Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours (2nd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours) [Paperback]

John Ray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0672332205 | ISBN-13: 978-0672332203 | Edition: 2

Sams Teach Yourself iPhone® Application Development

Second Edition

 

John Ray

 

Figures and code appear as they do in Xcode

Covers iOS 4.0 and up, and iPhone 4

Additional files and updates available online

 

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, learn how to build powerful applications for today’s hottest mobile device: the iPhone! Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll master every skill and technology you need, from setting up your iPhone development environment to building great user interfaces, sensing motion to writing multitasking applications. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success!

 

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common iOS development tasks.

 

Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.

 

By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion.

 

Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.

 

Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.

 

Printed in full color—figures and code appear as they do in Xcode

• Covers iOS 4.0 and up
• Learn the features of Xcode 3.2 and Interface Builder
• Prepare your system and iPhone for efficient development
• Get started quickly with Apple’s Objective-C and Cocoa Touch
• Understand the Model-View-Controller (MVC) development paradigm
• Design highly usable applications with interactive widgets and web-connected interfaces
• Use Table views to navigate structured data
• Build rotatable and resizable user interfaces
• Read and write data and create System Setting plug-ins
• Use the iPhone’s media playback and recording capabilities
• Create map and location-based (GPS) services
• Sense motion and orientation with the iPhone’s accelerometer and the iPhone 4 gyroscope
• Create universal applications that run on the iPhone and iPad
• Write background-aware multitasking applications
• Distribute your applications through the App Store

 

http://teachyourselfiphone.com

Editorial Reviews

Review

“There are two things you need before you can begin to learn iPhone programming:  

 

1. A Macintosh computer

2. Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours!  

 

This book does a wonderful job of breaking up the learning process into manageable chunks that will not bore you to death.  Each chapter challenges you to use what you have learned, to ensure you have enough to move on to the next subject.  It's the best way to learn iPhone programming!”

--Bill Everhart

 

 

 "I spent months trying to get comfortable with iPhone development using whatever online resources I came across. However, in my experience nothing can compete with having a good-old-fashioned book to aid the learning process, and Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application in 24Hours was just the book for me! Key concepts are carefully described, and even the novice programmer (like me) can follow with ease."

--Marius Bjønness

 

 

“With STY iPhone Application Development in 24, I was immediately productive as an iPhone developer.  From XCode to provisioning to Objective C, this book makes learning easy because you are achieving goals even as you are just becoming familiar with the new concepts.  I was live on iTunes very quickly because the book covers everything about the whole process, not just coding.”

--Mike Finley

 

 

“If an iPhone developer (wannabe) needs to purchase one book - this should be it. I learned that after purchasing several other books. This book could have had several alternate titles (such as: First book for C/C++ developers, or iPhone Programming for the Beginners, or All You Need to Learn For Your First 100 Apps) since it is all this and more."

-- Irtaza Barlas

About the Author

John Ray is currently serving as a Senior Business Analyst and Development Team Manager for the Ohio State University Research Foundation. He has written numerous books for Macmillan/Sams/Que, including Using TCP/IP: Special Edition, Teach Yourself Dreamweaver MX in 21 Days, Mac OS X Unleashed, and Teach Yourself iPad Development in 24 Hours. As a Macintosh user since 1984, he strives to ensure that each project presents the Macintosh with the equality and depth it deserves. Even technical titles such as Using TCP/IP contain extensive information about the Macintosh and its applications and have garnered numerous positive reviews for their straightforward approach and accessibility to beginner and intermediate users.

 

You can visit his website at http://teachyourselfiphone.com or follow him on Twitter at #iPhoneIn24.

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 2 edition (October 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672332205
• ISBN-13: 978-0672332203
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Buyer beware!, January 4, 2011

By 

Martin E. (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours (2nd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours) (Paperback)

This book inspired me to write my first-ever review on Amazon (after being a customer since virtually day one). The reason I was so "inspired" is that this book has some real problems. If you are not a reasonably accomplished programmer in other languages/platforms, stay clear. Typos, omissions and flat-out wrong code abound. I downloaded the errata and that doesn't even cover it all. My book is full of notes. Chapter 16 seems to be particularly bad. For example, they have you enter:

newCard.question = thisQuestion;

When the correct code is:

[newCard setValue:thisQuestion forKey:@"question"];

The other problem I have with it is that the authors (particularly whoever wrote the first 14 to 15 chapters make horrible variable and object naming choices. Sometimes the only difference between the type and the instance is a difference in capitalization:

int Int;

Not an actual example (don't care to go through the book to find a real one) but they are all over the place.

An extension of this is when they use similar names for different things and get them confused. For example: "wrongCount" and "wrongCounter".

They also call out for editing the wrong files at times and even confuse prior chapters' projects with current projects. Probably a cut-and-paste thing while writing.

There's a real difference in style between the two authors. Starting around chapter 14/15 the tone and approach changes. The second author tells you to "right click" all the time...when Macs don't have but one mouse button. Lucky for me the first thing I do to a Mac is throw away the useless mouse and replace it with a Logitech trackball...so, in my case, right-clicking works just fine.

I am just getting past chapter 16 and I will finish the book but it made me so angry for wasting so much of my time that I had to post a review.

Should you buy it? I don't know. If you are an accomplished programmer you might look at the above problems as an opportunity to learn more because of having to debug the code and figure out where they screwed-up. That's how I am taking it. I don't like it because I wanted to push through this book quickly and move on to more advanced books, but you play the cards you are dealt. Happy debugging!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough practical information, February 15, 2012

By 

Gadgester "No Time, No Money" (Mother Earth) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours (2nd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I used to be a fan of the Teach Yourself ... in 24 Hours series. Tutorial-like introductions to the covered topics. Lots of typos but just enough info to give you a jump-start and get coding right away. The present volume is anything but that. It's thick, which begs one to wonder how anyone can learn iPhone programming -- a major PITA for any developer -- in 24 hours, however loosely you interpret the 24 hours. Also, the practical part feels flimsy and rushed, probably because the author himself is not a real iOS developer. A book that immediately gets you to write iOS code would have been better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book and Tutorials, June 19, 2011

By 

J. Silk - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours (2nd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours) (Paperback)

This is the 4th book that I have read on the subject, and it is by far the most useful, most understandable, and most complete. The author covers everything using clear explanations and examples, and the tutorials and sample programs teach you the principles you need to further your iPhone programming skills. This book finally makes iPhone Programming (and Objective-C) understandable and fun. I wish I would have found this book sooner.