Introduction
Apple has a history of alternating its releases between user-focus and developer-focus. The good news about iOS 5 is that it’s all about the developers. The addition of Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) alone is worth the upgrade for developers. In one move, Apple has eliminated the number one cause of crashes in iOS applications, while making the code easier to write and faster to run. Moving to ARC is the single best thing you can do for your application. It’s the most important Objective-C feature since the autorelease pool.
But iOS 5 adds many more features for the developer. From iCloud to automatic data protection, the operating system now takes care of more of the hard problems, letting developers focus on making the best apps.
Most visible to developers is the new Xcode. Some of it is better, some of it is just different, and some of it will make you crazy. It’s the new game in town, though, and everyone needs to get used to it. This book will help you figure it out.
If you’re ready to take on the newest Apple release and push your application to the limits, this is the book to get you there.
Who This Book Is For
This is not an introductory book. There are many books out there that will teach you Objective-C and take you step by step through Interface Builder. This is not that book. This book assumes that you have a little experience with iOS. Maybe you’re self-taught, or maybe you’ve taken a class. You’ve hopefully written at least most of an application, ...
