Around here we all seem to be addicted to GTD applications (especially those that sync with online services). That's why it is only fitting that we would mention a new iPhone application named Outpost. Outpost manages your 37Signals' Basecamp projects on your iPhone.
Basecamp, as you might already know, is 37Signals flagship application for managing clients, projects, tasks, etc. However, with a native application to manage Basecamp projects I can definitely see myself using Basecamp more than I do now.
Outpost should be available on the AppStore in "early to mid August." For more information about Outpost, you can check out their website and development blog.
We've been receiving tips all day about an e-mail some iPhone developers got from Apple today. In the e-mail, Apple is asking developers to submit their iPhone applications to the AppStore in order to be available for the iPhone 2.0 firmware / iPhone 3G launch. The deadline? July 7th ... as in this coming Monday.
World of Apple received a screenshot of the e-mail which reads, "To ensure your application can be considered for the exciting launch of the App Store, submit your application by 12 PM PDT, on July 7, 2008. We will continue to accept applications after this time, however your application may not be available until after the launch of the App Store"
So, for all the iPhone developers out there: get your apps out by July 7th (especially for the Twitterrific and Super Monkey Ball folks).
MacNN is reporting that Apple may be imposing file size and price caps for iPhone/iPod touch applications. According to the post, Apple would be limiting file size of applications to 2GB. Of course, most of the applications will be significantly less than 2GBs.
The post goes on to say that applications that are not free will have pricing tiers between $.99 and $999.99. The higher end of that spectrum will undoubtedly be Enterprise-style applications. MacNN also posted pictures what the AppStore inside of iTunes will look like in addition to images of the upload and pricing tier tools that developers have access to.
How much are you willing to pay for applications on the iPhone/iPod touch? Be sure to take our poll and sound off in the comments!
Apple held their 2008 Apple Design Awards at WWDC last night. We love developers. What makes the Mac platform so awesome is the cool applications that these creative developers make. It is with great pleasure that we tell you who won the Apple Design Awards for 2008.
Best Student Runner Up: Flow Best Student Winner: Squirrel
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.
With the WWDC Keynote in less than 2.54983712 hours, the iPhone Dev Center has gone offline.
"We'll be right back" is the temporary message that graces the front page of the iPhone Dev Center. This isn't a total surprise, since this portal is Apple's one stop shop for all iPhone devolper information which will no doubt be changing in the coming hours.
Registration for iPhoneDevCamp 2 opened yesterday, so if you want to attend this non-profit working event for iPhone / iPod Touch developers, head on over to the registration page and sign up. Spokesperson Raven Zachary told TUAW that the organizers are expecting all 500 spaces for the event to fill quickly this year due to the hype surrounding the iPhone SDK and the sellout crowd at WWDC 2008.
This year's camp will be held at Adobe Systems in San Francisco August 1-3, 2008. You'll be able to create iPhone and iPod Touch apps with a group of the brightest and best developers, designers, and testers. We haven't yet heard if there will be singalongs, canoe races, or lanyard weaving, and you're on your own for making s'mores over the warmth of a MacBook Pro.
Will I be going to camp this year? Unfortunately, I won't, but I am looking forward to seeing the innovative apps that will emerge from this long weekend.
Over at Theocacao Scott Stevenson has posted the video of his Introduction to Cocoa talk (entitled "Best of Both Worlds") aimed at those who want to learn a bit about Apple's preferred API for building OS X applications. The talk runs to over 90 minutes and includes "an introduction to Xcode, Interface Builder, Objective-C, Mac UI standards and more."
For anyone who has ever wanted to figure out what those developers tools are all about this is definitely worth (the rather large) download (scroll down towards the bottom) though it seems that a lot of folks are have problems getting the whole file (myself included). There's also a torrent available.
Do you like Growl? Do you use Xcode? Then chances are you'll like GrowlCode. GrowlCode is a plugin to integrate Growl's on-screen alerts into the Mac OS X developer app, Xcode. GrowlCode integrates the following actions: Build Succeeded, Preprocessing Complete, Compilation Succeeded, Clean Complete, and many more.
To use GrowlCode, you will need to download both GrowlCode and Growl (which is available at Growl.info). GrowlCode is compatible with Xcode 3.0 and Mac OS X Lepoard (10.5) and Tiger (10.4). Instructions for installing can be found on the GrowlCode website.
Jake Marsh sent along this neat screencast of an iPhone web app for MySpace that he's working on. Facebook basically seems to be the gold standard of social networking web apps these days, and this looks basically just like that one. It is cool that you can look up people right away, but the real improvements are on MySpace's Music pages -- not only can you subscribe directly from the profile, but he's also got it working to play all the music there (usually trapped in Flash, though there is a less easy way around it already). He also says that it might eventually be possible, for songs that are available for download, to get them with one click into the iPhone's iPod library.
