Last week, Engadget and others were predicting that the iPhone SDK would be seriously limited and even suggested continuing to jailbreak the iPhone rather than use the SDK:
It was only a matter of time till the serious iPhone SDK rumors started flying, and with Apple’s Town Hall event next Thursday, it’s possible some of what we’re hearing is right on. If that’s the case, prepare to be letdown in a major way. According to iLounge, Apple will be severely restricting access on software for the iPhone and iPod touch, only allowing apps to be downloaded through iTunes, hand-picking which applications will make it to the store, and cutting off developer’s access to accessories which interface with the dock connector. Of course, this is just about what we expected from Steve, since he’s already lauded Nokia for its S60 verification scheme. Additionally, the report claims that the SDK we see next week will be an incomplete beta, with the full version rolling out in June to coincide with the WWDC. Thinking of any good reasons to keep jailbreaking your phone? Yeah, us too.
As I predicted, they were wrong. Apple’s SDK gives even more capabilities than the hacked unofficial toolchain. Today, Engadget called the new SDK a winner.
I’m still trying to download the SDK now. Apple’s servers are being hit very hard and were very slow for most for most of the day. To make matters worse, my DSL connection drops after less than 5 minutes due to the heavy storms we’re having now, so I’ve had to continuously resume the transfer. After reconnecting numerous times, the transfer failed at about 1.2 GB. As I write this, the restarted transfer is now at 622 MB with 41 minutes remaining.