Product Description

“This book would be a bargain at ten times its price! 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.”

—Tim Burks, iPhone Software Developer, TootSweet Software

 

“Erica Sadun’s technical expertise lives up to the Addison-Wesley name. The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook is a comprehensive walkthrough of iPhone development that will help anyone out, from beginners to more experienced developers. Code samples and screenshots help punctuate the numerous tips and tricks in this book.”

—Jacqui Cheng, Associate Editor, Ars Technica

 

“We make our living writing this stuff and yet I am humbled by Erica’s command of her subject matter and the way she presents the material: pleasantly informal, then very appropriately detailed technically. This is a going to be the Petzold book for iPhone developers.”

—Daniel Pasco, Lead Developer and CEO, Black Pixel Luminance

 

“The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK should be the first resource for the beginning iPhone programmer, and is the best supplemental material to Apple’s own documentation.”

—Alex C. Schaefer, Lead Programmer, ApolloIM, iPhone Application Development Specialist, MeLLmo, Inc

 

“Erica’s book is a truly great resource for Cocoa Touch developers. This book goes far beyond the documentation on Apple’s Web site, and she includes methods that give the developer a deeper understanding of the iPhone OS, by letting them glimpse at what’s going on behind the scenes on this incredible mobile platform.”

—John Zorko, Sr. Software Engineer, Mobile Devices

 

The iPhone and iPod touch aren’t just attracting millions of new users; their breakthrough development platform enables programmers to build tomorrow’s killer applications. If you’re getting started with iPhone programming, this book brings together tested, ready-to-use code for hundreds of the challenges you’re most likely to encounter. Use this fully documented, easy-to-customize code to get productive fast—and focus your time on the specifics of your application, not boilerplate tasks.

 

Leading iPhone developer Erica Sadun begins by exploring the iPhone delivery platform and SDK, helping you set up your development environment, and showing how iPhone applications are constructed. Next, she offers single-task recipes for the full spectrum of iPhone/iPod touch programming jobs:

• 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

 

You’ll even discover how to use Cover Flow to create gorgeous visual selection experiences that put scrolling lists to shame!

 

This book is organized for fast access: related tasks are grouped together, and you can jump directly to the right solution, even if you don’t know which class or framework to use. All code is based on Apple’s publicly released iPhone SDK, not a beta. No matter what iPhone projects come your way, The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook will be your indispensable companion.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11233 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"This book would be a bargain at ten times its price! 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." -- Tim Burks, iPhone software developer, TootSweet Software "Erica Sadun's technical expertise lives up to the Addison-Wesley name. The iPhone Developer's Cookbook is a comprehensive walkthrough of iPhone development that will help anyone out, from beginners to more experienced developers. Code samples and screenshots help punctuate the numerous tips and tricks in this book. " -- Jacqui Cheng, Associate Editor, Ars Technica "We make our living writing this stuff and yet I am humbled by Erica's command of her subject matter and the way she presents the material: pleasantly informal, then very appropriately detailed technically. This is a going to be the Petzold Book for iPhone developers." -- Daniel Pasco, lead developer and CEO Black Pixel Luminance "The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Mobile Applications with the iPhone SDK should be the first resource for the beginning iPhone programmer, and is the best supplemental material to Apple's own documentation." -- Alex C. Schaefer, lead programmer ApolloIM, iPhone Application Development Specialist for MeLLmo, Inc "Erica's book is a truly great resource for Cocoa Touch developers. This book goes far beyond the documentation on Apple's website, and she includes methods that give the developer a deeper understanding of the iPhone OS, by letting them glimpse what's going on behind the scenes on this incredible mobile platform." -- John Zorko, Sr. Software Engineer, mobile devices

Review

 

About the Author

Erica Sadun has written, coauthored, and contributed to about three dozen books about technology, particularly in the areas of programming, digital video, and digital photography. An unrepentant geek, Sadun has never met a gadget she didn’t need. Her checkered past includes run-ins with NeXT, Newton, iPhone, and myriad successful and unsuccessful technologies. When not writing, she and her geek husband parent three adorable geeks-in-training, who regard their parents with restrained bemusement.

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Customer Reviews

Recipes for burnt cookies.
the author assumes far too much from the reader. this is very typical of a gifted programmer who should stick to programming instead of teaching. additionally, her coding style is completely absurd! who writes entire apps within the main.m file? i found it easier to understand the author after downloading sample code from her website, but unfortunately the internet's numerous tutorials on iphone dev is a more valuable than this writings on this book.

perspective buyers should read the numerous (bad) reviews on the american Amazon site instead of relying simply on the few (good) canadian reviews.

Learned a lot from this book
The author of The iPhone Developer's Cookbook, Erica Sadun, seems very knowledgeable about the iPhone SDK and the book was organized well and was a good read. It should be mentioned that I do not have a Macintosh and hence couldn't actually test any of the code samples (you need a Mac to do iPhone or iPod touch development).

The Cookbook is filled with practical advice, lots of little tricks and observations that could only come with much experience, from a discussion about the awkwardness of tethering the iPhone via USB to the computer in order to test applications (and suggestions to help minimize that awkwardness) to how to take a screenshot with the iPhone (hold down the sleep/wake button and tap the Home button -- this works on the iPod touch device too).

As someone completely unfamiliar with the process of creating apps for the iTunes store (or using Objective C), I thought the book did an admirable job of explaining the process. I learned how the code projects are structures, how sandboxes work, and the basics of registering as a developer with Apple (this while useful is one section though that I thought could have been expanded a bit). There's detail on using Xcode (the development platform) and the interface builder... the author explains how to set breakpoints and such.

The chapter on Views, the building block of app development, was well thought out and useful and there's good discussion of when and how to use multitouch. The book goes on to cover all interface fundamentals (notifications, progress bars, et cetera). And throughout the author is careful to explain the hidden features of the iPhone SDK and when (and when not) you should use them. There's also a strong chapter on using web services with several examples and alternative approaches. Actually throughout the book the author has been good about offering two or three ways to solve a problem and also explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each approach -- this was especially useful in the audio section. The book ends with an explanation of adding Cover Flow to apps -- a feature I wished more app developers would consider adding.

Not many negatives overall. I'd have liked to learn a bit more about Objective C as I know nothing about it, but I suspect if I had XCode and a development machine I'd pick it up easily enough. Certain subsections that seemed promising occasionally failed to deliver, like the one about Energy Limits -- the iPhone is a portable device and though the author mentions app creators should be aware of battery limitations and should avoid draining power how to do this isn't really described. And as mentioned above a more concrete walkthru of the whole registration process might have made that less daunting. But overall these are minor nitpicks and after reading the book I feel with a little trial and error I could put together iPhone apps -- I think I've picked up enough that I probably could try my hand at even making a game.

Great starter book
This is a great book to get you started. Very practical and useful. Lots of code samples and good, simple explanation of the basic constructs of the SDK. I would recommend this to all beginning iPhone developers.