Customer Reviews:
 This is a book written for people who don't need to read a book about iPhone development November 26, 2008
I was utterly disappointed with this book as I've been a long-time reader of Erica's posts on TUAW.com and have enjoyed her efforts on MacBreakWeekly and her less official iPhone development.
Unfortunately the problem with this book is that she is too experienced to talk to anyone but other experienced developers. With her 'Hello World' app, traditionally the first app you will learn to write in any language, you are told to throw away parts of the folder structure that Apple sets up in XCode, along with some of the pre-written code and use the code she writes with absolutely no real explanation of why. The net effect is to leave you utterly lost, not really knowing what you can and cannot do with the tools you are given.
The second problem is that it seems that Erica seems to have written the book in a huge hurry. No time is taken to explain anything. Maybe I'm not the target audience for the book but I was absolutely none the wiser about the basic tools in the SDK after reading the first thirty or so pages and I am an object-oriented ActionScript developer with some experience with the MVC design pattern so should have some affinity with the OOP code used in Objective-C (even if the syntax is a bit more alien).
I have since bought Beginning iPhone Development - Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche and have found it's pace much more manageable and feel much more able to take on the examples after reading through the theory.
Colour me unimpressed! November 10, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've learned a large number of languages, toolkits and SDKs over the years and been part of the review process of a fairly well known book as well, so believe me when I say this is not a great quality book!
If you read the back cover and even the prerequisites, you might think this book is for you. The prerequisites page only mentions the following with regards to knowledge required: "Familiarity with Objective-C". No mention is made of familiarity with writing software for OS X, but by page 23 we're seeing statements like "These essential frameworks enable you to build your iPhone applications using the same fundamental classes and calls you are familiar with from the Macintosh". This is followed on 24 by a comment about Info.plist - "It works the same way Info.plist files work on the Mac." Even as early as page 7 we're seeing things like "As with the Macintosh..." This book does not stand well on its own and that will make it less accessible to some people.
Then we get to the missing stuff - in the very first project, we're instructed to "Drag the three image files from the Chapter One Project folder provided with this book..." Provided where? There's no CD in the back, and I've not found anything in Chapter 1 so far that tells me where this resource is supposed to be included.
The first code listing spans almost two full pages as a single block of text. While the code is commented, there is no in-line breakdown of what each section is and you'll find yourself flipping back to previous pages to tie what you read there back to the code being displayed. Once this two page block of code is over, you don't see it again during this chapter - there is no further discussion of the code so you have to take it on faith for now and learn about it later. That's fine for a 10 line "hello world" app, but not really acceptable for an introduction to a language / framework like Cocoa.
All in all, first impressions are not good. This is not a book to rival the kind of book we've become used to with the Aaron Hillegass definitive reference for starting OS X programming. It will serve more experienced Apple developers well, but will be frustrating for new users.
 Good book, but lacking in places November 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book useful, but it definitely lacks in places. I am using it as a resource for finding out little tricks or tips on how another programmer lays out their work. It's a useful resource, however it won't teach you the SDK from a beginner to an expert - grab Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X for that!
Useful samples, not for beginners however November 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thought this book was well written but be aware it does throw you into the deep end pretty much immediately. I would recommend this book mainly to developers who are already familiar with the basics of building iPhone applications as there really isn't much of a beginners introduction here.
 The book we've all been waiting for! October 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a brilliant book, and contains a whole host of fantastic examples that shed a lot of like on developing using the iPhone SDK. Clearly written, great examples, and covering all topics needed to create a great application. This book will take some beating.
Of course, there is much more possible with the SDK than is covered in the book but this book will give you all the knowledge you need to push forward on your own.
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