Beginning iPhone 4 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK

Beginning iPhone 4 Development is here! The authors of the bestselling Beginning iPhone 3 Development are back, with the same excellent material completely updated for iOS 4 and written from the ground up using the latest version of Apple's Xcode 3. All source code has been updated to use the latest Xcode templates and current APIs, and all-new screenshots show Xcode 3 in action.

Beginning iPhone 4 Development is a complete course in iOS 4 apps development. You’ll master techniques that work on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We start with the basics, showing you how to download and install the tools you'll need, and how to create your first simple application. Next you’ll learn to integrate all the interface elements iOS users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You’ll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you’ll learn techniques to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone’s built-in database management system and Core Data, the standard for persistence that Apple brought to iOS with the release of SDK 3.

And there’s much more! You’ll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You’ll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages. You'll also learn how to use the new concurrency APIs included in iOS 4, and make robust multithreaded applications using Grand Central Dispatch.

• The iPhone 4 update to the best-selling and most recommended book for Cocoa touch developers
• Written in an accessible, easy-to-follow style
• Full of useful tips and techniques to help you become an iOS pro

NOTE: For iPhone 4S or iOS 5 apps development, please instead check out the next edition of this book, Beginning iOS 5 Development - now available.

What you’ll learn

• Everything you need to know to develop your own best-selling iPhone and iPad apps
• Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences
• How to create “universal” apps for both iPhone and iPad

Anyone who wants to start developing for iPhone, iPad,and iPod touch.

You can discover more about this book, download source code, and find support forums at the book's companion site, at www.iphonedevbook.com.

Table of Contents

1. Welcome to the Jungle
2. Appeasing the Tiki Gods
3. Handling Basic Interaction
4. More User Interface Fun
5. Autorotation and Autosizing
6. Multiview Applications
7. Tab Bars and Pickers
8. Introduction to Table Views
9. Navigation Controllers and Table Views
10. iPad Considerations
11. Application Settings and User Defaults
12. Basic Data Persistence
13. Grand Central Dispatch, Background Processing, and You
14. Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
15. Taps, Touches, and Gestures
16. Where Am I? Finding Your Way with Core Location
17. Whee! Gyro and Accelerometer!
18. iPhone Camera and Photo Library
19. Application Localization
20. Where to Next?

The team that brought you the bestselling Beginning iPhone 3 Development is back again, and this time they’re offering the best coverage of Apple’s new SDK 4 available anywhere. You’ll see all of the new the technologies available with SDK 4—including multitasking, iAd, Game Center, and countless new APIs—and put them to good use creating your very own app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Many of the discussion in the original book have been clarified and extended to include development techniques for the iPad, and all of the projects have been rebuilt from scratch using the SDK 4 templates.

Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, this book offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone and iPad programming. The book starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and installing SDK 4, and then steps you though the creation of your first simple application. From there, you’ll learn how to integrate all the interface elements Apple touch users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You’ll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you’ll see how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You’ll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone’s built-in database management system. In addition, you’ll also learn about Core Data, the standard for persistence that Apple introduced to iPhone with SDK 3.

And there’s much more! You’ll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You’ll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages.

• The iPhone 4 update to the best-selling and most recommended book for Cocoa touch developers

• Packed full of tricks, techniques, and enthusiasm for the new SDK from a developer perspective

• Written in an accessible, easy-to-follow style

What you'll learn

• Everything you need to know to develop your own best-selling iPhone and iPad apps
• Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences
• How to create “universal” apps for both iPhone and iPad

Who this book is for

Everyone who wants to start developing for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad!

Dave Mark is a long-time Mac developer and author and has written a number of books on Macintosh development, including Learn C on the Macintosh, The Macintosh Programming Primer series, and Ultimate Mac Programming. His blog can be found at www.davemark.com.

Jack Nutting has been using Cocoa since the olden days, long before it was even called Cocoa. He's used Cocoa and its predecessors to develop software for a wide range of industries and applications including gaming, graphic design, online digital distribution, telecommunications, finance, publishing, and travel. When he's not working on Mac or iPhone projects, he's developing web applications with Ruby on Rails. Jack is a passionate proponent of Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks; At the drop of a hat, he will speak at length on the virtues of dynamic dispatch and runtime class manipulations to anyone who'll listen (and even to some who won’t). He blogs from time to time at www.nuthole.com.

Jeff LaMarche is a longtime Mac developer, and Apple iPhone Developer. With over 20 years of programming experience, he’s written on Cocoa and Objective-C for MacTech Magazine, as well as articles for Apple’s Developer Technical Services website. He has experience working in Enterprise software, both as a developer for PeopleSoft starting in the late 1990s, and then later as an independent consultant.