iPhone SDK Development (The Pragmatic Programmers) Review

Walk down a city street, and in a short time, you'll most likely bump into someone who holds an iPhone. This device, which was formally introduced by Steve Jobs in January of 2007, has become one of the most coveted and loved handheld gadgets today. In fact, with the hardware on its third iteration and with its OS at version 3.0, it seems unimaginable to think what the world would be without it.

Without a doubt, one of the reasons for the iPhone's major success can be attributed to the involvement and support of thousands of third party software developers who create applications which run on the iPhone. These independent developers primarily serve to augment in a major way what is essentially Apple's limited number of built-in apps. There are now over hundreds of thousands of third party apps designed for the iPhone which has been downloaded billions of times.

While this number appears staggering, there seems to be no sign that the community of third party developers is slowing down. After all, as we know now, with the success of a number of iPhone apps, creating a small piece of software for the iPhone can result to a not-so-small fortune. And if you think that there's no more room for another app, think again. Once in a while, there comes out of nowhere a new app that is so unique and so amazing that iPhone users simply cannot resist downloading. And so, while Apple likes to advertise that "there's an app for that," there is definitely still room for newer and better iPhone apps.

If you have an idea for an app that you want to use on your iPhone but isn't out there yet, or even if you have a better idea for an app that's already out there, well, there's a software app for that--the iPhone SDK. First thing to do is to sign up with Apple to be one of its iPhone app developers (if you haven't done so yet). And then, pick out the "pragmatic" //iPhone 3.0 SDK Development// book by Bill Dudney and Chris Adamson. This is one big book, but it's not scary. Step-by-step, and at your own speed, you'd be guided through the tools and APIs that you can use to create your own software. Packed with useful examples, this book will give you both the big-picture concepts and the everyday "gotcha" details that developers need in order to make the most of the beauty and power of the iPhone OS platform. And with more than fifty sample programs written for iPhone SDK 3.0, this is one book that goes beyond the basic that will help you succeed in creating an app on today's most important mobile platform, the iPhone.

Reviewed by Dominique James

iPhone SDK Development (The Pragmatic Programmers) Features

• ISBN13: 9781934356258
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Rating :

Price : $38.95

Offer Price : $21.69

Overviews

Packing the power of desktop applications into a small mobile device, the iPhone SDK offers developers the ability to create dynamic, visually-appealing, and highly-capable mobile applications, using the same APIs and tools that Apple uses for its own applications.

However, harnessing that power means learning new tools, new APIs, and even a whole new programming language.

iPhone SDK Development is a Pragmatic guide to get you started developing applications for iPhone and iPod touch. With it, you'll get a complete understanding of the tools and techniques needed to succeed on the platform:

Use the XCode IDE to manage your source code, images, sounds, database files, and other application resources, building your app and deploying it onto your own device for testing.

Develop your user interface the visual, code-free way, with Interface Builder.

Master the iPhone's unique user interface components, including tables, tab bars, navigation bars, and the multi-touch interface.

Connect your iPhone to the outside world with networking, exploit the power of a relational database with SQLite, and rock out with first-class support for audio and video.

Make use of the iPhone's unique mobile APIs, like geolocation and the motion-sensing accelerometer

Use XCode's powerful performance and debugging tools to eliminate memory leaks, zombies, and other hazards.

* Understand the process for packaging your application for end-user distribution through Apple's App Store.

With explanations of the big picture and an eye to the little details that you'll need, iPhone SDK Development will help you succeed on today's most important mobile platform.

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Customer Review

Excellent book for beginners - RoryM - Chicago, IL USA
Wanted to develop an iPhone application, but had never done any iPhone or even Mac programming before. Excellent step-by-step instructions and detailed examples. Well tested sample code and examples that were surprisingly deep and useful. Can't say enough about how good this book really is. Took me from being a rookie to someone who can now effectively develop - and have enough background to use the Apple reference material to get to the next level.

Good introductory book - Amol Kher - Austin, Texas USA
As a completely new Mac programmer, this book was very easy and helped me gently ease into the topics with ample examples and logical flow.

I recommend it to anyone who wants to write an iPhone app.

