iOS iOS SDK - Do I need it while learning if.....

Access to the dev forums and additional documentation?

Yes, the main advantage is to use your device for testing. If you are not using things like the accelerometer or location services, using the simulator should be fine. Also, for just learning from books, the simulator should be fine. When you are ready to create your own apps, then you should become a paid developer.

The title of the thread confuses me a little bit.

You can get the most recent live version of the iOS SDK with a free account.

The paid account gets you betas, support, device testing, and the ability to submit apps to the store.

You cannot test certain features without using a real device, such as:

- Accelerometer*
- Gyroscope
- GPS Data**
- In-App Purchases
- Three/Four/Five finger gestures.
- Bluetooth Peer-to-Peer connections

You also can't get access to betas of unreleased versions of Xcode or iOS.

* The simulator will let you simulate a shake .
** The simulator will generate fake and random coordinates for you, which may or may not allow you to test any features you have that rely on user position.

The simulator can be downloaded with the free developer account.

afousek said:

How do I download the iOS SDK with a free account?

Click to expand...

http://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action

Hit the log in button, scroll to the bottom and there should be a download link.

Edit: Actually, it might have changed since I only used a free account. I think you might be able to go on to the App Store and download Xcode from there, if you're running Lion, and it'll automatically include the iPhone SDK.

Xcode 4 in Mac App Store for Lion only

You can get xcode on the mac app store for free but they have only put the Lion version there so won't work for Snow Leopard.

afousek said:

Is the main benefit of doing it now so that I can place my apps on my own device for testing?

Click to expand...

This was the critical thing for me too as I found openGL code ran really slowly on the simulator. Running it on a real device for the first time was like a breath of fresh air!