Today's executives are on the move and they need to be able to run their companies remotely. Mobile business intelligence (BI) applications allow them to access critical corporate data from their laptops, smart phones, and PDAs. The iPhone promises to deliver information on an even more compact and versatile device. But can BI vendors make it work with the information executives depend on?

I completely understand that Apple have to protect their exclusive deal with AT&T and disable _unlocking_ exploits (and that?s fair enough, although their decision to go with a single carrier in the first place is anything but commendable) but their stance towards 3rd party applications, nearly all of which are free or open source efforts of the development community, is baffling to me. Think different, indeed! Not even Microsoft would pull such a stunt (you can install whatever applications you want to on your Windows Mobile phones and the same goes for other phones like the ones that run Nokia?s Symbian operating system). It is probably fair to say that Apple has created the most closed mobile phone in recent history with the iPhone and is making a colossal mistake by battling its own development community.

There are really two different kinds of hacking going on here. The first kind is where people use applications of varying degrees of difficulty (it's actually getting pretty easy now...) to 'jailbreak' the iPhone, which allows foreign software to be installed on it. This is where people will install RSH so they can then copy binaries over to the iPhone which can be run from the main home screen. The goal of this form of hacking is to be able to do things like run the NES emulator and other third-party applications on the iPhone without having to do the whole 'Web 2.0'/AJAX thing.

The iPhone DevCamp begins Friday night. I won't be able to attend, though we'll be sending Jason Cline to the event to represent SitePen. We've been blogging quite a bit about the iPhone on the SitePen blog, and running a lot of tests to find out all of the various things that don't work on the current Safari version found on the iPhone. The event is being hosted by Adobe, which is a bit ironic given their interest in Flash and the absence of Flash on the iPhone.

All reviews are positive on balance. The negatives mainly coalesce around AT&T and EDGE as well as getting used to the keyboard. The keyboard gets better, EDGE does not. The most surprising thing to me was how they all said the iPhone seems virtually scratch-proof. They've all tossed in their pockets, knocked it with change and keys, and keep it unprotected during the duration of their tests. And virtually no marks. That's impressive. Some funky new materials or treatments perhaps?

The iPhone's high resolution touch screen, dynamic orientation sensors, and multi-touch features present significant challenges to mobile web sites. SoonR has adapted its full mobile AJAX interface to include the ability to scale fonts and pictures for easy access via finger tips. As users change from portrait to landscape modes, SoonR will make the proper adjustments to maintain usability. When viewing a custom rendering of a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or any of the over forty (40) document types supported by SoonR, users can zoom and pan using the native 'pinch' action on the iPhone. SoonR?s industry leading interface requires no software installed on the phone but still offers much of the dynamic UI components of native applications.

I think we'd all be able to stomach the lack of SDK if Apple gave us the impression that they were working on it. Instead of throwing the AJAX pacifier at us and saying 'Sweet.', they could have simply said that they were working on a real SDK and that AJAX would be a good temporary fix. Everyone understands how difficult it is to make an SDK that is secure, stable, reliable, and won't cause programmer-introduced bugs to reflect poorly on Apple. They could have made it, as Wil suggests, that you could void the warranty on your phone in order to run third party code. This would be fine by me and I might actually go out and buy one of these things if I could get an SDK in exchange for no tech support.

Funambol, the mobile open source software company, will begin inviting consumers to join the new myFUNAMBOL portal to access free mobile e-mail, contacts, and calendars on everyday cell phones. myFUNAMBOL also provides the first over-the-air mobile contacts application for the new iPhone, which demonstrates the pace of innovation available with open source.

So the rumors were right. Apple has delayed the launch of Leopard, its next-generation Mac OS X, a competitor of Microsoft Windows, until October, four months past its June 11 due date. In a statement issued late Thursday after the market closed Apple blamed it on the iPhone.

And finally Steve gets around to the iPhone. Basically he says that through Web 2.0 and AJAX, you can create applications for the iPhone because the iPhone is running the full, uncut, unaltered version of the same Safari engine that is now running on Mac OS X Leopard, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. This is a huge thing and I can't wait to start exploring some of the possibilities of this. I wonder - you think the iPhone version of Safari will allow the Silverlight plug-in to install? :)

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc., a provider of on-demand transaction management software to Tier One communications service providers (CSPs), has announced a multi-year contract with AT&T to support the launch and ongoing operational support of the Apple iPhone.

