Despite easy access to the SDK itself and reference documentation for just about anyone and their mother through Apple's site, app developers have been itching for a way to collaborate with other developers to share information and help improve their offerings. But the non-disclosure agreement governing the SDK put a choke hold on that, and developers did so at the risk of earning Apple's ire. Apparently, Apple received enough feedback about this to change their ways, and posted the following note on the Developer Connection site:
It's really nice to know (and a pleasant surprise) that Apple has actually been listening to some feedback about the iPhone and App Store, but I have to think they've received so much more feedback about the things the iPhone has been missing since day one (you remember - copy & paste, video recording, voice dialing, etc.). What a frustrating use of selective hearing on their part.
If you read the reviews for an app on the App Store before you buy it, you’ve probably been frustrated by the reviews posted by people who don’t even own the app. iPhone developers have also expressed frustration with this process, since poor reviews can lead to lower sales for their app. Well, no more! Apple has finally set up requirements to review apps - if you try to review an app that you have not purchased, you’ll see this message pop up in iTunes:
It’s unknown whether Apple will go back and remove the existing reviews from those who did not purchase or download the app in question (which could be quite a daunting task), but at least we now know that reviews from this point on will most likely be based on actual experience with the app.
Via Macrumors forums...
Remember Open Clip’s Copy & Paste framework I
mentioned the other day? Well, it’s already broken. Yep, you read that right. Broken. The beta version of the iPhone’s next firmware (2.1b4) was released to developers around the same time that Open Clip’s framework was getting talked up on the internets, and it turns out that the “community space” that Open Clip was relying on to be the holding place for copied information to be accessed between applications will be closed off. According to an
update posted on Open Clip’s website , copy and paste within a single application using Open Clip’s framework will still be possible in 2.1, but copy and paste will no longer work between different applications.
Open Clip’s developer, Zac White, does not think that this was an intentional move by Apple, but just normal tightening-up on their part of the firmware that was probably in the works for a while. We can still hope that Apple will eventually implement copy and paste between applications in the future - it has been mentioned that this is on their radar, but just not very high on the priority list. Or that a developer will again find a way to make this work that will “stick” despite future firmware updates. I don’t know about you, but I am dying for a way to copy and paste the log-in information for that terrible viewmymessage.com site that AT&T so kindly sends vis SMS to remind me of the fact that I can’t view MMS messages on my iPhone when my friends forget that I can’t get those kinds of messages. Who’s with me?
If you're one of the iPhone users who has been waiting for copy and paste (like me!) your wait for this key feature might be getting shorter. A software developer has put together a framework that all iPhone app developers can use to allow copy and paste to work between different applications.
The trouble in implementing copy and paste on the iPhone to date has been the restrictions put in place by Apple: apps are not allowed to write data to other apps. So if you do copy information in one app, it is not allowed to put this data anywhere outside of its own framework. Also, since apps cannot run in the background, anything copied in an app closes down along with the app when you leave it.
Enter OpenClip, a not-for-profit open-source project that is building a framework that will allow apps by participating developers to copy and paste information between them. Zac White is the developer who created the framework to make this happen. In this framework, apps will use space in the iPhone's system that is open and available to all apps to store copied information. Other apps built using this framework can then access this "community" space and pull out the copied information for pasting or further manipulation.
OpenClip states that this framework does not violate Apple's SDK in any way. And the more apps that participate and use the framework, the ability to copy and paste on the iPhone will become a true feature. It's unknown what Apple will do with this framework and if it will be implemented in the core iPhone apps like Safari, Contacts, Notes, and others. But we can hope that this framework will be a way for Apple to implement copy and paste in the apps where it's most needed!
See more at
OpenClip's site .
Via [
MacRumors ]
