developers

Apple is finally getting ready for the iPhone to mean business.

In its first eight months, the iPhone has been mostly a consumer phenomenon in the U.S. Apple has pitched the device by showing off its iPod capabilities, or how to search the Web for restaurant reservations and car prices, or update your status on Facebook. But next week Apple plans to show off some "exciting new enterprise" features for the iPhone, which will presumably make it easier for those of us who can't push the CIO around to use our iPhones as tools for work.… Read more

Sales of cell phones skyrocketed to more than 1 billion in 2007, according to data released Wednesday from market research firm Gartner.

More than 1.15 billion mobile phones were sold worldwide in 2007, a 16 percent increase from the 990.9 million phones sold in 2006, the firm said.

The developing world helped boost sales significantly. And in the developed world, sales of new cell phones was drive by consumers looking for replacement phones with tons of features.

"Emerging markets, especially China and India, provided much of the growth as many people bought their first phone," Carolina … Read more

Apple distributed invitations Wednesday morning for "an iPhone software road map" event next week, which means we're finally going to hear details on the plans for an iPhone software development kit.

As you might be aware, next week is March, not February, which means Apple will have missed its deadline for shipping the SDK this month. Still, on Thursday, March 6, at 10 a.m. PST the company will hold a "town hall" meeting at its headquarters in Cupertino to discuss the State of the iPhone, and probably answer several questions about how iPhone application … Read more

Google product manager Amar Gandhi announced in a blog post on Tuesday night that there have been "a couple of modifications" to the company's release of OpenSocial compatibility for its Orkut social network.

In other words, there appears to be some red tape. Instead of immediately rolling out the Orkut platform, which it was originally scheduled to do right around now, Google will be conducting a "prelaunch testing period" for select applications. That will last about four weeks.

"We apologize for delaying the launch a few weeks," Gandhi wrote. "We feel that … Read more

During the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium today, Apple Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook dropped some interesting hints about Apple's iPhone "software road map" event March 6, where the company is expected to discuss it's official SDK for the platform.

Saying that the iPhone is "a platform not a product," Cook said that he thinks the SDK will "broaden the platform more, to the point where the only limit will be people's imagination."

He also said:

"We started by getting developers to focus on Web 2.0 apps. There's … Read more

Apple distributed invitations this morning for "an iPhone software road map" event to take place on March 6th.

Apple's official software development kit (SDK) and associated components for the iPhone are complete and ready to ship, sources familiar with the matter have told iPhone Atlas. However, a series of legal hurdles -- potentially including patent approval delays -- have thus far stalled a release to developers.

At the time of the SDK's announcement in October, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the company was working on "an advanced system which will offer developers broad … Read more

We're quickly closing in on the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the iPhone, one that could signal just how far Apple can take its maiden voyage into the smartphone world.

This is supposed to be the week that Apple makes honest coders out of all the software developers who have been busy creating unofficial applications for the iPhone almost since the day it was released last June. Back in October, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the company planned to release an official software development kit (SDK) in February that would allow third parties to … Read more

Not much news has circulated about former Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle since he left the Internet company in 2001 in the midst of the dot-com bust. He had a brief stint as interim CEO of social network Friendster in the ensuing years, but now Koogle is trying his hand at real estate development. His luxury Mexican beach villas, of which there are seven, are now on sale for $6.2 million each, according to a statement Monday from his company El Banco.

Koogle isn't the first Internet executive to eschew virtual investments for ones in real estate. Jim Clark, … Read more

Adobe on Monday released the long-awaited AIR download for running Web applications offline, but Microsoft is readying an update to its Silverlight platform that it hopes will keep Web developers in its camp.

Microsoft will release the first beta of Silverlight 2 "shortly," said Scott Guthrie, a general manager in Microsoft's developer division in charge of Web development, in his blog on Friday. Next week, the company is hosting its Mix '08 Web development and design conference in Las Vegas.

Silverlight 2 is a significant upgrade to the existing edition because it's designed to let programmers … Read more