14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has officially announced the immediate availability of its latest developer toolset, Xcode 4, as a free download to enrolled Apple developers, or as a 5-dollar purchase through the company’s Mac App Store.
On its Developer website, Apple reveals that “Xcode 4 is now available to all Mac and iOS Developer Program members.”
[admark=1]The Mac maker goes through the enhancements, mentioning a streamlined new interface, and the embedded Apple LLVM compiler.
Xcode is not just a Mac development kit, or a tool dedicated to iOS development.
It is a complete developer toolset for building both Mac, and iPhone apps, and includes the Xcode IDE, Instruments and iOS Simulator.
“Xcode 4 provides everything developers need to create great applications for Mac, iPhone, and iPad,” Apple says.
The Xcode IDE understands a project’s every detail, identifies mistakes in both syntax and logic, and will even fix code, according to the Cupertino, California company.
As noted above, the newest version of Xcode is now freely available for download for those enrolled with Apple’s developer program.
Those who haven’t registered themselves with Apple but are curious about the capabilities of Xcode 4 can just as well download the complete software, albeit in exchange for a small fee - $4.99. This paid version of Xcode 4 can be found on Apple’s Mac App Store.
The download is a large 4.24 GB package supported in English only and requiring Mac OS X 10.6.6, the latest version of Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system.
However, to test or deploy applications on an iOS device, users still need to register themselves with Apple to become a member of the iOS Developer Program.
Also, to submit a Mac or iOS app to the App Store, developers must enroll with Apple.