14 DAY TRIAL // Following the exciting release of iOS 4 yesterday, Apple proceeded with distributing the newest version of its iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) for free, alongside Xcode 3.2.3, the Apple-developed suite of tools for coding software on Mac OS X. Previously, only paid developers were able to download and work with the respective programming tools. All developers are now free to download and use the software, including those who are not enrolled with Apple’s $99-a-year iPhone Developer Program.
“With a rich set of over 1500 new APIs, iPhone SDK for iOS 4 provides you with an amazing range of technologies to enhance the functionality of your iPhone and iPod touch apps. Registered Apple developers can visit the iPhone Dev Center to download the iPhone SDK 4 now,” Apple states on the Developer-dedicated area of its website.
Technical documentation includes 'getting started' documents and an iPhone reference library, which allows devs to explore a collection of sample code, guides, and articles for iPhone development categorized by topic and frameworks.
Developers are also offered an iPhone Application Programming Guide, an iPhone Development Guide, iPhone Human Interface Guidelines, documentation for learning Objective-C (a primer), and of course the valuable downloads themselves - iPhone SDK 4, and Xcode 3.2.3.
Before WWDC10, Apple introduced iOS 4 (called iPhone OS 4 back then) with much fanfare, announcing that it would finally support Multitasking, a key feature in the new iPhone OS. Seven new multitasking services were comprised to allow developers’ apps to perform tasks in the background while preserving battery life and performance, Apple said. These multitasking services include Background Audio, Voice over IP, Background Location, Push Notifications, Task Finishing, and Fast App Switching.
iPhone SDK 4 also supports iAd, Apple's new mobile advertising platform, which “combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads,” as well as Game Center, the company’s new social gaming network (similar to Sony’s PlayStation Network).