Coding Dilemma
My coding curiosity got the better of me, and I made a little iPhone app. But there's a problem.
I have never been happy with the way the iPhone SDK development model is set up. In fact, you might say I am unhappy with it.
Briefly, I find it rather offensive that Apple extends its control all the way to my pocket. That is, instead of being my device, the iPhone I have is essentially still property of Apple - merely rented by me.
The problem is, I can't help but program on anything that is programmable, which brings me to my dilemma. I disagree with Apple's tactics enough that I do not wish to 1) support them any more than I already have, or 2) buy in to their way of doing things. My uncontrollable urges as a coder, however, have led me to develop a small iPhone application anyway (oops).
It's a simple little app that sends and receives address book contents over a network. I just finished it, and it works relatively well (that's a picture of it above in receive mode). I can see it being a starting place for other, more interesting, apps.
It would be nice if it were easily downloadable onto non-hacked phones through the app store. Then, I could use it to send contacts to other iphones, which for some unknown reason isn't a standard feature of the phone in the first place (really, why is that?).
The thing is, of course, I can't even run it on my own phone until I drink the iPhone SDK Kool Aid®, and I really don't want to do that.
As far as I can see, my options are one of:
Any thoughts? Am I just being stupid?
I have never been happy with the way the iPhone SDK development model is set up. In fact, you might say I am unhappy with it.
Briefly, I find it rather offensive that Apple extends its control all the way to my pocket. That is, instead of being my device, the iPhone I have is essentially still property of Apple - merely rented by me.
The problem is, I can't help but program on anything that is programmable, which brings me to my dilemma. I disagree with Apple's tactics enough that I do not wish to 1) support them any more than I already have, or 2) buy in to their way of doing things. My uncontrollable urges as a coder, however, have led me to develop a small iPhone application anyway (oops).
It's a simple little app that sends and receives address book contents over a network. I just finished it, and it works relatively well (that's a picture of it above in receive mode). I can see it being a starting place for other, more interesting, apps.
It would be nice if it were easily downloadable onto non-hacked phones through the app store. Then, I could use it to send contacts to other iphones, which for some unknown reason isn't a standard feature of the phone in the first place (really, why is that?).
The thing is, of course, I can't even run it on my own phone until I drink the iPhone SDK Kool Aid®, and I really don't want to do that.
As far as I can see, my options are one of:
- value the learning experience and move on
- crack and become part of the iphone sdk developer collective
- distribute the app for jailbroken phones (there's probably a better app than this in that space anyway)
- release the source and someone else can put it on the app store if they want
Any thoughts? Am I just being stupid?