It's the Develop Conference in Brighton today, and the iPhone promises to feature quite heavily. iPhone publisher Chillingo is in attendance, and it's just droped us a line to tell us it will be announcing its new social network, known as Crystal.
Crystal promises to harness the new aspects of the iPhone 3.0 software and provide developers with a fully integrated and transparent framework to include social features in their games - essential providing the iPhone's answer to the Xbox 360's Xbox Live service.

"Crystal gives developers and gamers a big plus all round," says Chillingo director Chris Byatte. "It is set to become the de-facto social gaming standard for iPhone and iPod touch."

The system will be provided free, and will allow players to create their own profile, add friends, store achievements and game histories, and compete with friends via direct challenges in multiple games. Crystal will also be integrated with popular social networking is such as Facebook Connect and Twitter.

Developers and publishers can register their interest now over on the official Crystal SDK website.