhone SDK limits what applications can do, and doesn't provide with a plug-in architecture for Safari, which is an application that Apple wants to keep as lean and stable as possible. There are, however, many possibilities open that could make this happen.

First, perhaps the most unlikely, Apple could provide Adobe with the framework they need to do a Safari plug-in. Even while Apple doesn't want to develop or license Flash from Adobe, they could be happy to enable the possibility. It won't be the first time that Apple has given Adobe this kind of special treatment: in the past, the Cupertino company had provided with special code to accomodate the migration of Photoshop into Mac OS X, and one could argue that Flash on the Internet is as important as Photoshop on the Mac.

The other possibility—which could be closer to reality—is that Flash in the iPhone could be a stand-alone player, just like Quicktime is now: a player that could be launched when you click on Flash content in Safari. While it may not sound perfect, as some Flash content works alongside HTML, this will easily put the majority of Flash content in the hands of iPhone users. And instead of having to work within the limitations of Safari, the player will fully enjoy the possibilities of running stand-alone, with a dedicated interface, and full access to the the hardware, running at full screen.

This last option will not require any major changes on Apple's part. The acknowledgement of Flash and Shockwave content in pages will be enough, adding a play button over it to launch the player which will grab these resources, being video or fully interactive applications. —Jesús Díaz] [WSJ]

Whats new? Visible changes are:

• Exchange Support
• Appstore
• Parental Controls
• SDK Support
• Calculator is more advanced
• CISCO VPN support
• Mail mass deletion

Features not included:

• There is no spotlight icon

[Gizmodo's iPhone Hacking Coverage and Hacint0sh]