you want to start something?

From MacRumors:

“Hello Developer,

We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.

It may be very appropriate to share with friends and family, and we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing.

Regards,

Victor Wang
Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple, Inc.”

Victor Wang, the name behind the callous rejection of the excellent MURDERDROME from the App Store, strikes again. Apple don’t have consistent rules for what applications do go onto the store. Seems they’re issuing takedowns based on whether anyone complains.

And “Limited Utility”? They have room for half a dozen tip calculators but not a Fart machine?

Anyway.

Note the recommendation.

Ad-Hoc Distribution allows you to distribute 100 copies of your app to 100 iPhones. Enterprise distribution allows you to distribute to 1000 iPhones. Neither method involves the App Store at all.

Can you see the silver lining here?

At 100 fans (for the $99 certificate), you could sell an extremely useful application on a subscription basis. Say, for instance, NetShare. And I bet you could find 100 people to pay $100 for it. Apple wouldn’t see it and you’d end up with the FULL $10,000 rather than Apple taking 30% and risking it being removed. How about $20 a month? That’s $2000 in income every month and if someone doesn’t pay up, you remove their iPhone ID from your certificate and *boom*.

At 1000 fans, things start getting interesting. Same situation – create an application that is worth $100 and distribute to 1000 fans using Enterprise Distribution ($299 certificate). You’ve now got $100,000. That’s not a bad rate and again Apple doesn’t see it at all and they certainly don’t get their 30%. The irony here is that distribution to 1000 iPhones isn’t likely to be enough for large companies.

So, you want independent application development for the iPhone? Time to lobby Apple. If you can get them to extend the Ad-Hoc distribution to 1000 iPhones and the Enterprise Distribution to 100 000, then you’ve got a real business to build. It requires constant excellence but then that’s what it’s all about.

Time to stop complaining and start talking.

Tags: Commentary, Hacks, iPhone by mj
3 Comments »

Slashdot got this article from MadPenguin.org on why more Linux users aren’t gamers. Here, of course, is my wisdom.

There are two kinds of Linux users. Political and Technical.

The Political Linux user will have long abandoned any technology which hasn’t reached his or her standards of political extremism. They’ll have removed all Windows partitions and yet resent their bank for not catering to their minority needs and the iTunes store and themselves for wanting doohickeys like iPods. They’re the ones with the various shades of window manager and boasting about how power management works. Easy to spot. Easy to lose in a café too (just close your MacBook and leave. They’ll take a minute or six to shut down and get packed up.

The Technical user will, of course, be expedient with his or her use of technology. They’ll likely use a MacBook of some shape or size (because, you know, if you don’t you’re some sort of weirdo) which may or may not dual-boot to Linux or Windows. The only reason they have Windows is for their bank or maybe so they can actually play some decent games.

Of course, neither of these definitions explains exactly why there are so few games for Linux. It could be the (entirely correct) perception that Linux users don’t pay money for software. That’ll be a big one right there. And while companies can make a buck selling support for Linux as an operating system, selling support for games isn’t going to go far as people just hacked off when a game doesn’t perform.

What I wonder, however, is why there hasn’t been some sort of “x86 gaming platform” invented. I mean, almost all the hardware out there runs on x86 based machines now. Why not engineer a solution not dissimilar to the PlayStation where the OS was loaded from the disk at the same time as the game? Why hasn’t Intel pulled their finger out? We’d end up with a system where we bought CDs and DVDs, maybe even USB keys, with a base Linux kernel that would autodetect the hardware, run the drivers and autoload the game. The entire game would almost be copied into RAM and there’s your solution. Reboot to play, takes a few seconds to boot and doesn’t require using Windows.

Right. That’s the hard bit thought of. I’ll leave the easy bits (the technical side, the code, hardware, distribution, licensing, advertising and sales) to others.

Tags: Games, Hacks by mj
1 Comment »

So, there’s three categories of applications which can be installed onto the iPhone without Jailbreak.

1. Payfer Apps – you write your application, sign it, give it to Apple and they host it on the App Store and you get 70% of all proceeds.
2. Free Apps – you write the application, sign it, give it to Apple and they host it on the App Store for free.
3. Source – you write the application, give the code to someone else, they sign it themselves and then they can install on their own iPhone via XCode

The last method changes things. It’s no longer just a case of just releasing source code, there’s the signing too. You’re attaching your identity to the code. A bit more than just running ports or apt.

But it does mean that for the select few who can install apps (been accepted into the Beta program, paid their $99, uploaded their CSR, downloaded their certificate), there’s a method of swapping test code and with a bit of luck a community will build.

For my part, I’d like to play with Kalimba on my iPhone!

Tags: Commentary, Hacks, iPhone, infurious by mj
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It’s a bit rude so if you’re easily shocked, go here instead.

Tags: Code, Hacks by mj
No Comments »

Navizon was one of the pioneers of application development for the iPhone and as such I think we’re going to see something cool from them come February when the official iPhone SDK is released.

The Navizon Buddy Finder is probably one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen and something I’d be interested in a lot, however I think I’d work some on the UI before I would be happy with it. We’re going to see an explosion of IM and VoIP apps for the iPhone around then and I would really like to see location based information being available too.

I want to have lists of buddies, I want to be able to name locations and I want to be able to opt out of some updates easily.

As the iPhone is, in effect, always on, I’d like to be have it send updates to my ‘Status server’ so that instead of seeing

MJ
Love Minus Zero – Bob Dylan

in my chosen IM application – I’d have something like:

MJ
Unsent – Alanis Morissette
At Home

or

MJ
She’s so Lovely – Scouting for Girls
At the Daily Grind

or

MJ
You’re the First, The Last, My Everything – Barry White
Location Private

As I said, the UI of Buddy Finder isn’t to my taste but I think that’s more a question of polish and it’s amazing what they have achieved and an indication of what they could achieve with a documented SDK and no fear of a firmware update killing their release!

Tags: Bedouin, Commentary, Cool, Hacks, Social, Wireless, infurious by mj
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