Mar
10
2008
Did I Miss The Boat For Developer Keys?
Am I the only one who hasn’t yet gotten a response to their iPhone developer program application … including the precious, precious developer certificate that lets you download apps to an actual iPhone?
I stupidly forgot to apply until Thursday evening (I was too busy trying to download the SDK), so there are probably three billion others ahead of me, and Apple did say they were accepting “limited numbers”.
I did get GeekGameBoard running in the simulator today, but it really needs to be on the actual phone, so I can slide the pieces around with my finger.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:06 PM
Join the club :( The site was acting all strange when it got hammered and I had no choice but to register later that night.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:19 PM
I have changed my iChat status message to “I want an Oompa-Loompa now, Daddy!”.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:53 PM
Still waiting too, but I’ve been thinking maybe it was just me. btw, thanks for sharing your GeekGameBoard update!
March 10th, 2008 at 9:53 PM
Perhaps I’m completely confused, but are developers able to run their applications on the iPhone before the 2.0 firmware comes out? I was under the impression that 2.0 was required for any third-party apps, including developer testing.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:23 AM
They must be experiencing serious server hog. I applied, to give it a try, even though I live in Europe, and I got no answer; there apparently isn’t even an automatic responder; which might be good…
March 11th, 2008 at 1:30 AM
I couldn’t register until about friday night New Zealand time. Oh yeah that’s another issue, I live in New Zealand and we don’t even have the iPhone down under, I’ve applied for the program regardless - I do have a few ideas for very useful apps. I hope that Apple wont shaft me on getting on board with this due to the fact that they are not officially selling iPhones over here.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:59 AM
@Christope: Yes, but the 2.0 beta was “available today”. Presumably to developers who were approved for their keys. I haven’t gotten approval yet either.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:11 AM
Agreed. I thought it was strange to have completed the registration process and to get the confirmation “your application has been received”… I didn’t realize it was an “application” that needed to be perused and processed.
I just bought an iPhone this weekend for development on Saturday. The richness of the SDK is breathtaking. Having real Core Audio on the device is making me giddy.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:50 AM
@Chris — I’m excited about Core Audio too; although it’s a major bummer that the app sandboxing means no way to access the device’s iTunes library. So basically, the only audio you can work with has to be either downloaded from the net or recorded off the mic.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:16 AM
@Jens: True enough about iTunes, but neither of the first two apps I plan to write require access to the iTunes library (though I would like to be able to throw a search over to the iTunes app). I’m evaluating how much editing functionality the mobile CA affords, and how much I feel like writing myself (I know it’s not realistic to think we’d have something like QTKit on the iPhone, but coming from the lifeless wastelands of Java Media, what’s here is still a huge improvement).
March 11th, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Ugg….I hope not. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines, as I’m waiting for my Intel based machine to arrive. Bad assumption on my part.
March 11th, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Bad news for us that aren’t in the US….
“Please note, the iPhone Developer Program will initially be available in the US and will expand to other countries in the coming months.”
That’s what it told me when I just enrolled.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:50 PM
i applied for the developer key on the day after the sdk was released. i haven’t heard anything from apple, either.
guess they don’t want our hundred bucks very bad, huh.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:58 PM
[…] So maybe it’d be OK to describe my mental state at reading through the dev docs? I’m positively giddy. Just watch the Apple event video, with an eye to the description of the software stack and its constituent pieces, and you’ll realize that this isn’t some compromised little toy. Programming in Cocoa for the iPhone feels like frickin’ programming in Cocoa. Media-wise, QTKit may not be practical for the iPhone, but Core Audio is present and accounted for, which offers all kinds of interesting possibilities (although Jens Alfke rightly notes in a comment to me that third-party apps cannot access the user’s iPod songs). […]
March 13th, 2008 at 11:08 AM
I think the real question is this— is anyone aware of any developer who has gotten an SDK key?
Hopefully, they’re working out a way to cope with the demand and we’ll all be getting keys or info about the next step soon…
What I’m afraid is that only a limited number of developers (which the website basically says) will get to develop for the platform….
And the fact that I’m working on iPhone software full time between now and release of the 2.0 OS won’t be a factor in whether I get a key or not.
Maybe they’ll offer a $500 “priority” developer program level so we can pay extra to be part of the initial wave of developers, but at least insure our ability to actually sell software come june.