Reviews by Doron Katz

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Lean Branding

Lean Branding

Creating Dynamic Brands to Generate Conversion

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Oct 27, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: A holistic approach to lean brand development
Lean Branding by Laura Busche, follows up on the other lean concepts by prompting developers and founders to capitalise on their product and ultimately generate and create conversions, through creating a dynamic and suitable brand strategy. Full Review >

Swift Pocket Reference

Swift Pocket Reference

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Oct 5, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Bite Sized source of Swift
This is where Swift Pocket Reference comes in, you get a logical and concise topic-by-topic reference to all the important language concpets, from Optionals, to working with Dictionaries, Extensions, Protocols, Tuples, Generics and so forth. You quickly skim the topic of interest, recall the general idea, look at the provided sample and off you go. In good doses, you can really make good use of this book. Full Review >

iOS 8 Swift Programming Cookbook

iOS 8 Swift Programming Cookbook

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Oct 2, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Trusting Reference for Swift developers
I have reviewed tons of Cookbooks over the years, and this one is no exception, it provides a concise shortcut to the basics, with references to specific areas you want to look into. I am always hesitant to recommend this book for newbies, and for swift, I would highly recommend some of the other books I have (or will be reviewing) reviewed first, and then use this book as a supplement when working on your specific projects. Full Review >

Social eCommerce

Social eCommerce

Increasing Sales and Extending Brand Reach

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Sep 25, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: A great source aggregating disparate social media content
Social eCommerce by Jem Matzan, Stephan Spencer is a book catered towards the Product Managers and Marketers of this world, at a startup or small-to-medium business, looking to leverage social media in order to gain market traction, rather than for vanity. The book starts off basic, introducing you to the various social media concepts, before sampling a bit of social media strategy. Full Review >

Sparrow iOS Game Framework Beginner's Guide

Sparrow iOS Game Framework Beginner's Guide

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Aug 9, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: A great alternative to Cocos2D
This month I decided to embark on learning abit about the Sparrow Framework for iOS, a gaming framework that takes its inspiration from Actionscript, to create impressive 2D gaming experiences for the mobile platform. Johannes Stein (@Stoney_FD) presents a complete beginner's compass on how to approach game-development, how to utilise Sparrow within the Objective-C language, guiding you on creating a game, from start to finish. Full Review >

Lean Customer Development (Hardcover version)

Lean Customer Development (Hardcover version)

Building Products Your Customers Will Buy

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jul 21, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Pragmatic customer validation
In following suit with the other Lean books in the series, Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez gives companies a tangible and pragmatic approach to develop and validate product ideas through iterative and targeted customer development research. Full Review >

Powerful Phrases for Successful Interviews

Powerful Phrases for Successful Interviews

Over 400 Ready-to-Use Words and Phrases That Will Get You the Job You Want

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 30, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: An injection of confidence and charisma
Powerful Phrases for Successful Interviews by @TonyBeshara provides you with the mental sustenance, and wisdom through the interview process, from approach to negotiating your offer. Full Review >

Designing Multi-Device Experiences

Designing Multi-Device Experiences

An Ecosystem Approach to User Experiences across Devices

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Apr 20, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Conceptual clarity on multi-device designs
Many sensible businesses choose one platform to focus their mobile efforts on, most notably iOS, before evolving to other mobile platforms. The book Designing Multi-Device Experiences: An Ecosystem Approach to User Experiences across Devices by Michal Levin (@michall79) provides a methodically comprehensive discussion into how to extend and span the user experience and usability across multiple disparate devices, be it mobile, tablet, or desktop, and inferentially even wearable devices. Full Review >

Training Guide: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3

Training Guide: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Mar 14, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Compelling introduction to a lot of topics
The book itself is very well structured, but it’s primary aim is to build windows 8-focused windows applications. With that caveat in mind, if the book still fits your workflow and plans, continue reading… Full Review >

Mobile Design Pattern Gallery

Mobile Design Pattern Gallery

UI Patterns for Smartphone Apps

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jan 30, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Smorgasbord of Mobile UX Best Practices
This is a book aimed at designers and developers looking to create mobile applications, and seeking some sort of visual inspiration, as well as ensuring his or her design fits within the acceptable design best practices. I’m happy with the book, it does what it advertises, extremely concise and referential, which is what you look for in such of such a nature. I certainly recommend this book, especially for developers like me that likes to look at all the smorgasbord of common design elements and pick the best ones. Full Review >

