Comments on: iPhone Development – Innovative, or a Cop-Out?

By: ace place

ace place — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:13:52 +0000

Am I just stating the obvious or is this something that people are just not getting with the whole “web-app” architecture?

What I am referring to is the first half of the word — web — to use any of the so called apps, you have to be connected. What about when I am on an airplane? Or on a train? Or in the mid-west where I am unable to access wifi or a decent connection to the (sl)edge network? What then, no app?

What Apple is proposing is future looking, however what is missing that would make it a viable development platform is two things:

1) an off-line hook into the browser/OS for the apps to store data when the user goes off the grid.

2) better control of when a web-page is refreshed, as it stands now, I am barely able to switch between safari and the ipod app if I happen to loose connectivity — very frustrating.

Apple could bundle a local “storage server” with Safari and provided a JS interface into it. The server would provide web-developers the ability to specify client-side logic for handling data on the web page if the user is unable to contact the server that served the page. Once the user gets connectivity again, the storage server would pass the data back to the server. Not a new concept UUCP worked the same way. The whole cross-domain security model for JS can be leveraged to limit the data access and damage potential of the apps.

(a quick but limited hack would be to persist the data to a cookie and build the logic server-side to check for the cookie when the user connects to the web-site again, but that’s a hack and you’re limited to 4k)

The issue with pages refreshing is something within the control of Apple since they control Safari/the OS. Once they get that under control and provide local storage via the aforementioned “storage server” it gives web developers free reign to code away within the confines of a browser, but without feeling as though they are the redheaded stepchild of Steve Jobs.

By: Phred

Phred — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:50:13 +0000

Ok, if the iPhone is running on a stripped down version of OS X then it’s quite possible that it will support shortcuts and keychain. If so, all you need is mechanism for adding a shortcut to the interface, “clicking” that and Boom (couldn’t resist), Safari starts and you’re running the web app.

I applaud Apple for not letting 3rd party developers directly onto the iPhone as they are resposible for so much of the grief on other smart phones.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:29:14 +0000

Relax people. This is not a big deal. The iPhone is not meant as a general purpose computer. Im sure you don’t want to run iPhone M$ Word or WoW on it or anything like that. If anything, Apple will fill in a few of the gaps themselves, as they know how to do it right. I we can all agree that they will be “adding features” to the iPhone as time goes on, as well as regular software updates. Also, if you look around, a lot of new apps are becoming web-based already, websites providing services of various kinds. You will have full access to all the internet-based games, and we can logically expect Google to make their online office apps iPhone-ready within a reasonable time. There is ample room for innovation in a web-based environment.

By: iPhone Apps: The Beginning Of The Beginning « Mike Cane’s Blog

iPhone Apps: The Beginning Of The Beginning « Mike Cane’s Blog — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:17:00 +0000

[...] iPhone Development – Innovative, or a Cop-Out? This web based concept, at least in its current form, is also very anti-Apple from a simplicity standpoint. Instead of pressing a button to launch the application you need, you’re going to have to open a web browser, open your bookmarks, then click on the application you want – then (in most cases I would assume) you’re going to have to log in to said application. [...]

By: mark

mark — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:08:30 +0000

One way around this is for Apple to create a .iPhone button on the iPhone, which upon tapping connects to a .iPhone (like .Mac) backend where all the user’s local data could be stored as well as buttons for all the user’s web apps (bookmarks).

So one tap to get to .iPhone. Then one tap to log into any of your web apps.