Yes, you read that headline right. According to a survey of developers conducted this week at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, and highlighted over at Apple Insider, many of the potential applications being developed for the iPhone will have an average cost of $3.00 or under -- and many others may be completely free. The survey, conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster right after the Steve Jobs Keynote on Monday, revealed some other interesting information besides potential application pricing.
The survey also found that 50% of the developers plan on building applications only for the iPhone while the other 50% were going to make application for the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and for Macs as well. In addition, Munster found that many developers were also authoring what he called "Enterprise apps" as well as entertainment apps, location-based apps which take advantage of the iPhone's GPS capabilities and video games.
According to Munster: "We see this as a positive indicator of the potential for Enterprise adoption of the iPhone. We found the average cost of iPhone apps on the App Store to be $2.29, with 71% being free." So, if you love the iPhone or iPod Touch and plan on putting lots of applications on them, if the survey proves correct, this is good news for you.
Today, Steve Jobs announced the App Store to go along with all of the SDK fun that's soon to begin. Available in the iPhone 2.0 software update, the App Store will allow for easy navigation of both paid and free apps; Featured, Just Added, Staff Favorites, Most Popular ... it's basically an iPhone version of Apple Downloads. You'll be able to search, tap and download applications wirelessly to your iPhone (and iPod touch for a nominal fee) via WiFi or cellular. You'll also be able to install apps via iTunes.
Developers will be able to sell their apps in the App Store, and can set their own price. They'll receive a monthly payment of 70% of sales, with 30% going to Apple for their credit card, hosting and marketing services. There are no additional costs for listing apps, after the $99 setup fee.
Quite predictably excluded from listing in the App Store are pornography and malicious applications. I have absolutely no witty comment to make about that. It's common sense.
Some enterprising iPhone developer named Erica Sadun (we hear she blogs for a fly-by-night Mac site) has been tinkering around with CoverFlow on the iPhone for a book she's writing, and while the result of my doing the same tinkering would be nothing but a broken iPhone, she instead pulls off the opposite: an enhanced iPhone.
AppFlow is a CoverFlow-style interface for launching iPhone apps and icons. You just install the app on your jailbroken iPhone, and then launching your favorite app is as simple as flipping to the icon and double-tapping. Webclips, we're told, are launched a completely different way, and thus not included in the flipping. But "maybe in a later update," our inside source told TUAW exclusively.
If this is the kind of stuff we're getting from Sadun before the SDK drops, just think what we'll see after. The woman's a genius. And it's almost surprising that Apple didn't think of this in the first place -- if it works in Leopard, and it works in the iPod of the iPhone, why didn't they give us the option to flip through apps in this way?
Update: AppFlow has been incorporated into XLaunch and now supports Webclips
Personally, I'm an Adium user at heart -- iChat is super nice (especially for a built-in chat program), but it just doesn't have the features and customizability that that Adium does. But if you have to use iChat for whatever reason (easy video conferencing comes to mind) despite your love for Adium, then this mod, sent to us by reader Philipp, will probably come in handy.
It's called iChat Pro, and it basically simplifies your iChat window, squeezing out the borders and cutting the buttons at the bottom. I don't think you can change the colors and design of the display the way you can in Adium (it's been a while since I used iChat, and a quick browse through the preferences didn't reveal any options for that), but at least it looks a little more professional than the, let's admit it, a little goofy, default iChat GUI. iChat Pro is a free iChat mod from Infinise Design.
Well, I've finally had a good look at the iTunes way of delivering iPod touch and iPhone applications. The iPod touch upgrade package arrived as a package using the ipa extension and is stored in a "Mobile Applications" folder. Like many Apple bundles, the ipa package is in fact a zipped archive which you can easily unzip and examine.
Inside, I found a package manifest and the deliverable. The manifest was in human readable form, the actual "product" (which is nothing other than a simple text properly list that enables the iPod touch features, already installed during the 1.1.3 upgrade) is encrypted. There is a sinf that accompanies the product and a p7b that supports the manifest. Both of these use encryption technology to protect the integrity of the manifest and to limit access to the deliverable.
These details are extremely similar to way iTunes currently ships its iPod games and ensure that whenever third party applications begin shipping that they won't be easily pirated.
Here's another thing you may have heard on last week's talkcast (which again, I'm told, is this close to being edited and posted): we were talking, of course, about the new iPhone/iPod touch SDK, and knocking around ideas for how Apple might implement apps on the iPhone. Someone in the Talkshoe channel suggested something exactly like this suggestion, sent to us by reader Thomas. They'd like to see apps distributed through iTunes, just like podcasts. Choose which apps you want (submitted by their creators to Apple), dock the iPhone, and voila, apps on the iPhone.
Not really a new idea, and it is pretty obvious in its implementation (I had the same idea about games for the Mac a while back). I'd love to see it happen. But the problem, of course, is just how open Steve wants to (or can be) with the iPhone SDK. I really doubt we're going to see something freely distributed, and I know for sure that we probably won't see anything that anyone can place unsigned content on. I'd love to see a quick, easy way for anyone to simply publish apps for the iPhone, but from what I've heard, there are so many security holes in the system right now that that's not really a possibility.
