Apple offers iPhone SDK to developers

Speaking at today's Apple iPhone Event at Apple HQ, Cupertino, Scott Forstall, VP/iPhone Software, outlined the new iPhone SDK that is immediately available for anyone to develop applications for the iPhone.

"Starting today we're opening up the same APIs and tools that we use to develop our own applications today. Now, there are a lot of pieces that make up an SDK. But the most important are the APIs and the platform. And we have a great one, Mac OS X," he announced.

He talked about layers in the operating system: Core OS, Core Services, Media, and Cocoa.

The Cocoa application development environment is currently based on using a keyboard and mouse, so Apple has developed Cocoa Touch, for developing applications that interact with the iPhone's touch interface. It handles single touches, multi-touch, and gestures.

He also talked about Core OS, which is very similar to that found on the Mac version of OS X, and features robust power management.

Featured in the Core Services layer is the SQLite database engine, plus Core Location which uses cell tower and Wi-Fi data to pinpoint location.

As previously rumoured, Xcode for the Mac can be used as a remote debugger, and now features an interface builder, complete with all the user interface elements found on the iPhone.

Developers will have access to a range of "Instruments" which can be used to test the performance of their applications, how much memory is being used, how they affect the hardware, and so on.

Also available will be the iPhone Simulator, allowing full blown simulation of the iPhone on a Mac.

"The simulator works great side by side on your Mac with Xcode," Forstall says. "You can debug it while it's running in the simulator."

(Based on Macworld's live feed -- thanks guys!)

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