Playing catch-up Microsoft says it's going to undercut salesforce.com later this quarter when it trots out Dynamics Live CRM, its first in-house hosted customer relationship management software. Microsoft's already got third parties hosting Dynamics CRM, which explains the rationale for the price cuts. However Salesforce claims the third-party hosting isn't more expensive given discounts.

Asked at the end of his keynote address on Day Three of AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 West at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California yesterday what he thought of the fact that Java doesn't run on the Apple iPhone, Robert Brewin - Sun's CTO and VP of Software - replied that he thought it was 'a mistake' on Apple's part and that it would make more sense if Java were able to run on iPhones right from the get-go.

No IM. Ok, this is a big sore spot. This one sucks. You can't use Google Talk because the widget requires Flash (I tried...trust me, it doesn't work). There's no native AIM, Yahoo!, or MSN support. There are a couple of web pages that you can go to that simulate the AIM experience, but none are very good. My inner conspiracy theorist tells me that this lack of IM support is a ploy by AT&T to continue to make revenue from SMS texting. The reason that doesn't fly is that every single damn Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 device on the freaking planet (well, virtually) can download and run an AIM client with very little effort. MSN Messenger works on just about every version of WM out there. Bottom line: the first patch/update/service pack for the iPhone had damn well better come with iChat. I want iChat on my iPhone and I want it NOW. You hear me? NOW!

Zoho went live with iZoho, which provides iPhone-optimized access to Zoho's online office applications. iPhone users who visit www.izoho.com can view Zoho Writer documents, Zoho Sheet spreadsheets, and Zoho Show presentations - and edit Zoho Writer documents - from the Safari browser.

The iPhone story that interested me the most though, was Bubba Murarka's tale of his service experience with Apple. Here's someone who clearly likes the product, but the whole experience is let down by the support model. I had a similar experience when I returned my malfunctioning Macbook 17 days after I purchased it. If the problem had arisen within 14 days, the Apple ?Genius? happily told me, they would replace the device with no questions asked. But because it was now 17 days old, they would have to repair it. I won?t bore you with details of the story, other than to say that ultimately I was left with no laptop for more than 2 weeks.

This is the first article in a series that I plan on writing about iPhone application development. The first thing you should know is that these articles will not cover anything related to taking existing content sites and making them more 'iPhone-friendly'. While I think that is a valuable topic, it has little interest to me as a programmer. If I was a website manager, then it might have more interest to me. There are plenty of online resources for making your web content more iPhone-friendly and the fact that the iPhone runs a full version of Safari makes this a somewhat minor task.

The introduction of the iPhone was marked by huge publicity and the scrambling of all sorts of web services to roll out support for the unique features of the iPhone. The breakthrough browser in the iPhone provides the best mobile browsing experience to date. Not only does it support the multi-touch interface, but the full AJAX support in the Safari based browser provides the ability to create a mobile experience way beyond WAP. The challenge is that the iPhone provided no API, toolkits, or developer tools. So how do you make your normal web or WAP based application suitable for the iPhone.

With the arrival of Yahoo! and its Yahoo! Go Mobile 2.0 product, another A-list brand has entered the market. Yahoo!'s presence, like Apple's, expands the number of ODP (On-Device Portal) choices available to consumers, offering data services that are embedded directly onto the devices that people carry with them every day, similar to the desktop applications that people have downloaded on their PCs.

'Phones should be open to anything,' claims a flyer being distributed by Apple in the wake of Sun's recent claim about Apple: 'Fundamentally, they don't like open systems.' Is the Nokia vs Apple war heating up?

Elias Corporation has launched Applists.com version 2.0. Version 1.0 was released on July 18, 2007. 'Our goal is to get great apps into the hands of iPhone and iPod Touch owners the instant they need them, and to do so in the easiest, most intuitive, and respectful way possible,' says Elias Corporation CEO Bill Denk.

