This session will provide attendees with an overview of the iPhone SDK, including discussion of the App Store, Apple's planned distribution channel for SDK applications. Keep in mind that the contents of the SDK and experiences while using it are covered under NDA, so be prepared for me to talk in generics and leave out specific details that might be covered by the NDA. I am planning on providing a quick introduction to Objective-C for those attendees who may have never seen it and might be worried that it will be difficult to code in (it isn't!).

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.

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.

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.

So yesterday I was happily catching up on my RSS feeds when I noticed that there was some Apple buzz. I took a look and saw some photos of the new iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone that can only use WiFi instead of EDGE and obviously has no phone in it. It's quite impressive-looking. Then I noticed that Apple is no longer going to make any more 4GB iPhones, they're selling off their remaining stock at discount. Then I noticed that Apple has dropped the price of the 8GB iPhones by $200.

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.