Inside the iPhone — 3G, ARM, OS X, 3rd Partyware

DECS writes "After heading off the top ten myths of the iPhone, Daniel Eran of RoughlyDrafted has written a series of articles looking 'Inside the iPhone,' exploring (1) why Apple didn't target faster 3G networks, (2) a substantiated look at how the iPhone is indeed running OS X (contrary to reports that it isn't), and (3) what it means to users and developers, and how ARM is involved, in Mac OS X, ARM, and iPod OS X, and why the supposedly 'closed' system Apple describes for the iPhone won't preclude third party development."

Interesting stuff is out if apps have to be signed

[Anonymous Coward]

For Symbian, many of the most interesting apps are unsigned. These are where all the 'innovation' or maybe better put "new ideas" come from. Often in an open source environment. Demanding any signature at all tends to put all development out of reach of these people who are mostly doing it for a hobby and not some limited corporate agenda.

The iPhone may or may not be a flop, but it will definitely be boring. It won't even be a good phone; for example my symbian phone uses a 3rd party app to do automatic VOIP bypass when it notices a cheaper route around. I don't even have to think about it; it just detects the cheaper route; do you think Cingular would allow that?

Re:FUD much?

[TheRaven64]

The reason Windows is so unsuccessful as a platform is the fact that there are cheap, well-supported developer tools available. Right. Apple lost the desktop war, in a large part, due to having a much smaller developer ecosystem than Microsoft. It seems they haven't learned.

As to the price, my current phone was free with a cheap contract and has 1GB of flash, an ARM CPU and both Java and C++ SDKs. The UI is a little rough around the edges, but I don't think I'd pay $500 for a better UI. It does everything I need a phone to do, and third party applications allow me to use if for things I didn't imagine I would need it for when I got it. Oh, and it does 3G data transfer and lets my MacBook Pro connect to the Internet at a reasonable speed when I'm mobile, which the iPhone doesn't (who buys a device with only EDGE these days? Even a year ago when I got my latest phone it was hard to find one. Buying music from iTMS over EDGE is going to be very painful).

iPhone will have secure boot

[smably]

As for artificial limitations on development: According to a developer I talked to who apparently worked on the iPhone, it will have secure boot; i.e., the bootloader checks to make sure it's booting Apple's OS, and the hardware won't run any bootloader other than Apple's. Obviously Apple is taking a different approach this time compared to, say, the iPod and their Intel Macs. So, I doubt we'll be seeing iPhone Linux or anything like that unless Apple has done something really stupid.

Re:Okay, I was tempted with the last iPhone story.

[MrWGW]

I'm of the opinion that Slashdot's extensive coverage of the iPhone is warranted by virtue of the enormous public interest in the iPhone as a product. While there is really nothing new in the iPhone (although it is a clever combination of existing technologies), the public interest in it is intense, and if it does indeed live up to its promise and deliver a dramatically improved user interface experience for smartphones and handheld devices, it could become an extremely signficant product. What is terrifying about this prospect, is of course, the fact that the iPhone represents a blatant rejection of everything the FOSS community has been advocating: open platforms, open standards, open source, and user choice. If the iPhone promotes the idea that closed source, closed platform monopolies are cool, then that obviously does not bode well for us. Consequently, there is an obvious need for Slashdot to cover the iPhone as extensively as possible, so that we as a community can (a) better understand the threat that it poses, and (b) get a sense of how best to respond.

Re:Okay, I was tempted with the last iPhone story.

[aussersterne]

You make an interesting point (re: openness). Are there any companies out there making reference hardware platforms for GSM phones with PDA-like form factors? Perhaps it's time for an "OpenPhone Project" that implements wacky OSS coolness and innovation on top of a reference smartphone design and that can ultimately make its way into the hands of interested manufacturers? I'd be interested in reading about that on the front page of Slashdot...

Re:Okay, I was tempted with the last iPhone story.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am already sick of this cell phone / mp3 player and it isn't even out for 5 more months......