Mac OS X Productivity Tips for Developers

Mac OS X Productivity Tips for Developers

Supercharge Your Daily Programming Workflow

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 5.0

On Jan 26, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: Informative and best served in bite-sizes.
I first encountered these dynamic O’Reilly authors back when I watched the Mastering Advanced Git video series back in 2012, which was of course based on Matthew’s book, Version Control with Git, 2nd Edition, and hands-down, it took me to watching and reading those two book/video combinations to actually move from subversion to git, which is a remarkable feat, to get a developer to move source control repo preferences. Full Review >

Head First PMP

Head First PMP

A Learner's Companion to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jan 25, 2014 Doron Katz wrote: A fun way to get me to read a PMP book
I thought I'd pick up Head First PMP, 3rd Edition by Jennifer Greene and @AndrewStellman just out of sadistic curiosity, but was pleasantly surprised. Whilst I have read a lot of 'Head First' books before, and have been a vocal critic of how cartoonish and counter-educational they have been, this book is completely the opposite. For a dry subject like PMP, Greene and Stellman have made the topic of Project Management and preparing for a PMP exam quite pellet-able. I haven't sat my PMP exam yet, for obvious reasons but many reviewers have pointed out that this book encompasses up to 90% of what was needed, so it's not just about being able to digest all the PMP stuff in a cheekish book-style, but it's practical and useful. Full Review >

Designing for Behavior Change

Designing for Behavior Change

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Oct 9, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Concise channel into the mind
A strong theoretic book that explores the conscious and sub-conscious minds of behaviour, in order to set the mindset for designing for human behaviour. A pillar of UX development, Stephen Wendel presents the psychology of why people do things in a certain way, and strategies for encouraging behavioural change, re-forming habits and so forth. Full Review >

HTML5 Pocket Reference

HTML5 Pocket Reference

Quick, Comprehensive, Indispensable

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Aug 29, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Concise and handy
The ever-so useful Pocket reference, Review of HTML5 Pocket Reference by Jennifer Niederst Robbins is in it’s fifth revision, and not a lot to say about it. it’s a consistently neat dictionary reference of the HTML5 tags and attributes, that I personally find handy to have by my side when I do HTML stuff, as do the seasoned HTML programming monkeys. Whilst it has no bells and whistles, the book has the precise structural flow of element, description, usage, attributes and example, so you know exactly what each element does, both in definition as well as contextually. Full Review >

Learning Java

Learning Java

A Bestselling Hands-On Java Tutorial

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Aug 21, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Well-rounded Java knowledge source
So the 4th edition of Learning Java, by Patrick Niemeyer Et. Al is a book that I wouldn’t recommend for novice, and especially me, having not touched Java since my Bachelor’s degree, I had to do a lot of researching in various areas, this book covers quite a broad spectrum of Java, and is used quite well as a reference book, from Swing and various Graphics APIs to Web Sockets. Full Review >

Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts

Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jun 24, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Concise, easy to read in bite-able chunks
You are looking into creating a startup, and seeking some advise from others? This book provides a collection of blog posts from others, with Tom Eisenmann compiling an annual collection of the best blog posts covering startup management, which in this edition counts up to 72 posts. The posts are more so about successful entrepreneurs who share their thought processes and experiences, to help you get a good head's on start in the areas of: Management Tasks; Organisational issues; and Funding Full Review >

Mac Hacks

Mac Hacks

Tips & Tools for unlocking the power of OS X

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 31, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Your springboard for the curious-minded
A smorgasbord cookbook of recipes to help you get the most of your mac, Mac Hacks helps the novice-to-middle level users tweak their machines to be more automative, customised to his or her needs. Chris Seibold adds that link for the average user, to become more of a power-user, and inspire the reader to look beyond the book for similar hacks, in quest of his or her environment-setup utopia. The book starts by encouraging the user to backup his or her computer, because as you know, hacks don't always turn out the way they should, so protecting one's computer and being able to revert to the initial state is ideal. So okay, having done that, the user also provides information on creating a flash backup and various other handy utility tricks, to get your computer and your account manageable. Full Review >

Lean Analytics

Lean Analytics

Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Apr 16, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Entrepreneur's bible
Don’t let the title deceive you, this book isn’t lean by any means, but choc-full of pragmatic information on how to adjust your analytical strategy to follow only the information that is relevant to your business. For me, Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll, Benjamin Yoskovitz, opened me up to a whole new way of thinking, and how to align business focus by removing a lot of the analytical noise that does nothing for you. Full Review >

