More iPhone 3 Development: Tackling iPhone SDK 3 (Beginning) [Paperback]

David Mark (Author), Jeff LaMarche (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2009 | ISBN-10: 143022505X | ISBN-13: 978-1430225058 | Edition: 1

Interested in iPhone development? Want to learn more? Whether you’re a self-taught iPhone development genius or have just made your way through the pages of Beginning iPhone 3 Development, we have the perfect book for you.

More iPhone 3 Development: Tackling iPhone SDK 3 digs deeper into Apple’s latest SDK. Best-selling authors Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche explain concepts as only they can, covering topics like Core Data, peer-to-peer networking using GameKit and network streams, working with data from the web, MapKit, in-application e-mail, and more. All the concepts and APIs are clearly presented with code snippets you can customize and use, as you like, in your own apps.

If you are going to write a professional iPhone app, you’ll want to get your arms around Core Data, and there’s no better place to do so than in the pages of this book. The book continues right where Beginning iPhone 3 Development left off with a series of chapters devoted to Core Data, the standard for persistence that Apple introduced to iPhone with SDK 3. Jeff and Dave carefully step through each of the Core Data concepts and show you techniques and tips specifically for writing larger applications—offering a breadth of coverage you won't find anywhere else.

The Core Data coverage alone is worth the price of admission. But there's so much more. This book covers a variety of networking mechanisms, from GameKit’s relatively simple BlueTooth peer-to-peer model, to the addition of Bonjour discovery and network streams, through the complexity of accessing files via the web. Dave and Jeff will also take you through coverage of concurrent programming and some advanced techniques for debugging your applications.

Whether you are a relative newcomer to iPhone development or an old hand looking to expand your horizons, there’s something for everyone in More iPhone 3 Development.

Note: A few of the apps in this book demonstrate technologies not yet supported by the simulator. To run them on your iPhone or iPod touch, you'll need to join one of Apple's paid iPhone developer programs.

What you’ll learn

• All about Core Data: key concepts and techniques for writing larger application
• How to utilize a variety of networking mechanisms, including peer-to-peer connections over Bluetooth using GameKit
• Details on the addition of Bonjour discovery and network streams
• How to embed maps with Map Kit and use in-application email
• How to access a user's iPod library and integrate music into applications
• Essentials of concurrent programming and advanced debugging techniques
• Tips on working with data from the web

Who this book is for

All iPhone and iPod touch developers, especially developers already familiar with early iPhone SDKs.

Table of Contents

1. Here We Go Round Again
2. The Anatomy of Core Data
3. A Super Start: Adding, Displaying, and Deleting Data
4. The Devil in the Detail View
5. Preparing for Change: Migrations and Versioning
6. Custom Managed Objects
7. Relationships, Fetched Properties, and Expressions
8. Peer-to-Peer Over Bluetooth Using GameKit
9. Online Play: Bonjour and Network Streams
10. Working with Data from the Web
11. MapKit
12. Sending Mail
13. iPod Library Access
14. Keeping Your Interface Responsive
15. Debugging
16. The Road Goes Ever On...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Mark is a longtime Mac developer and author who has written a number of books on Mac and iOS development, including Beginning iPhone 4 Development (Apress, 2010), More iPhone 3 Development (Apress, 2010), Learn C on the Mac (Apress, 2008), The Macintosh Programming Primer series (Addison-Wesley, 1992), and Ultimate Mac Programming (Wiley, 1995). Dave loves the water and spends as much time as possible on it, in it, or near it. He lives with his wife and three children in Virginia.

Jeff LaMarche is a Mac and iOS developer with more than 20 years of programming experience. Jeff has written a number of iOS and Mac development books, including Beginning iPhone 3 Development (Apress, 2009), More iPhone 3 Development (Apress, 2010), and Learn Cocoa on the Mac (Apress, 2010). Jeff is a principal at MartianCraft, an iOS and Android development house. He has written about Cocoa and Objective-C for MacTech Magazine, as well as articles for Apple’s developer web site. Jeff also writes about iOS development for his widely-read blog at http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143022505X
• ISBN-13: 978-1430225058
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Mark is a long-time Mac developer and author and has written a number of books on Macintosh development, including Learn C on the Macintosh, The Macintosh Programming Primer series, and Ultimate Mac Programming. His blog can be found at www.davemark.com. Jeff LaMarche is a longtime Mac developer, and Apple iPhone Developer. With over 20 years of programming experience, he's written on Cocoa and Objective-C for MacTech Magazine, as well as articles for Apple's Developer Technical Services website. He has experience working in Enterprise software, both as a developer for PeopleSoft starting in the late 1990s, and then later as an independent consultant.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST HAVE FOR ANY IPHONE DEVELOPERS!, February 3, 2010

