Third Party Apps
How app developers went from superstars to serfs
March 2, 2010: 9:30 AM ETOnce upon a time, app developers were the toast of the tech world. Now that there are 140,000 apps in Apple's app store and Twitter's open API has spawned 50,000 applications, have the app programmers lost their cachet?
On Saturday, Twitter employee Alex Payne posted a tweet praising site features that are being developed internally, and suggested that once they become publicly available, users might not want to use a desktop client anymore to manage their Twitter feed. Such software, like Tweetdeck, Brizzly, and SeesmicWeb, are products of third-party developers.
The post disturbed some of those outside developers, who tweeted anxious responses. The tech blogs only fanned the flames. Twitter's Payne, an API developer, tried to calm everyone down by posting that the new stuff coming from Twitter's web client team uses the same data and API (application programming interface) methods available to outside developers. "It's going to inspire desktop app developers," he contended. Later he actually removed the contentious tweet that sparked the frenzy.
The situation underscores the tenuous relationships between the platforms and the developers who help them grow in relevance and popularity.
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The Google phone: What the heck?
Becoming a mobile-device maker seems like madness, but Google's not crazy.
Why on earth would Google (GOOG) want to go into the business of making cell phones?
By now most followers of tech news are aware that the company has been testing a product dubbed the Google Nexus--the highly anticipated "Google phone" set to be launched today. But does Google's move into territory dominated by specialists like Nokia (NOK) and Motorola (MOT) MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Jan 5, 2010 6:00 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Eric Schmidt, Google, iPhone, Motorola, Nexus, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Third Party Apps -
Calculated innovation: Is there a post-recession payoff?
Yes, you can create new products and services without betting the farm
By Ilana Westerman, CEO, Create with Context
Many companies remain shell-shocked from the past 18 months of economic disaster. As such, innovation - despite its potential rewards - is not exactly in fashion right now.
Though gurus like Jim Collins and others extol the virtues of using the downturn to capitalize on market opportunities or a competitor's weakness, companies today MORE
Nov 20, 2009 9:00 AM ET -
An "app store" for your car?
Every new car is basically a computer. So where are all the cool apps?
In my rusted jalopy, a 1991 Volvo 240 sedan, I have installed the future.
A car that stalls at every stop sign now has turn-by-turn navigation. I can check my e-mail and monitor the stock market (or, let's be honest, the day's surf). There are applications at my fingertips that can point my sputtering car toward a burrito MORE
Oct 16, 2009 7:56 AM ET -
Finally, the real iPhone
There's a theory favored by savvy Apple watchers that the first generation iPhone -- greeted with such hoopla last year -- was not actually the real thing.
That iPhone -- the one that hundreds of thousands of Americans queued up to buy for up to $599 apiece, the one that Time magazine named the Invention of the Year, the one that six million people purchased before Apple finally stopped making them in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 9, 2008 7:31 AM ETPosted in: 3G, App Store, Apple, Apple Stores, AT&T, Battery problems, Deferred revenue, Europe, France, Germany, GPS, iPhone, iPhone 3G, O2, Orange, RIM, Rogers, Steve Jobs, T-Mobile, Third Party Apps, U.K., Vodafone -
Apple to 100,000 iPhone developers: don't call us, we'll call you
Three days ago it seemed as though the world had finally opened up for would-be iPhone developers.
After eight months of pent-up demand, the pieces were in place to begin exploiting the new platform in earnest. Getting hold of the free software developers kit (SDK) was as simple as entering your iTunes name and password. The tools were powerful. The support was rich.
The programmers were "excited," Apple's PR department assured us MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 15, 2008 11:23 AM ET -
Hackers jailbreak iPod touch update; iPhone to Follow?
That was quick.
Hours after Apple (AAPL) published firmware update 1.1.2 for the iPhone and the iPod touch -- and even before it was officially available for installation through iTunes -- rogue programmers had managed to "jailbreak" the iPod touch, once again allowing unauthorized third-party applications to run on the device. See Erica Sadun's report on TUAW here.
As of this morning, however, the iPhone still hadn't been re-jailbroken. That means that, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 9, 2007 9:06 AM ET -
Apple Set to Disable iPhone Apps -- Again
Here we go again.
British reviewers who have tested the Apple (AAPL) iPhone that goes on sale in the U.K. Friday report that it comes pre-installed with a software update -- 1.1.2 -- that disables third-party applications.
According to the British gadget website T3, the update closes the so-called TIFF exploit -- the software loophole used by hackers to "jailbreak" version 1.1.1. This loophole allowed iPhone owners to install dozens of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 4, 2007 9:56 AM ET -
Steve Jobs: Apple Will Open iPhone to 3rd Party Apps in February
Four months after he tried to persuade Apple (AAPL) software developers to use Safari to write their iPhone applications, and after weeks of playing cat and mouse with programmers who risked bricking and wrote native apps anyway, Steve Jobs today changed his tune.
In a signed message posted on Apple.com's start page, Jobs wrote:
Third Party Applications on the iPhone
Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 17, 2007 1:11 PM ET