Jump Start CoffeeScript

Jump Start CoffeeScript

Get Up to Speed With CoffeeScript in a Weekend

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Mar 20, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Literal dive into coffee script
Jump Start CoffeeScript by Earle Castledine takes an express approach to delivering the technical know-how, combined with the theory and story of the book's concepts. THe first chapter gets you started, and then the author goes on to the CoffeeScript fundamentals, going through sample code and illustrating differentiations between javascript components and coffee-script specific components, with the goal at the end of the book, for you to come up with a coffee-script powered game. Full Review >

iOS 6 Programming Cookbook

iOS 6 Programming Cookbook

Solutions for iOS Developers

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 5.0

On Jan 15, 2013 Doron Katz wrote: Solid and reliablez
iOS 6 Programming Cookbook follows on from iOS 5 Cookbook, which I thoroughly enjoyed by Vandad Nahavandipoor, this is the third revision I am reviewing, with incremental improvements to keep you up to date with the latest version of iOS. For the most part, you can review my previous reviews on this book, for which I consider this book to be a fantastic and essential part of your programming literature toolkit. It goes through the normal problem–>solution–>discussion process to allow you to quickly identify which topic matches your needs and then explains that topic concisely with an example, rather than go through all the fluff. The fluff is left for the discussion part in case you wanted to know more. But if this isn’t your ideal way of learning, in a non-linear but contextual method, then keep this book as a reference. Full Review >

Killer UX Design

Killer UX Design

Create User Experiences to Wow Your Visitors

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Nov 28, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Compelling reason to be more behaviour-design driven
There are quite a few UX design books in circulation, and perhaps it is something that can be partially taught, but partially has to be ingrained in you, intuitively, but this book certainly bridges the first aspect, by being a fantastic textbook on UX Designing. Full Review >

Photoshop CS6 Unlocked

Photoshop CS6 Unlocked

101 Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 3.0

On Oct 18, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Simple for tasks but might leave you hungry for more
A different kind of Photoshop book, Corrie Haffley presents a book that is aimed specifically for web developers, and the sequence and structuring of this book makes that quite obvious from the start. It begins by giving the reader a flavour of essential tasks to paint a general overview of important tasks that the user will dive into later in the book, then goes into a cookbook recipe of ‘how to achieve certain things’. Full Review >

Introducing Regular Expressions

Introducing Regular Expressions

Unraveling Regular Expressions, Step-by-Step

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Aug 30, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Great primer and reference in one book
An essential skill as a programmer, regardless of language, is to understand at least the basic principles behind regular expressions. Goyvaerts Et. Al has released the very familiar cookbook, targeted at those who wish to take up the skill of understanding advanced search and manipulation language that is used in many languages, such as Java, Perl, PHP, Flex, iOS and Javascript, and in fact even many popular IDE's employ regEx as a way of searching within files, where normal string search doesn't work. Full Review >

Learning Ruby

Learning Ruby

The Language that Powers Rails

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Aug 1, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Great foundation-building book on Ruby
My first into the foray of Ruby, a pre-cursor for me before going into Ruby on Rails. I have always wanted to read about something that has been talked about by quite a large cult of followers on the internet, so without any prior knowledge or experience in this language, I decided Learning Ruby by Michael Fitzgerald would be my first ‘Hello World’ book to pick up. This book certainly fit the intention of a beginner who wanted to get into the world of Ruby, and this book has a plethora of examples to get you going, along with revision questions at the end of each chapter to solidify your knowledge of the chapter’s contents. But bare in mind, this book teaches you primarily the basics, with any of the interesting Rails stuff, the author is providing you just a taste of the flavour, giving you a chance to take the next step in subsequent books (which I will hopefully review soon and learn a bit of myself). Looking at the chapters the author does provide in the book, the author begins with the Ruby Basics, talking about the history of the language, installing and setting up the language on your specific platform. The author then provides a Quick Tour of Ruby in the second chapter, going into variables, operators, reserved words and OOP concepts, before going deeper into Conditional Logic and Strings and Math operators in the following three chapters. Full Review >

