The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone 3.0 SDK (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Erica Sadun (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321659570 | ISBN-13: 978-0321659576 | Publication Date: 2009 | Edition: 2

 “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 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

 

“I’ve found this book to be an invaluable resource for those times when I need to quickly grasp a new concept and walk away with a working block of code. Erica has an impressive knowledge of the iPhone platform, is a master at describing technical information, and provides a compendium of excellent code examples.”

–John Muchow, 3 Sixty Software, LLC; founder, iPhoneDeveloperTips.com

 

“This book is the most complete guide if you want coding for the iPhone, covering from the basics to the newest and coolest technologies. I built several applications in the past, but I still learned a huge amount from this book. It is a must-have for every iPhone developer.”

–Roberto Gamboni, Software Engineer, AT&T Interactive

 

“It’s rare that developer cookbooks can both provide good recipes and solid discussion of fundamental techniques, but Erica Sadun's book manages to do both very well.”

–Jeremy McNally, Developer, entp

 

Want to get started building applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch? Already building iPhone applications and want to get better at it? This is the only book that brings together all the expert guidance–and the code–you’ll need!

 

Completely revised and expanded to cover the iPhone 3.0 SDK, The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook is the essential resource for developers building apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. Taking you further than before, this new edition starts out with an introduction to Objective-C 2.0 for developers who might be new to the platform. You’ll learn about Xcode and Interface Builder and learn how to set up and configure your iPhone Developer account. Additional highlights of this new edition include:

 

  Using the iPhone SDK’s visual classes and controllers to design and customize interfaces

  Using gestures, touches, and other sophisticated iPhone interface capabilities

  Making the most of tables, views, view controllers, and animations

  Alerting users with progress bars, audio pings, status bar updates, and other indicators

  Using new Push Notifications to send alerts, whether your app is running or not

  Playing audio and video with the MediaKit

  Working with the Address Book, Core Location, and Sensors

  Connecting to the Internet, Web services, and networks

  Embedding flexible maps with MapKit and Google Mobile Maps

  Building multiplayer games with GameKit

  Using Core Data to build data-driven applications

  Selling add-on content and services with In-App Purchasing using StoreKit

  Building accessible apps with Accessibility Plus

 

The unique format of The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook presents the code you need to create feature-rich applications that leverage the latest features of the iPhone 3.0 SDK. Over 30,000 iPhone developers turned to the first edition of The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook. So should you!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erica Sadun is the bestselling author, coauthor, and contributor to three dozen books on programming, digital media, Web design, and other topics–including the bestselling first edition of this book. She has created more than a dozen native iPhone applications and was among the first to blog knowledgeably about iPhone programming. Sadun holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech’s renowned Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 888 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321659570
• ISBN-13: 978-0321659576
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Erica Sadun is the bestselling author, coauthor, and contributor to three dozen books on programming, digital media, Web design, and other topics- Sadun holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech's renowned Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for both new and experienced iphone programmers, February 7, 2010

By 

Aaron "Engineering Student" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone 3.0 SDK (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I am new to iPhone programming and wish this book had been available a year ago when I started down this path. For people who are starting out, I would buy this book after you've worked through Mark and LaMarche's Beginning iPhone Development published by Apress. The only way to really learn a programming language/paradigm is to work through writing your own code. With a book like this, you can quickly find snippets from recipes that move you beyond the basics for your own programs.

Compared to other computer "cookbooks" (such as those published by O'Reilly, for example), this one has much more background material than recipes. Think of it as a book on iPhone programming with lots of examples. People who are more interested in recipes than learning about the iPhone SDK might be disappointed, but I can't see how. I have yet to find something I don't like about this book.

Finally I also appreciated Ms. Sadun's writing style. The book is very readable, and I think she understands that people new to programming technologies can be overwhelmed by new concepts and new nomenclature. Simple, straight forward language means that people who are experienced programmers won't be weighed down a lot by overly wordy explanations, while newbys like me will gain a lot by putting new concepts into simple terms.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for the deeper dive, December 31, 2009

By 

Jeffery Jones - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone 3.0 SDK (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

Being a new iPhone developer, I had begun my study of the craft with the help of a couple Objective-C books and the experience of developing and publishing a small and simple app. I was ready to take on some bigger ideas and needed some help with discovering the best practices for the common things app developers seek to do. I made the mistake of trying to find a couple good beginner books to get a leg up. What I found was that there are dozens of somewhat remedial iPhone development resources that all offer good information that only take you just beyond "Hello World". I really wanted something meatier that was still accessible to a newer developer. I found that in this book.

Though I've only had for a couple days, I'm already thrilled with how chock full of practical and usable recipes are here. I love the author's tendency towards programmatic solutions as opposed to using IB and templates. I'm looking forward to dog-earing pages and using the heck out of this. I wish I had an electronic copy as well.

53 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not impressed (sorry), April 16, 2010

By 

David Fisher (Stanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone 3.0 SDK (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I'm a college professor looking for a book to use in my iPhone programming course. This would be a very poor choice for a new student. The book teaches poor iPhone programming style and isn't written for people new to the platform. I felt like I was tricked by the other positive reviews. I honestly think this author and a few other authors made a pack to give positive reviews for each other's book. There are better options for people new to iPhone programming. Keep looking.

For example: Who puts hundreds of lines of code into the main.m file? Are you joking? Apple says everywhere to follow a suggested programming style. This should be 100% of main.m every time...

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
int retVal = UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, nil);
[pool drain];
return retVal;
}

Learn it. Love it. Use it.

btw I've been watching Matt Stroker's videos available on iTunes U from the University of Utah. They are free and a much better introduction. (Obviously the Stanford iTunes U iPhone videos are good too.)