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Programming in Objective-C 2.0 Live Lessons Pt.1 – Review

John — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:40:23 +0000

I know that many of the people viewing this site are absolute beginners to programming who are frustrated because they have difficulty with iPhone development books that they’ve bought. The problem is that most people don’t have the fundamentals in Objective-C or Object Oriented programming. One of the books I’ve recommended is Programming in Objective-C 2.o by Stephen Kochan. Stephen has also created a video course to go along with the book.

The video package is called the Programming In Objective-C 2.0 Live Lessons Bundle and cover the basics of Objective-C, and the key principles of Object Oriented programming. You can view a short trailer here that gives you a sampling of the quality of the video. If you’ve got the book this is a perfect companion, although I didn’t see just the video selling on Amazon (what they did have was out of stock and selling for more). The package comes with the book, and is reasonably priced at just under $45. Just like the book this is a very thorough overview so even if you’re one who dwells on the details, you will enjoy this course, and that’s essentially what it is, a thorough beginners Objective-C course.

Pros

Well organized course (just like the book)
Very high quality lessons (Kochan makes it seem easy)
Goes perfectly with the book
In-depth but not too long – 8 hours

Cons

Doesn’t get into iPhone programming like in the latter part of the book (but it looks like a good setup for Apple’s free iPhone programming video course)
Bundle with book and videos appears to cost less than just videos (only difference I can see is that when you purchase just the videos there is no book)

My Conclusion
If you don’t have a solid understanding of Object Oriented programming, and would like to go through an in-depth course on the topic then these videos are a great value for a beginning iPhone developer especially since you’re using Objective-C. The book was already terrific on it’s own, and the addition of video at a reasonable price when bundled with the book makes it even better.

The combination videos and book can be ordered here at $25 off ($44.90)
Just the videos can be ordered here. (price is higher than bundle atm)

Any thoughts from those who have gone through the videos would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Incredible iPhone Game Programming Tutorials With Video

John — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:56:54 +0000

Just like to turn you guys on to what are the best video iPhone game programming tutorials on the web so far in case you haven’t seen them.

– Update Jan. 2nd 2010 – Tutorial 11 has been added, and I have upgrade this list to reflect that.

These tutorials are from 71 squared. They run through the steps to creating a game on the iPhone in tremendous detail, and include source code. Included are in-depth videos.

Here they are:

Now these gents are also writing a book on iPhone game programming. So absolutely if you like their tutorials I suggest you check it out. I don’t think it’s available for pre-order yet but you can read some info about it here.

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Push Notification Server Tutorial

John — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:01:59 +0000

Hi everyone, sorry about the frequency of posts as of late, I was out of town for a few days, and accepted a ft position for the next couple of months, so I am currently overwhelmed.

Something I’ve been looking into mainly for testing purposes is push notification. Now, push notification can really mess up an app so you have to be able to deal with it.

Creating a push notification server can be complex especially if you’re not a web developer.

I found this great tutorial here:
Push Notification Server Tutorial

Which does a great job of showing how it’s done.

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Beginning iPhone Development 3 Book Source Code

John — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:02:53 +0000

I haven’t read the new edition yet, but since Beginning iPhone Development was the best book I’ve seen on iPhone development I thought I would let you guys know that the source code has been updated and Beginning iPhone 3 Development made available.

You can download the source code and here and also order an e-book from from the Apress website at $12 off the print cover price. The new book provides new material on iPhone SDK 3 features such as Core Data, and updates several examples. Overall there is about 50 pages of new material.

My suggestion is to take a look at the examples in the source code, and make the decision yourself if you feel the new book is worth ordering if you already have the first Beginning iPhone Development book. For beginners I absolutely recommend this book once you have a decent understanding of Objective-C. For a look at my favorite iPhone development books please check out my post on the 3 must read iPhone development books.

Amazon actually has a print version of the book available here for $26.39 which is a significant savings over the print version on the Apress site.

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Finishing With Interface Builder – Building Your iPhone Apps Interface Quickly 2/2

John — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:32:11 +0000

This is the second part of the tutorial on building your iPhone App’s interface in interface builder. In this video I quickly drag out all the elements, and connect the interface elements with the appropriate outlets, and actions, and build the class file automatically.

This is the 5th video/tutorial in this series, and I hope you enjoy it.

The first tutorial can be found here:
>>> Developing Your First Apple iPhone App <<<

The project containing the app at the end of this video can be found here:
Project file for tutorial

We will finally get into writing code in the next video!

Here it is:
This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Thanks for reading.