Yes, it looks just like Facebook (in fact, it looks like a rip of the mobile site), but why fix something that's not broken? Unfortunately, Marsh is just showing off -- he says that it's just for him right now and he's aiming for an open beta in August. He should probably aim for a little sooner than that: after June, we might all be saying "what web apps?"
Every Mac developer wants a small, softly glowing cube -- as long as it's not made from unstable isotopes or anything like that. The Apple Design Awards 2008 entry period has now begun; with competition in seven categories this year, including two for the iPhone, it's going to be fun to see what bubbles up to the top at WWDC.
Applications in the following areas can be uploaded and entered before 5 pm May 12:
Highlights innovative and compelling new iPhone applications built using the Beta iPhone SDK. Entries in this category must be pre-release, feature complete versions which run within the iPhone simulator or on an iPhone or iPod touch. Apple reserves the right to award more than one winning entry in this category.
Highlights web applications designed specifically for Safari on iPhone, which offers iPhone users innovative, compelling, valuable, and highly desirable capabilities.
Highlights games introduced on Mac OS X Leopard after June 2007, which take full advantage of relevant Leopard technologies and offer the best entertainment value to all ages. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Highlights excellence in design, aesthetics, ease of use, compelling and appropriate use of animation, and pervasive integration with built-in Mac OS X Leopard system services and sharing technologies. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Highlights best-of-breed Mac OS X Leopard graphics and media solutions providing unparalleled functionality, performance, innovation, and stunning visuals and/or audio. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Winners get plenty of goodies: WWDC tickets and travel, MacBook Pros, Cinema Displays, iPod touches and iPhones, and (far and away the most valuable) a free mini-booth to exhibit at Macworld Expo 2009. See Apple's official site for all the rules and regulations, and best of luck! (Yes, that's the developer team of 2007 ADA winner Panic giving a full-on geek salute there in the winner's circle. Seems like they're pretty pumped.)
According to a recent post over at the Adium blog, Chris Forsythe, the lead project manager, has decided to say goodbye after 3 years in that position with the Adium project. According to the post, Chris managed the Adium website, support network, and forum.
Eric Richie, another member of the Adium team, volunteered for the new position. In the past, Eric wrote the in-application help for Adium and maintains the Adium TicketTaskForce.
Chris is involved with some of the best applications on the Mac, a sampling of them: Growl, Perian, and Saltatory. We at TUAW wish Chris the best of luck in the future!
Mike Lee, the "world's toughest programmer," and official Major-domo for Delicious Monster sat down with Scott to show off some features coming to Delicious Library 2. We know a lot of you are itching for the release of this one, and Mike gives an answer to when it'll ship... sort of.
Other items in the video: - sharing your library - media launching - more categories (now tracks gadgets) - .Mac (and more) publishing options - metadata support - robust import/export tools - one click backup - why no pro version? - scripting support! - plus a first look at a feature that will have Cory flipping out
Mike also talks about charity, and his efforts to help in Madagascar. The read link will take you to Mike's Club Thievey where you can help.
Despite what Jobs told us at WWDC earlier this year, Apple isn't as committed to gaming as they'd want us to think. GamedailyBIZ has an interview up with id software's John Carmack (makers of Quake and the new Rage, set to premiere simultaneously on Mac and PC), and he says that he and Jobs have had arguments about gaming on the Mac, including a "...fairly heated argument" at WWDC.
Carmack says he would love to develop on the Mac-- and who wouldn't-- but that the problem is that Apple just doesn't care. Carmack mentions the iPhone as a platform he'd love to see some great games on as well, but points to the iPod as a place where Apple failed gaming-- they made developers work on an emulator, and there were many "horrible decisions."
As Carmack says, you can't exactly fault Apple for their choices. From a business perspective, they are going gangbusters. But with Jobs' feelings on this coming to light, we must look past specific developers, and Apple themselves-- why are Jobs and his company so opposed to solid game development on their platform?
If you haven't seen this roundup yet, Matt Gemmell's huge list of everything Leopard can do for developers is pretty amazing. It's a bit on the technical side, but worry not-- about 1/4 of the way down the page you'll think that this is a list only for developers, and if you keep scrolling you'll start to see that (somewhere around the "HUD windows" part) Apple has broken open almost all of their interfaces to developers of all makes and models. Everything from menus to date formatting is updated in Leopard's developer applications, and there's lots of "freebies" that will make even smaller programs better-- icons and images, an image editor, and a built-in grammar checker can all be easily implemented in any Leopard apps.
As hot as this operating system is (and yes, despite the problems that folks are having with it), the really good stuff is yet to come. When talented programmers and designers get their hands on these tools, then we'll really see why it's so great to be a Mac user.