Beyond Bullet Points

Beyond Bullet Points

Using Microsoft® PowerPoint® to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jul 1, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Sensible and easy to read.
The book goes through each chapter, building on how to convey your message or story in a sensible organised manner, which was especially focused on in chapter four - Planning your first five slides, which aids in constructing your most important section of information in. The book details other useful tips, such as what colours to use, what background to use, when and where to place graphics/icons. I have certainly been of the belief that presenting is an art, as you know, and not being one to want to read the queue cards religiously, I aspire to be more like the Steve Jobs of presenting, going by what is in your head, being minimalist with the presentation to avoid distracting the audience. This book highlights a lot of the implicit logic in doing so, but structuring an essay into a presentation, and the presentation into something that isn’t boring or redundant, is the lesson you will take from reading this book. Full Review >

Programming iOS 5

Programming iOS 5

Fundamentals of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Development

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 26, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Detailed and complete coverage
Another iOS book, and a definitive chunky book to go through, but this book isn’t designed for someone who has to read it cover-to-cover. This book is in fact a complete A-to-Z of concepts and topics in iOS, that should cover almost all of what you need. Beyond this book, you can focus on a specific topic. The second iteration of this book also introduces new iOS 5 concepts such as ARC memory management, the concept of adding private declarations within the implementation files and so forth, bringing your reference book up to speed with what’s current. Full Review >

Designing Gestural Interfaces

Designing Gestural Interfaces

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 8, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Perhaps too elementary
very designer-oriented book, but quite elementary for those of you who have had some experience in designing interfaces. Dan Saffer presents in his work, a comprehensive collection of gestural resources, the science of kinesiology, ergonomics and physical computing to deliver patterns in gestural designing. The book is quite easy to read, with the author logically setting out the processes involved in prototyping and documenting how the user should interact with the device application, in an intuitive and anticipative way. Full Review >

jQuery UI

jQuery UI

Learn How to use Dialogs, Autocomplete, and More

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 6, 2012 Doron Katz wrote:
I don't have any specific complaints about the book, I find it to serve it's purpose quite well, and collectively with other javascript books from O'Reilly, I find it to fit it's piece in the process quite well. I am pleasantly surprised, not blow-away but sufficiently happy with the book, and would recommend you skim a copy of it in your library or bookshop, to see if its structure suits you. Full Review >

Mobile Design Pattern Gallery

Mobile Design Pattern Gallery

UI Patterns for Mobile Applications

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Mar 29, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Quintessential wireframing helper book
A quintessential catalogue for mobile developers, this is a no-frills systematic guide to common patterns. It tries to be device-neutral but does illustrate good and bad patterns on both droid and iOS devices in an easy to navigate and follow reference book. It doesn't spent too long on explanations but provides a fantastic depth of every possible combination, allowing you as the developer to pick and choose in building your entire application navigation and controls. Full Review >

Publishing with iBooks Author

Publishing with iBooks Author

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 5.0

On Mar 8, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Concise and well-thought out book
The recent iBooks Authoring tool released by Apple has given amateur book writers and enthusiasts a direct enablement to self-publish their own interactive books to Apple's bookstore, in a similar way that developers have been given access to the app-store. Nellie McKesson delivers soon after the iBooks Authoring release with a handy book that guides the user through the basics of laying out the structure of the book. Full Review >

jQuery Mobile: Up and Running

jQuery Mobile: Up and Running

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 3.0

On Mar 1, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Good in some areas and easy to read.
This book does indeed seem like a pre-released even though it has alredy been published, but it feels a bit incomplete in many areas, which was the general gist I got from reading this book and comparing it to various other books that I have come across. The second thing I noticed was the way the author structured this book, starting with a theoretical background of JQuery followed by the various controls (such as lists, navigation), leaving out DOM and selector stuff, which falls under the more fundamental JQuery literature, which means this book is catered towards people who have a basic/general understanding of JQuery. Full Review >

McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Advanced Git

McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Advanced Git

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Feb 24, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Advanced but well explained
After the introductory video warning us that the topics are quite advanced, I decided to review the predecessor set of videos, Mastering Git which went through the basics. Whilst reviewing that set of videos is beyond the scope of this review, it is vital that anyone who is new to Git take that up first as you will be completely lost if you attempt the master version without the pre-requisite knowledge of the first set. Full Review >

iOS 5 Programming Cookbook

iOS 5 Programming Cookbook

Solutions & Examples for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Apps

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 5.0

On Feb 10, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Fantastic predictably, reliable and an oracle of answers,
The follow on from iOS 4 Cookbook, which I thoroughly enjoyed by Vandad Nahavandipoor, is the opposite of what you might find being the more concise O'Reilly books on specific iOS topics, that I normally review. Depending on how your mind operates, this book may be an excellent first book, otherwise it makes an even greater secondary reference book. It is certainly not concise, but it doesn't have the problem that normal iOS books have of going through chapter by chapter skimming certain topics, this one has it all. Full Review >

