Despite Apple’s new iPhone OS 4 SDK licensing agreement preventing the use of cross-compilers, Adobe launched Flash CS5 with Packager for iPhone today which aims to do just that — let developers turn Flash apps into iPhone apps.

Adobe announced the complete CS5 suite of apps as well, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere, but the mobile world’s attention remained fixed on Flash CS5 and the escalating war of words on the interwebs. While many developers are understandably upset with Apple, the countervailing trend from an Apple point of view is lining up behind the “control” and “quality” arguments. Apple doesn’t want to lose control of the iPhone platform to Adobe any more than it does to Google. It wants to release the OS it wants, when it wants, and not have to worry about third-party warlords holding it, and large percentages of its app user base, hostage.

Jason Snell at Macworld puts it this way in his treatise on Apple against the world:

Apple doesn’t want apps that don’t feel like native iPhone apps on the iPhone. It doesn’t want Adobe to aid developers in creating a world where App X for iPhone and App X for Android are indistinguishable from one another. Apple doesn’t want to introduce new iPhone features and then watch as nobody takes advantage of them because Adobe hasn’t updated its development system yet. Or, worse, watches as Adobe refuses to adopt them because the other operating systems don’t support those features.

If iPhone apps are one of Apple’s greatest assets, a lowest-common-demoninator app world is Apple’s greatest nightmare. Apple wants the iPhone app experience to be created using Apple’s native tools by developers who are engaged with the platform and falling over themselves to support Apple’s latest features. These are the developers who were downloading and installing iPhone OS 4.0 on Thursday and poring over the documentation, getting ready to dig in and start updating their apps for this summer’s release.

Louis Gerbarg of devwhy.com claims Apple has been held hostage, forced to dump APIs, change engineering plans, and otherwise been thwarted in the past by such dependencies. He also thinks Adobe shares some of the blame for the current situation:

Adobe is a large company with a significant, and complicated, relationship with Apple. They have frequent high level contacts and meetings. Adobe has known for quite some time about Apple’s desire not to have Flash on the iPhone. There is no doubt in my mind that if they asked Apple to bless this they were rebuffed, and if they didn’t ask the only reason they didn’t was because they knew Apple would say no. In either event, they announced the product to their customers and sold them on an idea they were not in a position to deliver, hoping Apple would be unwilling to piss off developers by not fulfilling Adobe’s promises. They tried to force Apple’s hand by putting Apple in a position where in order stop the Flash they would have to do it publicly in front of Adobe’s users. That was a bad call on Adobe’s part.

Personally, in this whole thing the most distasteful part is that Adobe used its userbase and their livelihood as a bargaining chip. These kinds of high stakes negotiations have happened in the past many times. They are much more common than people think, and until the last few years Apple was more likely to be on the weaker side of the negotiation.

Hence our titular metaphor of Vader shaking his firsts, but not the real Star Wars Vader, the tiny-handed one from Episode 3 who screamed “nooooooooooo!” while shattering everything around him. That Vader.

How this ultimately turns out is anyone’s guess, but if your immediate goal is to make truly great apps for the iPhone, you’ll likely do better sticking to Xcode for now…

Adobe shakes tiny Vader fist at Apple, launches Flash CS5 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The interwebs are once again lit up with speculation about the iPad’s new Apple A4 chipset, this time because Ars Technica is saying that instead of the next-generation multicore ARM Cortex A9 unveiled at CES 2010, the iPad is using a variation of the last-generation AR Cortex A8 that powers the 2009 iPhone 3GS.

This is based on 1) Apple being secretive about the chipset and not bragging like other companies would 2) “multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case.”

First things first. Apple being secretive proves nothing. Apple is secretive about everything, and they’ve said before they don’t discuss chipsets because they don’t think it matters to consumer electronics users (and, hey, Apple is secretive). They didn’t talk at all about the iPhone 3GS chipset — all they said is it was twice as fast. We only know that it uses an ARM Cortex A8 because people bought it and tore it apart to find out.