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Understanding Model-View-Controller And Creating A Class Outline

John — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:17:35 +0000

Hi this is the third article in the series on Developing your first Apple iPhone App Store App Step-By-Step, if you missed the first article please check it out here:
Your First Apple iPhone App Store App

In the video below I quickly go over MVC, and then I outline my own process for outlining the classes in smaller apps when developing on my own, to come up with the classes I basically follow these steps:

1. I list all the nouns contained within the objective statement and list of features (that I created in the previous article/video of this series).
2. I take those and create a list of objects by separating the simple objects (objects containing no attributes or other objects), and those that will be created visually in Xcode’s Interface Builder.
3. I take that list of objects, and try to determine what attributes and other objects might be needed by those objects.

From this list I have an outline of the classes to use within the app, it’s by no means perfect or set in stone, but simply to get things going so that I can begin coding. When developing these simple apps on my own I don’t worry about creating any formal documents. From this list of classes I begin coding.

Watch the video below where I explain things in more detail:
This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Please excuse the sound quality of the first minute or so, a slight breeze seems to have affected the mic while outside.

Thanks for reading, be sure to come back for the rest of the series where we will finish the simple app.

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Designing Your First Apple iPhone App

John — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:31:58 +0000

This is the second part of the Developing Your FIrst iPhone App video series that I am creating, specifically in this video I go through the simple design process i use in order to cut down on my development time. It is important to know exactly where you’re headed before you write your first line of code, it’s been said that at least 1/3rd of your development time should be spent on design.

While I don’t believe in any hard and fast rules as to how much time you should spend on design coding blindly is usually a bad idea.

Basically for simple apps I go through a 4 step process which involves creating:

1) An Objective Statement
2) A List of Features
3) A Basic Scenario
4) A Definition of the Class Structure

Check out the video:

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

If you missed the first part in the series it can be found here:
Your First App Store App Step-By-Step – Part 1

You can find the simple soundboard I created using the same code that we will be using in these tutorials in the app store here (it’s free): Example App

Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions please post them below.

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Your First App Store App Step-By-Step – Part 1

John — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:20:54 +0000

This is the first in a series where we will be building a simple app based on the soundboard app that I created which is in the app store that can be found here.

Check out the video:

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

We’ll be learning:

1) Simple App Design

2) MVC Basics

3) Interface Builder Basics

4) Playing Music Files

5) Basic Accelerometer Use

6) Objective-C Collection Basics

7) Submitting Your App

I hope that you enjoy the series, come back for Part 2

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Great eBook From iPhone App Store Stars

John — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:07:49 +0000

Hi everybody,

I came across this tremendous collection of ebooks, from the creator of the Gratitude Journal app, in which she outlines how she began a successful app development company.

Also included are interviews with the creators of several highly successful apps: iSteam, Weightbot, Classics, and Koipond.

There’s even a great book on marketing your app which I found to be extremely useful… great ideas in here that helped her have sustained success.

If you’re interested in the eBooks you can find them here.

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Easiest Game Creation For iPhone

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:08:01 +0000

Something I seem to be asked alot of on twitter is “What is the easiest way to make games for the iPhone?”. Usually from individuals who have developed games in Flash or using a program such as the windows Gamemaker. Game development using Objective-C and OpenGL ES is considerably more difficult.

In the past I’ve mentioned a few tools out there that allow you to create games visually which can speed up your game creation time considerably. The game engines I’ve mentioned are Unity 3d, Shiva, and iTGB. With Unity 3d and Shiva being both 3d game development tools. Now the problem most people have with these tools is the cost.

Well, I’ve found a game creation program that is even easier.. in fact much easier than those programs, and is free. While it only supports 2D game creation I’ve read that the ability to compile games for the iPhone and sell them in the app store using this program is imminent. This game creation program is known as Gamesalad. It has already been set up for the iPhone screen size so once the ability to compile games for the iPhone is added you won’t have to do any porting. There will apparently be a small cost for transferring the games to the iPhone, but I can’t imagine it being anywhere near the cost for the other aforementioned iPhone game engines.

Check out this video, and just see how easy it is (Please note that Cinammon is now known as Gamesalad, and has evolved considerably since this video was made).

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Now performance is often an issue with these rapid game creation programs, but even though it’s still in beta and needs alot of polish (and of course the ability to compile for the iPhone) it could be worth learning especially if you’re new to programming as using these tools you can learn how to understand the logic of programming quickly.

So check out Gamesalad if you’re looking for a really easy way to create games.. coming soon for the iPhone.

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