As the fourth book in our series of iPhone Projects based on the work and experiences of iPhone, this volume takes on the more advanced aspects of iPhone development. The first generation of iPhone applications has hit the App Store, and now it's time to optimize performance, streamline the user interface, and make every successful iPhone app just that much more sophisticated.

Paired with Apress's bestselling Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, you'll have everything you need to create the next great iPhone app that everyone is talking about.

• Optimize performance.
• Streamline your user interface.
• Do things with your iPhone app that other developers haven't attempted.

Along with Series Editor Dave Mark, your guides for this exploration of the next level of iPhone development, include:

• Ben “Panda” Smith, discussing particle systems using OpenGL ES
• Joachim Bondo , demonstrating his implementation of correspondence gaming in the most recent version of his chess application, Deep Green.
• Tom Harrington implementing streaming audio with Core Audio, one of many iPhone OS 3 APIs.
• Owen Goss debugging those pesky errors in your iPhone code with an eye toward achieving professional-strength results.
• Dylan Bruzenak building a data-driven application with SQLite.
• Ray Kiddy illustrating the full application development life cycle with Core Data.
• Steve Finkelstein marrying an offline eMail client to Core Data.
• Peter Honeder and Florian Pflug tackling the challenges of networked applications in WiFi environments.
• Jonathan Saggau improving interface responsiveness with some of his personal tips and tricks, including “blocks” and other esoteric techniques.
• Joe Pezzillo pushing the frontiers of APNS, the new in iPhone OS 3 Apple Push Notification Service that makes the Cloud the limit for iPhone apps.
• Noel Llopis taking mere programmers into a really advanced developmental adventure into the world of Environment Mapping with OpenGL ES.

What you'll learn

• Use wi-fi to do more than simply connect to the Internet.
• Communicate with other iPhone users in real time.
• Take advantage of all the tricks built into Cocoa Touch.
• Convert your iPhone and iPod touch apps for use in other environments.
• Convert your other mobile apps for use with iPhone and iPod touch.

Who is this book for?

All iPhone application developers with any level of experience or coming from any development platform, though this title is the natural choice after any of the other iPhone X Projects books.

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With over 100,000 iPhone applications and 125,000 registered iPhone developers, is it still possible to create a top-selling app that stands apart from the six-figure crowd? Of course, but you’ll need more than a great idea and flawless code—an eye-catching and functional user interface design is essential. With this book, you’ll get practical advice on user interface design from 10 innovative developers who, like you, have sat wondering how to best utilize the iPhone’s minimal screen real estate. Their stories illustrate precisely why, with more apps and more experienced, creative developers, no iPhone app can succeed without a great UI.

Whatever type of iPhone project you have in mind—social networking app, game, or reference tool—you’ll benefit from the information presented in this book. More than just tips and pointers, you’ll learn from the authors’ hands-on experiences, including:

• Dave Barnard of App Cubby on how to use Apple’s User Interface conventions and test for usability to assure better results
• Joachim Bondo, creator of Deep Green Chess, beats a classic design problem of navigating large dataset results in the realm of the iPhone
• Former Apple employee Dan Burcaw tailors user interfaces and adds the power of CoreLocation, Address Book, and Camera to the social networking app, Brightkite
• David Kaneda takes his Basecamp project management client, Outpost, from a blank page (literally) to a model of dashboard clarity
• Craig Kemper focuses on the smallest details to create his award-winning puzzle games TanZen and Zentomino
• Tim Novikoff, a graduate student in applied math with no programming experience, reduces a complex problem to simplicity in Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab
• Long-time Mac developer Chris Parrish goes into detail on the creation of the digital postcard app, Postage, which won the 2009 Apple Design Award
• Flash developer Keith Peters provides solutions for bringing games that were designed for a desktop screen to the small, touch-sensitive world of the iPhone
• Jürgen Siebert, creator of FontShuffle, outlines the anatomy of letters and how to select the right fonts for maximum readability on the iPhone screen
• Eddie Wilson, an interactive designer, reveals the fine balance of excellent design and trial-by-fire programming used to create his successful app Snow Report

Combined with Apress’ best-selling Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, you’ll be prepared to match great code with striking design and create the app that everyone is talking about.

What you’ll learn

• Optimize your design for the iPhone’s limited screen real estate and the mobile environment
• Create a user interface that is eye-catching and stands apart from the crowd
• Maximize your use of typographic elements for style and readability
• Perfect entry views and display large amounts of data in an exciting way
• Translate games made for the desktop’s big screen to the iPhone
• Strike the perfect balance between simplicity, beauty, and features

Who is this book for?

iPhone application developers of all experience levels and development platforms

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