I have so many ideas for apps with the iphone and have sent some ideas out to various sources to get some pricing on having them developed into fully fledged apps.

Since this appears to be quite pricey I'm considering doing the development myself. I've literally no experience in this area and have downloaded the nessecary info from apple.

I may be in over my head but can anyone suggest a good book or other form of tutorial to help me along the way. Would "iPhone Application Development for Dummies" be a good start?

As mentioned I've signed up for the app development with apple, I have my iphone 4 at hand and my mac is a blank canvas ready to be painted!

Your help is appreciated!

I love this book:

"Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours" by John Ray and Sean Johnson.

Take the title with a grain of salt -- while you could read the book in 24 hours, doing the sample projects is where you'll actually learn stuff -- and that just takes longer than an hour per chapter.

Jay Jennings

I am in the same boat but I understand you need a MAC to create an app and I have only a PC

Hello There, Im a Developer And MAgician to, If you want my help send me an email to: magonicolas@gmail.com

I'm where you are as well. I actually have 3 books. I have one on mac and iPhone development which goes over objective C. The programming language. Then I have one on iPhone programming alone. The last book I got covers iPad programming. I have went through a lot and the BEST books I have read are by Wrox. They are extensive, cover everything, and even have the code available online for download. So if it's an extensive project, you can easily copy snippets from their site. They also have a spot on their site that covers any typos so if you find anything wrong you can post it online, and you can also check to see if something is a typo. I'll find the titles of the books and I'll post them here.

Angelo, yes, you do need a Mac (just an FYI, it's not a MAC) to write for the iOS devices. Every Mac comes with Xcode, the Mac development toolset. However, to get your app onto a device (either your own using a USB cable, to others via Ad Hoc distribution, or to the world via the App Store) you will need to spend $99 to be a member of the iPhone Developer program.

I can vouch for the Sam's book Jay mentioned. Great book (I also have their Cocoa Touch book). Several books I have found useful:

iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (bignerdranch.com)
Beginning iPhone 3 Development (apress.com)
iPhone SDK Development (pragprog.com)
Learn Objective-C on the Mac (apress.com)

The cool thing about the Apress books (and the books from Pragmatic Press) is that you can buy the eBook and take the books with you on your iPad/iPhone, if you're into that. I like the digital copy, but I still like my real books (to fill my margins with notes)!

Make sure that the books you get are for iPhone 3 (don't think there are any books on 4 yet, as it just came out). There are some big changes from version 2 to version 3 of iOS.

You can email me as well if you have any questions. As you've seen, the iOS developer community is very giving and open.
Scott
sullivan@digitalblacksmiths.com

Many thanks for all the replies, I'll invest in the said titles and hope to have good news soon!

Kind Regards Michael

I am a developer with just over 10 years of experience, but have yet to jump into any iPhone development (I've mostly been a Flash developer working on embedded devices, so I understand the constraints of phones). I am all set up, but haven't been inspired to do anything yet, so if anyone has any ideas that they would like me to attempt to build just PM me.

This thread is very helpful. But one thing worries me about the magic app I'd like to have developed. From what I've read here I'm thinking that the books being suggested might be a little outdated. That's a scary thing to write and book about iphone app development because they keep changing and updating the iPhone.

The reason this worries me is the app I'd like to have made will make use of the camera on the iPhone. I know the "technology" to do what I'd like to do is possible because I've seen apps that use the technology I'd need. Theirs won't work for my need but with some tweaking and the ability to what THIS APP and THAT APP can do would make my idea a reality.

I get this idea working my plan is to first perform and perfect it. Work out any issues needed from my performing experience. Then eventually I'd release it. So if any of you are knowledgeable in this (Remember the app will make use of the camera on the iphone). Please contact me and we'll see if we can get the ball rolling on this.

Ron Jaxon

Hi Ron,

Merry Christmas

I've been a fan of your magic for a LONG time. I would love to talk to you in private about the magic app market.

I'm sure you've seen my magic apps. Here's a link to a new video that I just put up on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cwPORk74zc

I'd love to know what you think,
Greg Rostami