Beginning iOS 4 Application Development [Paperback]

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Product Details

Paperback: 656 pages
Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (October 12, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470918020
ISBN-13: 978-0470918029
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Wei-Meng Lee
List Price : ~~$39.99~~
Price : $26.39
You Save : $13.60 (34%)

Customer Reviews

Been using this book for a few days now, and i must say its a great resource. Been thru 5 chapters in random order so far. i have read a bunch of iphone os programming books and this is definitely is my top 5. Every chapter, is just broken down into intricate details. The author has done a great job in explaining complex topics that might dazzle beginner programmers and made it very presentable to the user. i know i said its a great beginners book, but there are advanced topics that are covered like implementing push notification to bluetooth or running background applications. the best part of this book is manner in which they start of the topics and break everything down into details that makes the user understand. i highly recommend this book.

I met Wei-Meng during one of his training courses conducted in Singapore. It was quite an eye-opening experience as that was my first time learning how to program the iPhone. My programming experience was in Java, and transitioning to Objective-C was quite a challenge. It was during the training that I knew that Wei-Meng has written a book on iOS 4 programming. The appendix on Objective-C is a good jump-start for anyone wishing to get started in iPhone programming, without needing to wade through pages of thick documentation on the subject.
I particularly like the way this book is structured - each chapter is independent and contains topics that you can jump to as and when you feel the need to. Of course, if you are new to iPhone programming, I would suggest you start with Parts 1 and 2 first, which lay the foundation of iPhone programming. Personally, I really like Part 4, which talks about stuff that are beyond beginners - Bluetooth, Bonjour, and Apple Push Notification service. And maps! They really are very cool when you see your apps running on your real devices. This book also contains the gem that quite a lot of other books left out - how to prepare your application for testing on your real devices. I was confused about the concepts of app IDs and their relationships with provisioning profiles, and this was really a hair-pulling experience when you try to do deployment yourself. Fortunately, the appendix A provides a very clear detailed steps to making your apps run on your device.
That said, the best way to learn iPhone programming (at least for me) is to attend Wei-Meng's classes (his classes are really interesting and fun!), and followed by reading this book for revision (most of what he covers in his classes are in this book). But if you don't have the chance to attend the classes, the next best way is to read his book. While I give this book 5 stars, one area I hope that it should cover more is in the area of UI design - I wanted to know how all the flashy UIs are done. But for a beginner book, I think it has served its intended audience well.