Apple just released the software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, opening up a world of glorious options for the coding crowd.
And maybe... hopefully... we can finally get some satellite radio related applications in the device.
Now, if you want to be an iPhone developer, the SDK is available right now - for free. If you want to be included in the iTunes Application Store (which is exclusive to Apple of course) to distribute your lovely work, it'll cost you a mere $99. Developers get to pick the price for their wares, and even get to keep 70% of the revenue. Not bad. Free software is supported as well.
Are there any coders out there that would want to develop some XM/Sirius apps for this slightly popular device? (Related: the iPhone consists of 71% of US mobile browser usage.)
[via Gizmodo]
I would gladly write an XMRO app - if it weren't for the fact that Apple pigeonholed me and made the SDK Intel-only...
Forgive my ignorance, but could the iPhone decode a WMA stream? MS doesn't even make Windows Media Player for Macs anymore, and I'd think the WMA decoder would have to be licensed from MS...
"Related: the iPhone consists of 71% of US mobile browser usage."
Though it may actually be more, as the iPhone browser is probably used more at regular websites than mobile ones, as many sites see that it's Safari and will instead provide a complete version of the site rather than the stripped down mobile version.
"MS doesn't even make Windows Media Player for Macs anymore, and I'd think the WMA decoder would have to be licensed from MS..."
As long as there is some interface to get to the sound hardware in the iPhone/iPod Touch, it'll be done. There's a free/open source command line app for *nix called mplayer that can play Windows Media streams... in fact, one of the Mac XM Dashboard widgets includes the mplayer binary as part of its package.
Heck, if XM really wanted to bring attention to themselves in iTunes and on the iPhone, they'll be one of Apple's first corporate customers, and develop the app themselves to play straight AAC streams, rather than WMA, since Apple has attachment to the AAC format...
Libb,
It's not just Intel only, it's Mac Intel only.
Damn!
FYI, a Sirius/XM app would be severely limiting. From one of the iPhone dev docs:
"Only one iPhone application can run at a time, and third-party applications never run in the background. This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits. (p. 16)"
There is a 3rd party app that lets you stream & cache internet radio on the iphone or ipod touch called flytunes.fm .... not satellite radio, but it can be personalized. It's free & you don't have jailbreak your phone to use it.
You can also use Usirius and orb together to listen to the internet streams of Sirius without jailbreaking. Takes a bit of setup work, but it works well.
You can also use Usirius and orb together to listen to the internet streams of Sirius without jailbreaking. Takes a bit of setup work, but it works well.