Im alive and I love the iPhone

So my intentions of maintaining a blog and keeping it updated seems to have fallen aside, like many projects that I bite off and never have time to follow through to completion.

Since my last blog post I have been to the US again for work and during that visit I purchased an iPhone. I have to say it is by far the best mobile phone I have used and once again Apple have excelled in the design of this device. When I purchased the phone from the Apple Store in LA The Grove I thought I was taking a gamble on getting it jailbroken and working with my current mobile provider.

Main reason I was thinking it was a gamble was due to the fact that last time I researched cracking an iPhone was when firmware 1.1.2 had just been broken and therefore was still fraught with some danger. However when I landed back in Oz and had five minutes to myself I Googled Jailbreaking the iPhone which my came with firmware 1.1.3.

I soon learned that ZiPhone was a Windows or Mac application that allowed you to simply connect your iPhone to your PC/Mac and click a single button and five minutes later you have a fully Jailbroken, Activated and ready to use iPhone. Well I connected my fresh out of the box iPhone and followed the very simple instructions and not five minutes later I had ripped my SIM card out of my Blackberry Pearl and dropped it into my iPhone and made a call.

The really neat thing was Maps and locate me worked, SMS messaging was working and everything worked. The only feature that doesn’t is the visual voice mail, which is understandable as that feature is only for iPhones that are legitimately connected to AT&T. I was amazed and relieved that I didn’t brick my phone and it was that simple.

The next day, Apple release firmware 1.1.4, the ZiPhone developer on his blog mentioned he would have a working crack for this in a couple days and to wait. So I did and now have a working iPhone on 1.1.4

Now for the big news, I have been a Windows Developer for 10 years and have never considered writing applications for Mac, even though I run a Mac for my work PC and love it. Well thats all changed when I got the iPhone and I watched the SDK release by Apple. I have now downloaded the iPhone SDK, signed up to the ADC and iPhone Development Program and am madly coding my first iPhone application.

I have to say I am loving the experience and can not eat enough of the Apple Development Experience. Xcode is free and in fact was on my Leopard CD for free. Literally within 30 minutes from not having any clue on how to write a Mac/iPhone application I had Hello World compiled and a basic understanding of the development environment.

I truly believe the iPhone is the start of the revolution that changes how to communicate in the future and how we interact. The device for the first time truly brings a Web experience to a mobile platform that is actually a pleasure to use and not something you turn to as a last resort. I am so hooked on the potential of the iPhone that as I said I have switched development camps. Sorry Microsoft but Apple has launched a scud in the mobile computing platform that I think puts them leaps and bounds ahead of any other mobile platform. Having looked through the SDK, the ability for application developers to innovate on a powerful platform such as the iPhone is to good to pass up.

The icing on the cake at a high level also for ISV’s will be the delivery platform in the form of the AppStore. Apple still have to flesh out the details and answer a number of business model questions, but the gist of it is that as a solo developer I can write my application and have it put on the Apple AppStore and reach potentially millions for little to no cost to myself. Distribution, Marketing and Payment Processing are all handled by Apple. Sure it comes at a cost, but I think the cost for small players such as myself is a dam fine bargain and allows my time to market to halve should I write an application that people find useful.

Anyway before I ramble on to much, Ill actually write a post in the next day or two that goes into depth about my iPhone development experience and the road I travel as a novice Apple Developer.

So with some motivation I will keep this blog up to date… HAHAHAHA yeah I know you laugh when you look at my post history. You can now always hound me as I am on Twitter finally, http://twitter.com/Tripflare so Tripflare is my handle.