In the last calendar week , Apple has released a major update to the iPhone , including a 2nd genesis of the iPhone ironware and a new interlingual rendition of the operating system that runs both the iPhone and the iPod touch .
Yet for all this talk of second - generation hardware and updated software system , one of the most important components of the new iPhone is definitely still at version 1.0 .
With the passing of the updated iPhone software , Apple flung launch the doors of its new App Store . On its first Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , the App store was populated with more than 500 programs , and that number is develop quickly .
Think about that : 500 political program , all of them at version 1.0 . On a equipment that had never before supported software written outside of Apple . It ’s exciting , seeing the parentage of a brand new computer software ecosystem . But it ’s also shivery . If mass were disquieted about the first - generation iPhone hardware and software ( many vowed they would n’t buy an iPhone until the second version get in , for fright of buying a buggy 1.0 product ) , how should they feel about more than 500 programs on a brand - young platform , all at version 1.0 ?
For Beta or Worse
Writing software is a complicated affair . It ’s easy for hemipterous insect to slue in , but firmly to track them down . Over the years , software engineer have come up with some solid methods for making sure that even the initial release of their software system are relatively stable . Unfortunately , many of those methods were n’t available for the first propagation of App Store programs .
Take beta testing . These days , lots of multitude have heard of it : pre - release versions of software or Web sites are made available for user to try out ; those users can then key out the bugs that slip past the computer programmer . When people use computer software in ways ( and , in the cause of iPhones and iPod touches , in places ) that programmers never envisioned , bugs surface that would otherwise not have been spotted until the program was put into worldwide handout in the cold , cruel world . ( I take part in pre - release product test myself , and I find bugs all the clock time . The system works fairly well . )
Unfortunately , there was no way of life for iPhone programmers to genus Beta - test their products before the App Store launched . The software used to create iPhone programs was a secret . And only a choice group of programmers were able to flow their programs on tangible hardware , rather than in a Mac - based simulator . Developers in countries without iPhones could only essay their programs on the iPod touch .
Even worse , Apple ’s cloak of secrecy around the iPhone software package scheduling tools prevent coder from sharing tricks they had picked up during their work . The programming community , especially on the Mac , is remarkably collegiate — programmers post web log entries detailing things they ’ve memorize all the clock time , and the quality of all the programs in the Mac ecosystem welfare as a result . Without blogging and Google search , the only fashion iPhone computer programmer could deal what they ’d learned was through the sometime , ineffective medium of one - on - one conversations .
Some programmers fancy out how to try one another ’s employment , figuring it was good to have a few fellow developers test their computer programme than to have no examination at all . But the form of racy pre - release package testing that we are used to with Mac software simply was n’t possible for cut - edge iPhone developers .
As a termination , the first batch of iPhone software entered the world , delivered by a bunch of programmers collectively holding their breath and crossing their fingers . And there have been plenty of hemipteran to be find , much to the foiling of the programmers .
App Store Albums
Then there ’s the App Store itself , which Apple has based on its existing iTunes infrastructure . It ’s a proven system that has dependably sold ten of gazillion of songs over the year . But it has n’t been used to trade a lot of software before , other than a fistful of iPod games . As a resolution , it ’s definitely at the 1.0 stage of development as well .
Unlike music , which is pretty much done as soon as it ’s been uploaded to the store , software program is in a constant country of flux . The App Store has a mechanics that enable users to have updates to the programs they ’ve download . But as I write , one workweek into the App Store ’s life , several developers have report that they had fix major bugs in their package , only to await for days without any signboard that those update would ever surface in public . ( Apple has to approve each program that gets released on the App Store . ) The developer of the fitness utilityFitwent to the extreme of noting on the App Store that the current variant of its program ( since fixed ) arrest a crashing bug . Other developer saw their programs added to the store , then enigmatically removed , then add again .
And from the drug user ’s side , there ’s confusedness too . An individual plan can have a different name on the store , in the iTunes software on your computer , and on your iPhone ’s home silver screen . If you ’ve pose two very similar course of study ( Sudoku comes to nous , for some reason ) , it can be almost impossible to order them aside .
And then there ’s the reassessment mess . iTunes ’ user - reviews system is base on the estimate that people will write short recapitulation of music albums . On the software program side , it took less than a week for that organisation to be exposed as utterly inappropriate for software . Users carry questions or misperceptions about products , and developers have no means to respond . Others send scab reviews despite enjoin in their review that they have n’t actually used the intersection .
Brave New Frontier
The world of iPhone software program is an exciting position . But it ’s also a act like the Wild West : a little wide-open and slightly dangerous . ( When I use add - on software heavily , my iPhone doss far more often than it ever did before . ) It ’s definitely not for everyone . But it is exciting to be out there on the forefront , using innovative new programs and playing whizzy games on a equipment that once was used just for phone calls , east - post , and World Wide Web browse .
I ’m trusted that Apple will eventually get its bit together and fix the summons of developing , debug and selling iPhone software . In the lag , though , you might need to venture into the App Store cautiously and with great caution .