By 

H. Wu "Code Shogun" (Silicon Valley, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: More iPhone 3 Development: Tackling iPhone SDK 3 (Beginning) (Paperback)

Dave and Jeff delivered again in this sequel to Beginning iPhone 3 Development. More iPhone 3 Development shows the readers more advanced topics in iPhone development, and specifically many new APIs introduced in iPhone SDK 3.0. The major additions in SDK 3.0 are Core Data, MapKit, GameKit, and built-in delegate to send emails within your apps. Luckily, Dave and Jeff went in depth to show us how these new APIs work.

Chapter 2 to Chapter 7 are all Core Data related. I highly recommend these chapters. They give you a complete view of Core Data APIs with working samples. It also touches on how to modify existing Core Data structure, as well as versioning and upgrade. Once you master Core Data API, you can unleash this newly gained power in your conquering of iPhone app development.

Chapter 8 is a very interesting one talking about peer to peer networking over Bluetooth protocol using GameKit. This is very useful when you are in-door w/o any Wifi and 3G data connections. Bluetooth will guarantee to work within iPhones/iPod touches anywhere.

Chapter 9 tackles Bonjour service and network streams. Many multiplayer games are built using Bonjour networks, it's a must read for game developers, as well as anyone who's interested in how network stream works.

Chapter 10 is an introductory on working with HTTP connections and GET/POST operations. This chapter is a little lean. There could be more coverage on HTTP connections and requests, but this chapter should be good enough to get you started.

Chapter 11 describes MapKit. This is very very useful. Pre-SDK 3.0, it was a pain to integrate Maps into your iPhone apps. Messy AJAX calls, loading delays, un-responsive UIs. Now MapKit solves these in a very elegant way. It's a simple delegate that you need to implement, and define annotation views for each POI on the map. Building a map application couldn't be any easier these days.

Chapter 12 introduced the MessageUI which has controllers and methods to let your apps to send emails w/ various configurations without leaving your apps! This IS a big deal! Your app becomes more sticky and cohesive to the users. Highly recommend this chapter!

Chapter 13 shows you how to use iPod Library, media picker and music player. An interesting read on how media is handled on the iPhone.

Chapter 14 and 15 talk about responsive UIs and debugging techniques. Very very helpful information on how to improve your apps.

Again, Dave and Jeff deserve a long-standing ovation for giving us another must-have iPhone development book. I wish they can come out an iPhone game development book soon, heavily centered on OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 ;) Thank you!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kind of Disappointed, June 11, 2010

By 

Jon Thornham (Las Vegas, NV, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: More iPhone 3 Development: Tackling iPhone SDK 3 (Beginning) (Paperback)

I am huge fan of Apress and both of the authors who contributed to this book. I read" Beginning iPhone 3 Development" which is a reference I go to regularly. All that being said I must say this. I am not trying to be the one person who rates a book poorly without a valid reason. I was very interested in this book because of the Core Data section. While working through the book I noticed numerous bugs and contacted the author. I did get a response which said they had been having numerous problems. I was told that I would get a response and the error would be fixed. Well it is months later, have not received a follow up email (I understand people are busy but I did send a quick follow up with no response), have tested the updated code and the bugs are not fixed and the support site has numerous comments about bugs with responses. So to make a long story short I really don't feel comfortable with Core Data. I did learn a lot about it but I would definately feel uncomfortable implementing it in an app. The second half of the book is great and goes over numerous parts of the SDK. Again I really love Apress but find it disappointing that the section on Core Data had problems and the development community has been left without a solution. If you are looking for a book on Core Data I would not recommend this book. If you are interested in exploring parts of the SDK that are covered in Part II, I highly recommend this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the basics in style., January 11, 2010

By 

Bart Jacobs - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More iPhone 3 Development: Tackling iPhone SDK 3 (Beginning) (Paperback)

For those of you who read Beginning iPhone 3 Development, written by the same authors, know that they not only know their stuff, but are great in delivering the message. This book is no different. I like this book especially because of its in-depth take on Core Data. After a brief introduction, the authors dive into Core Data. The way it's explained is clear and the examples are easy to follow. Although the iPhone SDK has grown into a large set of frameworks and libraries, the selection the authors made in the second part of the book covers some of the most used frameworks of the SDK making the chapters useful for a wide variety of readers/developers.

I have been looking forward to this release and the book hasn't disappointed me. If you master the basics of iPhone development then this book is definitely for you.