Filed under: SDK

GoodReader was one of a handful of apps which had figured out how to do USB syncing to iPhones, but their solution was in violation of Apple's iPhone SDK rules. Apple eventually required all 3rd party iPhone apps to remove this functionality. Some apps, like GoodReader, could sync via iTunes but it was very limited. Wi-Fi syncing was also an option, but it was slower and prone to configuration issues.

GoodReader has released a free utility named GoodReaderUSB which, as the name implies to any who haven't suffered a traumatic blow to the head, allows you to connect to GoodReader via USB. The software is free and available for Windows (XP, Vista, and 7) and Mac OS X (10.4, 10.5, and 10.6).

The interface is simple enough, and if you have more than one iDevice you can connect more than one at a time. In my initial testing it worked as expected. The UI is fairly straightforward and allows for drag & drop access, folder creation, and deletion.

GoodReader is available for iPad and iPhone/iPod touch. There's a free "lite" version but the app is easily worth more than the $0.99 asking price. One of the "hidden gems" of GoodReader is that it's not just a reader, but will allow you to download just about any file to your iPhone or iPad by pasting in the URL. I use it for downloading PDFs and then sending them to iBooks on the iPad.

Dan Wineman, a developer with Rogue Amoeba, has posted an interesting article on the company blog. I'm a big fan of developers who can explain things clearly to non-developers without sounding condescending, and Dan does a great job covering how the limited version of multitasking available in iOS 4 poses a problem for Airfoil Speakers Touch.

For those who aren't familiar with Airfoil, it is Rogue Amoeba's program for Windows and Mac which allows you to send audio to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, and iOS devices. Previously it was of limited use for iPhone and iPod touch owners because you had to keep the app running in the foreground for the audio to play.

While Dan said that adding background audio was easy, there were deeper issues involving how iOS 4 manages background processes, especially due to how Airfoil works on the network. It's a good read.

Even as a non-programmer, I'm fascinated by the attention to detail that good programmers go into to make sure their applications work, especially when dealing with limited "resources" like you'd find in mobile devices. Remember when it seemed that CPU speed, RAM, disk space, and bandwidth were not going to be limiting factors anymore because desktop computers kept growing and growing and dial-up Internet access was being replaced by DSL and cable? Then along come mobile devices which brought back all of those limits. Although, it's worth noting that the average cell phone has more processing power than the Apollo computers, so I guess limitations are relative.

The iOS 4.0 gold master SDK (not release candidate) is now available for download from Apple. All members of Apple's developer program (not just paid members) can access the iOS 4.0 SDK, with its enhanced APIs. As in the past, the ongoing NDA for the iPhone version of iOS 4.0 is expected to be revoked as the GM is put out for public developer consumption.

So what's next? Apple is expected to put its latest iPad iOS 4 SDK into beta soon as well as the new Game Center functionality. Meanwhile, developers are anxiously anticipating the general beta of the new Xcode 4.0. If you are a paid or online developer and you haven't watched the Developer Tools State of the Union, you really should head on over to do so at your earliest convenience. It's an amazingly exciting time to be developing for iOS and Mac OS X.

Maybe this is the kind thing that would make Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg like his iPhone a little more.

The folks over at 9to5Mac.com dug into the iOS 4 SDK, and found some XML code that seems to indicate that video uploads to Facebook will be integrated with the new OS on the iPhone 4. Most likely they'll show up as an option for submitting your recorded videos direct from the native iOS video app.

While this is a little bit of an brow-raiser, it's not completely surprising. When you consider the reported Facebook integration coming for calendars and contacts, among other things, it's a natural progression

It's a bit odd, however, to have this capability native to iOS, when the official Facebook iPhone app already supports video uploads. I'm just wondering when Facebook's remaining iOS developers are going to get around to an iPad native Facebook app; I mean, how hard can it be?

[via Engadget]

Recently, we've seen a big trend of apps on the App Store going free because free apps tend to garner more attention and downloads (and in-app purchases mean that there's still a possibility of making a profit down the line). However, it turns out that there is one benefit of sticking with a paid app: they stay on the top of the charts for a longer period of time. Data (provided by a company called Distimo) for the month of May in the App Store shows that paid apps are "stickier" on the App Store charts; while free apps only lasted a little over a week, some paid apps stayed on the top of the charts for over a hundred days.

Why is this? My guess is that it involves something that we've heard a lot of talk about, which is that the habits of paying customers are different from those of "free app" customers. Customers who pay for apps are more likely to leave thoughtful reviews and spread the word about a worthwhile app, both of which will extend the time that an app is popular. Customers who use a lot of free apps tend to buy and dispose of apps quickly, while customers who pay are more likely to find the ones they like and stick with them for a while.

After all of the big news about free apps, it's interesting to hear that there are still reasons to stick with paid. As the App Store continues to develop, there are multiple working models for software sales unfolding.