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Programming Cocoa with Ruby: Create Compelling Mac Apps Using RubyCocoa (The Facets of Ruby Series) Review

This is exactly the kind of thoughtful, useful technical writing I have come to expect from the "pragmatic bookshelf" series. Brian Marick's conversational writing style makes the subject immediately approachable: In just a few pages the first ruby/cocoa application is up and running, providing the reader a great incentive to dig deeper.

And deeper the book digs. I was expecting a good amount of Ruby and perhaps just enough Cocoa to be dangerous, however, the depth of Cocoa coverage this book provides is staggering for its size. I daresay that for the average programmer, this book could replace a lot of the unfriendly Cocoa documentation available from Apple. The author has clearly gone to great pains to research this subject and the reader benefits from that leg work, with many of the pitfalls and gotchas of Cocoa revealed before they become problematic.

The pace of the book is brisk, but I found it about right for the subject. As with all of the pragmatic books, the reader is spared from lengthy diatribes on language history, irrelevant trivia and interminable minutiae associated with some software books. I did not feel short-changed for length either; the book weighs in at ~370 pages plus an extremely useful glossary, which serves as a very handy desk quick-reference.

Unfortunately, RubyCocoa is already fast becoming a slightly obsolete technology, as the author acknowledges in the introduction. MacRuby will be upon us soon. However, given the depth of Cocoa information in this book I would still encourage any Ruby developer who intends to work seriously on desktop applications in RubyCocoa to absorb the basics from this book before hiding behind the MacRuby facade.

Programming Cocoa with Ruby: Create Compelling Mac Apps Using RubyCocoa (The Facets of Ruby Series) Features

• ISBN13: 9781934356197
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Rating :

Price : $34.95

Offer Price : $6.00

Overviews

This is a book for the Ruby programmer who's never written a Mac app before. Through this hands-on tutorial, you'll learn all about the Cocoa framework for programming on Mac OS X. Join the author's journey as this experienced Ruby programmer delves into the Cocoa framework right from the beginning, answering the same questions and solving the same problems that you'll face.

Together you'll build a single application that threads throughout the book, and it's not a toy. You'll cover topics that may not be the flashiest parts of Cocoa, but they're ones you'll need to know to create robust, feature-rich applications for yourself. And you'll learn more than just Cocoa and RubyCocoa, you'll get first-hand effective agile development practices. You'll see test-first development of user-interface code, little domain-specific languages that take advantage of Ruby features, and other Rubyish tricks.

At the end of the book, you'll be ready to write a real Mac OS X application that can be distributed to real users.

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Customer Review

Simply outstanding - Midwest Book Review - Oregon, WI USA
Programming Cocoa with Ruby is a top pick for any advanced programming library specializing in Ruby, blending Cocoa developers and Ruby programmers' concerns under one cover. Any Ruby programmer who has never written a Mac app will appreciate the hands-on, example-filled tutorial of Programming Cocoa with Ruby, offering opportunities to build real-world Cocoa applications using agile development techniques. Simply outstanding.

Reads like my pair... - M. Sutton - UK
I am just learning Ruby and I use a Mac - it just made sense that I should combine both things.

Also, I'm quite skeptical of learning from a book - I prefer learning with a person as a pair.

I loved Brian's style - it is written (or I read it) as though he was sitting across from me (or beside me!) as my programming pair, he explained WHY he did stuff the way he did and it all made sense. It is not technically loaded, but a friendly and jovial style (which really works for me).

It really is a great step-by-step manual to creating good apps on the Mac - I can see that it works at many levels (beginners - like me, would love it because it explains each line of relevant code, intermediate folk will like it because it gets a little deeper into some things)

And the best thing about this...it gets you into the habit of writing software in a highly effective way, with tests and harnesses and all the great stuff that good craftsmanship is all about.

Do I recommend this - you damn right I do!

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Learning the iPad SDK Review

Price : $29.99

Offer Price : $19.79

Overviews

If you want to develop apps for Apple's new iPad, all you need is basic programming knowledge, desire, and this book. With Learning the iPad SDK, you'll learn how to design and develop simple multi-touch iPad apps before moving onto more complex projects. And you don't need experience building iPhone apps or knowledge of the Objective-C language to do it.

