You know the drill, if you’re a developer and you want the latest, greatest iOS 4.1 beta 3 for your iPhone or iPod touch, head on over to Apple and get it.

No word yet on what, if any new features it might contain but we’re still guessing we won’t see anything too spectacular until Steve Jobs takes the stage for the annual iPod and iTunes event in September, and shows off iPod touch G4 and the final iOS 4 version.

But if you find anything, let us know in comments.

[developer.apple.com]

Apple releases iOS 4.1 beta 3 for developers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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We’re one of the lucky devs to score a preview of Xcode 4 back at WWDC 2010? Worry not, Apple has been mailing out news that a new beta is available for one and all… (registered developers that is).

Get a preview of Xcode 4 — the next generation of Apple’s integrated development environment for creating Mac OS X and iOS applications.

With a brand new interface, compiler, debugger and dozens of new features, Xcode 4 is faster, easier to use, and more helpful than ever before. Quite simply, Xcode 4 will help you write better code.

Read about the many new enhancements and download the developer preview to see what’s new in Xcode 4.

It’s under NDA but we’ve heard through the grapevine that it’s a fairly impressive update. Hopefully that translates into better apps for our iPads and iPhones…

Apple offering developer preview of Xcode 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Just a quick reminder to developers that the iTunes 9.2 beta released back at WWDC 2010 expires on June 30 (just over 4 days from now, Cupertino time).

So, if you haven’t gotten around to updating with the general availability version released week before last, put it on your todo list.

[Thanks for the tip, anon!]

iTunes 9.2 beta expiring June 30 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has, with lightning quickness, posted videos from the WWDC sessions online for developers. And here’s the terrific part — they’ve made them available to ALL registered developers, not just those who bought expensive tickets to the event.

Terrific idea. If you’re a developer who couldn’t attend, you’d be crazy not to jump on this.

[developer.apple.com]

Apple posts WWDC session videos for developers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

We’ve all heard huge numbers thrown around as measures of iPhone and iPad App Store success — over 200,000 apps and 5 billion downloads being some of the most recent and most impressive. There’s a couple of other numbers that are even more interesting when it comes to iPhone and iPad development: 100, 100 million, and 1 billion.

Roughly 100 million iOS devices have been sold to data and they are all broadly software compatible. There’s some fragmentation to be sure — older devices are slower, there’s no cameras (yet) on the iPod touch and iPad, no GPS in iPod touch, iPad Wi-Fi, and the iPhone 2G. Apple mitigates this somewhat by offering services such as CoreLocation where, if no GPS is found, it gracefully degrades down to cell tower triangulation or Wi-Fi router mapping. Even the iPad with its odd-device-out 1024×768 display will frame iPhone apps or pixel double them, which is awkward but still workable, still compatible. When iPhone 4 ships, it will be precisely double the vertical and horizontal pixel count of previous generations, meaning older apps will simply look the same as they did before (using 4 pixels in the space they used to use 1).

Likewise, most iOS devices tend to get updated to the latest version of the OS, or at least fairly recent versions. While iOS 4 will drop compatibility for iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1, it will also be free for all other devices for the first time, ensuring iPod touch G2 and G3 owners are more likely to update.

Everything isn’t perfect, but for a vast majority of apps it doesn’t need to be. They just work.

The sheer size of that install base is stunning. Code an app once and deploy it to a theoretical 100 million devices — and growing — all with a drop-dead-easy to use icon on the home screen to help them get your apps?

That’s where the 100 comes in. One of the single biggest advantages Apple had going into the App Store was iTunes and the ability to process credit cards and handle transaction at an international scale. There are App Stores now in almost 100 countries (could be 100 or more now, I lost count at 96). Making an app for 100 milion devices — even if they were broadly compatible — wouldn’t be anywhere near as enticing if a developer couldn’t sell them to more than 1 or 2 countries (especially for the many, many developers who live in those unserviced countries). Again, the App Store isn’t literally everywhere, and due to local laws and ratings requirements they can’t sell games in in a couple places, or have other restrictions, but also again, for the majority of apps it’s an unmatched opportunity. When you consider Apple does all the processing and delivery heavy lifting for a 30% cut of paid apps, and 0% of free apps, allowing developers to develop and not spend time on managing that themselves, it’s easy to see why many of them jump at the chance.

1 billion dollars paid out to developers, as mentioned in the comments below, makes manifest the potential market size of those 100 million devices in about 100 countries. At day’s end — and financial year’s end — many developers will go where the money is.

There’s one last set of numbers to touch on as well. The iOS SDK frameworks. They provide an incredibly rich set of functionality developers get “for free” when making apps for the iPhone and they don’t exist (as directly portable options) on other platforms. Accelerate alone offers 2000 hardware-powered math API for games. Never mind CoreAnimation, CoreData, Game Center, the UI elements, and everything else that rounds out the kit. If portability isn’t the prime concern, they greatly enhance ease of development.

