Robert Balousek

The readme for the iPhone SDK says it is only compatible with Intel based macs running OS X > 10.5.2. Apparently it is possible to get it to run on PowerPC based Macs:

By default, the iPhone SDK package available free from Apple’s site will run on a PowerPC-based Mac but omit the iPhone SDK-related files, installing only Xcode 3.1 beta and a series of other files. This routine is easily circumvented via the shareware tool Pacifist, which can be used to force an installation of the entire SDK package on PowerPC-based Macs.

Follow these steps:

• Drag the iPhone SDK package onto the Pacifist icon
• Select the top entry, “Contents of iPhone SDK”
• Click the “Install” button in the upper-left corner and enter your administrator credentials

[Via iPhone Atlas]

The iPhone SDK presentation sounded great, but they didn’t answer every question. They also didn’t mention some important details. Most importantly:

Only one iPhone application can run at a time, and third-party applications never run in the background. This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits.

This is one of the caveats explained in the 100 page iPhone Human Interface Guidelines PDF on the iPhone SDK website.

So what does this mean to the average non-programmer/layperson? Simply put:

If you are running an application such as AOL Instant Messenger on your iPhone, everytime you receive a call or browse away from the application you would be signed out, you would lose any unread messages, and your conversations would end.