Beginning iOS 5 Application Development

INTRODUCTION

APPLE FIRST OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED the iOS 5 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2011. After 7 betas and with much anticipation, Apple finally rolled out iOS 5 with the vastly improved iPhone 4S. With 200 new features added to the iOS, Apple is set to reign as the king of the mobile platform for the foreseeable future. This means developers also have vast potential for their applications — if you know how to program for the iOS platform. This book will show you how.

When I first started learning about iPhone and iPad development, I went through the same journey that most developers go through: Write a Hello World application, play around with Xcode and Interface Builder, try to understand what the code is doing, and repeat that process. I was also overwhelmed by the concept of a View Controller, and wondered why it was needed if I simply wanted to display a view. My background in developing for Windows Mobile and Android did not help much, and I had to start working with this concept from scratch.

This book was written to help jump-start beginning iPhone and iPad developers. It covers the various topics in a linear manner that enables you to progressively learn without being overwhelmed by the details. I adopt the philosophy that the best way to learn is by doing — hence, the numerous hands-on “Try It Out” sections in each chapter, which first demonstrate how to build something and then explain “How It Works.”

Although iPhone and iPad programming is ...