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[iggie]

New application and games software development kit for mobile devices, just launched a free eval version.

Airplay SDK - More info + Free registration

[st33d]

I have I read this wrong or do you actually have to have to make your iphone game on a PC connected to a Mac with this? Sounds a bit silly.

[iggie]

Aha - if you are a Mac lover that would seem strange. Most of my friends would prefer to dev in plain old C++ on a PC in Visual Studio, rather than Apple's own c variant.

There is a Mac version of Airplay in the pipeline, and lots of other phones to target than iPhone.

[st33d]

My point is that you can't develop iphone apps without a Mac. Apple are a bit of an arse about this.

So you've got this SDK which is no use currently to a Mac, the thing you are forced to build iphone apps on. Other than connecting it via LAN to a Mac.

This has nothing to do with loving Macs, but all to do with the fact that the SDK page says you need a PC and a Mac to develop for iphone with it.

[TimCloss]

You are right - today, Airplay SDK requires a Mac on your LAN in order to sign your iPhone app before it can be deployed to device.

However, there are plenty of pro apps dev teams out there who would rather develop iPhone apps on PCs, in C++, using Visual Studio etc... having a single Mac on their LAN is a small price to pay.

Many "indie" developers also have PCs, even if they are today doing all their iPhone dev on Macs (because they didn't have any option, before Airplay SDK 4.0...) so switching to the PC for main dev and connecting their Mac for signing isn't an issue either.

You are right that for the "indie" developers who ONLY have access to a Mac and not to a PC then Airplay SDK doesn't let them deploy to iPhone today.

As iggie says, Airplay Mac SDK is already under development and will provide for that developer group early in 2010.

[TimCloss]

I should have updated this ages ago but...

Airplay SDK 4.1 was released in February.

As well as making Airplay available for Mac/Xcode, it also removes the requirement for PC users to have a Mac on their LAN. So you can develop, test, deploy and sign your app all on a PC!

http://www.airplaysdk.com

[bateleur]

So you can develop, test, deploy and sign your app all on a PC!

Cool! That's actually some good now.

[mcc]

This actually looks pretty great, and the payment structures are neat. I'd be a little concerned though about exactly how much you have to give over to the abstraction layer. Personally all I really want is a way to target Android+iPhone without needing to own a PC or do a whole lot of work. If in order to get this I have to switch over to using their drawing/3D API and such that makes the product a good bit less attractive. The features like "we take over your 3D pipeline" and Maya integration sound great for someone doing commercial development, but may be a bit heavy duty for some of us...

Is it correct that this cannot target desktops?