Essential iOS Build and Release

Essential iOS Build and Release

A Comprehensive Guide to Building, Packaging, and Distribution

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Feb 8, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Concise reliable micro-book
Essential iOS Build and Release by Ron Roche is another of those 'micro-books', a concise book with a scope solely focused on how to build for testing and publishing your iOS App, whether it's AdHoc, App Store or through Enterprise distributions. It takes you through the over-complex routes that would get a developer to get the App to have the appropriate provisioning profiles and certificates. Full Review >

Designing Mobile Interfaces

Designing Mobile Interfaces

Patterns for Interaction Design

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jan 3, 2012 Doron Katz wrote: Thick yet juicy
This book centralises the science of designing interfaces, void of any specific platform or device but rather allows the reader to think spatially in terms of UX for the thumb. Full Review >

Head First jQuery

Head First jQuery

A Brain-Friendly Guide

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Nov 15, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Good for novice readers, a bit cartoonish for me
Another from the head-first series, this book presents in a more graphical-than-normal explanation of JQuery, from novice-to-intermediate, filled with a lot of examples. Many people would tend to enjoy reading books this way, and I can appreciate that for some this is the best way to learn a new language, but going on from previous titles such as Head First Java, I still haven't enjoyed the structure as much. Full Review >

Programming Social Applications

Programming Social Applications

Building Viral Experiences with OpenSocial, OAuth, OpenID, and Distributed Web Frameworks

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Sep 23, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Great, detailed, comprehensive.
With the inception of Google+, along with the already-dominant Facebook and Twitter, it is important that developers who are supporting existing applications, look to extend their brand across the social-sphere, and this book, Programming Social Applications , aims to educate the readers on the various options available out there today. The author, Jonathan LeBlanc starts off with the basics, underlying the various containers that make up a Social Application, before looking at the arguments between proprietary and open-source implementations. Full Review >

Just Spring

Just Spring

A Lightweight Introduction to the Spring Framework

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 5.0

On Sep 11, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Easy to follow, 62 pages of bliss
I have just finished reading Just Spring, by Madhusudhan Konda, after taking on some minor roles in certain Java projects. With Spring now the renowned framework when Java is mentioned as an approach to a solution, it is vital that the fundaments of the framework is understood, and having a book that is solely focused on that idea, separating non-essential information and allowing the reader to enjoy the Spring framework in itself, no interference with Hibernate and other concepts, the author does an amicable job. Full Review >

jQuery Mobile

jQuery Mobile

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jul 27, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Concise and focused, good as a reference
Okay, today we are going to review JQuery Mobile, by Jon Reid. To put up the disclaimer, I have always been hesitant to touch jQuery or javascript, coming from a Flex background, but having seen a lot of impressive sites and mobile apps built purely out of HTML5/CSS3 and JQuery, I thought I might have to give this book a go. Full Review >

Concurrent Programming in Mac OS X and iOS

Concurrent Programming in Mac OS X and iOS

Unleash Multicore Performance with Grand Central Dispatch

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Jun 23, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Comprehensive and essential part of iOS to warrant a book on it's own
A very important topic in my opinion, whether you are working on the Mac or iOS platform, is grand central dispatch, understanding the mechanics of queue marshalling and this book does the trick. It's short in size, but with iOS4 and Blocks, it makes working with something on the main thread, on a split thread, more comprehensible, and the author provides concrete examples on how to utilise them, but it's definitely not for the novice developers. But for efficiently tweaking your code, for an intermediate developer, this book is a must, and I am a fan of Nahavandipoor, having read his previous book on Graphics. But I am happy with content level, I perhaps would keep this book as a reference and then dig deeper into it later, and even though I am primarily iOS (not Mac OSX) developer, it is good to understand how the principles work in iOS's cousin, the desktop OS. Full Review >

Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5

Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5

Building Android Applications with ActionScript

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 31, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Small but powerful, gets you rolling fast
I am the curious minded and for me, looking to play with the Android SDK has been on my to-do-list for a while. I did review an Android book by O'Reilly a few weeks back, but it was through the use of Java and the Android SDK officially. As a Flex developer by background, I have been eagerly awaiting this book,Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5 by Rich Tretola, as it gives me the chance to experiment with Flash Builder 4.5 and creating Android applications with the more familiar Flex. Full Review >

