Apple to Allow Outside Applications on iPhone

Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Wednesday that outside developers will be allowed to create programs for the iPhone, changing a policy that had angered many.

Blocking outsiders from making programs that would run easily on the iPhone has been one of a series of restrictions that have annoyed users, even leading to some lawsuits.

Jobs, in comments on Apple's Web site, said a kit for developers still will not be available until February, as the company works out how to open up the phone without exposing it to malicious programs.

"We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones," Jobs said on the Web site at http://www.apple.com/hotnews/.

Developers have tried to open up the iPhone for use in the United States on networks beyond Apple's U.S. partner, AT&T Inc, though Apple has blocked many such moves. Spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Apple has not changed its policy on locking the phone to other networks.

But until now, Apple also had stopped software engineers from creating whatever they wanted to run on the iPhone, without delivering them through the iPhone's Web browser.

Some 200 applications have been created for use on those terms, but consumers and software makers have seen that as an extra layer of rules and technology that was unnecessary and throttled innovation.

Under the new policy, applications will be allowed to run in so-called native mode.

Jobs said he expects malicious developers to focus on the iPhone. "Since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target," he said.

Apple could require a digital signature for programs to authenticate their developer, he added, referring to a system that he said mobile phone maker Nokia is implementing.

While this makes such a phone less than "totally open, we believe it is a step in the right direction," Jobs said.

Sprint to Introduce Touch-Screen Phone

It's official: touch screens are the big new thing in cell phones this holiday season.

Sprint Nextel Corp. announced Wednesday it is jumping on the bandwagon with the Touch by HTC. Like Apple Inc.'s iPhone, this smart phone has only a few buttons and is designed to be controlled by touching the screen.

The Touch will go on sale Nov. 4 for $250 with a two-year contract.

The announcement makes Sprint the third of the three largest U.S. wireless carriers to introduce a cell phone with a large touch screen designed to be controlled with fingers rather than a stylus. The iPhone, which launched this summer, is exclusive to AT&T Inc. Verizon Wireless said two weeks ago that it would introduce the LG Voyager in time for Thanksgiving.

The Voyager has a large touch screen, but differs from the iPhone in that it folds out to reveal a hardware keyboard. The HTC Touch lacks a keyboard, but it still has a stylus. A version has been on sale in Europe since this summer.

The Touch runs Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile 6 software, which exists in two versions: one that's controlled by a stylus, and another that's controlled by a keypad on a non-touch screen phone. HTC Corp., a Taiwanese company, has modified the stylus-oriented version of the software to make it more usable with fingers alone.

Beyond the touch-screen interface, the Touch's similarities with the iPhone are not overwhelming. It doesn't have a large amount of built-in flash memory for music and movies, relying instead on expansion cards. It's smaller and lighter, with a screen measuring 2.8 inches diagonally compared with the iPhone's 3.5 inches.

The Touch uses Sprint's relatively fast data network, rather than the iPhone's combination of a relatively slow AT&T network supplemented by Wi-Fi. The European Touch's Wi-Fi capability did not make it into Sprint's version.

The name could cause some confusion among shoppers: Apple just introduced the iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without cell phone capabilities.

HTC isn't well known in the U.S. but has actually been making smart phones and personal digital assistants for U.S. companies under their brands for many years. It only started putting its own name on its products this year.