Are you doing iPhone development on a Mac? Do you use Dreamweaver as your IDE? If your answer to both questions is ‘yes,’ then try this simple tip.

The iPhone SDK has an iPhone simulator that is, effectively, a fully functioning, pixel-perfect iPhone on your Mac. But because it’s an app on your Mac, it is also just another browser on your system. So treating it as such in Dreamweaver is a snap.

First, download and install the free iPhone SDK from Apple’s iPhone Development Center. Since you are not releasing apps through the App Store, you do not need to pay to be a part of the Application Developer Program.  You just need a free developer account on Apple’s site.

Once you download and install the SDK, open up Dreamweaver.

1. Go File > Preferences > Preview in Browser
2. Click the “plus” button to add a new browser to your list
3. Navigate to /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/
4. Select the iPhone Simulator.app
5. Click Ok, and then close out your preferences
6. Now the iPhone Simulator is in your list of browsers

There’s one quirk. The iPhone Simulator must be running in order for it to accept browser pages from Dreamweaver, so if you trigger it from Dreamwever and all you see is the iPhone’s Home Screen, then do it again in Dreamweaver.  The second time, the page should come up in the iPhone’s browser.

Apple announced today the introduction of the iPhone SDK and the iPhone Developer Program.

The iPhone SDK is free and includes the Xcode IDE, Instruments, iPhone simulator, frameworks and samples, compilers, Shark analysis tool, and more. This will let you tinker and develop.

However, if you want to sell or distribute your app, you will have to shell out $99 to become a member of the iPhone Developer Program.

The iPhone Developer Program provides a complete and integrated process for developing, debugging, and distributing your free, commercial, or in-house applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Complete with development resources, real-world testing on iPhone, and distribution on the App Store, you have everything you need to go from code to customer.

The Developer Program comes in two flavors: 1) the Standard Program for $99 is for developers who are creating free and commercial applications for iPhone and iPod touch. 2) the Enterprise Program for $299 is for developers who are creating proprietary, in-house applications for iPhone and iPod touch.

More details here:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/

As of the iPhone 1.1.3 update, users can save a bookmark to the desktop of their iPhone or iPod touch. Creating this icon is similar to creating a favicon. You create a file, save it to the root directory of your site, and the iPhone takes care of the rest.

1. Create a 57×57 image in your favorite image editor
2. Save it as a PNG (not ico!)
3. Name it “apple-touch-icon.png”
4. Upload it to the root of your site
5. Test it in your iPhone
6. Relax on the beach and call the bankers to tell them where to put the wheelbarrows of cash your clients will throw at you just because this is so damn cool.

Step #6 is not guaranteed.

A very odd thing happened to me today. I was in the Apple store buying an iPod touch for myself when not one but two men trying to buy “a couple of iPhones” were told about a brand new Apple Store policy, effective as of 10am today (10/25/07), that stated that customers wanting to buy two or more iPhones must pay by credit card.

What made this odd besides the fact that Apple felt the need to institute this policy was the reaction the guys had when informed of the policy. They flipped out and walked out after berating the manager. Later, I encountered both jabbering on their cell phones out in the mall. Clearly, some business model was being disrupted.

Now, a two things are odd about this:

1. Why the heck is Apple so keen to put the kibosh on people reselling the iPhone? Money’s money, right? Now, I can understand them objecting to a guy unloading an iPhone or two that just happened to “fall off the back of the truck,” but these guys were paying full retail plus tax. Who cares if they eBay them?
2. Speaking of which, who the hell were these guys reselling the phone to? Again, they were paying full retail plus tax, which implies that somewhere down the line, some poor sucker is willing to pay more than that. So I ask again, who the hell is this poor sucker.

Anyway, this was odd. If you have insight into this, I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/