iPhone Open Application Development

Write Native Objective-C Applications for the iPhone

By Jonathan Zdziarski
March 2008
Pages: 280
ISBN 10: 0-596-51855-2 | ISBN 13: 9780596518554
Press Release

This book is OUT OF PRINT. Please consider the latest edition.

 Description

In this clear and concise book, Jonathan Zdziarski -- one of the original hackers of the iPhone -- explains how developers can design third-party software that will run on this device. You'll learn about the iPhone's native environment, the Objective-C language it uses, and background on the operating system. You also get detailed recipes and working examples for several iPhone features using the open source toolkit that emerged long before Apple offered a toolkit.
Full Description

Certain technologies bring out everyone's hidden geek, and iPhone did the moment it was released. Even though Apple created iPhone as a closed device, tens of thousands of developers bought them with the express purpose of designing and running third-party software.

In this clear and concise book, veteran hacker Jonathan Zdziarski -- one of the original hackers of the iPhone -- explains the iPhone's native environment and how you can build software for this device using its Objective-C, C, and C++ development frameworks.

iPhone Open Application Development walks you through the iPhone's native development environment, offers an overview of the Objective-C language you'll use with it, and supplies background for the iPhone operating system. You also get detailed recipes and working examples for everyone's favorite iPhone features -- graphics and audio programming, interfaces for adding multitouch functionality to games, the use of hardware sensors, and the device's vast user interface kit.

This book explains:

  • How to access the iPhone's underlying operating system
  • The makeup of an iPhone application
  • How to get the open source tool chain running on your desktop
  • The iPhone's core user interface framework, which is heavily tied to major application-level functions
  • Using the many touted iPhone features such as multitouch, hardware sensors, and gestures
  • Intercepting and handling event notifications for many iPhone-related events
  • Raw video surfaces and 3D transformations that take you deeper into advanced graphics on the iPhone
  • How to record and play simple sounds and intercept sound events
  • Advanced digital audio output using Apple's new Audio Toolbox framework
  • Advanced user interface components such as section lists, keyboards, and image manipulation

The Appendix includes a compendium of miscellaneous code examples for cool application features, such as using the camera and creating a CoverFlow®-like album browser.

This book is a true hacker's book, designed for the millions of users who have run third party applications on their iPhone, but its concepts and code examples have shown to be remarkably similar to Apple's official SDK, making this book a valuable resource for both camps. Any programmer can use this book to write applications with the same spectacular effects that made the device an immediate hit, and impress users just as much as the official iPhone software does. That programmer can easily be you.


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"I see this book being a great tool for the person who wants to write their own personal applications for the iPhone, and who doesn't want to live with the restrictions that Apple is placing on the use and distribution of "official" applications. If you're writing for someone other than yourself, your audience probably won't stray far from the hacker group who also was comfortable with jailbreaking their iPhone. If you're considering developing mainstream applications for the iPhone, this isn't the way you want to go. You'll want to stick with the SDK so that you are assured of a consistent and reliable release and distribution mechanism. Even so, spending time here before moving to the SDK will give you a much greater understanding of the iPhone operating system and hardware interface, which will likely come in handy when you go the SDK route."
-- Thomas Duff, Duffbert's Random Musings


"If you need or want to develop for the iPhone -- and you find the restrictions of the Apple SDK onerous -- you can do so today. Zdziarski's iPhone Open Application Development is an excellent place to start, both for its introduction to the platform, and for its documentation of the APIs and frameworks that make the platform run."
-- Nathan Willis, Linux.com



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"I see this book being a great tool for the person who wants to write their own personal applications for the iPhone, and who doesn't want to live with the restrictions that Apple is placing on the use and distribution of "official" applications."
--Thomas Duff, Duffbert's Random Musings