Jobs clearly wants to fix things (if his iPhone SDK note is to be taken honestly), but unless Apple starts plugging holes fast, I don't see it happening. More likely, I'd see a few trusted developers given SDKs, and asked to create applications of their own which might then be listed on iTunes, for sale or download. Other developers could probably apply, but Apple will likely try to keep control over the whole thing, pulling an application off of iTunes (and possibly even the iPhones themselves) when a problem is discovered.
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. As I said, it would be great to see apps on the iPhone from anywhere and everywhere, but the concern we're hearing is that security is far from tight, and Apple is watching its back as closely as it can.
AppleInsider has a nice long preview of the new Leopard Dock, along with a short history going all the way back to a company called Acorn Computers, and the NeXT Dock (there's even some good, healthy Windows TaskBar bashing thrown in the mix).
There isn't really anything new here, but it is a nice wrap up of everything we've seen about the Dock so far, including the new perspective that folks are so worked up about, and the idea of "stacks," special icons that will expand into a number of different icons. AppleInsider even runs down the default stacks provided with Leopard-- Applications, Documents and Downloads. I'm not sure how long those will last on my Leopard install, however-- I'm much more eager to make my own stacks and reorganize everything myself.
Very exciting. Unfortunately there's no mention of an update to how the vertical Dock looks, but Leopard is right around the corner, so we'll find out for sure very soon if Apple's new Dock lives up to expectations.
It seems like this news has been around for a while, but we'd never heard it, and it's definitely worth taking a look at. Alcor, developer of Quicksilver, the little launcher that does everything, quietly mentions on the Blacktree forums that Quicksilver will go open source and Leopard only with the next release.
What does that mean for Quicksilver's users? Probably not a lot, although with a few interested developers on board, it'll probably mean quicker updates and more responsive bugfixes. Even Alcor says in the thread that while bugfixes and updates are planned for Leopard, he has no idea when they'll actually be released, and an open source app would probably make specific fixes faster.
As for a timeline on making it open source, Alcor doesn't promise anything too exciting on that end, either. He does say that the OS version of Quicksilver will be for Leopard, so we're looking at least at October, if not later. But if Quicksilver is going open source, it likely means that one of the Mac's best applications will only get better.
This is really basically the same theory as the iPhone bookmarklets Mat posted earlier (squeezing content into a URL), but it's a little less about function and a little more about storage. Currently, the iPhone doesn't allow you to save actual files locally, but it does allow you save URLs, so the idea here is to save entire applications (or other HTML content) in the form of a data URL.
It's a pretty wonky hack, but it works-- you can convert whole HTML pages, or even applications, depending on the URL length the iPhone's bookmarks allow, into data URLs (with the Perl script on that page if you don't want to do it manually), and then those data URLs can be loaded into MobileSafari on the iPhone, even in Airplane mode. The suggestion is made that this could allow persistent storage for web applications on the iPhone, but wouldn't that require allowing the HTML page to write to and read from the iPhone's bookmarks? Is that possible?
At any rate, maybe it's a good thing, for a little while at least, that Apple didn't release a "real" SDK for the iPhone. Web programmers are making their code do all kinds of flips and tricks to get every bit of access they can on the iPhone. People have been talking about browser-based, OS independent applications for years-- maybe Apple's insistence that iPhone developers go through the browser will bring about that world sooner than we thought.
Ollie Wagner sends word that he has release both of his Spencere apps, Menuet and Art Collector, as careware. Over on his site, you can get both of the apps for free, as long as you promise to donate to the charity of your choice (he's listed eight good choices if you don't have a preference).
We've covered both before-- Menuet is a pretty iTunes controller with a few other features built in, including Last.fm support, themes, and a sleep timer. Art Collector grabs artwork from Amazon for your iTunes library-- it's a little useless, because iTunes now does this for you, but if there are a few covers iTunes can't find, maybe Art Collector can.
Together, they used to run around $13 (although Art Collector separately was $7, and was originally bundled with Menuet). If you've seen these before and never gotten a chance to try them, here's it is, and hopefully you can help out a charity as well.
This weekend, many instability issues associated with the iphoneinterface hacking tool (details to be found online at irc.osx86.hu #iphone) have been resolved. The big "your multigigabyte disk seems to disappear and be replaced by a few megabytes" bug has gone away and the software now supports both getfile and putfile (although, sadly, not removefile). This means that hackers have been able to unlock access to system files, retrieve them, alter them, and put them back. Read on for some of the biggest hacks developed over the weekend.
Mark Howson from The Mac Pak sends word that another mysterious bundle has been posted, this time for the very, very low price of $5.00. The Mac Pak, you'll remember, is one of the more mysterious software deals out there-- you pay the money for three different secret applications, and then at the end of the sale (three days and change as of this writing, so around July 1st), the apps are revealed, and sent to you. Buyer beware, but a fun deal, and I'm not sure I've ever seen one this cheap.
