The problem of free iPhone apps

So I have been thinking about the changing landscape of iPhone development lately. Everyone was all excited when Apple announced the SDK, and said that they wouldn't be charging any fees for free apps to be distributed through the store.

While that is great and all, the fact remains at this time, all developers who wish to distribute apps, whether free or pay, must pony up 99.99 for the privilege. This might not be too much of an obstacle for some individuals, but I am pretty sure that this is going to kill some of the apps that we all love.

I am encouraging the makers of such great free iPhone/iTouch apps as Books, Terminal and Services to set up a paypal account, if you don't already have one, and let us start donating money to get you the developer license fee.

I for one would love to kick a little green to the developers of these apps. And I am betting that there are more than 99 other people who would too.

What we really need is a simple solution for users to get their cash to developers. We need a developer fund website... maybe DevFund? Yeah, look for this new project to launch in the next couple of weeks.

Like I didn't have enough to do.

I'm an iPhone Developer!

At least that is what the email from Apple, Inc. said. Very funny. I am hoping to create an APP powered blogging app for Habari to begin with. Should be fun.

The Morning Geek Out

So I got to have one of those moments you just live for as a geek this morning at work.

I have a "liberated" iPhone, and one of my co-workers has a "liberated" iPod Touch. He was asking what apps I find useful and I of course answered the eReader app Books.

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Hey Look, TV out

Looks like I was right. The next iPhone update adds TV out options among other things. Man I love being right. Can't wait for this one to hit iTunes!

Excuse me?!

So we are getting iPhone unlocking, but you can only unlock the phone once, and it is $99?

Are you kidding me:

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iPhone Hacking

There have been a lot of articles out recently on how to hack your iPhone. The Inman recently posted instructions on how to add SSH to your phone, so that you can SFTP things to your phone.

I thought that it was time to post my little solution to this problem. When I started looking for my solution I had two requirements:

1. Mount the iPhone as a removable drive
2. Rehacking had to be dead simple, since I like to update my phone

I think my solution satisfies both of those requirements nicely. You ready to get more out of your iPhone? Good, lets get to it.

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iPhone and iPod Dock

So I have access to one of those fancy iPod docks with the video out and IR reciever, so I thought I would see what functionality, if any, I could coax out of my iPhone.

Unfortunately I don't have any video on my phone at the moment, so I can't really test the video out, but I do know some things. Currently you can do the following:

1. The docks works fine for charging and syncing the iPhone.
2. The line out for audio seems to work fine as well.
3. The apple remote works for some things with the phone. For instance you can:
• Increase and decrease the volume of the ringer (when not playing music), or the audio (when listening to music)
• You can skip between songs while the phone is locked and charging, which is one of the cooler features in my mind.

Things that you currently cannot do:

1. Scroll lists on the phone. Case in point, the listing of music on your phone.
2. Navigate back and forth between views when the phone is unlocked (like drill down/up in your playlists).

I am really hoping that future updates to the iPhone software improve the interaction between the iPhone and an iPod dock with remote. One good bit of news is that I can rig up something for the iPhone in my car, and use an apple remote to interact with my music. Not having to take you eyes off the road++.

iPhone tip #1

UPDATE: It seems it wasn't a software glitch, but a hardware one, since now the bottom 3rd of my screen doesn't work. Oi. Don't let someone with fingers twice as big as yours use your iPhone during the first week when the phone is learning how you type. It horks the software and the only way to fix it is to restore the phone. Which means of course, that I will have to reactivate it. Bah.

The iPhone Odyssey

Let's just start by saying, that I did not get an iPhone last night. At 5:45 I decided to head out the nearest AT&Terrible store to look at the iPhone... you know see if was actually a useful piece of technology.

I arrived at my destination at 6:00 exactly and I was greeted by this a line that wrapped around the building, it looked something like this:

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Ooh, the evil awakens

"Minimum new 2-year wireless service plan and activation fee required to activate iPhone features, including iPod". Any of you out there who were thinking of getting the iPhone just for the iPod bits are up the proverbial creek it seems.