Daring Fireball: So Who’s In Already?
I’m really not interested in who’s been accepted into the iPhone SDK beta program. To me it sounds like that email sent out to applicants telling them that the program is full at this time was just Apple’s way of telling them, “Look, we wanted to get the SDK out to you people so you can start making apps, but we’re not entirely ready on our end. So thanks for the interest, but don’t be surprised if you don’t hear back from us for a little while.”
I mean, come on folks, we still have 2 to 3 months before Apple is ready to push everything out. And by the time the launch date rolls around, Apple probably will have most, if not all, of the developers in their program.
The thing that does interest me is Gruber’s second point. The lack of background apps on the iPhone.
On one hand I completely understand with the need to not bog the phone with a whole bunch resource hungry apps that run all the time. As someone that had a PocketPC back in the day (the precursor to Windows Mobile), I know how quickly your device can lag after you launch a bunch of programs.
Keeping the iPhone responsive should be one of Apple’s chief concerns.
On the other hand, an IM program really loses something when you can’t let it run in the background.
It my not log you out just because you switched away, but I know many times where I have been looking to talk to someone, left to go to the bathroom, and the person I was looking for logged on, messaged me, and signed off, all before I could get back.
At the computer this is one thing when your are not physically not there to respond, but on the iPhone, you would look like you are on, and you could respond, but you are no longer receiving notifications because you switched to go read Google Reader in Safari.
The average user isn’t going to understand why it looks to everyone that they are logged in, but that as long as they are not looking directly at the app, it won’t let them know someone is trying to talk to them. They are going to get back from checking email, and wonder if the app is broken for not telling them they got 3 messages in that time.
It would just be nice if the IM on the iPhone would allow me to actively have a conversation while doing other things, without having to stop and check every few minutes to see if the other person responded. Not a deal breaker per se, but it would be nice.
Heck, I’ve already changed from using Google’s fancy iPhone web app, to just using logging into google.com/reader/m directly, since the URL’s will take you back to where you were before you left Safari. Google’s iPhone web app is nice, but it’s all done in javascript and ajax. So while it looks awesome, and lets you configure the app the way you like it, when you get into reader the URL is always, google.com/m/reader. That’s fine when you stay in Safari, but if you back out and go back in, Safari wants to reload the page. All it sees is google.com/m/reader and brings you back to Reader’s front page.
At least with google.com/reader/m, the URL reflects what feed and what post you are on. So even if Safari wants to reload the page, you’re right back where you left off.
Again, not a deal breaker for me (I didn’t really plan on using any of the other features in the Google web app anyway), but I think it might be nice to explain this kind of stuff to people who are as geeky as me or have the patience to find this stuff out on their own.
(PS every time I said “iPhone,’ I really meant “iPhone/iPod Touch,” since I am just an iPod Touch user. However I find it’s just easier to say “iPhone” when discussing such things.)
(PPS I’m not a developer, just a humble desktop support guy, so please forgive me if there is some part about the developer side of this that I misunderstood. I do know that users get upset when things don’t work the way they expect them to, and will lash out at whoever they can get a hold of to complain. In my case it’s complaining to me when the entire blackberry network is down, in Apple’s case it’s to them when an IM app doesn’t constantly update them no mater what they are doing. I’m starting to see a longer line at the 5th Ave Apple store.)
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