Only foreground 3rd party apps on iPhone - Intentional or Design flaw?

I read this post in Techcrunch which discusses on iPhone's limitation to allow only foreground 3rd party applications. 3rd party applications are the ones developed using the iPhone SDK.

While the Mike thinks that this is an intended restriction owing to the limited memory and resources, I personally do not think thats the only reason. And I know why I am correct for some reasons ;).

I believe the restriction is more of a design flaw of the iPhone SDK. I believe that Apple engineers haven't yet figured out a way (or most probably did not have time to do so) a way to switch between the native applications and the 3rd party applications. You would need a robust layer which will take care of remembering the 3rd party applications' running context and bring back the UI when the application again comes to foreground. Also, there might be scenarios wherein what about happens if a native background application wakes up and wants to use the UI. In which case, how would the 3rd party application behave. Would it be able to yield the user interface for the native application.

Most of the above use cases need lot of thinking and through integration of it into the SDK layer. I am sure Apple would later release an updated SDK which will allow 3rd party applications to run in the back ground as well.

There may be a work-around for this problem. The 3rd party application developer can care of trapping/getting notification from the OS/platform for exiting its own context and then saving the relevant context information in the memory. The next time you launch the application, it can read the previously saved context and bring itself back to the state of previous execution. Its very similar to playing the brick game in your blackberry.

Is Sun getting desparate not to lose mobile JVM market?

After Apple announced last Thurday of its intention to release the long awaited SDK for iPhone*, Sun has unveiled its intention to port JVM onto the iPhone.

Its looks like Sun does not want to waste any time bringing the mobile version of JVM (J2ME) onto the iPhone. Obviously this sense of urgency should be due to the fact that iPhone provides a very good platform for mobile applications and also because of the impending threat from Google's Android. Sun should already feel frustrated by Google's clever coup of replacing Sun's JVM with their own.

The way I see the future is that Apple and Google may be in a direct collision course towards mobile dominance. And Sun may want to be present in one of the camps.

What also remains to be seen is how would Sun JVM affect Apple's business model of trying to sell iPhone applications through their iTunes store (App Store as it may be called). With the JVM present on the iPhone, would mobile application developers like to leverage it or will they rather choose to directly use iPhone SDK. With Apple bringing in restrictions on the development platform (only Mac can be used has the host to develop and debug iPhone applications), it gives a point of leverage for Sun.

And what about performance! iPhone SDK is already a layer on top of the native iPhone OS APIs. Now JVM would be one more layer on top of it. Will the java applications written for iPhone in future have the same performance as other platforms?

The war for a mobile computing platform is going to get interesting as days go by. Keep watching this blog to see how this unfolds.

Useful Links:
* You may be interested in reading this coverage of the iPhone SDK Press Release by Ryan Block of Engadget.
- You can also watch Apple's official video on the iPhone SDK Press Release here. Note: You need quicktime player.

What makes you browsing experience in iPhone and Nokia N/E series phones great ?

You should thank Webkit, the open source web browser engine*, for the wonderful browsing experience.

This what the Webkit home page has to say:

WebKit is an open source web browser engine. WebKit is also the name of the Mac OS X system framework version of the engine that's used by Safari, Dashboard, Mail, and many other OS X applications. WebKit's HTML and JavaScript code began as a branch of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE. This website is also the home of S60's S60 WebKit development.

Apart from Apple (as the Safari web browser in their Mac OS X, iPhone and iPod Touch) and Nokia (in their N and E series of phones), Google has also included Webkit as the default web browsing engine in its recently released Android platform for mobile devices.

In his post, Bob Cringely reasons as to why Webkit is such a strategic project for Apple and why it would also be the driver for the rumoured iTablet (you find my previous post questioning as to whether Apple's PDA would click or not ?).

You may also find it interesting to read this post by Om Malik about Webkit's rise to popularity. Gives you a quick round up of where webkit stands compared to its competition.

Webkit is still evolving (but fast) and has a long way to go before winning hearts of hardcore Opera Mini fans like myself :). Read this post in Wap Review to know why Opera Mini 4.0 is better than Webkit on a Nokia (and I completely agree with that).

-------------

Web Browser Engine - This is the piece of software which downloads the html web page from the address specified by you, processes it and renders it back on the screen of the display device. The screen could be anything from your PC Monitor to an iPhone's touch screen.

[Article imported from http://mohasinz.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-makes-you-browsing-experience-in.html]

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet released - Competetion of iPod touch ?

Nokia announces the release of their Internet Tablet, the Nokia N810.

You can view the official photos of this device here - http://www.nokia.com/A4136017?category=n810

Please do not confuse this device for a mobile phone because of the Nokia branding. The internet tablet is a wifi-enabled Mobile Internet Device.

This device provides you with an option to connect to the internet while you are on the move. You can do what you usually do with a PC.. you can browse, chat, make internet calls, access web applications and apart from that you can use it as a media player as well.. all this while you are travelling and away from your PC.

The device has a 4.13" (800x480 pixel resolution) touch-screen. Unlike iPod touch, you also have an option to use qwerty keyboard.

Also, it comes with an integrated GPS with an built-in maps and satellite navigation applications.

And yes (I am happy to say this :)), it is based on the Maemo Linux Operating System (Debian Linux derivative) . Now this is very important for the device to gain popularity. This device provides an environment where Linux developers from around the world can contribute towards developing interesting applications for this device. If developers are interested, users would also be interested as well as they have more choices in terms of applications for this device.

Now, I could not find a page where its specs are given. The specification details given in the press release are scattered. So here is the consolidated specification of this device that I could derive from the press release. The list is kind of crude and is incomplete. But is better than what is mentioned in the press release :)

Hardware Specification:

• Screen Size: 4.13" (800x480 pixel resolution)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth and Wifi
• Touch screen and Sliding Qwerty keyboard
• GPS
• Integrated VGA camera
• External Memory: 10GB Memory Card (Optional)

Software Specification:

• Maemo Linux Operating System
• Mozilla Web Browser with AJAX and Adobe Flash 9
• Skype
• Video Gizmo
• Rhapsody
• Built-in maps and Satellite navigation
• Boingo
• Earthlink
• The Cloud

Highlights:

• Offers true Web2.0 experience.
• Open platform. Gives an opportunity for the open source developers to take part.
• Touch Screen & Qwerty keyboard available

My Thoughts:

As, I have mentioned before, Mobile web is picking up pretty well and it is going to be next happening this after the PC revolution. Your life is more and more going to depend on these intelligent mobile devices. I wouldn't be surprised even if people stop buying PCs 10-15 years down the line when all they need is accessible through a mobile device.

Nokia realizes the potential for a Mobile Internet Device and is got a lead with their Internet Tablet series.

The iPod touch, I feel is more or less similar to the Internet Tablet. Both these devices are going to prove that mobile devices are a capable platform for accessing the Internet.

Now that brings up an interesting point. Nokia and Apple are competing with each other directly. While Nokia shows the media player functionality to their Internet Tablet, Apple has brought Web Browsing capabilities to the popular iPod media player.

Nokia, I feel has an obvious advantage here. Having been the leaders in Mobile phones, they are well placed to come up with more innovations to their devices. Also, the Internet Tablet provides an open platform for developers to value-add by writing applications of their choice. iPhone/iPod touch are very restricted in terms of supporting the developer community. Apple may lead the race for now in terms of usability and multi-touch features of their device. But its a matter of time before these features become a commodity.