As to the multiple sources, if one of the “different reasons” is direct knowledge of the chipset, then they could be exactly right. If not, then… eh, maybe, but we’re back to waiting for the iPad to ship and people to tear it down.

In the interest of being complete, however, Ars speculates that if the iPad is indeed running the Cortex A8, this might be what’s making it so fast:

it turns out that the the A4 is a 1GHz custom SoC with a single Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. The fact that A4 uses a single A8 core hasn’t been made public, but I’ve heard from multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case. (I wish I could be more specific, but I can’t.)

In all, the A4 is quite comparable to the other Cortex A8-based SoCs that are coming onto the market, except that the A4 has even less hardware. The iPad doesn’t have much in the way of I/O, so the A4 itself can do away with the I/O that it doesn’t need. In contrast, the typical Cortex A8-based SoC has more I/O hardware than a mobile phone can use, because you never know what customers will need which interface types.

Ars, like Venture Beat, also thinks Apple’s PA Semi team may not be involved in the iPad because they’re working on a variant for the 4th generation iPhone. Either way, they believe software will ultimately be more important than hardware — which is something Apple’s been saying for a while now.

So, do we care if the iPad has an ARM Cortex A8 rather than a Cortex A9? Do we want Apple pushing the hardware, or are we happy with them prioritizing software?

Regarding Apple A4 Using iPhone 3GS Cortex A8 Processor is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

TiPb hasn’t had a chance to get any hands-on time with the no-longer mythical Apple iPad, announced today, but that doesn’t mean we can’t live vicariously through the awesome power of the interwebs. What does TiPb think? If you call the iPad a big iPod touch, you’re right. If you think that’s a bad thing, you’re nuts fully justified, but we see it as a huge positive, if only a first step. Removing the constraints imposed by a small screen? Yeah, the iPhone OS is just getting started. Apple is legitimately excited about this, and that means iPhone OS, and iPhones are going to benefit. Love. Up.

Now here’s a quick rundown of some of the coolest bloggers in the sphere (in alphabetical order), and what they think of the iPad.

• 9to5mac hands-on and video
• Ars Technica hands-on and gallery
• Engadget Hands-on with video
• Gizmodo hands-on and video
• SlashGear hands-on and video

Give them a read and let us know if they change any of your opinions!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPad Hands-on Round Up — Who’s touched where and what they think!

Fox News’ Clayton Morris is upping the ante on the rumored January 26 Apple Media Event, not only saying it’s the real deal, but that it will focus on “mobility”:

I’ve spoken to a source inside Apple who confirmed a “big” event for January. While nothing official has been handed down from the notoriously tight-lipped company, my source took the Financial Times report one step further by saying this event will focus on the mobility space, meaning we’ll see something related to the iPhone/iPod touch product line.

An earlier than usual iPhone 4.0 preview to give developers time to go resolution-independent for an iPhone HD? A camera-toting iPod touch to p!$$ off everyone who got the camera-less version for Xmas? An announcement that Apple is taking itself fully to the cloud? Or just some iTablet/iSlate the entire interwebs have been gossiping about for years?

If you’ve Quantum Leap’ed or flashback’ed from this fictional future, let us know!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Fox News “Confirms” Rumored Jan 26 Apple Event, Focusing on “Mobility”

So the oldest 2007 iPhone 2G can easily download and run (most of) iPhone OS 3.1 while the current 2009 crop of HTC Dream and Magic devices on Rogers will officially be stuck on Android 1.5? According to sibling site AndroidCentral.com:

“HTC is not currently planning any Android 1.6 upgrades for Rogers Dream or Magic. Android 1.6 was only made available for “Google”-branded devices such as the G1. It is not available for HTC-branded products such as the Dream or Magic, which use Android 1.5. We believe that Android 1.5 is a stable and reliable software platform that delivers a terrific user experience.”

