iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [6]
Chapter 1
Getting Started
Chapter 2
Creating Your First App: Hello World
Chapter 1: Getting Started
In This Chapter
Appreciating the history of mobile devices
Introducing the iPhone SDK
Introducing the iPhone Developer Program
Un-boxing your iPhone developer tools
Testing applications on your device
If you are new to iPhone development or you are considering it, you may feel like it is a daunting prospect. We wish we could say it's a piece of cake, but the truth is, there's a little more to it. However, with a little guidance and encouragement, you will soon see your creations up and running on your device.
We cannot mention this enough about iPhone development: The best part is the reward. As a developer, nothing is more gratifying than to see your applications take life. It's even more satisfying to see your creations take life on the screen of the iPhone. Applications can really come alive when they respond to Multi-Touch, an accelerometer, and a compass.
Appreciating the History of Mobile Devices
Apple has had the vision for a powerful mobile device like the iPhone for many years. In August 1993, Apple announced the Newton Message Pad, a device that marked Apple's entry into the market of personal digital assistants (Figure 1.1).
The Apple Newton was not the success Apple hoped for—perhaps it was ahead of its time, and the market was just not ready for such an innovative idea. There is much speculation to why the Apple Newton failed, but after its fall, the market remained quiet for a few years. In March 1996, U.S. Robotics entered the marketplace. Taking design cues from the Apple Newton, they introduced the Pilot 1000 (or Palm Pilot). This time the market was ready, and the Palm Pilot became the first successful PDA. In the years that followed, more and more PDAs were introduced: Pocket PC, Handspring, and Compaq iPaq, to name a few. At the same time, mobile phones were becoming more affordable and commonplace. To help bridge this journey, devices like Palm, iPaq, and the Blackberry began to integrate with these mobile phones creating the “smart phone” device space.
In 2001 Apple announced the iPod, which was an almost-instant success (Figure 1.2).
FIGURE 1.1
Possibly the first personal digital assistant (PDA): the Newton Message Pad
FIGURE 1.2
The first iPod was introduced in 2001.
It is not surprising that Apple seized the opportunity and ingeniously combined the PDA, iPod, and mobile phone into one brilliant device, and in 2007, the iPhone was born (Figure 1.3).
FIGURE 1.3
The iPhone took the market by storm when it was introduced in 2007.
The iPhone was not the first device to combine the elements of PDA, media player, and phone. Blackberry and Windows mobile devices with these capabilities were being sold long before the iPhone. So why is the iPhone considered to be new and revolutionary? We believe it can be attributed to the unique and powerful design and user interface. In a nutshell, Apple got it right, marketing and designing the iPhone with the day-to-day user, not the businessperson or those just interested in business tools, in mind. You do not have to be a tech-savvy user to embrace the iPhone. In fact, the original iPhone lacked a lot of features found in other devices; however, it includes all the critical features that the average consumer cares about, and it arranges these features in a brilliant user interface.
Introducing the iPhone SDK
While thinking of the needs and desires of a day-to-day user, Apple realized that it needed to include variety. Apple had created a device that could, of course, browse the Web, check e-mail, and play music. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. The device was also powerful enough to host many applications, including games. At first, developers were restricted to developing applications that were strictly browser-based. Applications in this space leveraged HTML, JavaScript, and Web-Kit. These applications were actually surprisingly good; however, the tides turned when Apple released the 2.0 OS and