iPhone Open Application Development: Write Native Applications Using the Open Source Tool Chain [Paperback]

Jonathan Zdziarski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0596155190 | ISBN-13: 978-0596155193 | Edition: Second Edition

"Great for beginners -- even if you don't know object-oriented programming, you can learn from examples on the 'Net and be on your way very soon. You will be able to confidently build apps that rival the ones included by Apple itself." -- Josh Content, iPhone Developer

Developers everywhere are eager to create applications for the iPhone, and many of them prefer the open source, community-developed tool chain to Apple's own toolkit. In this new edition of iPhone Open Application Development, author Jonathan Zdziarski covers the latest version of the open toolkit -- now updated for Apple's iPhone 2.x software and iPhone 3G -- and explains in clear language how to create applications using Objective-C and the iPhone API.

Zdziarski, who cracked the iPhone code and built the first fully-functional application with the open toolkit, includes detailed recipes and complete examples for graphics and audio programming, games programming with the CoreSurfaces and CoreImage interfaces, working with iTunes, and using sensors. With the open toolkit and this book, you can build iPhone applications that:

• Display status bars, preference tables, and other standard elements of the iPhone user interface
• Play pre-recorded files or program-generated sounds
• Read and write plain text files and HTML files, including pages from the Web, and control display elements, such as scrollbars
• Read and respond to changes in orientation when the user turns the phone around

And more. The first edition of this book developed an instant following and became the center of a movement. The second edition of iPhone Open Application Development will make this open source toolkit an indispensable part of iPhone application development.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Zdziarski is better known as the hacker "NerveGas" in the iPhone development community. His work in cracking the iPhone helped lead the effort to port the first open source applications, and his book, iPhone Open Application Development, taught developers how to write applications for the popular device long before Apple introduced its own SDK. Prior to the release of iPhone Forensics, Jonathan wrote and supported an iPhone forensics manual distributed exclusively to law enforcement. Jonathan frequently consults law enforcement agencies and assists forensic examiners in their investigations. He teaches an iPhone forensics workshop in his spare time to train forensic examiners and corporate security personnel.

Jonathan is also a full-time research scientist specializing in machine learning technology to combat online fraud and spam, an effort that led him to develop networking products capable of learning how to protect customers. He is founder of the DSPAM project, a high-profile, next-generation spam filter that was acquired in 2006 by Sensory Networks, Inc. He lectures widely on the topic of spam and is a foremost researcher in the fields of machine-learning and algorithmic theory.

Jonathan's website is http://zdziarski.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (October 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596155190
• ISBN-13: 978-0596155193
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #461,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Telephony

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, short, open - but not AppStore, October 29, 2008

By 

Kevin Butler - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iPhone Open Application Development: Write Native Applications Using the Open Source Tool Chain (Paperback)

At 268 pages, this book is shorter than many programming books.

It describes developing for an open (jailbroken) iPhone. After the first edition sold out, this is the version with minor updates for the iPhone 2.x firmware. This book teaches you about the iPhone APIs used by the built-in Apple applications, but you should be aware that it does NOT target the Apple iPhone SDK, and does NOT guide you in developing apps for the AppStore, though the code will generally be applicable for AppStore applications.

It begins with a description of the process of jailbreaking, getting the compiler set up either on the Mac (hard) or the iPhone itself (trivial: http://soi.kd6.us/2008/09/27/so-i-made-my-iphone-say-hello-world/) and an introduction to Objective-C.

This book presents many complete example programs using the various iPhone UIKit controls, and presents information on Quartz (2d graphics) and the sound libraries.

It does not describe OpenGL ES (for high-performance/3D graphics) or web applications and APIs.

I found occasional editing errors - more than I'd expect in an O'Reilly Second Edition, ranging from typos (Quarts instead of Quartz) to old text describing an updated code example, to copy-and-paste errors between similar sections. Nothing too egregious, but distracting.

I list this book and other books that target the SDK in my Amazon Store: http://astore.amazon.com/iaw-20