iPhone 2.0. Now With (Official) Games & Apps!

After much anticipation and hype around Apple's iPhone, it's no surprise that developers have been chomping at the bit to build applications for it. Today Apple outlines its plan to release a Software Development Kit (SDK) to developers.

Apple is offering a "beta" version of the SDK today on their developer website so developers can get their apps or games! ready for when Apple is ready to distribute them via Apple's new App's Store.

Through the App Store, developers have the choice to set their price on their creation and even give them away for free. The best part is the devs get to keep 70% of the revenue! Apple is even handling the credit card fee's and transactions, hosting and bandwidth costs, along with marketing and promotions.

The App Store is setup much like the iTunes Store on the iPhone. You can access it from either WiFi or AT&T's EDGE network. You be able to browse apps through several categories: featured, top rated, bookmarked, and plain ol' search.

Much to the surprise of many people Apple announced that gaming is going to be a (big) part of this SDK release. With big names like EA and SEGA bringing big titles like Spore (that game is everywhere!!!) and Super Monkey Ball (of Wii fame) the iPhone is looking like a gamers dream.

Above is Spore in action. You start out as a single celled organism and work your way to space flight and beyond. From non-other than Will Wright, of Sim City (Sims) fame.

One of the most asked for apps was is instant messaging, and AOL was touting their AIM client running on an iPhone at the conference today. This looks to be a perfect match for those who have to be in constant contact with their 'buddies'.

In a big coup for the corporate market, Apple has said that they are bringing Microsoft's ActiveSync and Exchange server support to the iPhone. Which should be enough to push businesses over the edge since now corporate email will work with the iPhone.

Version 2.0 of the iPhone software is promised to be released in late June, which is the update that will enable all this new app goodness. I can't wait.

Hacking The iPhone. Gasp!

Hacking the iPhone what a hot topic. The battle between hacker and The Man has been around for ages, a constant game of cat and mouse. But never has such as battle evoked such emotion, you could say that Apple just has a cult following a more loyal fan base, or maybe it's the fact that thousands of iPhones became paper weights (like mine) through an Official Apple update.

The easiest method for hacking your iPhone has been released this week, simply point your iPhones browser to jailbreakme.com (over WiFi) and after a few seconds you're ready to make your phone even better.

Well now that the cats out of the bag, and there are literally hundreds of applications developed for the iPhone people have been begging Apple to allow 3rd party apps on the iPhone, legitimately, even if they have to pay for them. Make the apps go through some kind of certification process and let the developer decide what they what to charge and then Apple takes their cut. Everybody wins: the devs make money on their hard work, Apple make (more) money, and the consumers get the applications they want without having to worry about destroying their phones.

Now I'll walk you through some of the things you can do with 3rd party apps...

Now everything you see above is just eye candy, but time and time again people have shown how much they want to be able to customize their devices. Apple won't even let you change the background on the iPhone! As you can see here I've replaced the AT&T logo with the Apple logo and the word 'iPhone', also color was added to my WiFi signal (green full, yellow half, red low), also the dock (the four buttons on the bottom, phone, mail, etc...) has been changed to make it reflective much like the dock on a Mac.

There are also new apps on the main screen here from games (Tetromino, a Tetris clone), and apps that let me change colors and logos (Customize, and SMBprefs), to the Installer app that let's me find and install new apps on to the iPhone.

Here's a preview of just how easy Installer is to use. Above is the main screen you see when you open up Installer.

Installer organizes all the apps into folder for you to browse through. Simply click touch a folder and decide which apps you want to install on your iPhone.

The app Customize is so strait forward and easy to use, you just touch what icon you're looking to change and it gives you a list of preset images and colors to look through.

Now hacking isn't for everyone, but don't worry Apple has recently announced that they will be allowing 3rd party apps on the iPhone. Starting in January Apple is going to release an SDK (software development kit) so developer can start make licensed apps for the iPhone. They have yet to release the distribution model (iTunes, duh) or how pricing is going to work. I'll keep you posted.