B. Lam:
We’re wrapping up, but the front page of Giz will have more. Also, I’ve got to say that I’m pretty impressed with the SDK plan. That could be the reality distortion field doing its thing, but I can’t find any holes in the plan. You?
11:45 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Q: Why did you change your mind about the iPhone open SDK? How long will apps be vetted before being published.
Steve: We change our minds a lot. The web apps have worked well, but developers wanted to do more. And we heard that. Creating an SDK is a lot of work, you want to make it something you can live with for 20 years, and yet update it without breaking apps. This is an elegant and clean system.
Phil: Second question. Electronic submission will be very fast, and this is a whole new process. (Didn’t answer the Q.)
11:43 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Parental controls for the iPhone are coming. You can turn off Safari, or the app store, etc.
11:40 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Q: WiMax iPhone?
Steve: We’re not here to talk about hardware today, only software.
11:38 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Q: What is the nominal fee for the iPod touch upgrade to firmware 2.0?
Steve: We’ll set it later.
Q: How will companies go from RIM to iPhone?
Phil: Using Exchange, and we’ll roll out some IT manager tools.
11:34 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Q: Ryan from Engadget asked about SIM unlocking. Will that be not allowed?
A: *pause*…*dagger eyes*…Yeees.
11:33 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Oh no, someone said monopoly. Is the App store a monopoly?
Steve: They won’t be able to do it without the store. Small and big devs won’t have the same reach so why would they want to go elsewhere? (Paraphrased.)
11:30 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Q: What will happen if someone does a VOIP app?
A: We will only stop VOIP over cell networks, but not WiFi.
11:28 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Steve: The iPhone has been shipping for less than a year, remember.
Q: What safeguards are in place to make sure the apps will be secure?
Steve: It is a dangerous world. One one side, you have a closed device like the iPod, you don’t have to worry about 3rd party apps mucking it up. And on the other hand, you have the PC where people spend a lot of time getting it to work. We want the best of both. The developers are going to register with us if they want to distribute them. If they write a bad app, we can both track them down and we can turn off the app’s distribution. So we’re putting controls in place.
11:26 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Q: Business apps are coming, should RIM be worried?
Steve: Go ask them.
11:24 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
First Q: What does the 100m iFund do for the community?
Steve: This is going to help young developers with funding. It helps the whole iPhone ecosystem.
11:23 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
Steve says press should wait for a Q&A. The room is clearing, and we’re waiting.
11:21 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
That lady with the BSOD is using pen and paper now. Her computer is going through system recovery.
11:18 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
100 Million dollars in the iFund for iPhone developers. This totally kicks the crap out of the Google Android 10M dollar fund for apps. (I believe it is 10m.)
11:16 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
The lady liveblogging in front of me just had an XP/Windows Blue Screen of Death!
11:15 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
How do you become an iPhone developer. Go download the SDK for free in about an hour. To publish programs, you have to pay a $99 dev fee.
11:12 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
The iPod Touch is getting the same update, but there will be a nominal charge, due to accounting purposes.
11:10 am ON Mar 6 2008
B. Lam:
All of this is coming in the iPhone 2.0 update. It’ll have the SDK and enterprise capabilities. There’s a Beta release going out today. Thousands of developers will have it today. Apple needs the feedback. Customers will see this in June as a free software update.
11:09 am ON Mar 6 2008
