Apple changed the Developers Agreement for OS 4.0 yesterday. There’s been a mild uproar from the usual suspects — folks whom it would never affect anyway since they never plan on doing Apple/iPhone development – for whatever reason.

The basic idea appears to be that – if you (developer/software co.) want to sell your iPhone app thru the iTunes AppStore, you have to use Apple approved software dev. tools. Of which there appears to be only 1. XCode 3.2.3+. And Apple approved API’s and libraries. Which means – C, C++, and Objective-C (which is C with a twist of Smalltalk syntax). And none of the cross-platform tools ->

Some pundits claim it’s a shot across the bows of Adobe, since it basically kills off their CS5/Flash to iPhone app generator (that they are supposed to announce/release next week. Ouch.). (Another skirmish in the Apple/Adobe Flash-wars?)

Another possible victim is Novell’s MonoTouch (It lets you use Mono (Novell’s .NET clone) and C# to develop iPhone Apps.)

And then there’s iSqueak – a version of Squeak (Smalltalk) for the iPhone. Not sure where it fits in – it might survive since it IS built with XCode. (Not that you can get it from the App Store since it breaks at least one App Store rule. But the the person who ported it to the iPhone has used it to generate several iPhone Apps that are in the store.)

I believe there are a could other similar cross-platform development tools that violate the new rules but I don’t remember them.

Me? I couldn’t afford the Adobe tools anyway. Monotouch was $1000/year the last time I checked. iSqueak? I’ve been tinkering with Squeak for years but never written anything “real” (I just like the environment). So none of those really affect me.

Apple only charges $99/year for their iPhone Dev. program (aka access to the App Store) but XCode is free (It just requires a Mac to run it on. And a test device would be good when using beta versions of the iPhone SDK.)

So the rule change doesn’t affect me personally. I couldn’t afford the possible commercial non-Apple cross-dev tools anyway. And I’m not one of those people who thinks Apple is evil so it doesn’t really upset me.

But I really need to find the time to do something .

So, Steve Jobs announces (finally) the mythical Apple tablet device. I’m not going to go over the features (has or missing). Every tech blog on the planet has details or you can even go to the official Apple iPad website

Other than the name… iPad? Really? … I actually want one. I’ve been waiting for a tablet for ME (and not all the jealous tech-nerds that hang out in the tech blog comment sections (they already HATE the iPad with a seething passion – and it’s only been half a day.)) and this is the first thing since a Newton MessagePad (I’ve got one of those in a box somewhere) to come close.

Let’s get the low-hanging fruit negatives out of the way first:

1. 1. I wanted something a little smaller. The iPad 1.0 is slightly smaller than a pad of paper. I was hoping for a more portable trade paperback size.
2. To get GPS you have to get the more expensive model ($130 more) (actually AGPS (Assisted GPS) — I hope it works without a data plan! Some AGPS devices apparently require a network connection to work. I’m pretty sure I have a couple apps on my iPhone that use GPS even without a 3G connection.)
3. Not enough details available on how some things work (I went browsing through the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK docs but couldn’t find what I wanted to know. (Is it violating the 3.2 SDK NDA to even admit I have a (legal) copy of it? Hmm..))

Things that have sold me on it — in no special order.

• 3G potential – with no AT&T contract required (Already have that because of the iPhone) – even if I don’t use it.
• iWork
• Support for iPhone apps
• Bluetooth keyboard support
• iBook app supports ePub (Here’s hoping it can read non-Apple/iTunes Store procured eBooks. If Not there’s always Stanza and eReader)
• Grown Up (!!) versions of the standard iPhone apps (email, notepad, calendar, etc.)

I do wonder about the “Camera Kit” – it includes a USB-iPod Dock adapter so you can plug your camera directly into the iPad. Does that mean you can plug in other devices that have USB based storage in the same format? (Wild guess — the only app that can access that “mode” is the one that lets you import photos from the camera.)

{Pause while I watch the recording of the event — MUCH better info than I got from the live-blog I read earlier.}

Magical/Intimate – key words from Steve Jobs about the iPad.

But let me mention THE app demoed today that really sold  me on the potential of the iPad: Brushes (It’s an app for artists). This kind of app pushes the iPad beyond being a media consumer/device into being a device to create with.

It’s not just a mobile web browser.

For the small sum of $4K maxed out (16GB memory, 2Tb HD) (Yikes! )

I think Apple needs to stop checking my credit rating whenever I buy something from iTS. Because this? Not gonna happen. I got an iPhone this summer instead of a new Mac (and my MacBook is still good for a couple more years.)