Apple has announced that it is scrapping its old developer programs, which included multiple tiers that cost thousands at the top end, for one modeled on its wildly successful iPhone Developer Program. Simply called the Mac Developer Program, it will cost just $99 per year.
Included in the new and improved Mac Developer Program is access to prerelease builds of Mac OS X, member-only developer forums, a series of instructional videos from Apple engineers, and two direct technical support incidents per year. The TSIs give developers direct access to an Apple engineer for assistance with code problems or other troubleshooting, and developers have the option of buying additional TSIs as needed.
The new program replaces the previous ADC Premier, Select, and Student developer programs. The biggest difference between the new and old programs, aside from the much lower price, is the loss of the ADC Hardware Purchase Program benefit that offered steep discounts on Macs for the Select and Premier account holders. Some developers have already said that they'll happily take the lower cost of entry over the hardware discount.
Premier accounts, which cost over $3,000, also used to include one free ticket to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which normally cost $1,200. Ostensibly, any Mac Developer Program member will have a chance to buy a ticket next year (at least until it sells out, like it has the past two years).
The lower barrier to entry is expected to spur an influx of Mac developers, much as the iPhone Developer Program did. Developers familiar with developing for the iPhone should have a relatively easy time of transitioning to developing for the Mac, since both use the same Xcode IDE, Objective-C language, and many similar APIs (though obviously UI considerations are quite different).
Current ADC memberships remain in effect until they expire. Developers that bought an ADC membership after Feburary 1 can contact Apple to get a refund if they wish to join the Mac Developer Program instead. The Mac Developer Program will be the only program Apple offers going forward. Basic access to Xcode developer tools and released versions of Mac OS X SDKs remains free.
Read the comments on this post
A little while ago TiPb asked if the Apple TV should be switched over to the iPhone OS, but what about the Mac? Coincidentally, a recent Apple job offering was discovered by ComputerWorld that hinted Apple was seriously considering pushing the iPhone OS from phone, MP3-player iPod touch, and tablet iPad to further devices:
The Core Platform team within Apple’s Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms. The team is responsible for low level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms. The team consists of talented engineers with experience in hardware, firmware, IOKit drivers, security and platform architecture.
Now the New York Times blogs quotes a former Apple engineer musing about whether or not the iPhone OS could be implemented as a special layer on top of Mac OS X, the way Front Row or Dashboard work today. Push a button, the multi-touch iPhone OS screen zooms in, you flick and swipe and pinch though what you want to do, then tap and go back to your mouse and keyboard.
We’re all fans of the iPhone OS here, do we want to see it everywhere else as well?
(ComputerWorld and New York Times blogs via MacRumors, twice)
More iPhone OS on Mac and Apple TV Talk is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Former Apple evangelist and professional self promoter Guy Kawasaki spent Friday morning at Macworld Expo helping developers pimp their software. While he was at it, he managed to deliver some obligatory jabs to Microsoft and Google.
“Back then the Mac division was the largest collection of egomaniacs,” said Kawasaki, reflecting on his past job evangelizing the Mac platform. “But that record has been broken by Google.”
From 1983 to 1987, Kawasaki was Apple’s Mac evangelist, who reached out to software developers to convince them to develop applications for the Macintosh back when the platform had a diminutive install base. To attract developers to the platform, he’d often publicize hot software to show off the capabilities of the Mac.
Reviving his old role as a software promoter, Kawasaki on Friday featured app demonstrations by several developers. The key appearances were Twitter creator Jack Dorsey (below), former Apple engineer Bill Atkinson and Microsoft Bing manager Florian Voss.
Dorsey’s new startup Square revolves around a platform that enables anyone to perform a credit card transaction. The Square magnetic stripe reader plugs into any computer or phone with a 3.5-mm headphone jack, and the Square software transmits payments to Square’s database, which eventually wires the money to a bank account.
“Everybody becomes a merchant,” Dorsey said.
The credit card reader could come useful for people selling items on Craigslist or for charities asking for donations. Both the app and the accessory will be free; the Square system charges merchants fees depending on the cards used. (See Mat Honan’s review of Square published earlier this week.)
Microsoft’s Voss showed off the new Bing app for iPhone, which enables users to perform Bing searches with voice commands. Kawasaki complimented the Bing app’s beauty, but not without slipping in a Microsoft diss.
“I never thought I’d hear a Microsoft employee extolling the virtues of beautiful applications,” he said, to which Voss retorted, “I never thought I’d hear an Apple evangelist say a Microsoft product looks beautiful.”
The two enjoyed a bitter laugh.
Apple veteran Atkinson demoed his $5 app PhotoCard, which allows users to create postcards using their own images or Atkinson’s photographs. You’d use the app to design the postcard and send off the request to a local print shop, which will physically produce the postcard and mail it out to your recipient through the U.S. postal service. You’d pay for prints inside the app with credits purchased through PayPal.
Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
