Blogger and noted iPhone hacker Nate True has gotten to examine the latest iPhone software, version 1.1.3, on a deeper level, and found it to be “ready for official installable applications.” According to True, the iPhone’s home screen application, SpringBoard, no longer needs modification to show extra applications in the /Applications folder. In addition, all applications now run as the user “mobile” instead of root, and preferences are now stored in /var/mobile rather than in /var/root.
In Mac OS X and most UNIX variants, running applications as the root user can be a security risk; running apps as a lesser user creates a sort of sandbox for the applications that keeps them from accessing certain parts of the operating system, including system-level files. True also claims that the developer frameworks have undergone many changes, perhaps to “make it easier for official SDK developers to make programs,” and that the SpringBoard app appears to have gained widget support, via a class called SBWidgetApplication which manages the package location and icon.
Apple has said that an official SDK for the iPhone and iPod touch will be released in February.
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