
You probably were not expecting this
Developers who want to write software for the iPhone are
finding that Apple's mind numbing rules are stifling their creativity.
However yesterday Apple Messiah CEO Steve Jobs announced
myriad another batch of red tape which will make matters even worse. The changes affect the so-called developer’s agreement
required to access tools for building apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
They add significant new restrictions to software makers hoping to create
products for Apple’s mobile devices.
Software developers are furious at the new rules one of
which bars any app built using “intermediary translation” tools, such as those
made by Adobe, from running on its various mobile devices. Instead, apps must
be written directly in Objective-C and other approved languages. Losers under the new rules are providers of software that
translates applications built originally for other platforms to run natively on
the iPhone OS. It seems that one of the main software losers will be
Adobe’s Packager for iPhone. The tool lets people build apps using the
company’s Flash development tool, then export those apps to an iPhone-native
format so they can run on Apple’s mobile devices, which don’t support Flash.
Jobs has made it clear that he does not want users to run
Flash and he hates Adobe. The Packager for iPhone is in public beta
now, but
will be a part of Adobe Creative Suite 5 when it’s released later this
spring. This could move could kill off attempts by Adobe to use
its Creative Suite to publish iPad and iPhone versions of magazines,
newspapers
and games using Adobe’s tools. Given that the publishing industry has
been
backing Jobs' iPad folly this move is a kick in the nuts.