Learning Android

Learning Android

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On May 11, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: The prime first Android book for Java developers
Learning Android is my first foray into learning native Android development. I was really taken aback by the style and structure of the book, as the author based each of the modules/chapters around a major project application, Twitter that you would create. He would then iteratively create a more improved version of the app, as you learn more and more things. I found this method to be a stellar way of learning, and something others should be doing, for other books and languages. Full Review >

Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR

Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR

An ActionScript Developer's Guide to Building Android Applications

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 5.0

On May 8, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Concise, Useful and just the book Ive been waiting for
The first android book that I am going to review, but this book in particular is on how to develop Android applications with Flex, more specifically. The book, titled Developing Android Applications with Adobe Air by Véronique Brossier is the book I have been waiting for a while. While there are tons of resources on developing droid applications natively with Java and the Android SDK, a book for Flex developers on how to leverage their existing skills has been quite scarce, or at least non-centralised. Full Review >

Graphics and Animation on iOS

Graphics and Animation on iOS

A Beginner's Guide to Core Graphics and Core Animation

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 3.0

On May 4, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Good solid Graphics Background but not enough meat in CoreAnimation
A subset topic in Objective-C/Cocoa, Graphics and Animation guides the reader on one of the most daunting subjects for a beginner, CoreAnimation, Core Graphics and UIKit Drawing. Vandad Nahavandipoor dedicates his book to the UI aspect, focusing on parts which are just touched upon in the more general iOS books, such as working with UIFonts, Gradient Drawing, as well as the more complex 3D Transformation and moving of objects along paths. Full Review >

Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft® Project

Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft® Project

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Apr 29, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Quintessential to Developers as well as Managers
The book focuses on a prescribed methodology, formulated by the Project Management Institute, structured via Microsoft's management tool, Microsoft Project 2010. Okay, well I don't use and won't use MS Project, as I use a mac, but applying basic principles to other tools, such as Merlin for Mac I still find this book to be potent in helping me manage my own project, or a project with a collaborator. Full Review >

Programming iOS 4 - Early Release

Programming iOS 4 - Early Release

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Apr 5, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Thick and juicy, touches on everything
This is my first uncut book that I am reviewing, and despite having that label, having being released without being edited in this current rough form, I find it to be quite the contrary. I haven't found any rough parts of the book, and the organisation of the book is exemplary. Full Review >

Unit Testing iPhone Apps

Unit Testing iPhone Apps

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Mar 29, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Essential, Informative, Interesting
Another of the video books I get form O'Reilly, this topic particularly interested me. Unit Testing is one which isn't as widely talked about in iOS literature but is an essential part of development. This excellent video provides an insight, beautifully segmented to provide an easy to understand flow into unit testing. How to set up and layout your tests, and the rationale behind why you should be testing. The most obvious that Dan tells us, is the fact that you won't see your app on the app store unless it's tested and works. Full Review >

PayPal APIs: Up and Running

PayPal APIs: Up and Running

A Developer's Guide

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Feb 23, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Short, great, meat-y and useful.
Always thought PayPal needed it's own dedicated book and here it is. Michael Balderas provides a concise book (yes it's a bit small) that details how to use the PayPal API, working with PHP and Objective-C (although I doubt the relativity of Obj-C considering iOS developers won't be able to make use of third-party payment APIs), you will learn to integrate PayPal into your website or application. Full Review >

Data Source Handbook

Data Source Handbook

A Guide to Public Data

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Feb 21, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Short but useful
A concise reference 'cookbook' guide for developers who want to integrate 'free' public data into their website or application, Pete Warden provides a guide to the APIs. The organisation of the book is quite logical, based on the subject of data you want to work with, such as websites, services, information on names of people, search APIs, and so on. Full Review >

SQL Pocket Guide

SQL Pocket Guide

A Guide to SQL Usage

Doron's rating: StarStarStarStarStar 4.0

On Feb 6, 2011 Doron Katz wrote: Excellent How-to-do Cookbook
Pretty much a 'cookbook', is why I decided to review this book, being a big fan of other O'Reilly cookbooks. I am not one to want to read up on basics when you have to skip pages and chapters. With a reference book like SQL Pocket Guide, the author does a great job with this third-edition in dividing the chapters according to function and purpose of a task, from trying to remember how to do the different types of JOINS, to DateTime conversions working with Cubes. Full Review >

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Rating: StarStarStarStarStar4.0