Anyone here building iPhone apps?

[Titan]

Curious if anyone is doing this. I am a C/C++ guru and could learn Objective-C. Wondering what it takes to get started and what resources any programmers use.

Open iPhone programming thread!

 

[slugg]

One thing it does take to get started, for sure, is a Mac. That's what stopped me, at least.

edit: Not that I don't like Apple computers... I just don't have the money.

 

[iCyborg]

You could try installing OS X as a VM on a Windows machine. Though one of my friends had some problems with that, did anyone else try it?

 

[Markbnj]

Apple is terrific at cementing themselves into niches. The iPhone was full of wow when it came out, but the competition is maturing. I looked at a friend's HTC Android-based phone over the weekend and it was very slick and full-featured. So you either buy a Mac and develop for one phone and one or two networks, or you develop for Android on any machine you like, and support many (eventually) phones across many (eventually) networks. I think Android is a better mid- to long-term bet.

 

[Ken g6]

So you either buy a Mac and develop for one phone and one or two networks, or you develop for Android on any machine you like, and support many (eventually) phones across many (eventually) networks.

Or, according to my latest Popular Science magazine, you can develop for both of them at once with http://phonegap.com/. It supposedly lets you convert a web app (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) to work on both those platforms plus Blackberry. :awe:

I haven't tried it, since I don't have a smartphone, so I don't know what apps if any I'd like to write for them. :hmm:

 

[Markbnj]

Or, according to my latest Popular Science magazine, you can develop for both of them at once with http://phonegap.com/. It supposedly lets you convert a web app (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) to work on both those platforms plus Blackberry. :awe:

I haven't tried it, since I don't have a smartphone, so I don't know what apps if any I'd like to write for them. :hmm:

That's my problem as well. I'd like to move into that market because I think it is only going to grow at the expense of desktop and traditional web apps, but I carry a Razr .

 

[Cogman]

Or, according to my latest Popular Science magazine, you can develop for both of them at once with http://phonegap.com/. It supposedly lets you convert a web app (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) to work on both those platforms plus Blackberry. :awe:

I haven't tried it, since I don't have a smartphone, so I don't know what apps if any I'd like to write for them. :hmm:

Gah, javascript! get it away, get it away! It burns!

Android has the better setup if only solely for the fact that They use a language that has been around since the dawn of time, and is fairly popular/well documented (Java). That means, you'll have few issues writing an app for an ARM based phone vs an x86 based phone, or something more exotic.

The iphone, on the other had, boxed developers in. you HAVE to use objective-C (Which NOBODY besides apple uses), you have to develop for a proprietary system, under strong lock and key. And you can bet that any app written for it won't port over easily to any other platform. (You also run the risk that the iphone changes architectures, killing all the software you wrote for it.)

 

[Markbnj]

Gah, javascript! get it away, get it away! It burns!

Android has the better setup if only solely for the fact that They use a language that has been around since the dawn of time, and is fairly popular/well documented (Java). That means, you'll have few issues writing an app for an ARM based phone vs an x86 based phone, or something more exotic.

The iphone, on the other had, boxed developers in. you HAVE to use objective-C (Which NOBODY besides apple uses), you have to develop for a proprietary system, under strong lock and key. And you can bet that any app written for it won't port over easily to any other platform. (You also run the risk that the iphone changes architectures, killing all the software you wrote for it.)

And should you persevere through all that and write something cool, you get to submit it to the iPhone app store, which Apple maintains complete iron-fisted control over. You may get approved, you may get rejected, or you may not hear anything for months and months, and likely will not get any reasons back why any of the decisions are made. Makes it kind of hard to build a business model around.

 

[DaveSimmons]

And should you persevere through all that and write something cool, you get to submit it to the iPhone app store, which Apple maintains complete iron-fisted control over. You may get approved, you may get rejected, or you may not hear anything for months and months, and likely will not get any reasons back why any of the decisions are made. Makes it kind of hard to build a business model around.

That's probably going to keep me from getting an iPad as a development toy. Apple reserves the right to make months of work useless, at any time and from any petty whim.

That and needing to use Objective-C instead of C/C++. Sure I can learn yet another language, but why should I have to?

 

[Patrickz0rs]

You should do android app development. It is OOP and based on Java.

So you don't need a mac.

 

[Titan]

And should you persevere through all that and write something cool, you get to submit it to the iPhone app store, which Apple maintains complete iron-fisted control over. You may get approved, you may get rejected, or you may not hear anything for months and months, and likely will not get any reasons back why any of the decisions are made. Makes it kind of hard to build a business model around.

This is an important point. Is the only way to deliver an iPhone app the app store? Obviously, like ebay it is the best place to put it. But does apple prevent you from letting people downloading apps from say your website to your phone? Is this prevention technical, legal, or both?

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

As far as I know, only jailbroken iPhones can run apps from somewhere other then the apple store.

 

[Patrickz0rs]

As far as I know, only jailbroken iPhones can run apps from somewhere other then the apple store.

You sir are correct.