Facebook developers to get access to iPhone platform too, poor suckers
Widgetmakers think they have it tough complying with Facebook's changing rules and secret motives, but that's probably because they haven't had to deal with Apple yet. Lucky them. Now they do. Facebook executive Ben Ling announced yesterday at F8 that Facebook Connect — Facebook's initiative to weave activity on other websites into its site — will launch on the iPhone later this fall.InsideFacebook's Justin Smith says Facebook's third-party developers have been "clamoring" for access to Facebook's mobile platform, but we wonder if they know what kind of headache they're getting into. Not only is Apple secretive to the extreme about upcoming changes to its iPhone apps platform, it forces developers to keep quiet. Apple requires an NDA for "every single developer working on the platform — and every single person who installs the iPhone developer's kit" — greatly limiting any kind of help coders can be to each other when creating new apps.