On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 12:15 PM, Eric House<[email protected]> wrote: > > * I believe it is not possible on iPhone or Palm WebOS without > "jailbreaking" the phones. >
I *think* there are restrictions on how you can distribute applications that are accepted into the iTunes app store (from the TOS). IIRC, there is some question as to whether you *can* OSS software written for the iPhone. I haven't taken the time to make sure this is true, because I disagree with enough of Apple's other iPhone-related activities that I just don't care. I'm not supporting iPhones unless it's the difference between early retirement and another 10 years of work. ;) > * I don't know much about Android or Blackberry. It's a good sign > that Sourceforge has a few apps for each, but I don't know and can't > tell from the documentation what it takes to install. For example, > would I need a "Developer edition" of an Android phone to install > unsigned apps? Development for Android is *very* easy (for example, layering semi-transparent widgets on top of a live camera stream "just works"--hardware accelerated alpha blending and all). All applications must be signed, but that is only used as a means to identify the source of the apps, and for some interaction between apps. (the signing ties in with the Andoid user/permissions system, so someone else can't write an app that masquerades as a user that is privelidged to access your app's internals.) In my experience, this has been a complete non-issue, but I haven't distributed anything yet. I haven't had any problems writing apps and putting them on my t-mobile issued G1. You need a developer phone if you want to work on the kernel -- the carrier-issued phones require a signed kernel, but that doesn't impact applications. Since I have a G1, that's what I know -- I can't speak about the other platforms. Android has been great though. It's easy to work with, it is well designed, the documentation is very good, there is an active community, and the system is based on open-source philosophies. --Rogan > (There are multiple levels to this discussion, alas. For example, on > WinMo unsigned apps can use the network but can't send/receive NBS/SMS > messages. And I think carriers have the ability to block installation > of all unsigned apps, though I don't know of any who've chosen to > cripple their phones to this extent. Yet.) > > Why do I care? I write/maintain an open source mobile game (see .sig) > for fun, and I happen to need a new cellphone. I might as well buy > one that I can develop for. The newer OSes are more familiar in being > based on open source foundations, but -- and I find this more than a > bit ironic -- are trending away from being open platforms. > > Thanks! > > --Eric > -- > ****************************************************************************** > * From the desktop of: Eric House, [email protected] * > * Crosswords 4.2 for MS Smartphone and PocketPC is out: xwords.sf.net * > ****************************************************************************** > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