Silverlight Developer's Journal is an online journal with quarterly print editions. Jesse Liberty, senior program manager in the Silverlight Developer Division, was named contributing editor. Jesse is the author of numerous books and articles and brings two decades of professional software development experience to the magazine. iPhone Developer's Journal, an online journal, has named Kevin Hoffman as editor-in-chief. Kevin, a popular 'iPhone' and 'Silverlight' blogger, has been programming since he was 10 and has written everything from DOS shareware to n-tier, enterprise Web applications in VB, C++, Delphi, and C. He is coauthor of Professional .NET Framework (Wrox Press) and co-author with Robert Foster of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Development Unleashed. Kevin authors 'The .NET Addict's Blog' at '.NET Developer's Journal' (dotnetaddict. dotnetdeve lopersjournal.com).

Apple has released quite a few tidbits about developing web applications for the iPhone, however, this information is not complete. The iPhoneWebDev community has discovered many missing answers to help you better create rich AJAX-based web applications for iPhone. This session will discuss what we know, what we don't know, and a little about creating native iPhone applications that can also access the internet.

Being a Java and Mac guy I looked for Java on iPhone. Java is no where to be found. For years I've listened to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO at Sun Microsystems, talk about monetizing its Java investment because of the wide-spread availability of the Java runtime - today on 700 Million mobile phones. Rumors have it that Apple sold 500,000 iPhones in the past week.

The other day I was chatting with a friend and he was taking notes about some things using his iPhone. I commented on how unbelievably fast it seemed he was able to type using the keyboard. Up until recently, I've been 'OK' at using the keyboard but I never really considered the iPhone as a device on which I could take notes - I have been so abused by smartphone keyboards (virtual and physical) that I just assume that the typing experience is going to suck.

The on-again, off-again Google Phone or 'gPhone' rumors are likely to come to halt for the forseeable future. That's because Google's Head of Research since 2006, Dr Peter Norvig, has told journalists in the UK that he doesn't think Google has any research ambition toward hardware, saying: 'You know we want to work everywhere and be neutral. That neutrality is important.'

'They have periodic updates on their data files, and they translate into megabucks,' Levy said. 'This is akin to your bank having automatic access to your ATM machine and is siphoning money out during all times of the day and night without your knowledge.' Actually, no. Its nothing even remotely like that. Surely one can appreciate the man's anger, but statements like this indicate ignorance of how technology works. There is one single common thread here that you'll see. Here's a quote from another article that referred to the source article: Because the iPhone, according to this Newsday story, checks for service updates and email whether it's turned on or off.

So, for those of you who were on the fence about building iPhone applications using Web 2.0 technologies, think about this: Your potential list of application users is about to grow beyond users of the iPhone, and will include a crapload of people buying new iPods. If you think about the ubiquitous nature of WiFi (well, semi-ubiquitous), you're going to have people with iPod Touches hitting your application from coffee shops, airports, offices, hotel lobbies, hotel rooms, conference and convention centers, and a lot of restaurants.

As interest in mobile AJAX gathers in the wake of the Apple iPhone release, the ICEfaces open source project is poised to deliver mobile AJAX solutions today. Come to this presentation and find out why the server-centric nature of the ICEfaces technology provides inherent advantages in the mobile space. During the discussion you will get a brief overview of the ICEfaces technology, and will see how it is applicable to resource-constrained mobile devices. You will also see a live demonstration of a mobile ICEfaces application running on both the Safari and Opera mobile browsers. Finally, you will learn about some of the emerging best practices for mobile AJAX application design, and get a a glimpse of the ICEfaces roadmap for mobile AJAX.

Cisco peed on Steve Jobs' running shoes late Wednesday when it up and sued Apple for infringing on its iPhone trademark a day after Jobs announced the June arrival of a radical new eponymous widget at MacWorld in San Francisco that the New York Times claims is still a prototype. Jobs' reputedly 'game-changing' announcement unleashed an avalanche of iPhone-smitten press, pushed Apple shares, albeit briefly, to an all-time high of close to $98, sent the Blackberry running for a bomb shelter, overshadowed the whole rival Consumer Electronics Show and stirred Cisco's lawyers into action.

iPhone, whatever its sales, was disruptive from the moment Steve Jobs first showed it off in January. It immediately started redefining the smartphone business and focused the attention of smartphone makers on the importance of software, according to serial entrepreneur Pauline Alker, the CEO of a la Mobile, the Venrock-backed developer of what is supposed to be the first Linux software stack for smart devices ready to deliver. IPhone's pushing smartphones up the evolutionary ladder from voice-centric gadgets with limited data functions into sophisticated multimedia devices deploying a broad range of enterprise and consumer applications. But the increased use of data-rich applications leaves mobile devices vulnerable to security threats - even the loss of a phone can represent a threat to the personal and corporate data stored on it.

