developer

"iPhonifying" Web pages

David Cann, the Web developer behind iPhoneDigg and iPhoneChat, has released an iPhone "skin" for Google Reader. Unlike his other iPhone Web apps, which create entirely new interfaces that are separately hosted, the Google Reader iPhone Skin employs the GreaseMonkey concept: injecting a new interface into a Web page on the fly by piggybacking Javascript while retaining the underlying functionality. Cann plans to apply this method of "iPhonifying" web pages to other sites in the near future. The Google Reader skin supports starring, viewing Subscriptions, viewing Folders, next/Previous Item and more.

iPhone simulation app gains zoom-to-fit function, goes open-source

The Mac OS X application iPhoney, which simulates an iPhone interface by using WebKit to render pages in 320x480 or 480x320 (depending on how the simulated iPhone is oriented), has been updated to version 1.1 [1.4MB download]. The primary new feature in this release is zoom-to-fit, which will resize Web pages to completely (width-wise) in the iPhone screen. However, there is still no function to emulate "tap-zooming" (zooming in on specific portions of a page) nor touch-scrolling.

The new release also adds the ability to turn off plug-ins (including Flash, which is not supported by the … Read more

Backbase to tailor its SDK for the iPhone -- demos don't work in Safari

Backbase, a company known for its development tools, templates and code snippets, has announced that it intends to "support" the iPhone with its enterprise-level suite. A press release says the company will support "Apple's Web browser for iPhone, Safari 3, and the code-named Leopard operating system," and that the Backbase SDK will "enable developers to bring Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and rich user interfaces to the iPhone." The company provides little detail on its support plans, saying only that it will deliver "Widgets and components" designed to take advantage of iPhone … Read more

LinkedIn reportedly jumping on the platform bandwagon

You've probably heard it by now--LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman hinted to Dan Farber at our sister site ZDNet that within the next nine months, his site will be opening itself up to developers, Facebook-style. There's not a whole lot else to report now aside from speculation--and the speculation thus far has indeed been rampant.

This is especially interesting, because over the past few months I've seen a few trends: first, a more professional crowd gravitating toward Facebook; and second, that recent college graduates entering the work force haven't pounced on LinkedIn the way … Read more

Cornelius Willis on developing community

I spent some time with Cornelius Willis today talking about bootstrapping developer communities. Cornelius used to be at SourceLabs and is now CMO at Pluggd, a very cool video search company. (He demo'd the system for me and I was blown away. Searching for keywords in a video - based on speech-to-text technology with some secret sauce thrown in - is genius.)

Cornelius said something that I found brilliant. In terms of developing community, Cornelius suggested that

You have the make the community visible to itself.

In other words, a developer is much more likely to stay with a community if she actually feels like she's not alone. Things like Digg let you see votes, as well as the process for tallying them. You know you're not alone in Digg. You know that your vote counts, and that you're visible in voting.… Read more

Adobe on why it is hosting the iPhone developers camp, NDA

Yesterday we reported that Adobe plans to host the iPhone developers camp that will take place early next month (July 6th-8th). The gathering will be hosted at the San Francisco Adobe Office. We speculated that despite the lack of Flash on the iPhone initially, the decision to host was motivated by Adobe's desire to be at the forefront of Web development on all platforms.

The company has now issued an FAQ on the conference, essentially confirming this postulation. Excerpts:

Q: Why is Adobe hosting this event?

A: Adobe embraces any opportunity to support the Web community. We believe that … Read more

iPhone web simulator application for Mac OS X debuts

Marketcircle has released a Mac OS X application that simulates the size of the iPhone's screen, offering a built-in WebKit-based browser. Dubbed "iPhoney," the application can simulate the iPhone user agent, rotate to display pages vertically or horizontally, and show or hide the location bar. It cannot, however, simulate the actual WebKit limitations of the iPhone (no Flash, no Java, etc.)

Sites are rendered in a 320 by 480-pixel (vertical) or 480 by 320-pixel (horizontal) window, with a stylized iPhone frame. It's pixel accurate, meaning that it has exactly the same number of pixels on its … Read more

Adobe to host iPhone developers camp

We have learned that Adobe plans to host the iPhone developers camp that will take place early next month (July 6th-8th). The gathering will be hosted at the San Francisco Adobe Office (see this flickr search for some venue pictures).

Yesterday we posted an interview with the conference's founder, Raven Zachary.

Zachary told us that while it may come as a surprise to some that Adobe is hosting the conference (in light of the iPhone's initial lack of Flash capabilities), it makes sense when you consider Adobe's desire to be at the forefront of Web development on … Read more

Interview with Raven Zachary, founder of iPhone Developers camp

Today iPhone Atlas sat down to lunch with Raven Zachary, an Open Source Industry Analyst with The 451 Group and founder of the "iPhone Developers Camp," a free-to-attend conference to be held July 6-8, 2007 at an as-yet unspecified venue in the Bay Area, California (actually the venue and host have already been decided, but that information is still confidential). Raven explained to us the impetus behind the camp, why it will be different from commercial conferences, and why Apple's decision to go Web-only for iPhone development might be like the decision to … Read more