(and don't even get me started on that Cingular mandatory $80+ monthly charge for iPhone service)

Not this FUDmeister again

[0xdeadbeef]

That same article explained why: Apple wants the iPhone to work reliably, not to be known as a toy that can load various shareware apps, but which freezes erratically and is plagued with spyware and security hazards.

The Orwellian double-speak is mind-boggling. This is the world according to an Apple fanboy:

A device that can be adapted to do anything within the limits of technology and security: a toy.
A device that does only what Apple product managers and Cingular marketers think you should be allowed to do with it: apparantly, not a toy.

Here's a little trivia: the Apple store uses either Symbol [symbol.com] or Intermec [intermec.com]-based handheld devices to scan products. These devices run either Palm OS or Windows CE. Apple uses toys to manage its invetory.

Re:Don't downplay 3G!

[weave]

Unless this phone will allow tethering to another device, like a laptop, 3G probably doesn't matter. The internal processor will have a hard enough time drawing the pages at EDGE speeds as it is. Watch the keynote when Jobs is loading the New York Times website OVER WIFI and see how long it took to get it all rendered.

I have ev-do through Verizon now. I won't switch unless the phone does 3G and allows tethering, so looks like I'm not getting one. :(

It's in the Apple category

[QuantumG]

That's what Apple is doing right now. If you don't want to read about Apple, turn off that category.

Re:Fanboism at its finest

[gravesb]

Myth 1 response: The author supposes that Apple will include Cingular's 3G network, when it is available. He was saying that Apple can't include every feature people want, and made some decisions. EVDO specifically can't be offered for legal reasons, and the benefits the deal with Cingular outweigh, at least in Apple's mind, outweigh one particular brand on 3G. Hopefully, Apple will include some sort of 3G capability in the future, or the iPhone will have issues. Myth 2 response: I think the iPhone will segment later. Making supposions based on the Macworld announcement is shortsighted. Apple knows they need a low end model, I think they are just trying to squeeze the top end later. Myth 3: Both your response and the author's are correct. For an example, look at Firefox. It is wonderful software, I personally use it, and it has energized a dead segment of software. However, it does have memory leaks, especially when third party extensions are added. There are benefits and expenses to both methods, and Apple chose their poison. I don't think its a horrible idea, as the average user will blame all problems on Apple, regardless of what causes them, and in a phone, stability is much more important. However, they will have to deal with the expense, which you all lay out in your response. I don't know that all of the myths speak of fanboism. The iPhone certainly isn't a developers' paradise, and it does have its issues. No one can really predict how well it will do, as I am sure it will have revisions before it comes out. But it is unique, and Apple deserves some credit. Maybe it won't be a run away success, but hopefully it will at least prompt other companies to improve their offerings. I certainly won't be buying one initially, as I didn't buy the first iPods. But I think I will get one a few generations down the road, as it gradually approaches the feature set and price I want, just like the iPod.

Re:Interesting stuff is GONNA HAPPEN

[anagama]

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING of a new modern, physically simple hardware device to use for computing-communication and Apple is just the one on the leading edge at the moment.

Well, the iphone could have been "a simple hardware device to use for computing-communication" and Apple could have been on the leading edge of that. Instead, they chose to make the device an eye-candy dripping but half-assed nonetheless gadget. Like those $19 "PDAs" in blister packs in Kmart. Sure, they have a calendar, a note pad, and phone directory, but what makes them so worthless is the fact that they can't be extended in a simple and natural manner through additional software installs.

The reason there is so much flame against the iphone right now is because lots people, myself included, saw the presentation and though "wow -- that's gonna be awesome -- finally a real computing device that fits in your pocket and has a great UI". Then we heard it was going to be nothing but pretty gadget and got royally ticked off.
 
And lest you think I have a knee jerk hatred of apple -- you're wrong. I'm typing this in ubuntu running in parallels on a macbook. Apple makes nice hardware, but they can't please everyone. The 3d party app market is there exactly to serve people who might have unique desires or requirements and Apple doesn't think of everything (e.g., why can't I use finder to ssh into another account like konqueror or nautilus will do? -- thank goodness there's a 3d party solution for this -- it makes the hardware all that much more valuable to me).