This hands-on book takes you step by step through the basics. You'll learn how to develop great applications using the iPad SDK, UIKit, Core Data, networking, file I/O, multi-media, and simple graphics and animations. It's an excellent introduction to iPad development for people unfamiliar with this game-changing device.

• Shorten the learning curve involved with multi-touch development
• Learn how to develop consumer apps, games, and vertical apps for specific industries
• Build apps with Apple's Xcode tools, including Interface Builder
• Explore basic layout and navigation, including typical user controls
• Write a simple app to access a web service, and an app that stores data
• Create apps to work with audio and video, and an app that processes text
• Learn the ins and outs of getting your applications into the App Store

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iPhone Cool Projects Review

When reading introductory books in any language, it is easy to learn the language elements and concepts, but it is hard to see how everything fits together. What is great about the cool projects series from Apress is being able to see the elements and concepts in practice with projects from professionals who are active in the field.

Each chapter is written by a different author, so every project covers a different experience and topic. These range from touch interfaces to streaming audio over the network. Some of the projects presented are based on the author's live applications that are currently available through the App Store. A wide range of the topics are covered in the book with practical examples of the concepts.

This book is definitely not an introduction to Cocoa or iPhone programming. It is more geared toward the intermediate reader who has learned the basics and needs practical, real-life examples. It can also be of use to a more experienced iPhone programmer who wants to explore some of the topics in the book without having to dig through the documentation.

I would highly recommend this book because it is easy to read and does not get bogged down with basic concepts. Code is provided on the book's site and is easy to follow the code with the explanations in the book. As a beginning iPhone programmer, I found this book to be a lot of help to work out some of the concepts I was having trouble with.

iPhone Cool Projects Features

• ISBN13: 9781430223573
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Rating :

Price : $39.99

Offer Price : $13.92

Overviews

The iPhone and iPod touch have provided all software developers with a level playing field—developers working alone have the same access to consumers as multinational software publishers. Very cool indeed! To make your application stand out from the crowd, though, it has to have that something extra. You must learn the skills to take your apps from being App Store filler to download chart-topping blockbusters.

Developers with years of experience helped write this book. Spend some time understanding their code and why they took the approach they did. You will find the writing, illustrations, code, and sample applications second to none. No matter what type of application you are writing, you will find something in this book to help you make your app that little bit cooler.

The book opens with Wolfgang Ante, the developer behind the Frenzic puzzle game, showing how timers, animation, and intelligence are used to make game play engaging. It moves on to Rogue Amoeba's Mike Ash explaining how to design a network protocol using UDP, and demonstrating its use in a peer-to-peer application—a topic not normally for the faint of heart, but explained here in a way that makes sense to mere mortals. Gary Bennett then covers the important task of multithreading. Multithreading can be used to keep the user interface responsive while working on other tasks in the background. Gary demonstrates how to do this and highlights traps to avoid along the way.

Next up, Canis Lupus (aka Matthew Rosenfeld) describes the development of the Keynote-controlling application Stage Hand, how the user interface has evolved, and the lessons he has learned from that experience. Benjamin Jackson then introduces two open source libraries: cocos2d, for 2D gaming; and Chipmunk, for rigid body physics (think “collisions”). He describes the development of Arcade Hockey, an air hockey game, and explains some of the code used for this.

Neil Mix of Pandora Radio reveals the science behind processing streaming audio. How do you debug what you can't see? Neil guides you through the toughest challenges, sharing his experience of what works and what to watch out for when working with audio. Finally, Steven Peterson demonstrates a comprehensive integration of iPhone technologies. He weaves Core Location, networking, XML, XPath, and SQLite into a solid and very useful application.

Software development can be hard work. Introductory books lay the foundation, but it can be challenging to understand where to go next. This book shows some of the pieces that can be brought together to make complete, cool applications.

Who is this book for?

