Apple launches iPhone Developer University Program

[AppleInsider]

Apple has recently released details of a new program designed for higher education institutions looking to introduce curriculum for developing iPhone or iPod touch applications.

Dubbed iPhone Developer University, the new program allows instructors and professors to create a development team*with up to 200 students free of charge. It offers all of the same tools granted to paid iPhone developers, including the iPhone SDK, but also provides iPhones and iPod touches for evaluation purposes.

"With the suite of sophisticated and elegant tools included in the iPhone SDK, and a wide-range of resources in the iPhone Dev Center, students participating in the class will have everything they need to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch," Apple says.

It appears the company will treat university development teams like small companies, allowing members to discuss the iPhone SDK and inner workings of iPhone development with one another.

Students within the same development team will also be able share their applications with each other through email, or by posting them to a private website for presentation and grading purposes. In addition, higher education institutions can submit applications developed by students for distribution on the App Store.

The program is presently available only to to*accredited, higher education institutions in the United*States.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[teckstud]

Great- is it iSchool or Snap U?

[paxman]

Wish I could go back to uni...

[sausage&Onion]

Nice to see them doing SOMETHING right by developers.

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by sausage&Onion

Nice to see them doing SOMETHING right by developers.

Hyperbole much?

[wizard69]

Really think about it if they get rid of the effen NDA a good portion of the issues with passing along iPhone knowledge goes a way. That means people to old for university, those with good ideas but very small development teams and Apple novices can all grow quickly with respect to skills. Other wise Apple ends up with a whole class of developers that can't well develops professionally on the platform.


In any event I'm beginning to think the whole reason for the NDA is to supress discussion about decisions related to app store. What secrets actually exist in an API once the software is released? I mean yeah an NDA made sense before 2.0's arrival in iPhone 3G but what is the excuse now? Apple of late has become a very bitter apple to take a bite of.

Dave

[justflybob]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Great- is it iSchool or Snap U?

Damn, that's priceless.

[Abster2core]

Originally Posted by wizard69

Really think about it if they get rid of the effen NDA a good portion of the issues with passing along iPhone knowledge goes a way. That means people to old for university, those with good ideas but very small development teams and Apple novices can all grow quickly with respect to skills. Other wise Apple ends up with a whole class of developers that can't well develops professionally on the platform.

In any event I'm beginning to think the whole reason for the NDA is to supress discussion about decisions related to app store. What secrets actually exist in an API once the software is released? I mean yeah an NDA made sense before 2.0's arrival in iPhone 3G but what is the excuse now? Apple of late has become a very bitter apple to take a bite of.

Dave

Like Coca Cola does for their formula. KC, for their recipe. Mac for its OS. Moms' apple pies.

Software developers don't get together to share their code/secrets.

Small development teams? How big do you think iPhone developing teams are? Most are done by one guy. Two guys at most. Seldom 3, and I would bet not a handful by 4 or more.

Are you suggesting that iPhone developers are not skilled enough to professionally applications?

You just don't get it.

P.S. Significant sales growth, increased market share and surveys like this one:

“The latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show that Apple has dramatically outpaced its rival computer makers in the hearts of U.S. consumers,” reports Asher Hawkins (forbes.com). The ACSI survey “ranks Apple at 85” out of 100, “11 points above the computer-maker industry average.” In fact, “Apple’s rating is also an all-time high for the computer industry.” http://www.iphone-updates.com/2008/0...tion-survey-2/

[Adjei]

Going by what you read on these boards and the internet, you would think that Apple is the most evil company in the world, but in the real world that's not how they are portrayed as which is what shows up in these surveys.

[Booga]

Originally Posted by wizard69

Really think about it if they get rid of the effen NDA a good portion of the issues with passing along iPhone knowledge goes a way. That means people to old for university, those with good ideas but very small development teams and Apple novices can all grow quickly with respect to skills. Other wise Apple ends up with a whole class of developers that can't well develops professionally on the platform.


In any event I'm beginning to think the whole reason for the NDA is to supress discussion about decisions related to app store. What secrets actually exist in an API once the software is released? I mean yeah an NDA made sense before 2.0's arrival in iPhone 3G but what is the excuse now? Apple of late has become a very bitter apple to take a bite of.

Dave

Apple is under intense competition in this field. And the NDA doesn't actually seem to be affecting too many developers' ability to put out quality software. Not to be an apologist, but I think a lot of people are getting wrapped around the axle over vague ideas and platitudes while reality is actually fairly nice. I haven't had many tough questions that weren't covered by one example or another, and your $99 fee comes with 2 incidents in which you get a lot of attention from real Apple developers. Most questions can be discussed in terms of general Cocoa/Objective-C questions anyway. The iPhone-specific layer is actually fairly small.

[acslater017]

...but if you get kicked out of the university, it's covered by the NDA

[saarek]

Only in America, I suppose Apple believes that only Americans need access to this type of course......

[John the Geek]

Great. so you pay a lot to go to a 4-year school, learn iPhone Development, and graduate with all that knowledge you paid for locked under a corporate NDA.

"What did you learn at school, son?"

"Sorry dad, I'm not allowed to tell you."

[ByronVanArsdale]

Cool - always wanted to get my iPhD

[SpamSandwich]

Students creating apps for other students could be a great way to pay for that college education!

[bloggerblog]

This must be one of the best moves Apple had ever made, and I'm actually shocked.

[pmjoe]

As a university person and a developer, this is a welcome move. BUT, Apple still needs to provide a mechanism to do open source projects, and I struggle to figure out how that is possible with the NDA in place (I suppose one might come up with a common, public API to get around it).

[timgriff84]

Is it just me that doesn't get why anyone would want to do this?

Im a developer in the UK and most jobs around at the moment want developers with .NET experience. Even if it wasn't leading the way for most development (well internet development) I still can't see the point in doing a module for iPhone development. It would only be useful for developing an iPhone app and their isn't going to be many of those jobs around. The app store may be doing well at the moment but its a field completely dependent on the iPhone. Not to mention Apple control what gets sold and even if your product does get on their Apple's then going to take a cut of the revenue. So compared to just regular development which could lead the next big thing it would be potentially a waste of time.

[mrpiddly]

Originally Posted by pmjoe

As a university person and a developer, this is a welcome move. BUT, Apple still needs to provide a mechanism to do open source projects, and I struggle to figure out how that is possible with the NDA in place (I suppose one might come up with a common, public API to get around it).

Agreed, there should be an entirely separate path that allows for creating new open source projects or porting old ones.

First, apple would need to remove the developer fee and other requirements to make development of open source applications it available to everyone.

Code signing would also have to be dramatically changed or removed for those applications.

And the NDA would have to be removed.


Maybe apple could create an entire open source ecosystem within the app store, something similar to sourceforge, but i dont see them doing that anytime soon. It is really a shame because there is some great open source code out there.

[pmjoe]

Originally Posted by mrpiddly

Agreed, there should be an entirely separate path that allows for creating new open source projects or porting old ones.

First, apple would need to remove the developer fee and other requirements to make development of open source applications it available to everyone.

Code signing would also have to be dramatically changed or removed for those applications.

And the NDA would have to be removed.

Maybe apple could create an entire open source ecosystem within the app store, something similar to sourceforge, but i dont see them doing that anytime soon. It is really a shame because there is some great open source code out there.

I don't think they even need to go that far. The main issue is the NDA. All I want to be able to do is publicly share code. If someone needs a ~$99 developer account to release those apps to the App Store, that's less of a big deal.