World of Apple

Apple has released the seventh beta of the iPhone SDK to registered developers. The iPhone Software Development Kit remains under NDA and is labelled build 9M2199, the total download size is 1.19GB.

Registered iPhone Developers can download the latest beta from the iPhone Dev centre.

Apple posted a video link to today’s WWDC keynote presentation.

During the Keynote Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall discussed iPhone software development, MobileMe and introduced iPhone 3G.

[Update] Keynote is now available to download via the Apple Keynote Podcast.

[Update 2] Also available in HD.

Apple today announced that iPhone SDK downloads have topped more than 250,000 since its launch on March 6. The iPhone SDK provides developers with the same rich set of Application Programming Interfaces and tools that Apple uses to create its native applications for iPhone. Apple today also announced that its amazing new App Store will be available in 62 countries bringing a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications directly to iPhone and iPod touch users around the world. Users can download applications wirelessly and start using them immediately.

“Developer reaction to the features, power and simplicity of the iPhone SDK has been incredible,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We are seeing some truly amazing native apps from our developers and think users are going to love the breadth and depth of the applications available from the App Store.”

Leading developers such as AOL, Cisco, eBay, Electronic Arts, Epocrates, TypePad, Salesforce.com and Sega have demonstrated impressive native applications developed using the iPhone SDK.

“The SDK allowed us to build a groundbreaking new AIM client in record time,” said Kevin Conroy, executive vice president, AOL. “The platform’s elegance and ease of use has inspired our developers to create innovative new web and SDK based experiences for iPhone and iPod touch.”

“The iPhone SDK has given us an excellent set of tools and APIs to create mobile extensions for FIM’s entire portfolio of web brands including MySpace, IGN and Photobucket in the near term, and other properties such as FOXSports.com down the road,” said John Smelzer, senior vice president of Mobile for Fox Interactive Media. “The popularity of the iPhone, along with the high demand for applications, gives us an amazing opportunity to create groundbreaking mobile experiences.”

“Cocoa-touch is a compact and robust application framework that handles all the heavy lifting for developers so they can concentrate on building their applications in record time with the legendary Apple finesse we’ve come to expect,” said David Krantz, president of YELLOWPAGES.COM.“ iPhone has been a game changer since it launched, and the availability of our YELLOWPAGES.COM application on the App Store is going to make a great device even better.”

“As mobile developers with primarily J2ME and BREW experience, we were up and running with the iPhone within two weeks,” said Jonathan Backer, manager of Mobile Engineering, The Walt Disney Company. “The hardware is stable and full-featured, while the software development tools are intuitive and represent a level of polish rarely seen in the mobile arena.”

“Since the launch of the iPhone we have seen a steady rise in traffic to the MLB.com mobile site so it made perfect sense to develop a rich client application for the App Store,” said Adam Ritter, vice president, Wireless Major League Baseball, Advanced Media. “Our development staff was excited to work on an iPhone application and reported that the SDK was robust and straight forward and contained helpful development tools. All combined we were able to expedite our development and deliver an application we know baseball fans will enjoy.”

Engadget has posted several images and a video of a proof-of-concept SlingPlayer application for the iPhone.

On the run-up to Macworld 2008 it was rumoured that Sling would be showing off a native iPhone SlingPlayer but the rumour never came to fruition.

According to Engadget the application is very much alpha and is being held back by Apple failing to accept Sling into the iPhone developer program.

Video included below.

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According to CNET, native iPhone apps will see an official unveiling next week at WWDC.

The information which reportedly comes from a firm developing iPhone software alludes to the launch of the App Store which would be necessary to install native iPhone applications.

SDK Icon Files Reveal New iPhone Design?

MacRumors is reporting that one reader of the site has found an interesting icon file in a file called “iPhone.icns” which comes with the latest iPhone SDK beta.

The icon file appears to show clear differences around the edge of the display and the outer rim of the phone.

Strings Point towards 3G

With the release of the latest iPhone OS 2.0 beta developers have discovered the addition of more strings pointing towards the 3G iPhone. Earlier this month it was discovered that Apple has built-in a switch to turn 3G on and off, new strings now reveal that Apple has added warnings when users try and turn off 3G during a call.

• “Disabling 3G will end your phone call. Are you sure you want to disable 3G?”
• “Enabling 3G will end your phone call. Are you sure you want to enable 3G?”

Apple has recently given registered iPhone developers access to the latest iPhone SDK beta.

No details of what is new in the Beta have been released but Apple is expected to be wrapping up development of the beta to coincide with a late-June release.

On a more quiet note Apple gave a select group of developers access to the latest iPhone OS 2.0 build, build 5A308 comes on the heels of a build last week that added the addition of geo-tagging.

The latest build is said to speed up the iPhone OS significantly.

Back in March when Apple showed off the iPhone SDK the company also announced the $100 million iFund supplied by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

BusinessWeek is reporting that the first two companies out of over 1,700 have been chosen to receive some of the $100 million capital.

Pelago is said to be a developer of on-the-go lifestyle application, the company reportedly was the first to receive funding for iPhone version of its Whrrl application. Whrrl takes advantage of the iPhones mapping abilities and tries to make it easy to find information about business, restaurants, etc, in the local area.

Say you’re lost in Las Vegas and need a restaurant recommendation. With iPhone in hand, you can scan the locations of nearby restaurants, just Italian restaurants, or just those recommended by foodie friends. Or you could search for the highest-rated bars or kid-friendly activities recommended by friends from your social network. There’s going to be a “what’s going on around me right now” button, says Kleiner Perkins partner Matt Murphy. “You’re always one button away from that immediate context.”

Joining Pelago as the only other company to receive funding was iControl, makers of home automation software. The application is said to give users control over air con units, lighting and window shades to name just a few.

BusinessWeek also adds that it expects Apple to release the 3G iPhone at the forth coming Worldwide Developers Conference which kicks off on June 9th. The opening keynote may also demonstrate one of the aforementioned applications.

Apple continues to release incremental updates of the next major update to the iPhone OS to registered developers and enterprise customers, of interest from the latest builds is the iPhones ability to be location aware.

According to AppleInsider the latest build 5A292g contains photo geo-tagging, the current iPhone appears to make use of WiFi and cellular network position but the next-generation iPhone is expected to feature GPS abilities.

The feature which currently does not work was discovered when the Camera application asked permission to use the users current location, the ability to report location can be turned off in the preferences.

Apple has posted the fifth beta of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). Apple’s notes which accompany the release state that the new beta “fixes bugs and adds support for the latest iPhone OS.”

The Beta 5 SDK is available as a free download to members of the iPhone Development Centre, the update is 1.08GB in size and is listed as build 9M2173a.

Full release notes here.