Who said community pressure doesn't work with big companies? Apple has announced in a note titled "To Our Developers" that it has removed the non-disclosure agreement for iPhone developers, stating it placed "too much of a burden" on iPhone developers. The NDA was one of the two major problem points among iPhone developers, so the community has responded in a way that can only be described as rejoicing.
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Member since:
2006-10-31
Member since:
2008-03-17
This should have been the case from day 1.
What still troubles me is that Apple actually thought that they could maintain the iphone sdk under NDA indefinitely and expect people to work with them (and people have so far). The fact that they work this way indicates that every time they release a product they will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the open. Hopefully they will be better next time (I'm not that hopeful).
On the bright side now:
Expect a brickload of iphone sdk related articles at your local internets soon!
Member since:
2005-07-06
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Member since:2006-01-23
Member since:2005-11-21
Nice none quantitative observation. If you think the cost of the Developer Program iPhone SDK of $99 and $299, respectively then I presume you expect your application to produce roughly nothing in revenue for you.
Best of luck with that business model for mobile phone applications. I imagine you could offer a service support model by making sure the application needs support enough to justify the loss in sales, but then again if you don't expect anyone to really dload it you don't expect anything else but living in a sea of RED.
Member since:2006-05-29
Member since:
2006-09-30
Member since:2007-05-12
Of course it did. The company that developed the multitouch technology used in iPhones and which Apple acquired in 2005, Fingerworks, have been releasing multitouch products, mainly keyboards, since at least the early 2000s. Multi-input display tracking itself goes back to at least the 1970s. I personally haven't seen Apple claim they have invented the concept of mutitouch. They've always claimed, and certainly still do, that they have very ingeniously incorporated it into a mobile phone - which is completely true; it is quite an ingenious solution.
Member since:
2006-03-03
"the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work"
Franckly, what if Xerox had put an NDA on their own "inventions and innovations that [they] would like[d] to protect", I bet there would be no iPhone... sorry, no Apple at all 
Kochise
EDIT : typo
Edited 2008-10-01 18:06 UTC
Member since:
2006-01-04
Member since:2005-11-10
And it only took 6 root comments for someone to finally mention that. Thanks go to you but Good grief in general.
By removing the NDA for released software only Apple have essentially given the developers another slap. Now the only way to share iPhone development information _is to give away the secrets to your released product_ so that some chump can make a cheap clone and usurp you.
Development is exactly that - it's done before release. Not being able to talk about products under development so that - you know, they don't completely suck when you launch them - is fundamental.
Apple is expecting people to ship crap, and polish thereafter.
This news solves absolutely nothing, but rather sends a number of noisy developers away gleefully skipping, unaware that they've been shafted, yet again.
Member since:2007-05-12
Member since:2005-11-10
Member since:2006-01-01
They are talking about Apple software for sure. They're basically saying, "alpha/beta testers and people that we seed to still STFU about new stuff, m'kay?" if you read between the lines.
This might actually mean that SDL gets released for iPhone - which can only be a good thing (TM) as it looks awesome from the YouTube videos I've seen!
Member since:2007-05-12
Which, shockingly, has been the case with all unreleased software, APIs, etc. form Apple (and just about any other software vendor).
From now on presumably you would not have to accept the NDA when signing for a free ADC membership or when downloading the SDK. If you want access to unreleased versions of the OS/SDK (e.g. version 2.2) you have to agree to follow the NDA.
Member since:
2005-07-24
Member since:
2007-04-19
They simply don't want negative press to affect the iPhone. The NDA was supposed to do that, but it backfired, so they got rid of it.
The core issue is still there, they can kill your app for whatever reason they want. They just didn't want developers to talk about it.
Now they think smoothing over the hurt feelings will make the issue go away, or at least keep people who were paying attention from abandoning the platform.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Member since:
2005-07-11
I love most of Apple's products, and the iPhone is no exception, but the NDA on this was wrong on so many levels.
I totally support Apple about being secret on new products or technologies (it doesn't really matter if they invented them or not, it's more a case of how they use them). If Apple had told the world 2 years before the iPhone came out that they were going to build one and given away how that was going to be done, then they wouldn't have the "lead" they currently have to help them gain valuable market share. For a company that is alive due to profits, this makes sense, for a company like Google or in the Open Source world, it doesn't. Microsoft can be more open about its OS because of OEM and so on...
Having said all that, I couldn't quite see how the NDA on the released iPhone helped Apple. The product was already out and anyone could download the SDK and see how to build these things anyway. I am glad they got rid of this...
Member since:2006-03-03
Member since:
2006-06-02
I am strapped in and ready to be voted down here but it strikes me that those who now rejoice at Apple's move are a bit like wives and partners who rejoice that they are receiving temporary respite from regular abuse.
The real cause of fundamental rejoicing would be to leave the abusive partner.
From what little I know or have experienced of the Apple 'community', it has very often been like this.
As long as you keep coming back, slap-attacks behind closed doors will continue to be administered.
Member since:
2007-07-27