Since I dissed the iPhone SDK earlier this month (iPhone SDK lacks mapping function), I wanted to pass on this update. Looks like a GPS-enabled iPhone is in the works for Apple’s upcoming World Wide Dev Conference. Even if the announcement doesn’t come then, looks like it will come soon according to EnGadget:
Second-gen iPhone: 3G, GPS, only slightly thicker
This is great news for mobile map-based application developers but don’t count on the API being as slick and open as Android’s. Given Apple’s approach so far, they’ll still withhold the vital functionality to get your app really humming.
Why do I say that?
Well for example, Apple’s SDK doesn’t allow applications to run in the background. That means death to any Pocket Journey app that would run on an iPhone as the audio/video would be killed along with your application as soon as someone called. Apple says this is for security reasons, but we know it’s due to Apple’s “control freakish” corporate nature. Happily for us, Android solved this challenge through their Service API.
Seems like Apple wants to step back to the dark ages of the Palm OS which can only handle single-threaded tasks as well
