AppsAmuck Great IPhone Dev Tutorial Resource For Beginner IPhone App Developers

I’ve been following the AppsAmuck 1-app-a-day tutorial – it’s been an invaluable resource for someone like me who came into the IPhone App Development area with zero Objective-C or Mac OS programming experience.

Apps Amuck starts on day 1 with an iPhone app tutorial that is based on the example/tutorials provided by Apple. Each day the apps/tutorials get more complex, and full source code as well as a final verion of the IPhone App is included in each tutorial. They are currently giving away one app per day for the next 31 days.

The tutorials they provide are small, one trick ponies that allow you to perform tasks like finding your location, building a fire, figuring out your IP address, and more. The site allows you to see a screenshot of the application, read a description, and download the source code to play around with. If you have a developer provisioning file (meaning you’ve been accepted into the developer program), you can even sync the applications over to your iPhone or iPod touch.

Developing IPhone Apps From The Ground Up

One of the most exciting development platforms in the last few years is the IPhone device/application platform. I’ve just now gotten into the idea of developing IPhone apps, though I’ve owned an IPhone since they were first released. Along with my usual posts about building applications/sites for the web, I’m going to be doing a fair amount of articles about developing for the IPhone. Specifically, information for beginner IPhone developers, as I am a complete and utter beginner. Here’s the checklist you’ll need to get started from scratch:

1. An Intel-Based Mac. I bought a used MacBook Pro off of eBay for a good price, since I had never been a fan of the OS before now. Smart move by Apple, forcing people not only to buy a Mac to develop for the IPhone, but also a relatively new Mac, as the Intel Proc Macs have only been out for a relatively short time.
2. The IPhone SDK. This is freely available from Apple, though you do have to sign a fairly restrictive NDA/License agreement. Ah well.
3. XCode. This is my first exposure to the XCode IDE, and I habe to say, I am a fan. It’s nice and clean, failry easy to use and self-explanatory, and free. The documnetation is great. My only complaint is the Interface Builder, which offers drag-and-drop programming, but I found it less than intuitive and a little hard to navigate.
4. Finally, you must pay Apple to actually sell Apps on their App Store. First, for a developer license, then a 30% fee on each sale you make on your app. Another smart move, as much as I hate to admit it.

There’s the building blocks you need. I’ve just set up my own dev environment and peeked into the docs tonight, so I will be posting more as I progress.

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