Google explains this is a consequence of being not evil “open”, again via AndroidCentral.com:

When we open source our code we use standard, open Apache 2.0 licensing, which means we don’t control the code. Others can take our open source code, modify it, close it up and ship it as their own. Android is a classic example of this, as several OEMs have already taken the code and done great things with it. There are risks to this approach, however, as the software can fragment into different branches which don’t work well together (remember how Unix for workstations devolved into various flavors — Apollo, Sun, HP, etc.). This is something we are working hard to avoid with Android.

Working well together isn’t the problem. Rogers, HTC, and Google ignoring an entire country full of early adopters — the very users that help drive a platform — is the problem. How many Dream and Magic owners, likely geeks who form the loving core of Google and Android’s user base, will be happy to here they’re “stable* with 1.5 and don’t need and won’t be getting 1.6 (and who knows about 2.x?) while seeing the Motorola Droid and upcoming Hero updates, never mind Nexus One, splashed all over their interwebs.

There are pros and cons to both the integrated hardware/software/benevolent dictatorship model of Apple and the licensed hardware/software/wild west model of Google, to be sure. Buyers should beware of Apple control over the App Store and ecosystem, but they should also beware of hardware fracture from the hands-off overlords.

Sure, one day Apple will kill backwards compatibility as well, iPhone 2G first, then subsequent devices over time. If you’d bought an iPhone 3G earlier this year, however, how happy would you be if Apple and Rogers announced 2.0 was “stable” and that you don’t need and won’t be getting iPhone 2.x? 3.0? Would you be enjoying all the iPhone 3GS cut and paste and video commercials then? How happy would you were told your brand new iPhone 3GS wouldn’t be getting 4.0 next year?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

2007 iPhone 2G is on iPhone 3.1, 2009 Android Dream/Magic Stuck on 1.5

Fake Steve Jobs, the nom de guerre of Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, got a ton of attention for his Operation Chokehold campaign to effectively DDoS the AT&T data network, including from AT&T itself and the FCC, not to mention pretty much every commenter on the interwebs who, while they might have applauded the cause, didn’t much appreciate the method.

Along with a quick follow up conversation with Fake AT&T CEO Randall Stevenson, where Fake Steve again absolutely excoriates the iPhone’s lone US carrier for making billions in profit on iPhone data plans while apparently cutting investments in the very network infrastructure on which the iPhone is supposed to use that data, he first tried to back track a tad, and then just went… a little nuts.

As has happened in the past, Fake Steve is taking the criticisms and spinning it into a farce including hooks into the Tiger woods scandal, historic figures of social conscious, terrorists, former and current heads of state, and now pretty much everything short of a kitchen sink app for iPhone.

In the end, we can’t help but think his original point — that AT&T isn’t investing in a network to support the iPhone and future mobile computing platforms even though they have the resources to do so, and are maximizing short-term shareholder profits over long-term share-holder and customer value — has gotten lost in the gimmick.

And that’s a shame, because AT&T really needs to invest in their network and give iPhone users the infrastructure they’re paying for.

UPDATE: Gizmodo also shows, in nifty, PowerPointy form, how AT&T is making more money, yet spending less on networks, since the original iPhone was released.

[Thanks to everyone who sent in many and wonderful variants of all this!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Are AT&T’s Problems Getting Lost in the Fake Steve Backtracks, Backtalks, and Crazy Backflips?

Regarding all those iPhone on T-Mobile US stories clogging the interwebs lately: that’s all they are — stories. No leaked carrier roadmaps, no Cupertino commuters logging into popular Twitter apps via a T-Mobile IP. No Steven P. Jobs standing on a stage, announcing the CEO of T-Mobile, and a new, magenta (TM) iPhone.

It’s just an analyst who thinks AT&T will someday lose exclusivity and Verizon is all Droid‘ed up now, and T-Mobile is GSM like the iPhone (though not on the same 3G frequencies — d’oh!), so why not?

We know some of you already use an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile’s 2.5G/EDGE network. We know a lot of you would like an alternative to AT&T. And we feel for you. We really, truly do.

But there’s no more to the story than that for now. In fact, there’s less.

[Still, many thanks to everyone who sent every version our way!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Regarding All Those iPhone on T-Mobile US Stories