I usually skip BarCamp and other hackathon coding events because they consume a lot of time and I don't usually get as much accomplished as I do at my desk. That said, when a major new platform like the iPhone gets released, an event such as the iPhone Dev Camp seems like a great idea to collaborate and get up to speed as quickly as possible. If Apple's WWDC from last week is any indication, this will be the most in demand BarCamp event ever, and should be a great event to build iPhone apps.

If you take a look at the success of the Nintendo Wii, you'll see an innovative device with an incredibly compelling user interaction design (the Wiimote, nunchuck, steering wheels, fitness pads, etc). The device itself has what the industry might actually refer to as 'last gen' hardware. The video card is weak relative to the PS3 and Xbox 360, it doesn't come with built-in LAN (though you can buy a LAN/USB adapter for it), it has less memory and less processor power than the PS3 and Xbox 360. Yet, despite these so-called deficiencies, everybody seems to love their Wii, and it's actually gaining a lot of momentum sales-wise while the others are slowing down.

Dojo Toolkit Co-Creator Dylan Schiemann, Laszlo Systems Co-Founder & Chief Interface Architect Bret Simister, Alacrity Ventures Founder Christopher Allen, UI Architect Joe Johnson, Laszlo Sr. Software Engineer Ben Shine, Vodafone Senior Technology Strategist Daniel Appelquist, Next-Gen Web Solutions specialist Matthew David, and more. These are the high-caliber speakers lined up by SYS-CON Events to speak in the iPhone Applications track at AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 West taking place next month at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA ? one of just ten simultaneous content-rich tracks at biggest version yet of the world?s leading AJAX, Rich Internet Applications & Web 2.0 event.

We're working on an iPhone-optimized version of Ta-da List. As I was working on some UI ideas, Ryan and I were talking about some of really cool things about designing for the iPhone. I remarked that I loved the constraints. For example, we know the exact screen size/resolution, we know the exact typeface, we know how the face renders on the screen, we know the colors, we know the browser, etc. Then Ryan nailed it: Designing for the iPhone is like a hybrid of print and web design.

'It's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market,' said a report by research group iSuppli yesterday, as it was revealed that Apple's iPhone outsold every other type of smartphone in the United States in July, its first full month on sale.

Larry Ellison's NetSuite, a vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites that provide ERP, CRM and e-commerce functionality for small and medium-sized businesses and divisions of large companies, announced SuitePhone, a capability that allows NetSuite customers to run business operations using the Apple iPhone. The new SuitePhone capability provides native support for Safari, the iPhone and Mac browser - allowing NetSuite's advanced, AJAX-based user interface technologies such as drop-down menus, drag-and drop portlets, and in-line editing, to be supported. In addition, the ERP, CRM and e-commerce functionality of NetSuite is now also available to Apple users, bringing them an on-demand, integrated business management application designed for the Apple platform. For more information, please visit www.netsuite.com/suitepho ne

It's going to cost at least $1,976 to own and operate one of Apple's iPhones over two years, the only term available - and that's before any add-ons. On the high end, it's going to cost at least $3,036 for a 4.8-ounce do-not-drop-thi s-in-the-john widget whose battery-life, Internet speed and touch pad are real-life unknowns although early reviews, with some reservations, say it lives up to the frenzied hype. Newsweek calls it a 'significant leap?superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented the rare convergence device where things actually converge.' Walt Mossberg, the Wall Street Journal's columnist, is simply in love with the 'beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer.'

In a speech AT&T COO Randall Stephenson said Tuesday that the company's Cingular Wireless unit had gotten about a million inquiries about Apple's still unavailable $500-$600 iPhone since Steve Jobs showed off the device in January. Cingular has dibs on selling the multi media/Internet-enabled gadget. iPhone is supposed to be out in June. Cingular is not taking pre-orders. Jobs has said he thought Apple could sell 10 million iPhones in 18 months.