FRUIT THEMED toymaker Apple has decided that it will ban any third party applications for its iPhone that feature music-playing capabilities.
When Apple announced that it would allow third-party applications for the Jesus phone there was much back slapping among Apple fanboys. "See," they smugly said. "It proves that Steve Jobs, peace be upon him, is not a control freak after all."
That, however, is looking wildly optimistic. In June, Apple will open AppStore, an update to iTunes that will enable users to buy and download these third-party applications much like they already do music and video. It is a fairly cool bit of software with a licence that is wide open in favour of those who sell the software.
However it means that Apple gets to decide which applications it will sell. And that means that Apple can decide to ban anything that hurts iTunes.
For example, will it allow a rival, such as Amazon, to run a third-party application that will deliver music to the iPhone? The same applies to eMusic.
What hints that Apple might be such a bastard? Well the new SDK beta does not allow developers to have access to any iTunes functionality.
This makes it impossible for plug-ins to be created for iLike, Last.fm, Qloud or OnTour to create iPhone-compatible widgets that might expand basic iTunes functions.