Re:No 3rd party apps

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows Mobile has had a flash player for ages.

I love my Cingular 8125, for so many reasons. The 8525 with HSDPA is sure to be even better. HTC Universal is a much sexier device by far than the iPhone if you look at specs. The iPhone might look a little sexier but as typical with all apple products, it is stuck being what steve says it should be. Come on, having no SD memory slot in the iPhone is just retarded. I guess it could be an attack vector for hackers to load 'unauthorized' software with, but this is 2007, every freakin thing has an SD slot on it now - for a reason, it works and it is very convenient for people to use. My canon digital camera has an SD card in it, my scanner/printer/fax machine has an SD socket on it, my GPS data logger has an SD card slot. There are many uses for them.

Out of the hundreds of things my Windows Mobile phone does, the most favorite of mine is the ability to write .NET 2.0 CF applications. Writing my own GPS applications with it has been so much easier than i ever imagined before i bought the phone. Yeah, sometimes i don't know what i'm doing and the thing crashes, I'm still learning, but it isn't such a traumatic event - and i usually expect it. Rebooting the phone is fast. It doesnt ever crash when i don't expect it to.. and I have it overclocked 100MHz faster than the specs. It does Skype. heh

Anyway.. Windows Mobile is already so far ahead of what Apple has yet to bring to market. I'm not impressed with the iPhone and I really hate the hype machine that Apple is. They have proved once again that they will say ANYTHING to sell you a product, and they will often lie to do it. This has been the Apple way since they started out in the '70s.

Re:FUD much?

[mrshermanoaks]

I have a Treo 650 and can install all kinds of 3rd party apps. Of course, the more running on my Treo the more unstable it is and the more I hate my Treo when it locks up.

Apple's products have been successful because they have controlled a lot of the "freedom" (hardware choices on the Mac OS X, software choices on the iPod) that open products offer. More consistency has kept their users from having to stare at driver errors and the BSOD.

I will replace my Treo - with all it's 3rd party software offerings - with an iPhone the second one is available.

Re:It's HIPE, plain and simple

[DJCacophony]

Roughly Drafted? Weren't they the guys who put their shitty FUD fanboy articles up on digg and then frontpaged them by getting them and their friends to digg the stories with multiple accounts? Oh, yeah, same guys. [googlepages.com].

Why are you all posting here...

[Triple]

...you should be running your own companies. You are all smarter than everyone else. All of you here will be quite vindicated when the iPhone fails. Man, I wish Apple had consulted you before they did this, you all could have saved them a lot of trouble. By the way, does anyone have the comments section from Slashdot for the introduction of the iPod? I'm sure the same "much smarter than" people were out. In the end, having an elegant device that works well and easily wins. Luckily, we all will be able to wait and see how it works out.

EDGE or 3G?

[porttikivi]

Note that 3GPP rel. 7 standard will define "EDGE Evolution" which makes the EDGE speed 2-3 times faster. That's a good, cheap, and POWER SAVING alternative for a future iPhone model. Apple will of course still consider further upgraded models with GSM/UMTS path (W-CDMA and HSDPA/HSUPA) technologies, but they consume more battery and the results may vary.

I typically get about the same speed with EDGE and 3G, country wide here in Finland. The real speed depends on the network congestion. Anyway the capped limit in current UMTS phones (my Nokia N70) and networks (all the non-HSDPA UMTS networks I know, which is 90% of the UMTS world) is 384 kbit/s, so it is not much better than the max ~256 kbits/s of standard EDGE.

And the real life results with the HSDPA supporting new handsets and networks will vary. With bad coverage or congestion you will not benefit much of it. So even in the near future (~5 years), the difference between EDGE and UMTS versions will not be so big.

And before EDGE gets really old and undesirable, many things may happen and change the picture: Wimax, xMax, whatever radio; SIP, Skype, XMPP, whatever VoIP. VoIP changes the picture radically: you don't have to necessarily implement legacy technology (GSM/UMTS, CDMA/EVDO) anymore, because now any acccess point with any (radio) technology works with your VoIP.

