[Posted this elsewhere and they suggested a couple more "dev" oriented sites to post. Excuse the length]

I'm new. Have been reading here and there - a lot to take in. Basically it comes down to wanting to develop apps for the iPhone and the restrictions Apple seems to be placing on us.

I just got a fancy new iPhone 3G from work. It will be tied to AT&T due to it being provided by work. I would like to develop some apps for it (on a Mac using the iPhone SDK environment/frameworks); however, the main app I envisioned would require access to incoming e-mail messages in Mail. I just found out today that Apple restricts access to many low-level frameworks/APIs as well as the Mail client (obviously) being stripped down quite a bit.

I have seen info on modifying your Mac-based SDK environment to enable some low-level frameworks/APIs at http://wikee.iphwn.org/howto:using_sdk_ … in_headers . It sounds like you can use this in a non-jailbroken environment. The only issue would be Apple accepting your application for mass consumption via the App Store. Would that be correct? I ordered the book that is linked on that page that supposedly talks about some of the lower-level ("hidden") frameworks/APIs but don't know if that will be to exhaustive. Any of you have any good links to info on comsuming the lower-level ("hidden") frameworks/APIs?

Also, does jailbreaking your iPhone (when the 3G break is finally available of course) make for a stupid move? Can they [Apple] discover your new freedom and put the squeeze on you somehow? Or can I still benefit by jailbreaking it for ease of installation of non-sanctioned third-party apps and direct (SSH) access to the iPhone filesystem for tweaking things?

Does the use of the SDK allow direct access to the filesystem on the iPhone (3G)? I'm installing things tonight or this weekend so I don't know the answer to that fairly simple question. I am guessing it does not (thus the need for jailbreaking).

Thanks in advance,
rebump

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For others wanting more info on the above, I just ran across this link:

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2008 … about.html

It seems that you can open up access to (some? or all?) of the restricted (or "low-level" as I was calling them) APIs with the iPhone SDK from Apple without messing about. You will have the issue of the app(s) you develop possibly not being accepted in the Apple App Store. If not accepted, I guess there is a third-party open source installer (appropriately name "Installer") that you will have to have jailbroken iPhone users use. Thus limiting your app to jailbroken iPhone users and causing you to collect any money yourself if you wish to charge for your app(s).

So the above answered my questions regarding my paragraph above that starts out "I have seen info on modifying your Mac-based..." but the other paragraphs could be elaborated on by folks if they are in the know...especially the the last paragraph that starts out "Finally, anyone...". wink

Thanks in advance,
rebump

javacom has already made an xcode template for exactly this. It lets you build SDK apps with access to some of the private frameworks and full headers for UIKit. However I don't think he has updated it for the final SDK yet though. I'm sure he will soon though since 2.0 final firmware has just been pwned it means people can finally upgrade from beta 3 (the last working xcode hacked firmware).

http://hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=38389

btw all your links were broken.

Cool. So do you know if you can access files outside the app sandbox with the enablement of the extra frameworks? Or do you still need to jailbreak the device first? Sorry, new to this but learning. I am guessing that you still need to jailbreak it.

Sorry about the link. It didn't copy over from the other post.

rebump