All iPhone application developers with any level of experience or coming from any development platform

Summary of Contents

1. Wolfgang Ante - Designing a Simple, Frenzic-Style Puzzle Game
2. Mike Ash - Mike Ash’s Deep Dive Into Peer-to-Peer Networking
3. Gary Bennett - Doing Several Things at Once: Performance Enhancements with Threading
4. Matthew “Canis” Rosenfeld - All Fingers and Thumbs: Multitouch Interface Design and Implementation
5. Benjamin Jackson - Physics, Sprites, and Animation with the cocos2d-iPhone Framework
6. Neil Mix - Serious Streaming Audio the Pandora Radio Way
7. Steven Peterson - Going the Routesy Way with Core Location, XML, and SQLite

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Customer Review

Poorly Written - Christopher Morris -
I bought this book because I wanted to see code that successful iPhone developers had written. I guess I was looking for "best practices" sort of information and I was hoping that I might get insight on how to tackle some problems I have run into when developing my own applications.

Book Flow

The biggest disappointment in this book is that developers wrote it (I am assuming). The book lacks the continuity you would normally find when one or two people collaborate on an entire book. When a different person writes each chapter, you get seven different styles in this book. I found a couple of the chapters very well written, but the rest I found to be, well, written by developers. I'm not saying that developers are inherently bad at writing, but it takes a certain something to relay information to other developers effectively. Most of the writers of this book just do not have it.

Code Samples

I got very frustrated reading chapters with code snippets from applications the various authors had written. If a working application had been available to provide context to the snippets, then I would have been less frustrated. For example, in Chapter 5, the first 12 pages of the chapter provide code snippets with very brief explanations of what the code is supposed to do. No working example is provided for context. I couldn't even play with the code to see what was going on. It was almost like I was expected just to know the context because I was on the team that wrote the application. The last 10 pages actually create a working sample. I would have rather spent the entire chapter creating the application with better explanations of each step and theory behind the code.

Proofreading

I wish I had a dollar for all the typos I've seen in this book. Again, in chapter 5, page 118 there is a screen shot of the application the author wrote. The caption says it's a screen shot of the application that you will be writing at the end of the chapter. Sloppy.

Conclusion

I feel like I did get some useful information from this book. Was it worth the frustration of reading poorly written text, no context for code snippets, and numerous errors? Not in my opinion.

Looks good on paper, but the devil's in the details - David Ruedger -
I bought this after seeing the high reviews from others on this site. Unfortunately, the content doesn't quite live up to the hype for me. I got this in particular wanting more details about threading having come from the Windows world where I have implemented very robust networking applications that require UI responsiveness while results are cached in the background. I was hoping this book would shed some light on how to go about doing this in the iPhone paradigm, but the example is so rudimentary that it almost isn't even worth putting into the book. Plus, the instructions for building the app are incorrect and contain glaring omissions as well as references to code objects that don't even exist. What's worse is the code itself as listed in the book doesn't even run when built! It causes an unhandled exception due to objects created in the header file not being instantiated or initialized in the implementation file. And no where in the chapter does it say you must download the source code for the example. It walks you through it as if it has been checked and is guaranteed to work as printed. Once you download the source code, it becomes apparent how rushed or poorly thought through this portion of the book was. Whole sections of the header and implementation files are glaringly omitted from the book. Did Bennett even bother proofreading this part of the book, and if so, where were the editors in this process? It's shameful for a book that is marketed as a technical tome to increase a developer's proficiency on the platform.

I'll admit that I haven't delved into other parts of the book in great detail, but the game portion did look pretty interesting at first glance. However, the hands on experience I had with the threading chapter left a very bad first impression and does not leave me all too optimistic on either the usefulness or accuracy of the additional content in the book.

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Beginning Mac Programming: Develop with Objective-C and Cocoa (Pragmatic Programmers) Review

This book is amazing. I have been through it, cover to cover in detail, and have been stunned by the quality. No mistakes (I recall 1 typo in the whole book), a rarity in programming books, and everything went smoothly as I followed along in XCode on my Mac. It's targeted at beginners, yet I feel like somebody wanting a deeper understanding of Apple-based programming will get even more out of it (non-beginners or iPhone OS programmers that are looking for a good foundation). The author has done an outstanding job of leading the reader through the topics and balancing code examples vs. discussion. Can't recommend it enough.

