Comments on: iPhoneDevCamp, iPhone, Safari and Microformats

By: Eran

Eran — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:06:22 +0000

Nick, you are correct that the iPhone shouldn’t be the sole focus of this and that’s exactly what Chris said.
It’s just easier to attract people when they hear “iPhone” :-)

An Opera version that supports Microformats is great, but it won’t solve the iPhone problem :-).
iPhone’s browser – Safari – is built on the WebKit open source library (which is also the basis for Nokia’s default phone browser). This might be a good place to add microformats support and have it included in major build of both the iPhone and Nokia phones.

By: Nick Peters

Nick Peters — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:40:55 +0000

I think the iPhone, or all mobile devices rather would benefit greatly from microformats. As mobile devices become smaller and smaller input becomes more difficult. Having to use the small keypad or T9 interface to input names and numbers is such a pain. Microformats could alleviate that pain by having this action become point and click (or hover and touch?). I think the firefox plugin “Operator” is a great example of how useful microformats can be in this context. Imagine if Operator-like functionality was on the iPhone; we could add people to our contact list or add events to our calendar.
However, I think we should stop focusing solely on the iPhone and encourage software designers for mobile devices in general to embrace microformats. Remember, there’s a version of opera that is meant for mobile devices. That would be a good start, right?

By: Eran

Eran — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:56:09 +0000

Actually, I wouldn’t look at it that way.

3rd party apps are not necessarily a good thing in such devices. Just look at all those Windows mobile devices and their apps. Some of them can wreck havoc. This is also true to Symbian based phones (like the Nokia E61 I have).

There are quite a few down sides in having direct access to the operating system and its mainly to avoid corrupting the device. iPod is as closed as the iPhone, yet some applications did manage to show up in some of the newer firmwares, mainly due to an agreement with Apple.

Nokia also has a certification program which you must pass to install and run the app or disable a certain warning setting on your phone to make unapproved apps work (which most users don’t know how to do or won’t to so their phone won’t freak out).

I can understand why Apple wanted their device to work without crapping out like most smart phones (not only Windows based ones). I remember seeing somewhere that Steve talked about the fact that certain apps will get to the iPhone after a certification process, so such a think might still be in the works.

I’m not that big of an Apple fan, but they did show at least in one case (iPod) that not having additional software on the device itself can be good enough for most people.

How many people do you know that are not geeks or savvy enough and installed more than 2 apps on their smart phones (excluding Windows based onces, since you must install things to make them actually workable…)? Heck, I usually get tired after the first couple of weeks and rarely touches the phone to install new stuff.

Regarding Apple not releasing information, check out this:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/designingcontent.html

These are design guidelines to make web sites work as good as they can with Safari on the iPhone.
More than you need to make sure your web apps works fine on the iPhone.

As Chris said, this is not only iPhone dev camp, but a good opportunity to make web applications play nicer and in a more standardized way. Selling 700,000 units in one week and reaching millions soon (I assume) will make a lot of people go online with a specific type of browser.

Since this browser supports most of the needed standards (relatively), making sites work with it will make all sites better in general.

All in all, there is a growing approach these days to make things more web enabled figuring out that browsers today are more than what they used to be. Not having direct operating system access is not giving the finger to developers. It’s realizing that there is a new type of applications that show be targeted to such devices and can make little to know harm.

I’m sure Apple might need to change things a bit and maybe even supply JavaScript access to some of the functionality of the iPhone, but only time will tell I guess :-)

By: Eran Kampf

Eran Kampf — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:21:45 +0000

I think there’s one big reason not to make such a camp – Apple.
Its blocking 3rd party apps, not providing too many technical details, its not even showing presence at such a dev camp aimed at helping adoption of its own product (http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/06/why-microsoft-outplays-apple-long-term/)

Its basically giving the dev community the finger so why should we take it?