All we know about the apps this time around is that added together they'd usually cost you over $50, and that's about it. Back in May, the apps were revealed as the sale went along (and the price raised), but there's no indication that's happening this time around-- looks like it's a $5 shot in the dark. Will the low price pull you in, or are you going to pass on buying something you might not want?
As we all sit in (not so) silent torture waiting for Apple to release a true SDK (Software Development Kit) to developers for the iPhone, I figured it might be a bit more productive and fun to start dreaming up which apps would be great to bring along with us in our i-pockets. I'm glued to a Mac a lot during the day, both for my work and some of my hobbies - it would be great if I could take some of my favorite and most-used apps off the desktop and get a few things done without having to balance a notebook on my lap.
After thinking about it, I came up with eight apps I would really love to see on the iPhone. Of course, I have no idea if their developers are even considering rolling an iPhone version, especially since we have no clue as to when Apple will stop screwing around and actually release a full-on SDK. Nevertheless, a blogger can dream, and dream I did. Read on for my list of apps that I think would fit right at home on the iPhone.
Though it's clear that many folks were pretty disappointed in the whole Web 2.0 is the iPhone SDK thing, a few designers have already started to build "applications" for the iPhone. We've already mentioned a Digg application from David Cann; now that one and many others are being gathered on a new website called simply iPhone Application List. There are already iPhone implementations of AOL IM, a basic feed reader, Twitter, YouTube, and more. And since they're written for Safari on the iPhone, you can already see (and use) them with Safari on the Mac or Windows. These apps give a better idea of just what kind of things will presumably be possible on the iPhone, even though they're not the full applications most of us (developers included) wanted to see.
We talk up the file launcher and manipulator Quicksilver quite a bit here at TUAW, but there is a solid batch of similar productivity-enhancing utilities that offer different things for different users. Whether you're looking for a simple utility that lets you launch your applications faster than Spotlight can find them, or you're prepared to step up to vast amounts of power and flexibility with what you find and how you use it, chances are I covered an app in this screencast that will fit the bill for you. From the power of Butler to the simplicity of Namely, I wanted to give you at least some of the basics and a visual on how 5 different launchers work, as well as their pros and cons and how they differ from each other. However, since I am a Quicksilver lover at heart, it is very likely that I missed a key feature or two in these apps, so feel free to highlight your favorite features and what you think new users can truly benefit from in the comments. Also, for anyone interested in what I'm using to create these screencasts, I include a very short blurb at the beginning which highlights a few of the tools I use to record the screencast and create some of the effects I use.
This time around I've decided to try something different, and I've created two versions of the screencast. In our podcast feed is an iPod-friendly version of the podcast that's 640 x 400, 17 minute and 40 MB - that's the one you can get by subscribing to our iTunes Store podcast feed or our direct TUAW podcast feed. I've also created an HD version for those who want something with a little more detail (sorry, we don't have an RSS feed for HD podcasts yet; this is a new thing so we'll see how it goes). That one will look better on larger displays and should play mighty fine on the Apple TV.
To make sure we're all on the same page and that you can run out and grab demos of these launchers, here is a list of links to all the apps I mention in the screencast, including the ones I use to create and record it:
Mouseposé - spotlight effects, keystroke overlays (which I didn't use in this specific screencast) and other presentation highlighting tools (mentioned here)
iShowU - excellent and customizable app for recording screencasts (mentioned a couple times here)
I hope you enjoy the screencast, and please feel free to leave feedback to let me know how I'm doing with producing these. If you prefer HD podcasts that look better on screen and can play on an Apple TV (instead of 640 px wide podcasts which are the max an iPod can handle), definitely let me know that too.
Yes, you read that headline right. According to a survey of developers conducted this week at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, and highlighted over at Apple Insider, many of the potential applications being developed for the iPhone will have an average cost of $3.00 or under -- and many others may be completely free. The survey, conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster right after the Steve Jobs Keynote on Monday, revealed some other interesting information besides potential application pricing.
Personally, I'm an 
Here's another thing you may have heard on 
AppleInsider has 
It seems like this news has been around for a while, but we'd never heard it, and it's definitely worth taking a look at. Alcor, developer of 
This is really basically the same theory as the 
Ollie Wagner sends word that he has release both of his Spencere apps, Menuet and Art Collector, as 
Mark Howson from The Mac Pak sends word that 
As we all sit in (not so) silent torture waiting for Apple to release a true SDK (Software Development Kit) to developers for the iPhone, I figured it might be a bit more productive and fun to start dreaming up which apps would be great to bring along with us in our i-pockets. I'm glued to a Mac a lot during the day, both for my work and some of my hobbies - it would be great if I could take some of my favorite and most-used apps off the desktop and get a few things done without having to balance a notebook on my lap.
Though it's clear that many folks were pretty 