Beginning Mac Programming: Develop with Objective-C and Cocoa (Pragmatic Programmers) Features

• ISBN13: 9781934356517
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Rating :

Price : $34.95

Offer Price : $19.10

Overviews

Beginning Mac Programming takes you through concrete, working examples, giving you the core concepts and principles of development in context so you will be ready to build the applications you've been imagining. It introduces you to Objective-C and the Cocoa framework in clear, easy-to-understand lessons, and demonstrates how you can use them together to write for the Mac, as well as the iPhone and iPod.

You'll explore crucial developer tools like Xcode and Interface Builder, and learn the principles of object-oriented programming, and how memory, data, and storage work to help you build your software.

If you've ever wanted to develop software for the Mac, this book is for you.

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Customer Review

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Iphone in Action: Introduction to Web and SDK Development Review

I think this book is great. iPhone development is very complex, and the authors of this book make it accessible by giving diving into enough detail to make you productive quickly while gently introducing the more complicated concepts in later chapters.

Like other reviewers, I'm more interested in SDK development than web. However, chapters 10-19 are devoted solely to that purpose, and you miss nothing by starting directly on chapter 10, and always having the web development portion there should you ever need it. This really is two books in one.

Iphone in Action: Introduction to Web and SDK Development Features

• ISBN13: 9781933988863
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Rating :

Price : $39.99

Offer Price : $14.77

Overviews

"The entry to the world of iPhone."

-Aiden Montgomery, Wile Ltd.

"If you're new to iPhone development, this is your book!"

-Larry C. Whipple, Mobile Productivity, Inc.

"Get this book. It's pure gold."

-Martijn Dashorst, Author of Wicket in Action

"The quick & easy guide."

-Premkumar Rajendran, HCL Technologies

"The only book on iPhone development I will ever need."

-Rama Krishna Vavilala, Author of ASP.NET AJAX in Action

The iPhone explodes old ideas of a cell phone. Its native SDK offers a remarkable range of features including easy-to-build graphical objects, a unique navigation system, and a built-in database, all on a location-knowledgeable device. Websites and web apps can now behave like native iPhone apps, with great network integration.

iPhone in Action is an in-depth introduction to both native and web programming for the iPhone. You'll learn how to turn your web pages into compelling iPhone web apps using WebKit, iUI, and Canvas. The authors also take you step by step into more complex Objective-C programming. They help you master the iPhone SDK including its UI and features like accelerometers, GPS, the Address Book, SQLite, and many more. Using Apple's standard tools like Dashcode, Xcode, and Interface Builder, you'll learn how to best use both approaches: iPhone web and SDK programming. This book is intended as an introduction to its topics. Proficiency with C, Cocoa, or Objective-C is helpful but not required.

What's Inside

• A comprehensive tutorial for iPhone programming
• Web development, the SDK, and hybrid coding
• Over 60 web, Dashcode, and SDK examples

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Customer Review

Most useless iPhone development book out there. - C. warner - on my laptop
This book is horrible. Many key object descriptions are just one sentence. Every time I turn to this book for a solution I come away disapointed and continue my search somewhere else.

spend you money somewhere else, this book is not worth the cost of printing.

I got this book for the webkit section, but... - Jonathan K. Ho -
I'm the type of person who loves to see full source examples instead of just being fed the concepts. Unfortunately this book gives a snippet here and a snippet there and does not build up an example you can latch onto to say "yes I got that concept down in practice." This book could be so much more....

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Cocoa Programming: A Quick-Start Guide for Developers

Cocoa Programming: A Quick-Start Guide for Developers Review

Price : $32.95

Offer Price : $21.75

Availability : Not yet published

Overviews

Cocoa Programming: A Quick-Start Guide for Developers shows you how to get productive with Cocoa-fast! We won't walk you through every class and method in the API (but we will show you where to find that information). Instead, we'll jump right in and start building a web browser using Cocoa. In just a few minutes you'll have something that works. A couple of minutes more, and you'll have code in your custom controller, listening for notifications and call-backs. Soon you'll have the functionality you'd expect in a full browser. And that's just the first few chapters...

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