Cingular Go Phone: iPhone Cool Projects [Paperback] Review

It's an attractive, slim book with plenty of full color graphics. There are probably enough tips, tricks, and 'from the trenches' stories to justify a place on most iPhone developers' shelves.

I think the book would have been better with a more consistent overall style/structure. Most of the example code is too large and involved to bother inputting yourself, yet there are many, very basic, pictures showing IB connections etc. The code is available for download and I'd expect a book at this level to provide:

- the code itself (yes, on the website)
- class diagrams* or at least some form of architecture diagrams for each project (not really; depends on the chapter)
- detailed discussion of problems encountered, alternatives considered, blocked avenues etc (also hit and miss)
- specific discussion of code snippets (yes, this is covered fairly well)
- a comprehensive appendix of references, or links on the website (no, though you can glean a reasonable amount from the chapters)

[*yes, you can generate class diagrams in Xcode but I'm thinking along the lines of storyboard/whiteboard, "how we got here" views, as well as simply outlining what the demo is and what it does]

Six of the seven chapters deal with real world projects, or working cut-downs. The threading chapter is, for me, the weakest since it uses a toy problem just to illustrate threading, is poorly explained and smacks of 'solution in need of a problem'. Given that it walks the user through the whole setup of IB connections etc I fear that it may be handing a loaded gun to some people who would be well advised to look for ways to avoid threading (or at least not write to common data), rather than dive in with threading. It would have been possible to present a small, real world problem, that legitimately called for a threaded solution without too much effort.

The code I've seen is based on 2.2.1, so you'll probably need to do some tweaking. There is breadth and depth so it's hard to imagine someone coming away without learning something. For $27 or so it's a good deal and a step in the right direction for post-beginner iPhone dev books.

Click Here to see more reviews about: iPhone Cool Projects [Paperback]

Product Description:

The iPhone and iPod touch have provided all software developers with a level playing field-developers working alone have the same access to consumers as multinational software publishers. Very cool indeed! To make your application stand out from the crowd, though, it has to have that something extra. You must learn the skills to take your apps from being App Store filler to download chart-topping blockbusters.Developers with years of experience helped write this book. Spend some time understanding their code and why they took the approach they did. You will find the writing, illustrations, code, and sample applications second to none. No matter what type of application you are writing, you will find something in this book to help you make your app that little bit cooler.The book opens with Wolfgang Ante, the developer behind the Frenzic puzzle game, showing how timers, animation, and intelligence are used to make game play engaging. It moves on to Rogue Amoeba's Mike Ash explaining how to design a network protocol using UDP, and demonstrating its use in a peer-to-peer application-a topic not normally for the faint of heart, but explained here in a way that makes sense to mere mortals. Gary Bennett then covers the important task of multithreading. Multithreading can be used to keep the user interface responsive while working on other tasks in the background. Gary demonstrates how to do this and highlights traps to avoid along the way.Next up, Canis Lupus (aka Matthew Rosenfeld) describes the development of the Keynote-controlling application Stage Hand, how the user interface has evolved, and the lessons he has learned from that experience. Benjamin Jackson then introduces two open source libraries: cocos2d, for 2D gaming; and Chipmunk, for rigid body physics (think "collisions"). He describes the development of Arcade Hockey, an air hockey game, and explains some of the code used for this.Neil Mix of Pandora Radio reveals the science behind processing streaming audio. How do you debug what you can't see? Neil guides you through the toughest challenges, sharing his experience of what works and what to watch out for when working with audio. Finally, Steven Peterson demonstrates a comprehensive integration of iPhone technologies. He weaves Core Location, networking, XML, XPath, and SQLite into a solid and very useful application.Software development can be hard work. Introductory books lay the foundation, but it can be challenging to understand where to go next. This book shows some of the pieces that can be brought together to make complete, cool applications.