We've been doing apps and puzzle games a lot on this feature lately, so let's not forget what makes a game really fun: a big robot blowing up lots of stuff. Fortunately, Battle for Cydonia is full of that, as you control a mech armed with dual machine guns through a series of missions on the future planet of Cydonia. It's a pretty simple affair, but the multitouch controls really make it shine -- you draw a path for your mech to take, and then just tap on enemies as they appear to shoot them down. You can upgrade the mech and its weapons over time, but the core gameplay here is just opening up a can of hot lead on anything that crosses your path.

And plus, it's a free download right now -- if you like the game, you can pick up a "Signal from Titan" mission pack with new weapons, levels, and enemies to face off with for just 99 cents. Battle for Cydonia is an excellent little sci-fi shooter that's definitely worth the price.

Barron's reports, you decide: According to Trip Chowdry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will have seven minutes of stage time at WWDC 2010.

[Wait, what now? –Ed.]

According to Chowdry, Ballmer's topic will be Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft's development suite.The supposed announcement will center on VS10's hypothetical ability to write native apps for iPhone, iPad, and (gasp) Mac OS. Currently, such apps can only be created in Apple's Xcode environment.

There are a couple of schools of thought that might discredit or support this rumor. On one hand, the current Xcode-only development regime requires a Mac. As many of us know, once you go Mac, it's difficult to go back; these iPhone and iPad developers may go on to make great Mac apps, too.

The flip side of this is that requiring Xcode, and thus a Mac, serves as a large barrier to entry for many developers and the apps that they could potentially make. VisualStudio may attract users who wouldn't switch desktop platforms to develop for the iPhone or iPad.

Given the notoriously secretive nature of Steve Jobs's keynotes, it's difficult to imagine that information like this, if true, could slip out. It's also hard to reconcile the full-court press against other IDEs for the iPhone (the notorious 3.3.1 clause) with the idea of letting Microsoft deliver a fully supported development platform for Apple's crown jewel devices.

[Translation: Trip Chowdry may have some bad intel here. –Ed.]

WWDC will begin on June 7, 2010.

[via MacRumors]

An TUAW informant has slipped us some video showcasing a new application built into iPhone OS 4.0. Apparently bundled with iPods and iPhones, the new application transforms the iPhone screen into a simple remote control which is used to manipulate a menu system that's fed out via a video lead. That menu system was captured in the recording shown at the top of this post.

Our source says that information bundled into the application shows that Apple intends this new "iPod out" functionality to be used in automobiles using the iPod Accessory Protocol (IAP). Hints as to this use are found in strings within the application itself. These strings include IAPSimpleRemoteCarButtonNotification and IAPSimpleRemoteCarButtonTypeKey.

He suggests that the application might be used in an Apple-branded car kit, where the user docks his iPhone or iPod touch and gains full access to the onboard audio libraries (no video at this time). The car kit could include both a video screen to show the menus and custom physical buttons that would produce the notifications to allow the user to move through those menus, and select from them.

Other hints in the application point to hands-free phone integration as well (kCTCallStatusChangeNotification). Incoming phone calls would be routed into the same system, allowing users to answer calls without having to pick up their device.

The idea of an Apple-branded iPhone Car Kit sounds pretty exciting to us. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

A few days ago we posted a Polish language video walkthrough of some of the features in the iPhone OS 4.0 initial beta. Since then, Michael Sherlock put together an English language video of a number of the features present in the new beta.

This video includes brief demos of:

• Spell Check
• Changing the Background image.
• New features in the Camera.app
• Making and populating Folders
• The Unified Mail Inbox
• The new Mail threading feature
• and the new Game Center.

This video, though light on depth, will give you an idea on how these features work in practice.

I know one feature that I would like to see has not yet been addressed: the ability to rename Bluetooth devices. I use three Griffin BlueTrip Bluetooth receivers at home and when looking at the Bluetooth devices in the current version of the iPhone OS, all three come up with the same name and can't be changed. I'd like the ability to rename Bluetooth devices so I can get a handle on which BlueTrip is which. It's a minor point, but one that would make life quite a bit easier for me. I'm sure that this feature getting into OS 4.0 is about as likely as my winning the lottery, but if anyone from Apple is reading this...

What features did you see that were left out of OS 4.0 and would mean the world to you?

The release of the iPhone 4.0 SDK to developers included, in the accompanying agreement, Apple's new mandate that apps must be written in C/C++/Objective-C. This seems to block the use of alternative development environments for iPhone apps, such as the upcoming Flash CS5.

As criticism of this condition has mounted, we now have Steve Jobs responding to an e-mail from Tao Effect's Greg Slepak on the topic, sparking a discussion between the two on the change.

Jobs pointed out John Gruber's recent analysis of the change, calling it "insightful and not negative" as compared to the knee-jerk reaction in the first few hours after the SDK agreement surfaced. The revised viewpoint suggests that the real reasons behind the move are to maintain innovation and quality as more and more apps are written for Apple's touch platforms; meanwhile, we've also heard a somewhat plausible technical explanation-slash-rationalization for the move.

