iPhone SDK Programming: Developing Mobile Applications for Apple iPhone and iPod touch [Paperback]

Maher Ali (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0470742828 | ISBN-13: 978-0470742822 | Edition: 1

With iPhone SDK Programming, developers have the expert guidance they need to begin building native applications for Apple's new iPhone 3G as well as the iPod touch. Inside, veteran mobile developer and Bell Labs scientist Maher Ali begins with a foundational introduction to Objective C and Cocoa programming, and then guides you through the building programs with Apple's iPhone SDK.

iPhone SDK Programming covers a wide range of topics, including:

• The Objective-C programming language

• Collections

• Cocoa Touch

• Building advanced mobile user interfaces

• Core Animation and Quartz 2D

• Model-View-Controller (MVC) designs

• Table Views File management

• Parsing XML documents using SAX and DOM

• Working with Google Maps API

• Consuming REST Web Services

• Building advanced location-based applications

• Developing database applications using the SQLite engine

• Building Multimedia applications

• Making use of the camera and video Working with the accelerometer

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470742828
• ISBN-13: 978-0470742822
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,013,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Limited, supplemental iPhone programming book, March 18, 2009

By 

AEDave (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: iPhone SDK Programming: Developing Mobile Applications for Apple iPhone and iPod touch (Paperback)

I bought this book after I'd gone through Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK (Beginning from Novice to Professional), hoping to get another set of useful skills and tools to use, such as a reference for XML & RSS, SQLite, and a little more depth on the collections objects such as NSArrays, etc. that was only brushed over in the Beginning iPhone Development book. Overall, this book does fill in some of those gaps, but it really doesn't stand well as a standalone iPhone programming book. I'm glad this is my second choice, because if it were my first I'd probably be more confused!

If you're building your foundation, this book may be worth your while.

My largest complaint about this book is actually the way the code is written out on the page. Instead of clear, Courier-font code blocks, the editors just stuck code in Times Roman font. Anyone who's ever read their share of programming books knows this just complicates life by making it harder to differentiate code from content and better recognize typos, etc. I hope they revise this and publish another edition of the book - it's extremely noticeable. Also, I think this book was pushed to market without double-checking that the graphic examples are copyright compliant, because instead of icons in some of the screenshots the author substituted ugly character graphics that just looked dumb.

Overall, this is an okay programming book. There are some nuggets of good information, but as a beginner's book it's too complex, nor does it have enough depth to be a compendium for an advanced programmer.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Book needs a second revision, March 31, 2009

By 

Thomas T (Wichita, KS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: iPhone SDK Programming: Developing Mobile Applications for Apple iPhone and iPod touch (Paperback)

Warning this book is designed for advance Iphone developers. If you are a beginner then stay away from this book. The author style of writing is very hard to understand and the way the code is presented in this book is really hard on the eyes. The author somehow decided to use Time Roman Font instead of the standard Courier or Arial font, therefore it makes the code even more complex to understand and follow. The graphics and screenshots served little purpose. I am glad there is not too many of them. I bought this book to learn more about Parsing XML documents using SAX and DOM, and developing database application using SQLite engine, but later found out that I learn more by using online resources rather than the book itself.
The author said one thing and he assumes the other. For example: The last paragraph in the preface "Is This Book For You?" the author wrote, "The text cover general topics such as databases and XML processing. These topics are covered assuming minimal or no prior knowledge." Chapter 10 working with databases second paragraph the author then wrote, "This chapter is not an introduction to databases and it assumes that you know the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL)."At first he said no prior knowledge is required to learn databases then when it comes to the actual section on working with databases he said that he assume you know the Structured Query Language. I guess that is one way to get you to buy the book if you only read the preface.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A text book, June 1, 2009

By 

Phil (Wimberley, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: iPhone SDK Programming: Developing Mobile Applications for Apple iPhone and iPod touch (Paperback)

I did not like the book at all. The topics are not discussed well. The examples are lacking. The author assumes you already know the material. So if I knew it already, I wouldn't need to read it. Don't waste your money.