Just Got Accepted Into The Developer Program....Now What?

[DSchwartz88]

Hey Guys,

I just got accepted and paid the $100 ($105 if you include tax....) and am being sent the developer package. My question is now what? I need some help getting started with coding. Ive never really coded anything but Java and sometimes C. I got a bunch of good ideas i just need to be able to write them out. Anyone know a good site or book to really learn C, Objective-C and start developing the iPhone.

On a second note....my iPhone is still on an old cingular account, so this basically means i will not be able to upgrade my iPhone to 1.2 right?

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[Geekable]

Hey Guys,

I just got accepted and paid the $100 ($105 if you include tax....) and am being sent the developer package. My question is now what? I need some help getting started with coding. Ive never really coded anything but Java and sometimes C. I got a bunch of good ideas i just need to be able to write them out. Anyone know a good site or book to really learn C, Objective-C and start developing the iPhone.

On a second note....my iPhone is still on an old cingular account, so this basically means i will not be able to upgrade my iPhone to 1.2 right?

Thanks,
Daniel

Now we laugh. If you can't use 1.2 (can you? Not sure myself), then what was the point in paying for access to it? You can do all the coding and simulator testing you want without paying.

 

[robhedin]

My understanding is that the phone is flashed from within XCode, so getting 1.2 on your device shouldn't be a problem.

The real issue is that (I believe) that the 1.2 provided currently has no phone functions which means that a developer really needs 2 phones at the moment for serious work.

rob.

 

[SFC Archer]

My question (and I'm being serious) would be...Why did you even apply for, let alone pay for the developer kit if you didn't already know how and have a plan to use it???

IMO it seems that you have use a very limited slot that a serious developer could have recieved to give us another good app in June. Just seems to be a wasted slot that could have been better used...nothing against you or your abilities, its just an observation based on your post.

 

[DSchwartz88]

The reason i paid for it was because if i have to ill get a refurb iphone to code for. Secondly, while i may have understated my coding abilities, that does not mean i am any less serious than hardcore developers in coding my applications. Just because im not some code monkey who knows the in and outs of every programming including ML doesn't mean that i am any less serious at what i do. I do this as a hobby and asking for help translating my knowledge of other programming languages into a knowledge of the one needed for iPhone development wasnt too big of a thing to ask.

Daniel

 

[DaffyDuck]

My question (and I'm being serious) would be...Why did you even apply for, let alone pay for the developer kit if you didn't already know how and have a plan to use it???

Agree. That $100 must have been burning a hole in his pocket.

You don't need to pay any money to start developing for the iPhone. That $100 allows you to put your app on your phone for testing and to put the finished product in the store. You can test your program for free in the simulator.

 

[DaffyDuck]

The reason i paid for it was because if i have to ill get a refurb iphone to code for.

I don't understand this reason. Why not just wait until you have a finished program that tests well in the simulator, then spend the $100 so you can test it on a real iPhone?

 

[nomar383]

You guys are kinda being D*cks lol, why not actually answer the question and give him some coding advice? I was actually wondering what direction to go myself. I am sure Apple will give more slots away in the coming weeks, give the guy a break

 

[robhedin]

I don't understand this reason. Why not just wait until you have a finished program that tests well in the simulator, then spend the $100 so you can test it on a real iPhone?

Just for the record, the aspen simulator is not a real phone-- you can't use it to test some things -- like accelerometer code for example (for other than rotation).

rob.

 

[DSchwartz88]

My question (and I'm being serious) would be...Why did you even apply for, let alone pay for the developer kit if you didn't already know how and have a plan to use it???

Agree. That $100 must have been burning a hole in his pocket.

You don't need to pay any money to start developing for the iPhone. That $100 allows you to put your app on your phone for testing and to put the finished product in the store. You can test your program for free in the simulator.

I understand all this....the programs i want to develop rely on my ability to use them on the phone itself. Im not coding a small ToDo application, im coding a robust application that i need to test not only the "feel" of it (taking into account all the heuristics and such) but also seeing how it looks on the device itself, and how it preforms in real world applications. There are ALOT of reasons developers want the ability to install apps onto the iphone natively, haven't we all been crying for this for a long time. Gimme a break here, apple wouldnt have made this option available if only a couple people needed this. For people creating applications that just the simulator, awesome, you can save $100 but for an application like mine that needs to take into account exactly how the finger gestures are going to work, along with the actual "feel" of the program its really important.

 

[DaffyDuck]

My question (and I'm being serious) would be...Why did you even apply for, let alone pay for the developer kit if you didn't already know how and have a plan to use it???

I understand all this....the programs i want to develop rely on my ability to use them on the phone itself. Im not coding a small ToDo application, im coding a robust application that i need to test not only the "feel" of it (taking into account all the heuristics and such) but also seeing how it looks on the device itself, and how it preforms in real world applications. There are ALOT of reasons developers want the ability to install apps onto the iphone natively, haven't we all been crying for this for a long time. Gimme a break here, apple wouldnt have made this option available if only a couple people needed this. For people creating applications that just the simulator, awesome, you can save $100 but for an application like mine that needs to take into account exactly how the finger gestures are going to work, along with the actual "feel" of the program its really important.

Fair enough, and I apologise for being so forward in my last posts. If you had included some of what you said above in your first post there would not have been so much questioning.

