Google’s new voice-activated search app has been rasing a few eyebrows - and not just because it can’t understand a word us Brits are saying.
The app uses a combination of the iPhone’s motion sensor and the proximity sensor to tell when you have lifted the phone to your ear ready to speak your search terms. The iPhone normally uses the proximity sensor to deactivate the screen whenever you hold the phone to your ear during a call.
This is a neat hack, but it has been puzzling developers who can’t understand how Google access the function using Apple’s published systems development kit (SDK) - the function isn’t exposed as being usable by programmers.
Today Google have ‘fessed up. The wrote their own SDK, thus violating the terms of use that Apple imposes on would-be iPhone developers. Bad Google!
Of course, this poses the interesting question of how th app got past Apple’s famously twitchy approvals process. Could it be that there is one rule for regular developers and quite another for big players like Google?
One feature sadly missing from the G1 Android phone was the ability to tether a laptop and use the phone’s data connection. Luckily, the Android community take this kind of thing as a challen.
It is now possible to tether the phone - although it might be more effort than you are willing to go to.
As it stands, the app will require some fiddling with the phone’s settings to allow non-Google-approved apps to run, enabling USB debugging, plus installing the Android development kit on the PC you wish to tether. There may also be a short ritual involving a pentagram and 4cc of mouse blood.
It’s a faff, but it does work - and if you need to tether, it may be worth the effort. Now the principle is out there, of course, things should get easier. Anyone want to guess if this will be the first Killswitched Anfdrod app?
Claiming time constraints, Google has removed support for the Bluetooth API from the most recent Android System Development Kit (SDK).
Although Android phones will support standard Bluetooth peripherals like headsets and keyboards, what this means is that developers won’t be able to get creative with their own wacky Bluetooth ideas.
On the Android developers blog. Developer Advocate Dan Morrill said, “Rather than ship a broken API that we knew was going to change a lot, we chose not to include it. We absolutely intend to support a Bluetooth API in a future release, although we don’t know exactly when that will be. ”
Google have also had to withdraw API support for GoogleTalk integration, citing security concerns, but are planning to rethink the GTalk API for a future version of the Android OS.
The jury’s out on just how Apple plans to control the flow of iPhone applications, once its App Store launches in June. Will it give accredited developers free rein to release as many apps as they like, or will it restrict the number so as not to overwhelm iPhone users? It could go either way.
What is clear, though, is that Apple is keeping a fairly tight rein on the number of developers it accredits, having rejected many who applied for its iPhone Developer Program last month. However, those reins were just loosened a little bit, with iPhone Atlas reporting that a number of those rejected developers have just received a follow-up letter, telling them they’re in.
This expansion is A Good Thing, since ideally there’ll be as many accredited developers as possible coming up with innovative iPhone apps. We’re looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labours come June.
(via iPhone Atlas)
It didn’t take long for developers to start criticising Apple’s iPhone SDK, which was launched last week to allow people to create native applications for the handset. For example, Jonathan Zdziarski, one of the leading lights of the underground iPhone coding scene, has laid into the SDK:
“The Apple SDK, as many have come to find, has arguably crippled much of the functionality that set the iPhone apart when first released. Even simple features like the ability to run a program in the background, have been crippled in the Apple SDK.”
This backs up a separate post I was reading this morning on the Technovia blog, which backs up the ‘apps can’t run in the background’ point, while also claiming that “No application can access any other application’s data” and “There appears to be no way that I know of for apps to sync to the desktop”.
Has Apple indeed crippled the iPhone SDK? And if so, will developers put up with it in the knowledge that getting an app onto iTunes could be a big revenue generator? Time will tell.
(via iPhone Atlas)
Ok folks, the long wait for the iPhone/iPod touch SDK is over and it seems the reason it took so long to arrive is because Apple has been cooking up so many features to accompany its release. As Steve Jobs took to the stage at the special event held in Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino yesterday, he could barely conceal his enthusiasm.
Perhaps the biggest reveal, at least for prospective business users of the device, is that Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft. Not only that but the software is being built right into the iPhone for out-of-the-box connectivity to the Microsoft Exchange Servers in order to deliver over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists.
Continue reading ‘iPhone SDK launch news blowout’
The release of Apple’s hotly anticipated iPhone/iPod Touch SDK is nearing ever closer and as is typical on the run up to such a launch, the rumor mill is going into overdrive. The thing that everyone expects is that Apple will lockdown any iPhone/iPod Touch applications with a verification scheme meaning that any third-party application will need to worm its way through a stringent approval process before arriving on iTunes for a price.
Rumors that flared up over the weekend over at iLounge seemed to suggest that this will in fact be the case. In a typical twist however a counter rumor has since cropped up on electronista claiming that these restrictions will only be applicable to applications that carry a price tag and that freeware will be much more widely accessible and not privy to the same approval process.
We are keeping our fingers crossed and our iPhones jailbroken (just kidding, our iPhones are as pure as the driven snow) until we know more, which should hopefully be before the end of the week. Stay tuned.
(Via engadget mobile)
The wait is nearly over for developers keen to start making native iPhone applications. Apple has been promising to release its iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) in February, and given the company’s penchant for making big announcements on Tuesdays, today could see the announcement. That’s if the SDK hasn’t been delayed, as some reports over the weekend suggested.
Why didn’t Apple let developers create iPhone apps from the start? The company says it was keen to ensure iPhone didn’t suffer from viruses and malware. However, the large number of people unlocking their iPhones and installing unofficial apps shows there’s a demand for advanced functionality on the handset. Just today, I’ve written about a SNES game emulator on the iPhone, for example.
Continue reading ‘Anticipation heightens for iPhone SDK release’
The SDK for Google’s forthcoming Android platform is to be delayed for several weeks while the company makes significant changes. This will in turn push back the deadline for the $10 million Android Developer Challenge from March 3rd to April 14th.
This means that the Android SDK could release up to a month after Apple’s forthcoming iPhone/iPod Touch SDK lands which is due later this month. This probably won’t have much of an impact on how the respective platforms perform long term but third party developers looking to get their applications onto the iPhone will surely be glad of not having to share the limelight with a competing platform.
In the meantime Android developers looking to snare the prize money for the Developer Challenge competition can breath a sigh of relief for their extended deadline.
(Via mocoNews)
It seems it isn’t all plain sailing on the development of applications for Google’s Android platform.
has taken a look at the Android SDK (Software Development Kit) and found a few issues with it. Developers getting are frustrated by bugs on Android’s SDK and no way to document them for future reference.
There seems to be a general feeling that the Android platform isn’t ready for a big push at the moment with more work still to be done.
However, Ryan Paul of Ars Technica did say that despite some limitations with Android’s SDK, he still sees it as a ‘viable and effective platform for application development’.
With Apple expected to launch its own iPhone SDK to developers next year, it seems Google needs to pull its finger out to steal a march on Apple.
Google’s new voice-activated search app has been rasing a few eyebrows - and not just because it can’t understand a word us Brits are saying.