Apple isn’t wasting the chance to show that off. They just posted a video showcasing developers for developers [QuickTime link -- tip of the hat to 9to5Mac]

The flip side of that, of course, is the trade off in control made for convenience and opportunity. There are certain apps Apple won’t let into their store, and no guarantee they won’t pull an app (or whole class of them) even after they’re in the store. Having humans review apps makes app review subject to human error. Also, for every hit-it-rich app in the store there will be many, many times more that don’t break even.

For developers writing mainstream apps, nowhere near the edge-cases, it will probably never be an issue. Edge-cases, however, are often where some of the most interesting developments come from. Further, if you do use a lot of those API and you want to move to other or multiple platforms, you’re likely in for a lot of recoding, including a lot from scratch.

Palm, with parties, cross-compilers, and the chance for a nice payday, and Google with factually challenged trash-talk at I/O and a lightning fast JIT (just-in-time compiler) and Flash support, aren’t wasting the chance to show that off either.

Apple’s magic developer numbers: 100, 100 million, and 1 billion is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

It should come as no surprise that both Palm webOS and Google Android want iPhone developers on their platform. Mac developers have long been as passionate about their platform and incredibly talented in the apps they’ve delivered, and a lot of that has transferred over to iOS devices like the iPhone and now iPad.

Whether or not Apple is engaged in a platform war with Palm and Google it’s inarguable that the current generation of users want apps and right now Apple has an advantage in that area. Part of getting people to switch to another platform is making sure the apps they love are on that platform, and that means big name apps and fan favorites alike.

If Google is moving around behind the scenes, approaching core iPhone developers (the ones who make the most iPhone-like apps and enjoy high mind share) and trying to sneak them over to Android, Palm has gone one step further — openly courting them.

In the middle of Apple’s iOS-centric WWDC 2010 no less, Palm held a shindig of their own, a PDK (Plugin Developer Kit) soiree to wine and dine iPhone developers, point out the Pre has pretty much the same guts as the iPhone 3GS, and that a lot of applications can be ported over — especially games. And they made certain to highlight their openness, especially to emulators and cross-compilers. And they offered $1 million dollars in incentives.

Obviously users go where the apps are and developers make apps for where the users are, so the cycle can be vicious or virtuous, and just as obviously Google and Palm would much rather the latter.

Competition is good, different approaches are good, and options for developers are great, but whether or not Google and Palm can convince iPhone developers (and now iOS 4 developers) to become mobile developers is the question.

Palm webOS and Google Android after iPhone developers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple has sent out a notice to developers advising them that the iTunes App Store has begun accepting iOS 4 binaries for submission and review:

Submit your iOS 4 apps for review so they can be ready for sale when iOS 4 is available to iPhone and iPod touch users. Make sure you have built and tested your applications using iOS 4 and iPhone SDK 4 GM seed, which you can download from the iPhone Dev Center.

Log in to iTunes Connect and upload your iOS 4 applications today.

iOS 4 is scheduled for release on June 21, once again developers aren’t likely to get much sleep, especially if trying to once again implement new features for a device they don’t have and can’t yet test.

(The effort is much appreciated.)

iTunes App Store begins accepting iOS 4-compatible apps for review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple recently released iTunes Connect Mobile [Free - iTunes Link] which allows registered developers to track app sales and trends.  The app is available via the App Store now and is a free download.  For developers, this provides an extremely easy way to not only check sales numbers but to see trends on the go.

Simply log in and you’ll get a nice layout that shows you not only your total sales but a breakdown of sales by application. From what I understand, you can see either daily or weekly totals as of right now. As we are currently working on applications and haven’t released any yet, I don’t see any breakdowns.  Any developers have any feedback on the breakdown or things you’d like to see in an update?

I think another really neat app idea would be if Apple released an app that let regular users see purchased app histories and showed totals of all iPhone/iPad apps they’ve purchased, as well as a monthly breakdown of what they’re buying.  It would be interesting how much users spend on apps in total.  After 3 years of using an iPhone, I’d be nervous to see how much I’ve actually spent on apps.  Hit the break for some screenshots!

iTunes Connect Mobile now in App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has released the 378MB Gold Master (GM) seed for iOS 4 (formerly iPhone OS 4) and it’s now available to developers via developer.apple.com (after you agree to the new terms of use). Apple has also announced that developers can begin submitting iOS 4 compatible apps to the iTunes App Store beginning June 10.

So let’s get going devs, we know you’re going to amaze us!

NOTE: Be sure to grab iTunes 9.2 beta — you can’t activate iOS 4 GM with iTunes 9.1 (download from the same page).

[developer.apple.com]

iOS 4 GM seed now live, app submissions begin June 10 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Since introducing iPhone OS 4 beta, Apple has kept a rigorous every-second-Tuesday update schedule through beta 4… until yesterday. Yesterday, the next Tuesday in line for a release, came and went with nary a beta 5 in sight.

Could be late, or it could be with WWDC 2010 less than a week away Apple is holding off to release the iPhone OS 4 GM (gold master) seed at the show? (Like they did last year for iPhone 3.0).

If you’re stuck waiting, we’ve updated our iPhone OS 4 preview and feature walkthrough, so check that out and let us know what we’re missing, and what you’re still expecting!

iPhone OS 4 beta 5 doesn’t show, does that mean GM seed might soon be a go? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog