Creating Applications for iPhone iPad

The Apple iPad has created a lot of buzz globally, building on the success of the iPhone and the already growing and successful iPhone App Store. There are some changes that have been made with the release of the iPhone 4, the new update to the iPhone OS (or iOS) has also brought an OS name change as well.

iOS applications can be developed using several language methods including objective-C. Objective-C programming is part of Apple’s Cocoa, a similar platform as Microsoft’s own Visual Studio tools.

Depending on which programming language, you are familiar with, you can find a good amount of development help on Apple’s Developer website, which provides a comprehensive information and guides to assist you in knowing how to develop applications for both the iPhone and the iPad.

The Process

As with any other application development, as a developer, a thorough understanding of the core hardware your application will be working on is necessary. The iPad utilizes a custom-built processor that combines its system and graphics processor. Other than the bigger screen than iPad has, certain internal peripherals defer on the iPad than on the iPhone, such as the WiFi antennae. The iPhone utilizes a WiFi b/g while the iPad has the faster WiFi n as well. This provides a faster internet access. In addition to these hardware specifications, the iPad also uses a similar iPhone OS, although this albeit a customized UI (User Interface).

iOS or iPhone  OS

Although the iPad is built on similar core application competencies of the iOS platform, there are several differences between the two. These differences are mainly within the UI of the iPad and the iPhone. Applications built for the iPad tend to specifically utilize its larger screen and application customizable touch keyboard. To build successful Applications for the iPad or iPhone, one must compile with several programming languages although Apple changed its developer agreement to require all App Store Applications are to now use objective-c programming with the release of iOS 4. Objective-c programming is built on Object Oriented Programming or OOP. OOP is one of the most effective programming methods or languages that allows programmers/developers to create programs that are treated as individual tasks and incorporates programming methods that mimic real world attributes. Gaining an understanding of objective-C programming can be done by gaining a foundation of OOP.

Once you have understanding of these competencies, you can get down to developing your application. The iPhone SDK for the iPad is also different from the one for the iPhone, you can head over to the iPhone developer site to download the SDK. The SDK includes a simulator for testing your application; it also includes all the custom tools for using objective-c programming. In order to submit applications to the Apple App Store, once you have developed them, you must pay a license fee to be able submit applications for Apple Developers.  Once you have completed this, your application will undergo an approval test by App Store staff and if it is successful, be added to the Apple App Store catalog.

Objective-C programming can be fun to use when developing your application, especially since it is based on OOP and also utilizes Apple’s own developer tools, such as Cocoa.

Beginners’ Guide to becoming an iPad Developer

All things Apple make the world round. Or so it goes in the tech world. Apple is known for its innovation and creativity that both fascinate and inspire consumers worldwide. It is also known for its record breaking sales figures that leave the industry gasping and wondering what else, Apple has up its sleeve. Developers around the world are also seeking to cash in on this big cash wagon.  

Even everyday people are jumping the boat, if ou are looking to become a developer, more specifically for the iPad, this has never been a better time. Of course before you go and start learning some binary numbers and codes, there are some things you have to understand about developing applications for the iPad. Firstly, understand the background of the iPad. With the iPad, Apple is seeking to simplify the PC learning process that so many of us have grown accustomed to. The F1s and F11, that sort a thing. When you look at the iPad (and we’re sure you have looked at it, if you haven’t well that’s another issue!), it is a design wonder but it is also a computing phenomenon. It is essentially a big screen with only one button. Compare that to your Mac or PC and you get the point. Apple believes that touch is the next big thing. And looking at the industry as a whole, this is true. 

The iPad allows users to interact with “normal” computing tasks by using natural gestures and actions they have are used to using. That’s the first thing. The second thing is all about customization. With the App Store, Apple has created a central location where every iPad user can acquire Apps that help them in their individual lives. The third thing, Apple has created a new market of products. The iPad has sparked the largest technology race with the Apple clearly being the industry benchmarker. So what do all these things mean to you as a wanna-be developer (no offense there). To develop Apps for the iPad, as a developer you must be looking to provide a solution to iPad users. Take a look at an example of a Parking App on the iPad, users can find parking spots and even reserve them ahead of time, without having to travel anyway. In fact, the Apple slogan for the App Store states that there is an App for everything.  

If you want to become an iPad developer, seek to provide a solid solution. Of course, having an App idea is not enough. Hence, you also need to understand the various platforms you can use to create Apps for the App store. If you are an experienced programmer or did some IT, here and there, you can use the iPhone SDK to develop your App. There are other packages such as RunRev, which help you create Apps for the iPad, iPhone and other mobile platforms without knowing any Objective-C (the coding language used for creating iPad Apps). Once you know which one you want to use, you can begin the process of developing your App. Oh, don’t forget to have a clear development plan for your App. This will help you stay on course.  

