Could this firmware be the one that Steve Jobs has been holding over our heads for the past few months? Most likely.
It seems that the iPhone v1.1.3 firmware has been primped and prepped to play nice with officially, Apple-sanctioned third-party application. Here’s a rundown of what’s different in the iPhone v1.1.3 firmware:
- Applications actually show up in the /Applications folder (no modification necessary)
- Applications run under user “mobile” rather than “root”
- Preferences are stored in var/mobile instead of var/root
- SpringBoard (the homescreen application) seems to also support widgets
The new iPhone framework appears to have been reworked to run applications in a more restricted user-environment. Running the apps under “mobile” provides extra protection and prevents any third-party app from making dangerous changes to your iPhone’s firmware – the kind of firmware-alterations that are possible when running applications as “root.”
There is also some widget support, native homescreen pagination (multiple homescreen pages), and applications are set to store themselves in the official /Applications directory.
All signs point to the iPhone v1.1.3 firmware being “the one” that will accept and run official installable applications from Apple-approved third-party developers.
Now, all we have to do is wait for Apple to release that iPhone SDK.
[Via: cre.ations.net]