Websites around the Internet are claiming that Apple has started seeding an early development version of the iPhone SDK or software development kit. This is important news as MacWorld is less two months away. Apple will want to show off the iPhone as an easy to program platform. Gaining ground over the Symbian platform used by popular Nokia cell phones and others is what Apple is hoping to do.
The early software development kit that is supposedly being seeded is described as “rough versions”. These are the tools that assist developers to program native software applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Sources who have seen the development software says that it “somewhat resembles Google’s OpenSocial in that it mediates between the programmer and the iPhone operating system.”
This comment many mean that the native software will be “sandboxed” for stability and for security of the iPhone and iPod touch. Apple has said that it wants to have a way for developers to create software but also sell the iPhone as a device people can count on to work properly. Sandboxing software puts it into an area of the iPhone’s operating system that limits its cellular phone functions. Sandboxing software creates “clear limits” to iPhone software which could cause just a warm reception from developers.
Steve Jobs announced that the official iPhone and iPod touch SDK would be released sometime in February 2008. Via MacRumors.