Last week Apple announced iPhone OS 3.0, which should be widely available some time this summer. So, what does this mean for iPhone in Action? Though we haven't dived too far into 3.0 esoterica, it looks to us like existing frameworks aren't changing much, which means that everything in our book should still be correct and useful. However iPhone OS 3.0 will introduce a lot of brand-new frameworks that will allow you to do some great new things.
Here's the important ones:
In App Store. This new API allows you to sell value-adds to your app from within the app itself (as long as the user paid some amount to purchase your app originally). This lets you sell subscriptions, new functionality, new content, or other new material on a continuous basis without constantly forcing users to return to the app store. I think this one is really going to change how developers create for the iPhone, since you're suddenly working to retain a base of enthusiastic users who like your products already rather than constantly searching for new ones.
Peer to Peer Connectivity. This API supports automatic discovery of nearby iPhones (with Bonjour) and peer-to-peer connectivity (with Bluetooth). I hadn't really been happy with internet-based multi-user functionality because of the unreliability of EDGE and 3G, but I think this peer-to-peer technology is exactly what's needed to provide robust multi-user capability for games and other applications.
External Accessories. This API allows you to communicate with accessories connected either through the iPhone's 30-pin connector or through Bluetooth. This should be a big deal because it can turn your iPhone into an electronics hub, but it'll ultimately depend on what sort of accessories become available.
Map Kit. The lack of access to Google Maps had been a big hole in the iPhone's API, since you could see it sitting right there on your iPhone, but instead you were forced to work with Google Maps on the internet--which doesn't even size right for the iPhone screen. Now you'll have direct access to the Maps API--though I'm not certain what you can do with it, since Apple has said they can't provide access to the actual maps due to licensing issues. At the least you'll clearly be able to use Google Map's API on your own maps. Hopefully there will be ways to download Google Maps themselves and make use of those too.
Push Notification. They've been promising this one since 2.1. You'll be able to alert users to new information even when your app isn't running via text messages, audio tones, or badge update.
Updated Media Player. The new media player will give you access to the user's iPod libraries, allowing you to directly play songs.
There's some other stuff too, like a new shake API, streaming audio and video that actually works, and in-app email. However the six above are what Apple is currently highlighting at their site.
Because we believe that even a print book should be a living document, over the next several months we're going to be posting articles about these major new APIs here, in the iPhone in Action blog. We'll be providing details on how to use each API along with some examples.
Consider it Chapter 21 of iPhone in Action, starting in this blog sometime in April.
Thanks for the nice summary, I'm really looking forward to this new stuff and of course your forthcoming articles on using the API.
Do you know whether there will be an API for accessing the calendar in OS 3.0 ?
Posted by: roland | March 26, 2009 at 11:54 PM
The only Calendar-related things I'm aware of for 3.0 are user-side: CalDAV support and subscriptions.
Of course, Apple claims 1,000 new APIs for 3.0 (but does that mean 1,000 new classes, 1,000 new method calls or what?)
Posted by: Shannon Appelcline | March 27, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Just wanted you to know that your assurances that you'll be addressing OS 3.0 in the future has helped me to solidify my decision to purchase your book.
Keep up the great work. Very much appreciated!
Posted by: Grok | May 12, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Great to hear. At the moment we've had to put it on hold, after discovering that 3.0 is under NDA (a problem we also had last year with the release of the original book). However, hopefully it'll be out of NDA by summer and we can get back on track for these top topics.
Posted by: Shannon Appelcline | May 12, 2009 at 10:42 AM