Some developers are being rumored to be in possession of early versions of Apple's upcoming iPhone and iPod touch software developer kits. This according to Electronista.

These developers are reported to have gotten more advanced yet still rough versions of the current web-only solution. The SDK will become officially available to the development community in February next year.

And now you know: if Apple's Steve Jobs said they'll give iPhone third-party developers the support they need, they will. We've caught word of Apple's launching of the iPhone Dev Center, an Internet portal for numerous third-party developers to discuss and review issues and updates to the iPhone's web development path.

The site already comes with plenty of generated content, including tech videos and how-tos, plus a wealth of introductions to first time and intermediate web developers for the iPhone platform. There's also some sample code to be had, with half a share of interface samples on one side and another half covering simple puzzle games.

Now all the other third-party developers will need is the iPhone software development kit (SDK) Jobs promised and they're set. But they'll have to wait until February 2008 at the least for that. For the time being, acquaint yourselves in the semi-training atmosphere Apple has set up, much like previous impressions the company has left on some.

An official Apple software development kit (SDK) intended for third-party software developers on the iPhone was confirmed when Apple CEO Steve Jobs' latest blog entry at Apple's site said they planned to have the SDK in developers' hands by February 2008. Jobs said it would take at least that long to strike a compromise between security and freedom. Later, it was revealed that the SDK would permit development for the iPod Touch, too.

Now these are things that other companies have had to face with their own growing homebrew communities, and Apple will be no exception to the rule. Jobs continued:

This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phonesÂ?this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Jobs iterated that there will be some form of control that will be implemented, but there will be enough freedom to expand the breadth of applications possible on the iPhone. But that said, some restrictions may arise from striking a balance between protection and open platforms. Apple's wonder guy said, "While [control] makes such a phone less than 'totally open,' we believe it is a step in the right direction."

"No software developer kit (SDK) is required for the iPhone." That statement may prove to be the death knoll for those who hoped to run cutting-edge third party applications on the iPhone.

As pointed out by Jesus Diaz in his Gizmodo post, third party software developers are now only limited to using AJAX, an internet standard that spawned applications such as Gmail, Facebook, and Google Maps. While AJAX has proven to be indispensable, it still gives developers little freedom when it comes to creating applications.

Apple's press release has this to say about the iPhone not having SDK:

Developers can create Web 2.0 applications which look and behave just like the applications built into iPhone, and which can seamlessly access iPhone's services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps.

However, this is hardly new, since the Safari is already included in the iPhone, which can auto-detect phone numbers and addresses embedded in webpages effortlessly.

Needless to say, a lack of SDK means lack of innovative third party programs that may improve the experience of using the iPhone. More importantly, there will be a severe lack of great games that could possibly be played on the iPhone. Apple may have ties with Electronic Arts (EA) and id software - both game geniuses in their own right - but how about other game developers who know their stuff as well?

Simply put, not giving software developers enough freedom to create applications may very well hurt possible iPhone users hoping to get cutting edge technology.

Well, there's still widgets to work with, anyway.

If you've gotten your hands on an Apple TV and want to customize it to fit your exact needs, then this will be good news for you. According to MacNN, an enterprising individual has released an Apple TV plug-in dev kit that could make things easier for all plug-in devs out there.

 

The BackRow Developers' Kit, which can be downloaded from alanquatermain.net, contains headers for BackRow framework, iPhotoAccess framework, and QuartzComposer frameworks. All of these are needed to run appliance plug-ins on the Apple TV as well as the BackRow Test application.

MacNN also notes that the SDK also includes an Xcode project template that has everything necessary to "start a custom appliance plug-in, creating the Info-plist with the required elements as well as Appliance and ApplianceController classes with links in the appropriate frameworks."

If you're new to all of this, a few BackRow programming tutorials can also be downloaded from the developer's website.