Nice post by Brett Peters on this week’s iPhone SDK (that’s Software Development Kit, for you less geeky folks) release at It’s the Software, Stupid (Nobody Wants A Styl.us)

“Instead of selling you a specific model and forcing you to purchase a new device to get additional features, Apple has taken the route of selling the platform that can be easily extended. Users can buy those features they want. The iPhone becomes both a video player, enterprise communicator, gaming console, and social network hub — all on the same device.”

I, like thousands of other geeks out there, can’t wait to get my hands on this and add my own features to this platform. But alas, I will most definitely need a new Mac to do it - the development tools require an Intel-based Mac and won’t run on my ancient 12″ Powerbook… Definitely time for a new Mac.

Also like thousands of others, I have been itching to develop software for the iPhone and have a half dozen project ideas in my head. Of course the first will be a full, native iPhone version of this. I also suspect it will be a test of the willingness of Apple to host this kind of app on the iPhone app store. Mr. Jobs has said no porn, which it’s not but…

After pausing and thinking more about this, I really began to wonder why I am so freaking excited by this SDK. I honestly haven’t been so excited by something like this since the alpha Java developers kit came out (freaking 13 years ago, crap I’m old). But it’s simple - this is a device that lives within my reach all day (and sadly all night). I use it constantly. I use it as an alarm clock, a timer, a map, a web browser and of course, as a phone. Now I can make it do more things… And others can make it do even more. I can’t freaking wait to see what appears.

(Brett Peters link via the excellent Shawn Blanc.)

Geek //