iPhone Programming
with Matt Drance and Daniel Steinberg
Dates & Pricing
- March 9-12 in Reston, VA
- May 11-14 in Chicago, IL
| $1595 | Alumni and Groups of 3+ |
| $1895 | Early Bird (for Chicago thru March 31) |
| $2195 | Regular |
Learn how to create full-featured iPhone apps from scratch in this 4-day, hands-on training course taught by two iPhone experts.
- Learn how to use the major tools and APIs in the iPhone SDK 3.0, and how they all fit together to build mobile apps like the pros.
- Gain hands-on coding experience and get answers to your questions so you can start creating your own iPhone apps with confidence. Check out some of the apps our alumni have built.
- Get a jump start on programming the iPad (once it's officially available).
- Save time and frustration by focusing exclusively on iPhone development for four days with expert guidance.
You'll come away from this course knowing Interface Builder, Xcode, Objective-C, Cocoa Touch programming, and the APIs included in the iPhone SDK 3.0. You'll not just know how to use these powerful tools, you'll also understand why things are the way they are. You'll be ready to create your first iPhone app, or improve your existing app.
“It was totally awesome! I learned more in these four days than in six months of muddling around on my own.”
What Will I Learn?
How to create full-featured iPhone apps from scratch. Through a series of guided instruction, hands-on coding exercises, and discussion, you'll learn the fundamentals of creating iPhone apps that look and function like some of the apps already on your iPhone. Topics include:
- Intro to Objective-C: Objective-C is the object-oriented programming language that you use to write iPhone apps. While this isn't a comprehensive course on Objective-C, you'll learn enough to jump right into iPhone development: classes, objects, properties, message sending, memory management, and the Foundation classes.
- Xcode and Interface Builder: Xcode is the IDE used for iPhone development and Interface Builder is the visual tool for designing your app's user interface. You'll learn how to use both of them to work more efficiently.
- Cocoa Touch: Cocoa Touch is a set of object-oriented libraries for creating apps that run on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Cocoa Touch is based on Cocoa, and embodies various object-oriented design patterns also used for programming on the Mac. Understanding those patterns is essential to becoming a competent iPhone developer. You'll learn the benefits of model-view-controller (MVC), delegation, notifications, and other patterns in Cocoa Touch.
- Views and Their Controllers: Views represent the user interface of your app, and all the dynamic aspects of a view are handled by a view controller. View controllers are the hub of the model-view-controller (MVC) design. You'll learn how to design views and wire them up to view controllers with outlets and actions.
- Navigation: Efficient and consistent navigation is especially important on a mobile device. You'll learn how to use navigation and tab bar controllers to improve the user experience of your app.
- Table Views: Table views are central to many iPhone apps, such as the contact manager. You'll learn how to organize data in tables, insert and delete table data, and navigate between tables using navigation controllers.
- Keyboard Input: The virtual keyboard is unique to the iPhone and it's important that your app makes it as easy as possible to enter text. You'll learn how to use delegates to design and handle keyboard input for an ideal user experience.
- Touch Events: Take advantage of the touch screen by learning how to handle touch events and multi-touch gestures.
- Core Data: Core Data is a new feature of the iPhone 3.0 OS that offers an elegant solution to data modeling and persistence. You'll learn how to get started managing, modeling, and persisting app data using Core Data.
- Custom Drawing: Graphics are an important element of your app's user interface. Static images only take you so far. Set your app apart from the crowd by learning how to create custom views drawn with Core Graphics.
- Core Animation: Add that extra "wow factor" to your app and give users visual feedback through rich animations by learning how to use basic animation layers and timing functions.
- Photos: Personalize your app by learning how to access a user's existing photos from your app.
- Networking: Extend the reach of your app by learning how to communicate with external web services.
- Performance and Debugging: Learn how to use power tools, including Instruments and the Clang Static Analyzer, to detect memory leaks and profile the performance of your app.
- Transitioning to the iPad: Once the iPad SDK is officially available, we'll begin teaching how to program it alongside what you learn about iPhone programming.
- Learn practical tips, tricks, and techniques used by the experts to work efficiently and create full-featured iPhone apps.
In addition to the prepared topics, you'll have time to ask questions and spark discussions with other iPhone developers.
“This is by far the best training I've had!The instructors are not only very knowledgeable but communicate the content really well.”
Who’s It For?
Programmers. This Studio will be a good fit for you if...
- You're new to iPhone development, or you've started building an iPhone app and need help putting all the pieces together
- You have a programming background in an object-oriented language (Java, C#, Ruby, Python, etc.)
You can prepare for this course by assessing your skills and working through some of the resources listed in our iPhone Developer's Roadmap.
“I can't believe by the middle of day 2 I have an app running on my iPhone that persists data.”
Who Teaches the Course?
Matt Drance and Daniel Steinberg. This course is taught by programmers for programmers. You'll learn directly from two renowned authorities on iPhone development.
Matt Drance is the owner of Bookhouse Software, an iPhone and iPad app development company, and an eight-year Apple veteran. As Apple's Application Frameworks Evangelist, Matt helped shape the APIs in the iPhone SDK and worked with hundreds of third-party developers to build many of the apps you use today. He was an annual speaker at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and iPhone Tech Talks, and his orientation videos in the iPhone Dev Center have been viewed by thousands of iPhone developers. At Bookhouse, Matt now builds his own products and works regularly with a number of clients.
Daniel Steinberg is the author of the book Cocoa Programming: A Quick Start for Developers and the editor for the series of Mac Developer titles for the Pragmatic Programmers. He writes feature articles for Apple's ADC web site and is a regular contributor to Mac Devcenter. He has presented at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, MacWorld, MacHack, and other Mac developer conferences. (photo courtesy of Patrick Lenz)
Bill Dudney formerly co-taught this course and co-created the material with Daniel. Bill recently accepted a job at Apple as an Application Frameworks Evangelist (congrats, Bill!) and is no longer able to teach this course.
“I wanted training from real, experienced iPhone developers...and I got that in this Studio!”
What's a Studio Like?
Interactive Learning. You'll learn in a significantly different way in a Studio than by reading through the books. Attending a Studio complements what you may have read, but in a hands-on, collaborative environment where you'll:
- get your questions answered by the experts and your peers
- learn through hands-on programming exercises
- discuss up-to-date topics, tips, and tricks
- discover new techniques in live coding sessions
- reinforce the concepts you've learned in the books
We think Studio offers the best developer training around. But don't take our word for it. Just ask our alumni. Check out their reviews and applications they've built! The Studio experience continues after the Studio with our private alumni mailing list.
“Certainly one of the best training experiences I've ever had...The materials are good, the guys are experts and the entire thing was fun—which is hard to say about any training program.”
—Hunter Hillegas
What Should I Bring?
Your Mac Laptop, Running Snow Leopard. It wouldn't be a hands-on course if you didn't walk away having written some code. Most of the labs can be run on the iPhone simulator, so you don't necessarily need an iPhone/iPod Touch device. A few weeks before the Studio, we'll send out detailed instructions for installing everything you'll need. During the Studio, you'll get hands-on experience working through prepared exercises, and experimenting on your own, too.
Your Registration Includes
- A continental breakfast, beverages and snacks, and a hot lunch each day
- A binder with all the printed material
- All the example source code to refer back to later
- Internet connectivity and power during the Studio
- An invitation to our alumni-only mailing list for help after the Studio
- Discounts on books, screencasts, and future training
- A stylish Pragmatic Studio t-shirt and more!
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