Amidst all the hype surrounding iPhone, one thing is very clear: the iPhone will have some impact on web site development. At least, for those sites wanting to attract a well-to-do, gadget focused community. Or I should say, among those who are well-to-do, gadget focused, and who don't have long fingernails.
The iPhoney emulator provides a means to test your site or web application in an iPhone environment, without having to shell out the money or sign up for two years of service at AT & T.
Apple has also, sort of, kind of, provided development guidelines. The company stresses making content 'double tap' friendly: blocks of text, sized just right. You'll have to decide how much of your site you want to make 'double tap' friendly, and whether attracting iPhone users is worth the extra effort.
West Civ has done a more detailed look at the design specs for the device, and points to a Google Group related to the product (via Virginia DeBolt).
Ajaxian has created a whole new category devoted to iPhone development. GigaOm asks Where are the games?. Why, right here: Pick-a-Pair small game, Medium Game, and Triple card game. These are image match games based on technology close to 8 years old (JavaScript/HTML) that I updated to use with the Flickr recently loaded image queue (accessible via the API). I thought the games might work with iPhone, and according to iPhoney, they do.
I feel so über hip, now.
Before rushing off to hack the black, one thing I take away when reading Apple's developer material is that the company doesn't necessarily want people building overly complicated, special purpose iPhone applications; or, at a minimum, applications that make torturous use of any possible hacked entry into the device. The stress is on small image and script files, clean scripts, fast application execution time, and fast loads. If you build an application on an undocumented hack, don't be surprised to find that door slammed in your face next software update.
Apple wants control with this device. Keep that in mind when you spend your time on finding those clever 'workarounds'.
