iPhone developers are not happy right now

While Apple keeps bragging about one billion iPhone apps sold, some developers are fed up with their outrageous payment delays. Some cases are dramatic, deeply affecting indie developer's families in the middle of the crisis:

30 something year old family man with bills to pay owed 1,000's (soon to be 10's of thousands if March is missed also) here.

I'm with you. I am a 30 year old work-from-home Dad of 2 kids. I'm owed probably about $10k at this point ($2k from past months, $8k from the month with no payments or financial reports yet).

This is a BIG deal for me and my family.

Over $10,000 here. Family, kids, mortgage etc. Mails unanswered etc. In dispair. No where to go. They don't reply to emails and there is no number. Can't do anything physically because I'm in the European Union.

Apple still owes me more than $7,500 since September 2008 for US and World regions. I supplied them with a new SWIFT code and a intermediary bank they could use last month, but still nothing. Sent them tons of emails but I never got to know what is really wrong/faulty so I just tried to give them another SWIFT code that DNB (Biggest bank in Norway) uses. All other region payments have been OK.

Apple owes me near $2000 since Feb. Zero payment received. Zero email replies.

Apple acts as a distribution channel for all iPhone OS-based software through their iTunes App Store. They get the micro-payments from the customers, getting a 30% share of each sale. Every month they add the totals and pay developers the 70% in a single money transfer, which—according to the developer contract—should arrive within 45 days of the end of the month.

As you can see, this has not been the case in the quotes above and apparently many others. Months have passed in many instances, and there's still no sign of the money. In fact, according to developers, the situation is so bad that some are threatening to sue Apple for breach of contract.

If you are a developer and have some horror—or good—stories to share about this, you know where we are. [iphonedevsdk forums and iphonedevsdk forums via TechCrunch via Gizmodo]

Zork: For The iphone?

Alright, another use for the iphone!!!

This time you can play a game created in the mid-80's on your $600 phone. For people like myself and some of the other writers on this blog, might remember the game 'Zork'. I think it had to be one of the first games that I've ever owned, and at the time, I thought it was cool. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to re-live the days of 'typing in' my actions and moves.

Do you remember: "open mailbox" or "take sword" or "read letter" or "This is Stupid".

And I'm sure that with the iphone, typing in all of these nostalgic phrases will be fun. I'm sure there's a 'Hardball' by Accolade game out there somewhere that we can stick in the Jesus phone, or how bout Impossible Mission? Can't we just get something that is a little bit more useful like, I don't no...... IM? or Active Sync?

Just a thought....

Zork lives on iPhone! Frotz Z-Machine Interpreter for iPhone v0.1 [iPhoneWorld via Crunchgear]

3rd Party iPhone App SDK to Launch at WWDC

Last week Steve Jobs stated that Apple will allow 3rd parties to write applications for the iphone later this year. Well it looks like later has come a lot sooner than expected. John Markoff of the NYTimes backs up the story, and claims that some sort of SDK will be unveiled at WWDC.

"A person briefed on Apple's plans said that at its software developer conference this month, Apple intends to announce that it will make it possible for developers of small programs written for the Macintosh to easily convert them to run on the iPhone."

It sounds like an app to convert Widgets for use in the iPhone. And Considering the number of Widgets available already, this could be huge for the iphone. This bit of info follows closely behind Jobs saying that 3rd party support would occur later in the year.

Read more after the jump. [NY Times]