Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK
by David Mark, Jeff LaMarche

Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK
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Book Summary Information

Author: David Mark, Jeff LaMarche
Brand: Apress
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-07-21
ISBN: 1430224592
Number of pages: 584
Publisher: Apress

Book Reviews of Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

Book Review: A Review
Summary: 5 Stars

I reviewed a couple of fine books for Apress over the past two years, but I must say that "Beginning iPhone 3 Development" is one of the finest! The authors did an excellent job, addressing the code and complexity of the underlying platform.

When I first got my hands dirty with iPhone development everything was new: the IDE, the programming language and the environment to which my code is deployed. I didn't know my way around Xcode and I had no idea what Protocols are in Objective-C. This kind of knowledge is what the authors of "Beginning iPhone 3 Development" assume and work with very nicely. They are not trying to explain Xcode in every detail or tell you all about Objective-C, instead they focus on what you need to know right there and then to solve the problem the chapter is focused on.

I like this concept a lot! This way you get to know Xcode and Objective-C step-by-step in bits and pieces, with really good examples. Although the authors are not explaining all the tools and language features in detail, I think you really get a good sip of background information.

Another thing which really makes "Beginning iPhone 3 Development" stand out from other books I read lately, is the style of writing. It's not only the words the authors chose to describe a complex junk of Objective-C code, but also the way they approach it. They keep repeating the basic concepts, but always in a different way, so it doesn't get boring to read about stuff like Delegates and ViewControllers over and over again. It's just exactly what you need to wrap you head around this sort of topics.

If you follow the blog of Jeff Lamarche, one of the authors, you can really see that this guy is all about writing. You can find tons of tutorials there for iPhone development, which immediately remind you of "Beginning iPhone 3 Development". The style and tone of writing are quite similar.

After all the praise there is one downside, it's a minor one, but then again, to you it might be important: the website. It's really just a pointer to a phpbb forum, which is meant to be a place where people can discuss or ask questions about the book. That's all well and good, but the thing wants you to register, even if you merely want to download the source code, which sucks. I just don't need another forum account.

A colleague raised the question why you need a book, in order to develop for the iPhone? After all, the documentation Apple provides is pretty extensive and of high quality. That is true! Apple's Developer Connection provides a plethora of documents on all sorts of topics, all very well written. The problem with those documents is that they don't give you a coherent picture. It's more of a reference documentation. You go there, if you need an answer to some specific problem.

"Beginning iPhone 3 Development" on the other hand, provides a nice example for each chapter, which leads you through all the features of a certain angle of iPhone development. You can tag along and at the end of the chapter, you have a pretty good understanding of what just happened the past 50 pages.

For me, "Beginning iPhone 3 Development" gave me a good insight of what it takes to develop an iPhone application. It even encouraged me to dive deeper and change my development perspective from solely Java towards the iPhone platform. If you are planning to get started with iPhone development, go and buy this book! You won't regret it!

Summary of Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

Are you a programmer looking for a new challenge? Does the thought of building your very own iPhone app make your heart race and your pulse quicken? If so, Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK is just the book for you. Updated and revised for iPhone SDK 3, many of the discussions in the original book have been clarified to make some of the more complex topics easier to understand. In addition, all of the projects have been rebuilt from scratch using the SDK 3 templates.

Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, this book offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone and iPod touch programming. The book starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and installing Apple's free iPhone SDK, and then stepping you though the creation of your first simple iPhone application. From there, you'll learn to integrate all the interface elements iPhone users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You'll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you'll see how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You'll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone's built-in database management system. In addition, you'll also learn about Core Data, an important persistence mechanism that has just been added with SDK 3.

And there's much more! You'll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You'll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages. You can discover more about this book, download source code, and find support forums at the book's companion site, at www.iphonedevbook.com.

  • The iPhone 3 update to the best-selling and most recommended book for iPhone developers
  • Packed full of tricks, techniques, and enthusiasm for the new SDK from a developer perspective
  • The most complete, useful, and up-to-date guide to all things having to do with Apple's iPhone SDK

What you?ll learn

  • Everything you need to know to develop your own best-selling iPhone apps
  • Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences

Who this book is for

Anyone who wants to start developing for iPhone and iPod touch

What's changed from the first edition of Beginning iPhone Development

  • All code samples have been updated to follow current Apple coding conventions
  • The autorotation code has been updated to use the new single-step fast autorotation instead of the original two-step method
  • A new section has been added introducing Core Data, covering basic principles and showing how to build a simple Core Data application
  • All the table view-related chapters have been updated to use table view cell styles. They've also been updated to use textLabel and detailTextLabel instead of the deprecated text property of the table view cell.
  • All known errata have been corrected
  • All projects have been rebuilt from scratch using the SDK 3.0 templates
  • Many concepts have been clarified based on feedback and supplemented with information we've learned from another year of using the SDK

Table of Contents

  1. Welcome to the Jungle
  2. Appeasing the Tiki Gods
  3. Handling Basic Interaction
  4. More User Interface Fun
  5. Autorotation and Autosizing
  6. Multiview Applications
  7. Tab Bars and Pickers
  8. Introduction to Table Views
  9. Navigation Controllers and Table Views
  10. Application Settings and User Defaults
  11. Basic Data Persistence
  12. Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
  13. Taps, Touches, and Gestures
  14. Where Am I? Finding Your Way with Core Location
  15. Whee! Accelerometer!
  16. iPhone Camera and Photo Library
  17. Application Localization
  18. Where to Next?

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