Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

by Dave Mark, Jeff LaMarche

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 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. For the latest version of this book for Swift , see Beginning iPhone Development with Swift , ISBN 978-1-4842-0410-8. For the latest version of this book for Objective-C , see Beginning iPhone Exploring the iOS SDK , ISBN 978-1-4842-0200-5. 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.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Computers, Technology

584 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2009

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book a lot. The pace is great for beginners and the examples are clearly explained. They could probably do a little more with illustrations/screenshots with respect to interface builder. However after a while (by about chapter 6) it becomes clearer what you are supposed to do.

I'd say you need a good background in some other object oriented language before this book though. As someone pointed out, it doesn't cover the M part of MVC a whole lot.

[DWRL Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book walks readers through the hows, whys and how nots of iPhone app development. Beginners will need to read up on the basics of Objective-C before they can jump into to the well-written, well-organized guide. Some argue a few pertinent topics are missing, but that might be a secondary concern for those who want the most recent edition (iPhone 3, available now) or the soon-to-be most recent edition (iPhone 4, available for pre-order).

[Niran Pravithana · Rating 2 out of 5]

-Good coverage
-Lack of visualisation
-(As a beginning book) Lack of advance functionality like networking, XML programming
-No example on M (Model) in MVC

[Josh Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good intro to iPhone development - I learned a lot of the basics, like setting up the app, using multiple views and view controllers, and interacting with buttons and pickers.

[Matteo Tomasulo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not always clear. Anyway one of the best book to introduce iPhone development.

Recommended Objective-C knowledge before start reading.

[Zach Moazeni]

Very well written. It's probably out of date at this time (with iOS5 now). But at the time, this was a great resource.