JimmyWoo.net

Archive for June, 2009

In the upcoming weeks, I will discuss my impressions and evaluation of becoming an upstart independent iPhone developer and the greatness as well as the issues that come with it.  First, an introduction to the topic.

Ever since Apple released the very first iPhone back in June 2007, there has been a tremendous amount of excitement and enthusiasm in what is currently one of the hottest consumer electronic of this decade.  Now on the verge of the new iPhone 3G S, available June 19, the iPhone is clearly much more than simply a popular smart phone or consumer toy. 

The iPhone is really a platform, not all that different from the type of platforms we all know as Windows or Mac OS X, which is home to a vast library of applications and software.  In fact, the iPhone utilizes a scaled-down version of Apple’s OS X.  It’s clearly apparent that developing applications (including games) for the iPhone is not just a fad.  It is paving the way to opportunities and growth in what designers call convergence and interconnectivity.

iPhone 3G S, image courtesy of www.apple.com

The iPhone SDK is available (get the SDK here) to independent developers for a mere one-time fee of $99.  The iPhone’s native programming language is the same as with OS X, namely Objective-C ( 2.0, as of 2007).  Objective-C isn’t new - it has been around since the early 1980s, being based off of the SmallTalk-80 language, and is layered on top of the C language (extensions were added) to allow for an object-oriented approach.

To develop iPhone and iPod Touch apps, you will need to work with a development framework called Cocoa Touch, as well as development tools like Xcode.  The iPhone SDK comes with an iPhone emulator, so you do not necessarily need an iPhone to test your software (the SDK 3.0 requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or later).

As a proud iPhone 3G owner for the past 6 months, I am currently learning (self-teaching) Objective-C and the iPhone SDK.  As mentioned in previous posts, I would like to release apps on the iPhone, which includes but is not limited to games.  If you are interested in iPhone development, or would like to discuss about future collaborations, please leave a comment or contact me directly.  I am currently using the following books:

Programming in Objective-C 2.0, by Stephen Kochan.  (2009)

Beginning iPhone 3 development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche.  (2009)