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Published: March 9, 2008, 10:54 p.m.

Intro: On\nThursday, March 6, 2008, Apple released the iPhone Software Development\nKit (SDK) beta along with the App Stores, a place where iPhone users\nwill be able to get applications written for the iPhone. Apple also launched the Enterprise Beta Program.\n\t

\n\tGordon: Mike, can you give us a quick rundown on what Apple released on Thursday?

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Sure, much of our discussion today is based on an excellent post at macworld.com titled The iPhone Software FAQ. Macworld editors Jason Snell, Jonathan Seff, Dan\nMoren, Christopher Breen, and Rob Griffiths contributed to this\narticle. They also thank Glenn Fleishman, Craig Hockenberry, and Daniel\nJalkut for their feedback and contributions.

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Here's how Macworld answered the question:

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The SDK is a set of tools that lets independent\nprogrammers and software companies design, write, and test software\nthat runs on the iPhone. Right now there's a beta version for\ndevelopers, but a final version of the iPhone software that supports\nthe installation of new programs written by independent programmers is\ndue in late June.

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As a part of the announcement, Apple introduced a new iPhone program, App Store,\nthrough which you'll be able to purchase, download, and update iPhone\nsoftware. That will be available as part of the new iPhone Software 2.0\nupdate in late June. That's when you'll be able to add third-party apps\nto your iPhone for the first time, at least via official channels.

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\n\tGordon: You blogged about you experience with the SDK - can you tell us your first experience?

\nI downloaded the new iPhone SDK and wrote about my first\nimpressions. I did quite a bit of FORTRAN programming many years ago\n> 10, but haven't done a whole lot lately. The SDK took a long time\nto download -2 Gig - over my wireless connection. And about 45 minutes\nto install. I also downloaded a couple of the sample applications Apple\nprovides ~ 1 Meg each. In about 15 minutes - would have been shorter if\nI knew what I was doing - I was able to open the sample, compile and\nrun on the simulator Apple provides.
I have\nno doubt that this is going to have a huge impact on mobile application\ndevelopment. It's really easy and really cool. If you teach programming\n- I suggest you download the SDK today, install it in your labs, and\nhave your kids developing and running native iPhone apps by Monday\nafternoon. Get the SDK here. Even better, download Jing\nhave your students record the simulator running their iPhone apps and\nembed in your department or faculty webpage - great for marketing! Wish\nI was 20 again!

Gordon: And you actually wrote a little Kalimba (African Thumb Piano) app. Where can we have a look?

You can go to my blog at http://q-ontech.blogspot.com/2008/03/iphone-sdk.html

Gordon: Apple is taking 30% of what is sold from the App Store - will shareware apps be available or will we have to pay for everything?

That's a good question and one that was sort of answered in the macworld.com post. Macworld assumes Apple won\u2019t let you sell a \u201cfree? program that\nrequires an unlock code. However, there are some other scenarios we\nexpect to see. First, donationware: People will probably sell \u201cfree?\nprograms that request that you make a donation if you want to keep the\nproject going. We don\u2019t think Apple will have any problem with that,\nsince the donation would be voluntary. Second, it\u2019s possible that\nyou\u2019ll see two versions of various iPhone programs: a free \u201clite?\nversion that\u2019s a good advertisement for a more feature-rich for-pay\nversion.

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Macworld also mentions\xa0 Iconfactory\u2019s\nTwitterrific, a Mac program that is free, but contains ads. For an\n\u201cupgrade? fee, users can shut off the ads. Whether Apple would allow\nthis to be handled within the program or there would need to be two\nseparate versions of an iPhone version of Twitterrific remains to be\nseen.

\nGordon: On Thursday, five companies demo'ed applications - can you give us a brief summary of what was shown?

From Macworld: Five companies showed off what they were able to put together\nwith two weeks of engineering work and very few people involved. There\nwere games from Electronic Arts (Spore) and Sega (Super Money Ball), an\nAIM client from AOL, medical software from Epocrates, and business\nsoftware from Salesforce.com. The programs took advantage of the\niPhone\u2019s built-in accelerometer, Multi-Touch capabilities, interface\nelements, and more.
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\n\tGordon: I'm going to go back to the Macworld post again and take some questions directly from that FAQ:

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1. What kind of stuff does Apple say it won\u2019t allow developers to create?\n\t

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\n\t2. What if someone writes a malicious program?\n\t

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\n\t3. What\u2019s a \u201cbandwidth hog??\n\t

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\n\t4. Can I buy these programs on my Mac, or just on the iPhone?\n\t

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\n\t5. What about software updates?\n\t

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\n\t6. What if you\u2019ve\nsynced your phone on one computer and then restore it on another? Do\nyou lose your apps until you sync to the original?\n\t

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\n\t7. If I buy a program for my iPhone, can I also transfer it to my significant other\u2019s iPhone?\n\t

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\n\t 8. Can I download programs off the Web, or any place other than the App Store and iTunes?\n\t

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\n\t9. What about internal, \u201cprivate? software? What about beta testing?\n\t

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\n\t10. Can I try the iPhone SDK and how could it be used in the classroom?\n\t

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\xa0Gordon: Apple posted a roadmap video - can you tell us a little bit about that?

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On March 6, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone software roadmap,\nreleased the iPhone Software Development Kit, and introduced the iPhone\nEnterprise Beta Program. You can watch the presentation now and see what's\nahead at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/iphoneroadmap