CKOHLER

Next Thursday, on March 6th, 2008, Apple will hold a special town hall style event to announce their plans for third-party software development on the iPhone and iPod Touch. We will likely see the release of the official software development kit (or in the very least, a preview) as well as the release of some new third-party apps already built using the SDK.

For a while now, I’ve been assuming that third party applications would only be made available and/or sold through an Apple maintained area on the iTunes store. However, I’ve given it a lot of thought and I no longer think that’s how it will work.

First up, judging by their event flyer, Apple appears to be emphasizing the enterprise market much more than I would have imagined. In the enterprise space, companies like to develop custom applications for their end users to run that are exclusive to their business. These people aren’t going to want proprietary apps like these listed in some kind of public directory. They’ll want to distribute these apps privately making the idea of an “only available through iTunes” delivery method unrealistic.

Secondly, if Apple seriously wants iPhone development to be huge they wouldn’t create some kind of manual, per-app approval process. This would only limit and slow down available titles. What they really want is to rally developers to create selection and diversity while at the same time controlling what these apps can do. Thus, all they need to do is require developers to use their SDK where the APIs contained within control what developers can and cannot do.

Thus, here’s my best guess for what Apple will announce:

1. The SDK will be free but each developer will have a unique code embedded into their apps. They will have to register this code with Apple before they can compile their applications and distribute them. What this does is guarantee that only apps built using Apple’s approved APIs can be installed while also giving Apple a mechanism (via software updates) to retroactively disable rouge apps from being run.
2. Developers will likely release their apps themselves via the web. If apps do show up in iTunes, it’ll only be through an optional, multi-developer maintained area similar to the webapps area hosted on Apple.com or the podcasts section in iTunes. Keeping this maintained by the developers themselves would prevent Apple from running into conflict of interest issues.
3. The apps will come as a file with a new extension that is registered to open in iTunes. Double clicking this file adds it to the user’s library of available, sync-able apps. At the same time, the file’s developer key can be checked against Apple’s servers to ensure that the developer and/or the application is legit and not flagged as being harmful before being installed on the device.

These are just my predictions. If Apple goes another route, I won’t cry foul however I certainly hope they’ve considered these same issues. Whatever their solution, I hope they can provide at least the same amount of flexibility to make the iPhone and iPod a strong platform in the future.

A night of continuous snow and freezing rain turned my car into a block of ice. There wasn’t a single inch without a sheet of frozen water covering it this morning. The university decided to close down today so I get to stay home. However, I think I’m going to de-ice my car none the less. I have to pick up some food for lunch and dinner. Wish me luck!

It’s been just over a month since I began Operation: Get Thin and I’m glad to report that it’s “so far, so good”. While I haven’t met all of my original goals, I have been able to successfully incorporate the most important aspects into my regular routine.

Diet: SlimFast is now my staple for breakfast and several days of the week for lunch. Some weekdays, I will have a sandwich or a buffet for lunch instead. Dinners have been smaller portioned and smarter with more chicken and salads. As for beverages, I’m only drinking water and sugar-free tea. I’ve avoided all fast food with only one exception this past month. Where I have room for improvement is with my weekends where I often sleep in. Sleeping in causes me to miss breakfast and lunch, meaning I only have a single, large meal.

Exercise: I’ve been working out every weekday for 30 minutes each day. I did skip two weekdays for special occasions but no more. While I had originally planned on dedicating a full hour every day, 30 minutes 5 days a week seems more reasonable. As for the exercise itself, I’ve been taking very brisk walks on an incline treadmill. I think I’ll be ready to start jogging next month but I’m not ready just yet. Where I have room for improvement is in the types of exercise I’m doing. Power walking is just cardiovascular. While this has been hugely beneficial to my heart rate and stamina, I worry that the lack of strength training is holding back greater weight loss. Lastly, I’ve fallen into a pattern of not exercising on the weekends but I’m conflicted as if it’s really necessary. Most reports suggest that exercising just three days a week is usually enough and I’m already exceeding that.

All in all, I’m persevering in my efforts to loose weight by eating healthier and exercising regularly. As for actual weight loss, I don’t think I’ve lost much so far. I think I’m down a little more than 10 pounds from when I started but most of that is probably just water weight. I’ve always planned on loosing weight slowly over the long term, anyway. I’ll be more interested to see where I am at the beginning of March. Expect another update then.