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The iPhone software development kit (SDK) has been dominating the world of Apple-focused bloggers this week, in no small part due to an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
announcement that its SDK was downloaded 100,000 times in a mere four days.
In other blogging activity, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) delivered its first update to the Office 2008 for Mac suite, Apple got sued over its iTunes/iPod model, enthusiasts cracked open a Time Capsule to insert a bigger hard drive, and the question remains: Is SlingPlayer coming to the iPhone?
The SDK
As soon as Apple's announcement hit, the blogosphere was ablaze with activity.
"Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible, with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days," noted Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "Also, over one million people have watched the launch video on Apple.com, further demonstrating the incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone."
Apple quoted more than a half-dozen people working for companies interested in iPhone software application development -- all of them gushing over one iPhone SDK angle or another. The companies include Intuit, Namco Networks, NetSuite, PopCap, Rocket Mobile, Six Apart and THQ Wireless.
The Comments Flood In
"This goes to show just how much interest iPhone users and programmers have in 3rd-party applications for the device. I didn't think it would generate that much interest, to be honest," noted wrldwzrd89 on the MacRumors.com post on the subject.
"I think I was about #8,746. . . ." noted bytethese. "I'm no master programmer, but I'm sure I can make some (US)$1.99-$4.99 apps people will buy."
Others noted that 100,000 downloads seemed rather high when it compared to the 4 million iPhones that were sold by Jan. 15. That's a ratio of 40 to 1, meaning that one in 40 iPhone owners may have downloaded the SDK. Of course, a developer doesn't have to own an iPhone to build an application for it, and even if there are 5 million iPhones out in the wild, it seems like a stretch to believe that so many real, experienced developers are ready to build applications.
"100,000 downloads? How many of those are from the same people asking what an SDK is?" noted riverfreak on the MacRumors.com post. "Show me 10,000 applications. That do things. Useful things. Then I'll be excited."
Significant Interest
"The one thing that the SDK downloads indicate is that there is significant interest in the iPhone as a platform. It is too early to tell where the interest lies," Van Baker, a vice president of research for Gartner (NYSE: IT) , told MacNewsWorld.
"Unless Apple gives information on what the breakdown is of those that have downloaded the SDK, it is hard to guess how to interpret this info," he added.
Regardless of the downloading demographics, the majority of commenters and blog posts have one thing in common: excitement for the June release of iPhone software 2.0 and the resulting third-party applications.
Office 2008 Fixed
Also this week, Microsoft released the first update to its Office 2008 for Mac office productivity suite. The 12.0.1 update contained several fixes that improve security, stability and performance , including a fix for the problem that causes Word to quit during launch or spell checking. There were also lots of other fixes, of course -- more than 100 MB worth -- many of which generating comments that were all over the map.
"Like others, I have mixed emotions. My MacBook Pro overall is considerably faster now that I have dumped the last program needing to run Rosetta. However, I am a heavy Excel user and the lack of VBA and other little trinkets that are missing in 2008 has led me to keep 2004 on my Mac in case I need it (you can keep the old program with no compatibility issues)," noted MadMacDude on the post from AppleInsider.com on the topic.
"No review yet of the MS update, but I hope it really does solve the Excel crashing and PowerPoint anemic performance issues. As far as updates under 2004, they seemed to get it right after about 2 years," MadMacDude added.
Apple Sued
A Georgia-based company, ZapMedia Services, has sued Apple for patent violations over Apple's iTunes/iPod delivery model. The suit was filed in the Marshall Division of the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which happens to be a small district that historically has favored plaintiffs in patent-infringement cases.
According to ZapMedia, the company "developed a system by which it could provide hardware, software and content to consumers to allow them to gain control over their digital media assets." To protect this intellectual property, ZapMedia obtained U.S. Patent Nos. 7,020,704 (for "system and method for distributing media assets to user devices via a portal synchronized by said user devices") and 7,343,414 (for "system and method for distributing media assets to user devices and managing user rights of the media assets").
Furthermore, ZapMedia said it made Apple aware of its intellectual property for licensing, but Apple has refused to license ZapMedia's patents.
Some commenters to a Slashdot post on the subject quickly called ZapMedia a "patent troll," slamming the patents themselves for being general and obvious, but others were willing to put forth a more measured response.
"I know we are all against software patents... but these guys have been waiting for 9 years to be able to use this patent by the rules that everyone is supposed to play by. calling them Patent Trolls for standing by and watching while Apple used thier technology to make billions, is not quite accurate," noted Michael Labrecque posting as CubeRootOf on the Slashdot post.
"What would have happened if this patent was issued 9 years ago? or even just the year before the iPod came out? Would it be the ZapMediaPod that everyone was playing their music on? Patent laws were originally designed so that the little guys can get their inventions out without being clobbered by the big guys. Granted they don't work that way in practice," Labrecque added.
One commenter, who goes by "Sloppy," cut to the heart of the matter in another angle: "There is nothing about iTunes or the music store that should be patentable. Neither one contains any technical innovation that patent law was ever intended to protect. Neither one has anything that makes any engineer exclaim, 'Damn! How did they do that?'" Sloppy noted.
Opening the Capsule
While many consumers wait for Apple to ship them a Time Capsule, some customer are already prying open the cases and upgrading the hard drives. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) notes how the French Mac site HardMac posted a step-by-step process for changing a Time Capsule's hard drive, in this case swapping out the original 500 GB Seagate drive for a Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) 1 TB Green Power drive.
The Western Digital drive, in addition to being obviously larger, was also said to be quieter, though some commenters seemed to think that was a moot point.
"I have my 500 GB TC sitting on my dresser 3 feet from my bed. I had it backing up through the night and didn't hear it at all (while I was awake...). If I am standing right over it I can hear an occasional clicking or the initial spin-up ... Otherwise, it's not that bad," Evan noted on the TUAW post.
TV on iPhone?
Alongside Apple's SDK announcement came speculation over which hot applications will make it to the iPhone. Sven Rafferty, who types out the SvenOnTech blog, noted that the SDK may make it possible to do video streaming on the iPhone ala the Slingbox device and a SlingPlayer written for the iPhone.
Basically, a Slingbox connects to your digital video recorder, cable set-top box, satellite receiver, DVD player or VCR, then lets you access the device's content via a PC, Mac, or mobile device -- as long as the receiving device has an Internet connection and the SlingPlayer application. The iPhone has the Internet hookup, of course, just not the SlingPlayer application.
Rafferty spoke to Sling Media's Brian Jaquet, who told Rafferty that his company is excited about Apple's SDK, noting that the two most requested mobile platforms have been for the RIM BlackBerry and the iPhone/iPod touch.
"I think by the time the SDK goes live with results from third-party applications in June ... there will be an iPhone 2.0 with 3G guts. With that speed bump and WiFi , the SlingPlayer would make sense on the iPhone," Rafferty told MacNewsWorld.
"Now, will it sell more Slingboxes? That's a tough call. If Sling Media can get out there and ride the SDK wave and let the 5 million users know what a Slingbox is and what it can do on the iPhone, I think it could sell more Slingboxes. iPhone users seem to [be] more aware of the multimedia universe due to the iPod and the ability to watch movies. Couple that with the YouTube player already on the iPhone, it wouldn't be too surprising to find a handful of iPhone users to want to control what they see on their phone rather than being controlled by Apple iTunes Store selection -- or by YouTube's lack of quality in selection. I do know those that have a Slingbox now said they'd buy an iPhone if SlingPlayer came to it," he added.
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