Well here is it, my first iPhone app! I call it "Hello World" and while It is doesn't do much more than show Apollo 11 and our "World" from lunar orbit, it is my first iPhone app from scratch and it's all mine. The Earth and the Apollo Command Module are animated using the core graphic classes. The result is actually quite hypnotic to watch, with the Earth and Lunar Lander slowly floating by at different rates and vectors. I must thank Jonathan Lehr at About Objects, Inc. for the great 11 day intensive iPhone development course they hold once every couple of months.
As a technologist, designer and networking geek, I had some C skills coming into the class, but the iPhone Super Bundle, as it is called, really kicked things into high gear. Jonathan covered C, Objective C, the iPhone SDK and all the tricks of using the Xcode IDE and Interface Builder.
The About Objects course was really well thought out and focuses on the fundamentals of logic and design, so you know what your coding and why. Each lesson stacks upon one another until it all comes together, and you're making apps. What I really appreciated was Jonathan's focus on doing things correctly as opposed doing them quickly. Jonathan is a real NeXT veteran with a professional spin on everything from good coding habits to memory management. And while I recognize my "Hello World" app is simplistic in function, I am quite proud of my first effort and it is amazing how far a little photoshoping can go to dress up the gray and purple boxes I based my screen saver on. I can't give About Objects and Jonathan a big enough thanks for all the inside tricks and real world knowledge to tackle this amazing platform with confidence and help me fulfill a long time dream. Now I have a ton of studying to do while it is all still fresh in my mind. Maybe, I will add a sound track of Mission Control transmissions to my little app.
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