Posted by Michael on Sep 30, 2009 in
Books Head First iPhone Development: A Learner’s Guide to Creating Objective-C Applications for the iPhone is a new book by Dan Pilone and Tracey Pilone soon to be published by that prolific publishing house O’Reilly Press.
Let’s say you have an idea for a killer iPhone app. Great. Now, where do you begin? Head First iPhone Development will help you get your first application up and running in no time. You’ll quickly learn to use iPhone SDK tools, including Interface Builder and Xcode, and master Objective-C programming principles that will make your app stand out. It’s a complete learning experience for creating eye-catching, top-selling iPhone applications.
Whether you’re a seasoned Mac developer, or someone with strong object-oriented programming skills but no Mac experience, this book offers a complete learning experience for creating eye-catching, top-selling iPhone applications. This book is still in progress, but you can get going on this technology through our Rough Cuts edition, which lets you read the manuscript as it’s being written, either online or via PDF.
- Put Objective-C core concepts to work, including message passing, protocols, properties, and memory management
- Take advantage of iPhone patterns such as datasources and delegates
- Preview your applications in the iPhone Simulator
- Build complicated interactions that utilize multiple views, data entry/editing, and iPhone rotation
- Work with iPhone’s camera, GPS, and accelerometer
- Optimize, test, and distribute your application
Why waste your time struggling with new concepts? By using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
This book is still in progress, but you can get going on this technology through the publisher’s Rough Cuts edition, which lets you read the manuscript as it’s being written, either online or via PDF.
Tags: iphone, iPod Touch, programming
Posted by Michael on Sep 29, 2009 in
iPhone Tags: analysis, games, iphone
Posted by Michael on Jun 23, 2009 in
Events,
Learning Pragmatic Studios, the Apple and iPhone training people, have announced a new class to be help both in Reston, VA, from August 4 to 7th and Denver, CO, from August 25th through 28th. They bill this as a class that can help you, “turn your idea into a killer app by learning how to create iPhone applications from start to finish.”
According to their release:
Learn how to create dynamic, visually-appealing iPhone applications from two experienced iPhone developers in this 4-day, hands-on training course.
- Learn how to use the major tools and APIs in the iPhone SDK 3.0 and how they all fit together, to develop mobile applications like the pros.
- Get hands-on coding experience and answers to your questions so you can start creating your own iPhone application with confidence.
- Save time and frustration by focusing exclusively on iPhone development for four days with expert guidance.
You’ll come away from this Studio knowing Interface Builder, Xcode, Objective-C, Cocoa Touch programming, and the APIs included in the iPhone SDK 3.0. You’ll not just know how to use these powerful tools, you’ll also understand why things are the way they are. You’ll be ready to create your first iPhone application, or improve upon your existing application.
The Pragmatic Studio offers training on cutting-edge technologies from highly qualified authors and experts. Since 2005, over 1500 developers have learned Ruby, Rails, iPhone, and other timely topics in our training courses.
Also, don’t miss the iPhone Developer’s Roadmap on their site. Really some great advice in there.
Tags: development, iphone, Pragmatic Studios
Posted by Michael on May 25, 2009 in
Books,
Learning 
“The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK
,” by Erica Sadun, continues to appear in the top listings of Amazon.com’s Computer & Internet and Professional & Technical categories, according to an official report. Rather than using exhaustive documentation, The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook provides readers with the skills they need to build apps by presenting them with single-task recipes and clear, fully documented examples.
In the book, iPhone developer Erica Sadun begins by exploring the iPhone delivery platform and SDK, helping readers set up their development environment, and showing how iPhone applications are constructed. In the following chapters, Erica offers single-task recipes for the full spectrum of iPhone/iPod touch programming jobs, including:
- Utilize views and tables
- Organize interface elements
- Alert and respond to users
- Access the Address Book (people), Core Location (places), and Sensors (things)
- Connect to the Internet and Web services
- Display media content
- Create secure Keychain entries, and much more
The book also focuses on the most common issues new iPhone developers face, including laying out windows, responding to user interactions, accessing local data sources, and creating visual and audio notifications, according to the people at InformIT, the online home for Pearson’s information technology publishers. In keeping with the report in question, Erica’s book is also the top-selling electronic title through InformIT.
“This book would be a bargain at ten times its price!,” Tim Burks, iPhone software developer, TootSweet Software, said. “If you are writing iPhone software, it will save you weeks of development time. Erica has included dozens of crisp and clear examples illustrating essential iPhone development techniques and many others that show special effects going way beyond Apple’s official documentation.”
“Programming for the Macintosh operating system, and especially for the iPhone, is one of the most exciting, fastest growing, topics in technology. We meet incredibly talented developers nearly every day, who really enjoy sharing their knowledge, skills, and secrets with other developers,” Paul Boger, publisher, Pearson Technology Group, added. “Pearson is committed to helping our authors share their expertise, whether in print books, in eBooks, or in training. This is a wildly creative community, and we’re really happy to be a part of it.”
Check out The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK and let us know what you think!
Tags: Book Review, development, iphone, iPhone SDK
Posted by Michael on May 20, 2009 in
Learning Interested in learning iPhone or iPod Touch development but having a hard time plowing through all the websites, manuals and how-to books? Well, a classroom course may be just right for you. But, chances are, your local university or technical college isn’t running any Intro To iPhone development courses. But, who needs them?!
Standford University has made their fantastic CSP193 – Introduction To iPhone Programming course available for free via iTunesU and the Internet. Each of the 14 lectures, plus additional materials is about an hour long. In addition, the website for the class has all of the assignments, guide, and even a list of links for document and resources.
The lectures are both informative and well presented – remember, this is a real class at Stanford University. It is hard to find a better learning environment than that. So the value of this course and material can’t be overstated. And if you have any doubts, just look at the credentials for the instructors….
Evan Doll is a Stanford CS alum and has been working at Apple for five years. After a stint in Pro Apps which included work on Final Cut and Aperture, he joined the iPhone team for version 1.0 and every release thereafter. His responsibilities include a variety of iPhone applications as well as the view controller classes in the UIKit framework.
Alan Cannistraro has worked at Apple for the last nine years, bouncing back and forth between roles as a designer and an application developer. His fondness for music and video has led him to work on several different products, including Final Cut Pro, iPod, and most recently the iTunes Remote app for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Paul Marcos has worked at Apple and NeXT for the last 15 years. Primarily focused on application development, Paul has most recently been working on applications for the iPhone. Before that he spent many years working on Mail, the email client that ships with Mac OS X, and helping to develop the first version of Aperture in the Pro Apps department.
Tags: iphone, iPod Touch
Posted by Michael on Nov 9, 2008 in
Site News British developer Jon Wheatley let loose a very, very cool tool site today – Intersquash. Intersquash lets you convert any website into an iPhone site…instantly.
As Jon explains in the on his site, it’s a simple 4 step process: enter the RSS feed of your site, enter the site name, upload a home screen icon and place the code provided between the header tags of your website.
That’s it! Your iPhone and iPod Touch visitors will automatically be forwarded to an optimized version of your site. This has got to be one of the coolest ways to make your website available to millions more people. Give it a try! You can also test it with MacDeveloper.org because I have used the tool on this site itself.
Tags: blog, conversion, intersquash, iphone, website
