iPhone in Action: Introduction to Web and SDK Development (Paperback)

by Christopher Allen (Author), Shannon Appelcline (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"The entry to the world of iPhone."

-Aiden Montgomery, Wile Ltd.

"If you're new to iPhone development, this is your book!"

-Larry C. Whipple, Mobile Productivity, Inc.

"Get this book. It's pure gold."

-Martijn Dashorst, Author of Wicket in Action

"The quick & easy guide."

-Premkumar Rajendran, HCL Technologies

"The only book on iPhone development I will ever need."

-Rama Krishna Vavilala, Author of ASP.NET AJAX in Action

The iPhone explodes old ideas of a cell phone. Its native SDK offers a remarkable range of features including easy-to-build graphical objects, a unique navigation system, and a built-in database, all on a location-knowledgeable device. Websites and web apps can now behave like native iPhone apps, with great network integration.

iPhone in Action is an in-depth introduction to both native and web programming for the iPhone. You'll learn how to turn your web pages into compelling iPhone web apps using WebKit, iUI, and Canvas. The authors also take you step by step into more complex Objective-C programming. They help you master the iPhone SDK including its UI and features like accelerometers, GPS, the Address Book, SQLite, and many more. Using Apple's standard tools like Dashcode, Xcode, and Interface Builder, you'll learn how to best use both approaches: iPhone web and SDK programming. This book is intended as an introduction to its topics. Proficiency with C, Cocoa, or Objective-C is helpful but not required.

What's Inside

• A comprehensive tutorial for iPhone programming
• Web development, the SDK, and hybrid coding
• Over 60 web, Dashcode, and SDK examples

About the Author
Christopher Allen hosts iphonewebdev.com, the largest iPhone web dev community, and is a founder and organizer of the iPhoneDevCamp conference. A longtime technologist, Chris was one of the authors of TLS, the next-generation SSL protocol. Shannon Appelcline is a widely published writer and technologist, who has written everything from game programming articles to comic books.

Shannon Appelcline is a writer and technologist. He was a participant in Charles River Media's Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2. He has also been published by Chaosium Inc., Issaries Inc., Jones Publishing, Partizan Press, White Wolf Publishing, and Wizards of the Coast. In 2007 he wrote over 350,000 words for professional publication, including books for Mongoose Publishing and Moon Design Publications. He has also written fiction published by Green Knight Publishing and comic books published by Skotos Tech.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (December 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193398886X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988863
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,188 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars All about HTML Programming, April 3, 2009

By	Barry A. Starrfield "barryannarbor" (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Be aware that this book is strongly focused towards iPhone Web applications development. Sadly, your Web based iPhone app is not what consumers want - they want an SDK application, and those are the applications that you'll get paid for. Note how few - if any - of the iPhone applications selling on the app store are Web based.

With over half this book an introduction to HTML, JavaScript, and AJAX, you'll find that the section on Objective-C development is given short shrift.

This is the first "In Action" book that I would not recommend to a serious developer. This is a survey book on iPhone development, barely superior to the tutorials available online.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best resource for WebKit development, March 2, 2009

By	Anthony Hillerson "Tony Hillerson" (Arvada, CO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because I wanted a good discussion of both SDK and web development for the iPhone and this was the only book that gave any serious talk about web development. Although SDK development is definitely hotter right now, Web development continues to make more sense in a lot of situations, and will become even more compelling as time goes on and technology gets better. This book is a great resource because of that. A very good book to have.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic broad coverage of all iPhone development topics SDK and web, January 15, 2009

By	Mark J. Johnson "MarkJ" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

iPhone in Action has very broad coverage of developing for the iPhone including native apps, web apps, and native apps that use web technologies. It introduces everything you need to know with good tutorials and examples for the most critical topics. The first third of the book covers web stuff - both how to revamp your existing website so it works great on both the desktop and iPhone, and also how to create iPhone specific web apps. Topics include design, CSS, iUI (the awesome library to make native looking web apps), graphics with webkit canvas, Dashcode, and debugging tips. The middle third of the book gets you started with native SDK development, starting with an overview of Objective-C and XCode, and then on to lots of good step by step tutorials for learning how to use Interface Builder and the different kinds of view controllers to create your GUI. The final third covers important SDK programming topics including graphics, web interaction, SQLite databases, using the address book, etc. The book is invaluable for beginners because it shows you all the possibilities of both web and SDK and it introduces all the key topics - something no other single title does (though it won't teach you programming or much Objective-C). Experts too will want this title too for the detailed web development topics that most other iPhone dev books don't include.