App development

[robhob]

Anyone tried their hand at iOS app development? I'm keen to try and am looking for a good "beginner" book. I'm also trying to decide if I should go for an MacBook Pro or an iMac. Any suggestions?

 

[onlyoneken]

The only app development I have fiddled with has been utilizing the Titanium Appcelerator SDK, which, depending on what kind and scale of app you are looking at developing, can be quite useful.

 

[phiber]

App development is quite easy. What are you needs? If you don't need portability go iMac, if you need a little portability go Macbook pro, very portable go Macbook Air.

 

[Synaesthesia]

There has been an explosion of resources since the launch of the iPhone. Search for cocoa or iPhone/iPad development. While everyone says its easy, I find it quite complex. You need to learn a fairly low level object oriented language.

Anyway my favorite resources are books by Aaron Hillegass, and the free Stanford app development lectures on iTunes U.

 

[robhob]

App development is quite easy. What are you needs? If you don't need portability go iMac, if you need a little portability go Macbook pro, very portable go Macbook Air.

I've got a couple of ideas. The goal is to build a couple of apps over time that would generate a little extra income. I was thinking iMac but not sure about being stuck to a desk. I develop in VB so this is quite a change All my vb work is for the company I work for, the iOS work will be for myself personally.

 

[MongooseMan]

There has been an explosion of resources since the launch of the iPhone. Search for cocoa or iPhone/iPad development. While everyone says its easy, I find it quite complex. You need to learn a fairly low level object oriented language.

Anyway my favorite resources are books by Aaron Hillegass, and the free Stanford app development lectures on iTunes U.

+1 on the Stanford lectures, used those to push out an app in about 2 months, from zero Objective C experience.

 

[robhob]

+1 on the Stanford lectures, used those to push out an app in about 2 months, from zero Objective C experience.

Cool! Did you use any books? I've got the lectures but have only watched the 1st one so far.

 

[threegee]

I downloaded Xcode last night to try my hand at iPhone or iPad apps. I used to program in a windows environment (some time ago) so it will be interesting to see how easy it is under OSX. Judging purely by the plethora of apps available in app store I'd say it's probably a lot easier these days ... Will know soon enough. I'd start off with little apps to make my life easier and if they amount to anything maybe put them on AppStore one day and earn some pocket money

 

[robhob]

That's pretty much what I have in mind...

 

[MongooseMan]

Cool! Did you use any books? I've got the lectures but have only watched the 1st one so far.

Nope, I've never managed to learn any language from a book (but that might just be me).
Besides, there are plenty of good Apple white papers and documentation on their developer site.

Code along with the lectures, and try some of the tuts, you should be fine.

 

[robhob]

Nope, I've never managed to learn any language from a book (but that might just be me).
Besides, there are plenty of good Apple white papers and documentation on their developer site.

Code along with the lectures, and try some of the tuts, you should be fine.

I've just loaded the second lecture on my iPad. Will start watching tomorrow night.

By the way, have you published your app?

 

[xera]

Anyone tried their hand at iOS app development? I'm keen to try and am looking for a good "beginner" book. I'm also trying to decide if I should go for an MacBook Pro or an iMac. Any suggestions?

MacBook Air should be fast enough with it's SSD.

I've done some dev but found it quite a mission. You can't even test your apps on a device without a developer account ($99). Really sucky thing about iOS... If Mac ever goes the iOS lockdown route, I'm ditching apple for good.