Competition on APIs

[angel'o'sphere]

QuantumG, I disagree with both of your posts:

[post one] as if a committee can create anything remotely good. Competing APIs are competing for a reason..

APIs don't compete. It's the organizations behind the APIs that do and its the OS or software based on the API that do. Regarding the committee, I don't know. But APIs are one thing that certainly should not be defined by the guys using the APIs but buy the guys having the most expertise in the problem domain and in API (framework) design.

[post two] from NextStep, FootStep and the other competing APIs of Objective-C based workstation GUIs.. not to mention that these APIs were also, and continue to, compete with non-Objective-C based APIs.

I do all GUI programming in either: GWT-AJAX, Swing, Qt (and in very rare cases C#/WinForms), also on the Mac, all my Mac applications I wrote are Java/Swing applications. Objective-C/XYZStep frameworks are absolutely no competition, I would never even consider one.

The same is true for every developer who has the choice, the general programmer will not pick a different language or API for doing his stuff. I would guess the migration of developers from KDE to GTK/Gnome and also into the other direction is more or less zero. The programmers tend to think the API (way of doing stuff, way to think) of their old familiar platform is better than the other platform.

For adopting new APIs (and that relates to designing them, even by committee) the very same is happening. Programmer like SWT (Java/Eclipse GUI library) because it is similar to the Win32 GUI API. OTOH Swing is a design by committee GUI framework) that is far superior to SWT and designed by GUI API specialists, but if you follow the crowed here on /. most developers don't like it. I think: because they don't understand it, they lack experiance/education in this topic.

Market and competition is far more than supply and demand and survival of the fittest. Its about: knowledge and education of teh customers, market penetration, market awareness, marketing etc. and finally even matter of taste. Beer does not compete with wine, I drink both, according to my current situation and mood.

I know about Objective-C and about OpenStep etc., but they are not my taste and I never will be in the mood to try them. Windows API and based on it WindowsForm meanwhile surely is the most commonly used GUI API on the world, but not because it is simple, or good, but because Microsoft is behind it. 95% of the developres on the world never saw that GUI programming can be done far more simple, like with Swing/Qt/OpenStep. Heck, even the PERL binding libs to GTK are 100 times more "consistent/intuitive/simple" than the Win32 API.

After all for a problem domain you always can make a sort of metrics like: ease of programming, platform neutrality, experienced speediness of the UI or ... or ... or, and you could objective decide which API is the better one. If you would do that, a lot of our days APIs would immediately drop out of competition. In fact they would don't really do that as programmers would simply start to compete (erm ... to argue) which set of metrics makes more sense and claim that one API only looks bad in one metric but better in the other ;D

After all, if APIs would compete and the best would survive we all would program in a language that is OO/has multiple inheritance and mix-ins/supports functional and logic programming (by extending the object concept)/has an extendable syntax and compiler/has a wide and well defined class library (that also covers networking, DB access, and other J2EE alike stuff)/runs on a virtual machine ... and is both hotspot optimized byte code and/or hard linked/compiled for fast startup, where it is useful.

However, there is no such language / runtime environment.

angel'o'sphere

the big feature...

[SethJohnson]

Your excellent list missed this one feature:

8. Random Access Voicemail.

This alone sold me on the phone. I don't even use voicemail because I don't want to wade through 25 messages to get to the one from the caller I just missed. I just call the person up who I see on my caller ID and ask them "what's up?" Being able to mass-delete voicemails instead of having to navigate voice menus is a killer-app as far as I'm concerned.

To support this feature, Cingular had to retool their own voicemail system. I am betting you're going to see this functionality added to the other providers, too. Hate the company for one-button mice and DRM as much as you like, you've got to give Apple credit as being a minority player in an industry forcing innovation on the rest of the players. They did this with USB, too. When the first iMac came out, Steve Jobs refused to include serial ports. It was the first computer to be USB-only. There were no USB printers or scanners at the time, but the strong sales of the iMac inspired peripheral developers to implement USB connectivity to make their products work with the #1 selling computer model.

Seth