Software
Jobs demonstrated on stage how easy it was to create user interfaces with Interface builder, using Cocoa Touch to create an app called Friends Nearby that showed contacts within a ten mile radius. He then invited third party developers onstage to show their wares.
Sega demoed Super Monkey Ball with 100+ levels, and Digital Legends showed a 3D fantasy adventure game using OpenGL and touch controls. Pangea demoed Enigmo, a physics-based game, and Cro-Mag Rally, a 3D racing game with the iPhone as the steering wheel.
Band, by a UK developer, permits composing and recording with a virtual piano, drums, a bass and a 12-bar blues instrument. eBay demonstrated auctions on iPhone. Loopt showed a location-aware social network. Associated Press demoed Mobile News Network, while MLB.com’s offering will shows sporting events including real-time video highlights.
iPhone 2.0 will be available in early July, free for iPhone owners, $9.99 for iPod Touch owners. New features include contact search with live searching, full iWork document support, complete support for MS Office documents, parental controls and greatly increased language support, including character recognition for Asian languages.
App Store
This offers wireless download and automatic updates. If the app is less than 10MB it can be downloaded through the cell network, otherwise, it requires WiFi or iTunes. Available in 62 countries, it permits developers to reach all iPhone users. Developers sets the price and keep 70 percent of revenue, and there will be no charge to anyone offering free apps.
Also available is an option for companies to authorise iPhones within their enterprise and then create applications that just run on those phones, which can be distributed just through their intranet. Alternatively, the Ad Hoc option permits apps to be distributed in any way among up to 100 authorized iPhones.
The App Store delivery system gives Apple a significant convenience advantage over competitors in the mobile market, and the reduced commission charged by the company will also permit developers to offer apps cheaper for iPhone than for others.
MobileMe
A 60-day free trial will be available along with the iPhone 2.0 software in early July. MobileMe replaces .mac, whose subscribers will automatically be upgraded. The presenter described MobileMe as “Exchange for the rest of us”. It works like ActiveSync, synching automatically among iPhone, Mac and PC. It works with Mail, iCal, and Address Book on Mac, and with Outlook on Windows.
To come: the new Snow Leopard version of OS X.