This is the first in a series of iPhone news related articles. I bought an iPhone back in December and I have to say I really like it. It has it’s shortcomings like the lack of 3G network support, no memory card support, no Java support in the browser, etc. Overall it has a lot of awesome features. Of course the interface is the best I’ve ever used on a phone. I can actually browse real web pages. For instance, I can read posts on this web page with no problems without having to zoom in and out. Email support is great and it doesn’t cost as much as a Blackberry data plan.

This big buzz for iPhone right now is the SDK. You can download the SDK for free from Apple but if you want to test your apps on the iPhone or iPod Touch or distribute your apps you’ll have to pay $99 to join the developer program. Also you won’t be able to use your apps on the iPhone or iPod Touch until June when 2.0 of the iPhone software is released. Also, you’ll need a “Intel processor-based Mac running Mac OS X Leopard” to develop applications for the iPhone.

It sounds like Apple will be adding lots of business type features to the iPhone in the future including push address book, VPN, security policies, remote wipe, Exchange support, etc. Basically all the stuff that IT departments like about Blackberries. Here’s an Engadget link covering the recent iPhone press conference.

It looks like the SDK is going to have everything needed to development iPhone apps like an IDE that integrates with version control, a full API to get to all of the iPhone features like the accelerometer, video playback and GUI features. It will also have a GUI interface builder and 3D graphics support. There will be a simulator also.

Developers will be able to sell their applications through the Apple store. Developers will be able to set the prices for their applications and Apple will take 30% off the top. If you want to give your application away you can and Apple won’t charge you anything. That sounds fair enough.

Here is a comparison chart of the iPhone SDK features vs. the other mobile device SDKs.

With the release of the iPhone SDK Sun has said that they will be working on a Virtual Machine for the iPhone.

I’d love to start playing with the new iPhone SDK. I only have one problem…I don’t own a Mac…Yet!