Apple got me – and you too…

I went to Microsoft TechEd in 2001 right before 9/11. It was a great conference and the shinning star was Visual Studio 2002 and .Net 1.0 Beta 2. The sessions on ASP.Net and VB.Net signaled a clear sea change from how Microsoft had been doing business. No longer was the language important – it was the framework. We were finally free to create apps with the ease of VB but do the programming in C#. For near 10 years many of us have ridden the huge .Net wave.

There is another wave coming – in fact we are on it now. Like a surfer you have to decide if you are going to ride this one or not. The problem with this wave is it is huge – much bigger than the Internet wave in 1995 and much, much bigger than the .Net wave of 2001/2002. This wave is labeled the ‘commoditization of computing’ or the ‘computer as an appliance’ and Apple gets it. Apple is now the most highly valued public technology company. Apple has released several devices recently which may seem useless to technical savvy users. The iPad is an example of this.

As I talked with several developers and IT support people they really don’t see the point of a device like the iPad. The point is that devices like the iPad are not trying to be a device that does everything (like a laptop or tablet computer). It also is not trying to only do one thing like the Kindle. It is trying to do most of what most people do with computers today which is surf the web, email, shop online, view content (ebooks, movies, TV) and social network. The iPad is perfect for that and that is why Apple is selling 200,000 of them each week. It isn’t about a device a techie wants, it’s about a device the non-technical consumer wants.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364545,00.asp

iPad and iPad SDK

I recently started working with an iPad. My initial impression is it is pretty cool. It is targeted squarely at the consumer market though. This isn't a device you are going to use to do development on or a lot of typing (more on typing in a bit). It is a device you are going to love to lay on the couch, read and answer emails, surf the net and watch TV on. The display is very, very nice. The overall user experience is much better than the iPhone simply because everything is larger. I do have the same concern that many do that it is a bit hard to hold and I always worry about dropping it. It also is heavier than I expected. Fingerprints are also an issue but easily taken care of. I found typing to be very easy on the iPad but I am not a touch typist. When I handed it to my wife she struggled with typing because she is. The kids grabbed it when I got home last night and I didn't get it back until early this morning - they loved it.

Next step for me was to begin doing iPad development. To do this you need to have the latest SDK installed at least SDK 3.2. I had an older version installed so I was a bit worried about how XCode and the SDK would update (you will likely need to install both). I downloaded XCode with the SDK 3.2. It is about a 2GB download so be prepared for a long download. Once it downloaded I ran the installer and it detected what I already had installed and installed the new versions of XCode and the SDK with no problem. I fired up XCode and selected iPad as the target under iPhone apps and built a blank screen iPad app. When I ran it the iPad emulator started up just like the iPhone emulator does. The iPad emulator works great just like the iPhone emulator.

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Getting Started with iPhone Development (for Windows Developers)

Everyone wants to write an iPhone app!

Many developers are used to using some great tools out there to put together applications quickly. iPhone development isn't easy but it certainly isn't impossible. Apple provides a good set of tools for free and like Linux tools that are free you get what you pay for. If you are used to Visual Studio or tools like Delphi it may seem like you are taking a step backward but remember that most of that feeling is because you are facing a steep learning curve. I suspect over time we will see even better tools. The tools that Apple provides are professional level but they aren't Visual Studio :-)

I will now describe a minimal environment you will need to get started with iPhone development.

1. MacMini - you will find this the easiest entry point. Unlike Windows systems you don't have to have the biggest hard drive and the most memory to have a good development environment. Remember the MacMini won't have a keyboard or mouse but a PC keyboard and mouse will work fine (you don't have to buy the Apple keyboard and mouse). It will have built in ethernet, built in wireless and a good graphics card (with VGA/DVI out).
   


2. Apple Developer ID - this is your entry point to the Apple developer community and your access to the free development tools.
   


3. Once you have your MacMini set up and your Apple Developer ID head to the Apple Developer site and go to the iPhone developer site and view the getting started docs and videos. There are some good ones over there. This will walk you through installing XCode (think Vidual Studio kind of) and the iPhone SDK.
   

I recommend using Safari - many of the Apple web pages have an annoying habit of not rendering nicely in other browsers so pick up a copy of Safari (it's free).