[Ben]

MacRumors.com has just blown my socks off :p

The news everyone wanted to hear first: An SDK will be available for the iPhone by February 2008!

Yes, the Jobster, as he's almost never called, has written an open letter stating Apple's intentions. This is incredibly exciting news, as with the right applications the iPhone has the potential to be a miniature tablet Mac.

Oh, and the SDK will work for the iPod Touch, too ;)

Secondly, Mac marketshare in the US has jumped from 6.2% to 8.1%, making them the third largest computer vendor behind Dell and HP. There'll undoubtedly be a big boost from Leopard arriving, so that number will only go upwards. While I don't think any Mac user wants OS X to take over the worlds computers (we quite like not being the target of endless malware and viruses), it's generally appreciated that once a certain critical mass of market share is reached then applications developed for the Mac will be much more readily available, and support for the platform will generally improve. That said, things are pretty sweet already.

[Hands0n]

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... The day of a 'Touch PDA from Apple cannot be more than a few months away.

This is indeed excellent news - opening up the OS to developers will do wonders for both products, even if Apple [very unlikely] do not bring out a PDA. The iPod Touch only misses Bluetooth to make it the complete PDA-in-waiting that it could be.

Certainly, releasing an SDK gets us all away from the current hacks that are needed to get these devices anywhere near their potential.

I would like to see the next update of iPod Touch add write capability to the Calendar app, we can already write into Addressbook. And I'd like to see a few of the iPhone apps on the iPod Touch too - especially with the 18GB model it makes such good sense.

[Ben]

Apple have, apparently, already said that the inability to edit calendar entries is a bug. The original details stated that calendar entries would be editable, but the literature was later changed.

Should be done in the next update :)

[miffed]

Does anyone know what is going on with the French iPhone / sim free thing ?

I read lots of "maybe" and "possibly" stories , and a few outlining the legal situation - but I have seen nothing conclusive

Anyone know ? - It would be handy to nip over to France and pick up a legitimate , sim free iPhone .... or even flash an illigitimate iPhone with French , sim free firmware perhaps :D

[Ben]

I think there's likely to be a very expensive unlocked iPhone available in France to get around the law of not having a handset exclusively tied to a network. I'm sure there will be extensive controls to make it only work with French iTunes etc, but if not it could be the only way of buying a truly SIM-Free iPhone.

[gorilla]

you should read this article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/18/news) in today's guardian. Basically, it refers to apple as providing appliances, not gadgets that can be modified. Hence, apple is portrated as providing lockdown equipment.

This is obviously well known, but could point to the future direction apple takes.

[Ben]

Steve is famously against even Apple's computers being upgraded or modified. They are indeed an 'appliance' vendor, but it's all part of their 'just works' strategy. I have come to realise since going Macward that, with a little bending of ones will, Apple's products are designed to do what most people would need them to do, and they do those things very well.