After Slepak read the piece, he responded in turn: "I still think it undermines Apple. You didn't need this clause to get to where you are now with the iPhone's market share, adding it just makes people lose respect for you and run for the hills.... From a developer's point of view, you're limiting creativity itself. Gruber is wrong, there are plenty of [applications] written using cross-platform frameworks that are amazing, that he himself has praised. Mozilla's Firefox just being one of them." Jobs wrote back, "We've been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces [sic] sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform." Slepak replied again to clarify his position, and there's no further word from Steve -- yet.

This from Jobs, and the echoing statement that's in Gruber's article, both largely ignore the fact that plenty (most?) of the 85 million users buying and running applications on the Touch OS (whether on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad) don't care how those apps are created as long as the app experience is compelling -- they wouldn't know an IDE from an SDK, or be able to tell Xcode from Flash on a bet.

As fellow TUAW staffer Mike Rose points out, in the case of Unity, "that platform is enabling game development that would simply not be taking place otherwise on the iPhone." Right now it's not clear whether Unity is on the good or the bad side of Apple's new rules, but if the philosophical argument against third-party tools holds water, there are lots of apps already on the store that may be in trouble.

Assuming that users 'wouldn't like' apps made with those third-party tools, and that Apple is therefore justified in protecting the platform from crappy apps, strikes us as more than a bit paternalistic -- especially after the onslaught of fart apps and the recent Bikinigate, it's hard to accept "Apple knows best!" with a completely straight face.

[Via MacRumors]

Following up on news that the iPhone 4.0 developer agreement prohibits cross-compiled third-party apps, AppleInsider received info that multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0 is the reason for the change. According to their sources, apps built in environments like Flash CS5 won't co-operate well with Apple's multitasking scheme. "The system will now be evaluating apps as they run in order to implement smart multitasking. It can't do this if apps are running within a runtime or are cross compiled with a foreign structure that doesn't behave identically to a native C/C++/Obj-C app," according to AppleInsider. "Apple needs full access to a properly-compiled app to do the pull off the tricks they are with this new OS," one of their readers said.

So it's not a grand conspiracy to kick Adobe while it's down, not about arbitrarily restricting developers to Apple's own programming tools, and not about squashing competition. If AppleInsider's sources are correct, banning apps built via Flash CS5 is really about ensuring that all apps run properly in Apple's new multitasking environment.

The Pearson Education's Voices That Matter Conference series will be holding their second iPhone Developers Conference on April 24-25 in Seattle. Leading authors and experts (including our very own Erica Sadun) will converge for two days to share their knowledge about developing for the iPhone OS. Development for all iPhone OS devices -- iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad -- will be covered and with the release of the iPhone OS 4 SDK yesterday, you can bet there'll be a lot to learn.

Conference registration includes admission to all education and networking sessions, continental breakfast, lunch and breaks, a conference guide, and access to speakers' slides. The price of the conference is normally $695, but Pearson Education has been good enough to offer a $150 discount to TUAW readers. To take advantage of the discount, go to the conference registration page and use the code PHNTUAW. Have a great time and let us know how it goes!

Who knows how long this will stick before Apple's lawyers learn to speak Polish, but Makowe ABC has uploaded a walkthrough video of an iPhone running beta OS 4. The captioning should help you figure out which features are being discussed.

We're still working through all the new facts and features of the upcoming software release; more updates throughout the day today.

[Via The Mac Observer]

It's been a day of excitement surrounding the iPhone OS 4.0 event, and now you can relive the keynote at your convenience. Apple has posted the iPhone OS 4 Event keynote on its QuickTime site. Watching Steve wax on is always a good time, but be sure to come back here for the latest in-depth iPhone OS 4.0 news!

Update: It's also available in the iTunes podcast for Apple keynotes.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

As expected, Apple didn't introduce any new iPhone hardware today; knowing Steve Jobs & co., they still want to save some surprises when they unveil the 4G iPhone later this summer. Could one of those surprises be a front-facing camera with iChat support?

Close TUAW reader AW sent us this screen shot that shows an iChatAgent process showing up in iStat ($0.99 in the App Store) on an iPhone running the new iPhone OS 4.0 SDK. The process is new to iPhone OS 4.0 and it suggests that Apple plans to implement iChat on the phone in some form.

It seems unlikely that Apple would merely introduce an instant messaging app without support for video conferencing. Although a front-facing camera on the iPhone has been rumored from time to time and it's one of the most requested hardware features for the iPhone, battery drain during video conferencing is always a concern on a mobile device.

If Apple has found a way to support multitasking without significant battery drain, it's possible that mobile video conferencing battery drain has been overcome as well.

UPDATE: another screen shot from within Activity Monitor (sent to us by reader Mr. X) after the break.