Tuesday, 15 September 2009

First book finished!

I have read most of  Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche and most of it has made sense.   The bits I missed were the actually typing in of the exercises (which are obviously quite key!) but the theory made sense.  Although I do very much feel like a poor mans developer having to map out exercises on paper rather than coding on an actual Mac!

I am not keen to spend hundreds of pounds on equipment until I can be sure what the return on an iPhone development is likely to be.
Publish Post

Tuesday, 8 September 2009

iPhone Development for Working Mums

I also believe that the fact that Apple deal with the 'customer' bit would make my life a lot easier!   With my current job I can get a call at any time with system support issues (although I technically work part-time!).   This has resulted in many an embarrassing moment where I have a screaming toddler wanting a biscuit while juggling a desperate user needing their system back up!   I have taken many a call hiding in the toilet!

As users will access my application via iTunes downloads - I will get feedback or requests about my iPhone applications but I can deal with them via email which is much more toddler friendly!

Monday, 7 September 2009

Where to start??!??

My quest to learn how to develop iPhone applications begins today!    We have a 4 hour drive planned so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to start reading Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche.   If this book makes sense then the next step is to start putting some money into this project and invest in an actually Mac and who knows maybe an actual iPhone!

This would be a big step as although I have a development/database background VB, SQL, Oracle, HTML, PHP and some very rusty C++ skills (I have written any C code for about 15 years!!)

The reason I decided to learn how to develop iPhone applications was due to an article that I read in London's Metro - it described 3 programmers who had a similar background to me that had published apps.    I remember thinking that if I hadn't missed so much time in my career having my 3 children - I would probably be doing something cutting edge like developing apps like they were instead of working on legacy systems (and yes still supporting/extending DOS apps!)   But I decided it was worth a bit more research especially as my youngest was about to start pre-school so why not!

The other reason that I was attacted to this type of development was that as Apple obviously act as a distributor via iTunes - there couldn't be an easier way to find your target market - although they take their percentage it didn't seem like a bad deal.

Also - when buying an iPhone application you are not making a considered purchased  - most people spend a less than  a couple of minutes thinking about spending 59p.