Kicking Off iPhone Development

Notice: This is a discussion thread for comments about the SitePoint article, Kicking Off iPhone Development.


Not going to convert me, but I must say that Xcode and the Simulator are a bit slicker than the dev tools for Android…but paying $99 to run code I wrote on a device I bought is a bridge too far.

iOS is currently at 4.1 along with XCode 3.2.4 which needs Snow Leopard to run (10.6.4+). This was released in Semptember but this article was written in November…?

I started learning to develop iPhone apps in July 2009 with my purchase of a Mac Mini. It was a steep learning curve for someone who did not know C, C++, or Obj-C. (It was NOT fun.)

The easiest and fastest way to get your app in iTunes is to use the basic code to run your app, but for pages, use HTML. My wallpaper app uses minimal Obj-C, just enough to start the app and present the first page, an HTML page. From that point, all the buttons and links are HTML, which is perfect for me, since I’m familiar with HTML/CSS. I don’t use JS in this app, so there is limited functionality. It just presents wallpaper of my company’s radio-control cars line.

If you already know JS, then you can use that to introduce increased functionality within an HTML environment. There are already several packages ready to use for developers who want to go this route, such as Webkit (endorsed by Apple).

The iPhone uses Safari, which supports HTML5, so you won’t be coding your pages to support multiple browsers.

With more work, those of you who design with databases will be able to incorporate one into your app, or even interact with a database on your company’s server. Some wallpaper apps need an Internet connection in order to populate the app with the thousands of wallpapers in their database. (My wallpaper is all in-app - no Internet connection required.)

I hope these comments shed more light on this article.

Louis, you’re not paying $99 to simply run code. You are gaining access to the whole developer’s assets online and paying for the infrastructure of iTunes to sell your apps. And you can submit as many apps as you like during a year for the one fee of $99. Don’t forget that the entire Xcode SDK is free to download. $99 is cheap for the amount of code and functionality you get. Perfectly reasonable price!

Steven, but you still can’t run your code on your own device unless you pay the $99. So, for me, when it came time to purchase my phone, the ability to write my own code and run it on the device without paying an additional fee was a deciding factor in my choice of an Android phone. And, as a developer, I’ve chosen to focus on learning the Android dev environment as a result of that.

@kissmyawesome: the article was written awhile ago and has been pushed back a few times to make room for book launch stuff. I’ve just updated the version numbers to the current releases. Thanks for pointing that out!

Does iOS 4.1 development really require Snow Leopard? I’m still on Leopard but don’t want to upgrade as I heard performance on Intel GMA950 is pretty poor.

@Louis, OK, I understand your point. Do you have to pay in order to sell your apps to the public? I’m unfamiliar with app sales outside the App Store.

The article code is very easily and its good use for me.

<snip/>

@webdonkey: yep :frowning:

@Steven: yeah, there’s a one-time $25 fee to register to list your apps in the Market. Although if you wanted to you could just sell the app file directly via your website, but then customers would need to install it manually.

Yeah, its somoething I ran into with the latest update, it won’t install on Leopard.

I didn’t know that, but I’ve not really looked into Android dev, however, looking at it it does look a lot easier to get into.

:slight_smile:
good one

Nice Tour, but you seem to have changed the name of your files during the process. This could be confusing for those of us following along.

Marc

Excellent! Concise and to the point.

Android is purely an operating environment which is based upon the Linux V2.6 kernel. At beginning, the operation target for Android was the mobile-phone arena, and as well as smart phones and lower-cost flip-phone devices.