 

[SFC Archer]

The reason i paid for it was because if i have to ill get a refurb iphone to code for. Secondly, while i may have understated my coding abilities, that does not mean i am any less serious than hardcore developers in coding my applications. Just because im not some code monkey who knows the in and outs of every programming including ML doesn't mean that i am any less serious at what i do. I do this as a hobby and asking for help translating my knowledge of other programming languages into a knowledge of the one needed for iPhone development wasnt too big of a thing to ask.

Daniel

Again, I was just asking a question and I tried to word it as such, I was not trying to insult or insinuate anything other then the qestion I asked based on your post and the subject title. I even stated that I wasnt critizising your coding ability. You have answered my question and I thank you and wish you luck in your developing. Come June or whenever you submit your first app, I would recommend that you kind of put a conclussion on this thread of your success/app to let us all know how it went.

Good Luck

 

[nomar383]

How about Objective C book suggestions like he asked for?

 

[d.ma]

How about Objective C book suggestions like he asked for?

Here's a pretty good book on Objective-C to start out with.

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-Developers-Library-Stephen/dp/0672325861

Personally, unless I were going to write OpenGL ES applications from the get-go, I'd test the apps on the emulator before I applied to the dev program. If you're going for games or something else that uses OGL for visualization, then I'd say get a refurb iPhone as a dev platform, since you will probably still want a phone for general use.

 

[SFC Archer]

How about Objective C book suggestions like he asked for?

If I could, I would...if you notice, I am a hated PC user that loves his Windows Gaming machine and I am not privileged enough to be able to use this software on a PC. Thats OK though and a fact that I have accepted, however I am looking extremely forward to the release of Apps and the App Store in June and knowing the fact that very limited number of developers were selected for the Beta SDK and the way this thread was titled, led me to ask a very simple, non-threatning, harmless question. The was no harm intended and the OP answered in a very satisfactorily way.

 

[nomar383]

Hey how come no one talks about using a ipod touch for testing? Other than no edge or phone functionality, whats the difference?

 

[nomar383]

If I could, I would...if you notice, I am a hated PC user that loves his Windows Gaming machine and I am not privileged enough to be able to use this software on a PC. Thats OK though and a fact that I have accepted, however I am looking extremely forward to the release of Apps and the App Store in June and knowing the fact that very limited number of developers were selected for the Beta SDK and the way this thread was titled, led me to ask a very simple, non-threatning, harmless question. The was no harm intended and the OP answered in a very satisfactorily way.

I didn't mean to burn you particularly, I just wanted to make sure he gets his answer

 

[dayton]

Personally, I would use Web tutorials until iPhone-specific books come out. I say this because when I started learning Obj-c, I just want to learn the core language, but most of the books I found where so focused on Cocoa and OS X (desktop) application design. I ended up getting this book (http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Program...d_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206466617&sr=8-3, 2nd edition) by Aaron Hillegrass. It worked really well for me in terms of learning the basics of the language, but really moved quickly into GUI development. My background is PHP and other "Web-centric" languages. Once you get used to the somewhat odd conventions of Obj-c, it is a really great language to program in.

 

[nomar383]

I am debating between the two books suggested. Can someone recommend one over the other for me? I am in my second semester of Java and have looked through the iphone SDK website, but don't know where to start when transferring my Java knowledge to Objective C knowledge. I like the look of the first book and it has high ratings on Amazon, what do you guys think?

 

[dayton]

Of the two, I'd probably recommend the Kochan book since it is more focused on the core language. That being said, I haven't even looked at the SDK so I'm not sure how beneficial learning desktop Cocoa might (or might not) be to an aspiring iPhone developer. It might be well worth it to learn Cocoa programming from a desktop perspective and then translate it to iPhone development. I'll defer to the opinion of a more experience Obj-c developer.

 

[kdarling]

Hey how come no one talks about using a ipod touch for testing? Other than no edge or phone functionality, whats the difference?

Depends on the app. The ipod also has no bluetooth, camera, mic or speakers.

And it still needs a certificate to test on.

You can only do so much with a sim. At work, we develop on them, but as someone mentioned, you need the real thing to see how well the layout actually works with touch.

 

[JBaker122586]

If you're willing to spend all this money (Developer program, refurb phone), why not spend a lot less money and just get a plan with AT&T?

 

[robhedin]

If you're willing to spend all this money (Developer program, refurb phone), why not spend a lot less money and just get a plan with AT&T?

Cingular is now AT&T, so he's already with AT&T.

rob.

 

[darkblu]

Hey Guys,

I just got accepted and paid the $100 ($105 if you include tax....) and am being sent the developer package. My question is now what? I need some help getting started with coding. Ive never really coded anything but Java and sometimes C. I got a bunch of good ideas i just need to be able to write them out. Anyone know a good site or book to really learn C, Objective-C and start developing the iPhone.

On a second note....my iPhone is still on an old cingular account, so this basically means i will not be able to upgrade my iPhone to 1.2 right?

Thanks,
Daniel

sounds like you need to start from here*

* Object-Oriented Programming with Objective-C, second edition, Apple inc, pdf

 

[btnnaz]

No that's not actually true. With the 2.0 firmware the phone part still works. Trust me i have it on my phone right now.