iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual

by Craig Hockenberry

Anyone with programming experience can learn how to write an iPhone app. But if you want to build a great app, there's a lot more to it than simple you also need to know how design and market your creation. This easy-to-follow guide walks you through the entire process, from sketching out your idea to promoting the finished product. Update Your App for Multitasking with iOS 4
By Craig Hockenberry
On multitasking phones like the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, you can make it so your application doesn’t quit when the user presses the Home button. Instead, the app just goes into the background and reappears just as it was with a tap on its icon. You can give your app multitasking powers without writing a single line of code! First, download and install the free iOS 4 SDK from Apple’s iPhone Dev Center. You need both Xcode 3.2.3 and iPhone SDK 4 to create an app for iOS 4. (By the way, you may see the SDK described as either “iOS SDK” and “iPhone SDK.” They mean the same thing.) Now you’re just a few steps away from a multitasking
1. Open your iPhone app project in the new version of Xcode, and then choose Project > Edit Project Settings to update your project settings.

2. In the General tab, change the Base SDK for All Configurations from “iPhone Device 3.0 (missing)” to “iPhone Device 4.0.”

3. In the Build tab, set the Configuration to “Release” and enter a search for “target.” You should now see the

Genres: Programming, Coding, Nonfiction

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good guide for newcomers to the iPhone platform, but having already written a simple app, I found it rather simplistic. It covers foundational items that you're unlikely to need, like how to draw arbitrary paths on the screen, but it doesn't go in depth into the APIs that are present on the platform and how you might use them effectively.

In short, I think this is probably a reasonable book for it's target audience, but for a experienced software developer looking to move over to working on iPhone OS it's not very useful.

[Wynand Pieters · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book touching on many topics newcomers will appreciates. Going into design, marketing and support topics will help people new to the AppStore way of doing things. Unfortunately the detail on development and the project itself is rather simplistic and meant for older versions of Xcode, and a lot can be done quicker and more efficiently at this point in time. An updated book would be great.

[Philip Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off describing the basic fundamentals of sdk exploration and ux code implantation in the beginning but it also lets you know if this book is right for you so read the first part before you start the actual reading. Overall, very comprehensive read. Great book for intro level Iphone development and design enthusiasts.

[Alpha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 - Skimmed through the book; a solid introduction to iPhone programming, but I wish it went into a little more depth.