New iOS Development Resources

Apple recently announced some new iOS development learning resources. Stanford University has published their Fall 2010 cs193p course through iTunes University. the Winter 2010 course was very good and I expect the Fall 2010 will be even better. Here is the link to the course on iTunes as well as the course lecture materials.

Stanford University (Fall 2010 cs193p)

iTunes videos: www

Course materials: www

Windows Phone 7 Petzold book in PDF

The Petzold book is now available as a PDF, and the code is available as a ZIP:

http://www.charlespetzold.com/phone/index.html

Note: I downloaded the PDF and the source code, then discovered there are file names in the Chapter 5 example that are too long for Windows 7. I had to download the ZIP to my MBP, copy them to a USB drive, then rename them to copy to my Win 7 directory... Win 7 didn't throw any exceptions when they were in long name format on the USB drive, though.

Windows Phone 7 Petzold book

I had a look at the upcoming Charles Petzold book on WP7. I have always liked his approach to programming books, as he fills them with useful examples. Here's a link to an excerpted version of the new book:

http://www.charlespetzold.com/phone/index.html

One thing that becomes obvious very quickly: Microsoft designed the WP7 platform to be a gaming device as well as a phone. It appears that the topics covered are 50/50 Silverlight/XNA. I almost wonder why Microsoft didn't call their new phone software "xPhone".

Monotouch apps in the app store

I will have more to say about Monotouch in a future post, but the first thing to know is that there are Monotouch based apps in the Apple store. Here's a useful link that lists some of them:

http://monotouch.info/MonoTouch/Apps

App Store Review Guidelines (Third-party tools allowed)

Today, Apple posted formal guidelines for mobile app review/approval. The best part is that they have relaxed restrictions for third-party development tools. Up until now, the review process has been fairly subjective and undocumented. The good news is that the process is now documented and available here (must login with developer account). The bad news is that it is still fairly vague and worded in such a way that if they decide they don't like your app, it won't get approved.

In light of the shortcomings of this documentation, this appears to be a great step in the right direction for Apple. If you listen carefully, you will probably hear developers rejoicing everywhere. Only time will tell how this will all play out. For now you can move forward using development tools like Flash cs5 and mono-touch to create iPhone apps.

Tab Bar Custom Icons

If you need a custom icon for your app I recommend this site. Read carefully the license agreement. I spent quite a bit of time trying to use my own photos for custom tab bar items but the tab bar is looking for specific things in the image. You may want to take a look at these icons and then determine if you want to make your own or just use these.

Video Capture of iPhone Simulator

You will find this useful if you would like to demonstrate your iPhone applicaiton. This utility will generate a Quicktime movie of your running applicaiton. There are several different options you can use. Click here.

Here is my first sample using this application: