Safari

Apple’s lack of real third party support on the iPhone hasn’t stopped developers from overcoming that hurdle and learning the ways of the Internet.

Raven Zachary has organized an event and if all goes as planned we’ll be getting some kick ass iPhone Applications, Web Apps that is. The group hopes that 3rd party iPhone development will be stimulated and communities that expand to meet the needs of users and developers.

Sponsors have also been secured for the event such as Adobe and Yahoo. Prizes and accessories for the iPhone will be handed out as well from Belkin, DLO and Griffin. Unfortunately Apple isn’t a sponsor or has anything to do with the event but they’ll be busy coding up some awesome *cough* SDK *cough* iPhone Software.

The event which takes place in San Francisco intends to draw up to 300 developers. I do hope the conference can achieve their goal as it will be better Applications for iPhone users and regular desktop users as well.

Read More:Computer World

Hackers who have dissected the iPhone’s firmware discovered something interesting in the data they had pulled and it may hint as to who will get the iPhone in Europe.

Odd isn’t it that we will be finding out the exclusive European providers of the iPhone from the iPhone itself and not through mysterious rumors, press releases or James Bond camera shots from the heart of Apple.

The file names are listed below, note the names.

Default_CARRIER_ATT.png
Default_CARRIER_CINGULAR.png
Default_CARRIER_TMOBILE.png
Default_CARRIER_VODAFONE.png

Interesting that references to Cingular still reside on the iPhone and that Tmobile and Vodafone are mentioned as default carriers. Perhaps Apple has most of their European launch worked out already.

Also one more thing, remember Apple’s claim that the iPhone’s Applications were the full desktop version? Safari just so happens to be named “mobileSafari.app.”

Via: Engadget

If you need help in designing Web 2.0 Applications for the iPhone, creating optimized sites and making an enjoyable user experience Apple can help with that. According to Mac Rumors Apple has posted guidelines for developers to take advantage of the iPhone although they are brief.

The overall Web Experience of the iPhone is an integral part of its success in the mobile market and Apple should emphasize Web Development even more as its the only means of third party Applications for the device. In addition, if you are a Blogger I highly recommend taking a look at the guidelines to better optimize your Blog for iPhone users.

The guidelines cover the basics such as knowing what Safari is, realizing the browsing experience is significantly different than its desktop counterpart and learning what exactly Safari supports. While we’re on the topic of iPhone Web Apps, we’ll be reviewing a few here on the Blog and if you’d like us to take a look just drop us a line.

Designing Content
Web Development for iPhone

Via: MacRumors

Apple hasn’t said officially what version of Safari the iPhone is running but I have strong reason to believe it definitely isn’t Version 2. It Could be Version 3 which currently is in Beta for OS X and Windows or it could even be Version 2.x.

I recently accessed Google Docs on my iPhone to finish up some Blog postings and was shocked that no error message was displayed. The thing is, Google Docs is unsupported on Safari 2.0.4 which is the latest version of the Safari 2 for Mac OS X. However Google Docs works on Safari Beta 3 under 10.4.10. This leads me to believe Apple has made changes to Safari besides adapt it to the iPhone’s touch interface.

Check the pictures down below

Safari 2 on Mac OS X 10.4.10

Google Docs On iPhone

So it appears that Safari for the iPhone has been updated but in Google spreadsheets I get an error saying that Google Spreadsheets in unsupported and it is very hard to edit or create anything on Google Docs… more...

In the current TV advertisements for the iPhone, Apple claims that “this is not a watered down version of the internet.”

But according to Mobile Business Magazine, this claim may be a tad misleading.

Near essential applications such as Flash and Java will not be viewable at all on the iPhone and JavaScript applications will be limited to just five seconds runtime when using the built-in Safari browser

The YouTube announcement is certainly a huge development for Apple and the iPhone but based on this Java and Flash limitation, fully-blown websites won’t be accurately viewed on the iPhone’s version of Safari.

So will this limitation play a huge role towards the success of the iPhone? And will the majority of people really notice a difference?

[Via MBMagazine]

So now that Jobs has confirmed we’ll be getting third party Software (not what most of us were hoping but it’s a start) developers have risen to the challenge and have released working Applications. If you’re wondering just which non Apple apps you’ll be able to run on your iPhone, then this list which comes to us from Digg is right for you.

IPhone Application List is home to a few iPhone Web Apps and should grow as developers announce new Applicationss. However, there is some downside to the current list of Apps such as inaccuracies and limitations. On the list a mobile YouTube App (not iPhone specific) is mentioned but uses the flash version of YouTube. Also the interface and usability of some Apps greatly undermine the iPhone. Developers have to pay monthly hosting bills but the way Ads are integrated makes it very hard to use on a 3.5 inch screen, also limitations such as 10 minute chat sessions exist on the online AIM client but I prefer Meebo.

Via: Digg

Safari on Windows, using Safari to run non-Apple Apps on iPhone, odd right? Greg’s recent posting explaining Apple’s iPhone was the only reason Safari would come to Windows also brings up some questions: Why is Apple so Safari crazy when it comes to iPhone?

We all questioned iPhone’s survival from a lack of third party Applications. Apple granted our wish, sorta. Steve’s decision to use Safari as the interface for third party Apps opens new doors and closes old ones, there is a trade off.

The Good
There is a good side to this although it’s a little “so what.” Sure we can’t complain, we now have the opportunity to create our own iPhone Apps but the way Apple is allowing us to do so, doesn’t look good for future Application development. Nonetheless, the positive. At launch Apple aims to command a certain percentage of the mobile market, not groundbreaking but enough to confirm their place. All iPhones sold will be Internet capable and last I checked, hundreds of millions have Internet access. Applications can not only be created for iPhone users but for PC/Mac users as well… more...

We were thrown off by Apple’s latest iPhone Ad depicting the full featured Internet, on a mobile device. Hearing the latest report from Macrumors, Apple seems to contradict itself. How can you have the full Internet but not support Flash? Does Apple’s YouTube deal have anything to do with this?

It was speculated in January that Apple would offer Flash for iPhone, but learning that it’s support will be dropped brings up some issues. This isn’t the full Internet Steve Jobs was advertising, it’s more like the watered down version. However, Apple did strike a recent deal with Google to bring YouTube to AppleTV, this could be done for the iPhone as well. Sure we’ll get better quality and that’s what we need for AppleTV, high quality video, but going through the entire process of converting and creating a custom catalog for us? Jobs must have something else in store and if you haven’t got the hint yet, think about it. No Flash, H.264 videos, limited content. Duh, Apple wants you to buy videos for your iPhone from iTunes! Appease some of us by offering a limited catalog, but increase… more...

Were you excited or puzzled by the announcement of Safari for Windows in yesterday’s WWDC keynote? If you were like me, you questioned what the business reason for it was. Besides the sheer wish to completely dominate marketshare (Apple has a long way to go in the browser category) what could possibly cause such a decision to be made. After all, Apple doesn’t make any money off of Safari.

Well, with the announcement of third-party apps on the iPhone using Web 2.0 and AJAX via the Safari engine, it now makes sense. There’s a good post over at The Apple Press that says it best:

Instead of full blown, stand-alone applications, the iPhone applications will be powered by Web 2.0 and Ajax technology, which will then run on Safari’s web engine. So, simply stated: 3rd party iPhone applications will run within Safari. Now, in order for developers to write and test “applications” for the iPhone, they must have access Safari. As of yesterday, that would limit iPhone developers to Mac developers only, since Safari did not exist on Windows.

The post later explains that based on the Windows-user domination… more...