Apple has mentioned that this is in response to the success of their iPhone Developer Program , also priced at $99 and this would create potential for iPhone developers to port over their applications to the Mac platform.

While the newly named Mac Developer Program covers most of the essential elements required for developing an app for Mac, it is definitely a much slimmer package than its predecessors. The $99 Mac Developer Program would offer access to Mac OS X pre-releases, technical documentation, Xcode 3 and other tools, development videos, member-only developer forums, and two technical code-level support incidents. Additional support incidents can be purchased in bundles of two for $99 or five for $249.

This program no longer includes significant hardware discounts, 10 support incidents and WWDC material and ticket worth $1200.

Apple has made it further easy for students and indie Mac developers by offering a free version of the Mac Developer Program that gives access to Xcode 3 and other tools, online resources, and bug reporting. For first timers and amateurs who just want to explore the Mac development platform, this is an ideal option.

With this new change in place, it would not be surprising to see a new wave of Mac application development and more so when there are tons of iPhone apps that are already available and can be ported over easily to the Mac platform.

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There was a case where what ever I did, did not work. Many attempts to install using iTunes after trying to change certificates, provisioning profiles have failed. Even the “iPhone Configuration Utility” failed to install the app. I had actually lost all hopes getting it installed on this device. But after a little prayer and just a little hope left, it just worked.

Why did it work? I do not have any answer. Can’t still figure it out. And that was the first time I tried installing an Adhoc build on a device for a Windows user!! Is it really so hard?

Could not install application on device: Error: A signed resource has been added, modified or deleted.

The image that you see here, is another failed attempt at installing an Adhoc build for a Windows user. But this got resolved real quick.

The reason: Mac allows file names to contain some special characters (like ‘*’) which are not valid on a Windows PC. This is one thing you can check if you come across errors of above kind. But not all of them will be the same as above.

If any one else has faced a similar problem and found a definitive solution, let us know here.

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• August 26, 2009 -- Memory Issues in iPhone OS 3.0 : Sample Code (2)
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• December 20, 2011 -- iPhone app developers rushing-in to submit apps before shut down. (0)
• December 12, 2011 -- Apple Seeds iOS 5.1 Beta 2 to iPad and iPhone App Developers. (0)

Preparing iPhone apps for App Submission
Get started with iTunes Connect, including setting up your user accounts, submitting contracts, tax and banking information, and gathering application information.

App Store Approval Process
Ensure your application is ready for submission and learn what to expect during the app approval process.

Managing iPhone Apps on the App Store
Make the most of your presence on the App Store and learn what you can do to manage your app once it has been posted.

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• July 1, 2011 -- AddThis SDK available for iPhone app developers. (0)
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• May 10, 2011 -- Microsoft releases Azure tools for iPhone developers. (0)

Oh!! but remember to run the app on iPhone OS 3.0 and not on iPhone OS 3.1 (the bug has apparently been patched for this version)

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• November 5, 2009 -- Adhoc installation issues on Windows PC (3)
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• December 20, 2011 -- iPhone app developers rushing-in to submit apps before shut down. (0)

“openURL” is the API to use to achieve any of the above and many more.
If you need to let your application users quickly dial APPLE from within your app, just include the following line

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"tel:8006927753"]];

Similarly, you could initiate SMS application by using openURL with “sms: “, but unfortunately you cannot fill in the SMS content as Apple does not yet support it.
There are many more things you could do with this API like launching Google Maps, Safari with any website like you want or even the AppStore links to your apps which you want the users to buy.

Checking support for URLs of other applications
Until the release of iPhone OS 3.0 it was not possible to find if there are any applications installed on the device which handle the URL scheme you are about to use. But now it is possible through the following API

- (BOOL)canOpenURL:(NSURL*)url

Call the above API before using “openURL” to make sure your call will “certainly” be handled by a registered application. If you were developing an iphone app which lets a phone call be made from within it, do the following

// this will fail if the device is an iPod
if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"tel:111"]])
{
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"tel:111"]];
}
else
{
// show an Alert here indicating that the call can’t be completed
}

Apart from using “canOpenURL”, do check the return value from “openURL” too and take appropriate action.

You should also use “canOpenURL” to find out if any features (like calling a number and SMS) that are not accessible on iPod should be disabled or hidden. Showing “phone” icons and letting them be clicked in your application on an iPod is a sure shot way to get your application rejected for uploading to AppStore.

Registering and handling custom URL schemes
If you are developing a great tool and can be used by other applications, you can register custom URL schemes and implement them. To create custom URL schemes just add them to your application’s “info.plist” file.

• To the root element of your application’s “info.plist” file, add a row with key named “URL types”.
• Expand it to find “item1″ in it, expand it and edit the value for key “URL identifier” to look something like “com.yourcompany.yoururlscheme”
• Add another row to “item1″ with key “URL Schemes”. Type in the first few characters of your URL scheme.
  For an example, if you wish to use url formats like abc://part1/part2, just enter “abc” for URL Schemes

Once you have created and registered your own URL formats/schemes, you can handle incoming URL requests by implementing the following UIApplicationDelegate method

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication*)application handleOpenURL:(NSURL*)url

Before parsing and/or handling the URL, make sure it is in the right format and follows all rules of your URL scheme.

The above method was the only place where you can handle incoming URLs until iPhone OS 3.0 arrived. For iPhone OS 3.0 and above, the preferred place to handle incoming URLs is

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication*)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary*)launchOptions

This method should return whatever “handleOpenURL” API would have returned if it were implemented. If you implement the above delegate method of UIApplication, IPhone OS will not invoke the following methods

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication*)application
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication*)application handleOpenURL:(NSURL*)url

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• September 21, 2009 -- Apple Announced App Store Resource Center for iPhone App Developers (0)
• August 26, 2009 -- Memory Issues in iPhone OS 3.0 : Sample Code (2)
• July 20, 2011 -- Box announces new APIs for iOS and Android, global challenge for app developers. (0)
• July 1, 2011 -- AddThis SDK available for iPhone app developers. (0)
• May 19, 2011 -- Adknowledge and Ansca Mobile join hands to make it easy for iPhone developer. (0)