Book review: Beginning iPhone 3 Development

June 22, 2010364 words, posted in iOS and review

Beginning iPhone 3 Development - Exploring the iPhone SDK
Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche
Apress

My sixth book review, and the second one about iPhone development. The previous book, Head First iPhone Development was a great read, but since it only talked about the basics it left me wanting for (much) more. I needed more information about searchbars, core data, multitouch and the accelerometer. This time I actually read some reviews before buying a new book, and “Beginning iPhone 3 Development” seemed like a winner.

Even though “Beginning iPhone 3 Development” is a book for beginners just as “Head First iPhone Development” is, and it is about the same length (500 pages), it packed much more information. It may not be as easy or fun to read, but it goes over all the basics and doesn’t stop there. A lot of the more advanced topics that are absent in “Head First iPhone Development” are included here in all their glory.

As I said, this book may not be as fun or easy to read (although never boring or hard), but it is chock-full of information. Topics covered:

  • The tools
  • Navigation controllers
  • Table views
  • Tab bars
  • Data pickers
  • Searching
  • Plists and Core Data
  • Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
  • Multi-touch and gestures
  • Accelerometer
  • Core location and MapKit
  • Pictures and the camera
  • Application settings

When I finished “Head First iPhone Development”, I really wanted a more advanced book by the same writers. After I finished this book, my head was spinning a little bit because of all the information it had soaked up. Even so, Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche must’ve read my mind, because when you are finished with “Beginning iPhone 3 Development”, the next book to read is “More iPhone Development - Tackling iPhone SDK 3”. Smart move!

I haven’t finished “More iPhone Development” yet, but my feeling now is that if you only want to spend money on 2 books, get both the “Beginning” and “More iPhone Development”. Those 1000 pages will teach you everything you need to know. I’d still prefer the writing style of “Head First iPhone Development”, but there is just not enough information in that book.