In the end, the iPad now makes it easier for oridinary people to join in on the fun. Of course the only question left is, will you?

Why Objective-C course is very popular

C is a basic language and nowadays it has also been called as high level programming language. With the increasing popularity of C, ANSI appointed a committee to standardised C language. 

The popularity of the objective C course is due to the following reasons:

1. It is sustainable, easier and simpler to use.

2. It has all the virtues of a high level programming languages. It also gives the efficiency of an assembly language.

3. It gives its support to all user defined data types for the greater flexibility in these programming.

4. It also supports structural and the modular concepts in the programming. When we need to write some of the program in this language, that program has been broken up into number of tasks and then it will be easy to solve the particular problem easily.

5. It has the vast library functions that can be used by the programmers directly.

6. It is very small but a concise language because it provides all the bare essential features, so that a C program can be better translated to any of the machine coded language.

7. It provides low level memory and also it devices features that make it suitable for editing and the writing up many of the system programs.

8. It is standardised by many of international standards bodies that too make these programs easily carriable to the other computers.

Objective C course is having all those elements and qualities that are required for selecting a language for coding an application. 

The following factors generally influence the selection process:

1. Nature of the application.

2. Familiarity with the language.

3. Ease of learning the language.

4. Availability of program development tools.

5. Execution efficiency.

6. Features of the good programming language.

Though there are many other languages that use some of the tools of the programming and the infrastructure have not changed over the last decade but the importance of C is still not changeable. As for designing and for the framework of many of the languages the core elements of C language only are required. Many of the operating systems like windows 98 and 2000 etc, UNIX editors, Linux are all written in the this language. Even today if we talk about the execution and performance of many of the languages there’s nothing that can beat C language. The objective C course is useful in the present age of the computers as many of the new devices such as cellular phones and laptops are becoming increasing popular and the operating systems of all of them are written in the C programming language. 

Objective C and C++ - the popular programming languages

In today’s technology software updation is required very much. Many programming languages like C, C++, C#, PHP, Java, LPC, Java script and Unix’s shell etc., are in use. Of these, C#, PHP, Java script are all influenced by C language.  C is considered to be the most basic and the influencing language in the world. Syntax is the most important thing in the programming languages and data models and type systems are sometimes radically different from those of C language.  But in the present world C and C++ are the most valuable thing and without knowing those languages no one can survive in the software industry.

Popular languages:

C language has now been extended to objective C and C++ which are not procedural oriented as C but they are more Object oriented. But the processing will be done by translating the code to the source one and then the C compiler will compile it. Now the C++ language has become the superset of C language and the methods defined in C++ are more efficient   and convenient for the users to evaluate while programming. Object oriented programming is allowed by means of static typing prototype and it’s also the superset of C language only. But the only difference between objective C and C language is that objective C took the syntax of object oriented programming.

Objective-C:

In the objective C language the usage of heavy brackets is to be noticed.  In C language function calls are predefined but this objective C language creates the so called functions during the run time itself. It helps in creating new methods at the run time. But the only drawback is that it can’t send a response message which may cause the termination of the program. 

Why objective C is object oriented programming one?

Object oriented programming concept is generally not based on the concepts of data structures like using classes. It is generally based on concepts of objects, abstraction, encapsulation, Inheritance and polymorphism. These concepts enhance the efficiency and the speed of the programmer when compared to procedure oriented language. So these Object oriented programming languages are soon taking over the place of procedural oriented languages. These object oriented programming has made many programming languages like C# and Java to be successful. So the objective C is more precisely to be an object oriented one.

Object Oriented Programming in depth

If you are not familiar with object-oriented programming standards, you should learn what it is and how it functions in overall programming. Object Oriented Programming, or OOP is a type of programming that combines “objects” such as data fields and certain computer methods to create unique interactivity to effectively create applications and other computer software. There are different types of programming techniques that may include features such as data abstraction, modularity and inheritance but OOP is above the par. OOP was first integrated into modern programming during the early 1990s. It is considered to be one of the most significant developments in modern day computer programming, playing a big part in multi-paradigm programming. OOP is made up of several elements including objects, classes, instances and message passing.

The central part of OOP is an object. The technology behind OOP focuses on data rather than processes, with applications and programs being made up of self developing modules (referred to as classes), each with its own instances (objects) that contain enough information to change and control its data configuration or structure. This is very different from other programming methods which give attention to data and the resulting behavior in separate functions. OOP combines the two to deliver a more efficient programming platform. With OOP, a program is recognized as a list of tasks to be performed as opposed to a being a data constructing and behavior executing module. OOP is quite popular and is used by many other commercial programming platforms, such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic and C#. Parts of OOP can be found in MAC OS X’s Cocoa, written in Objective-C, which is a object-oriented, dynamic extension of a programming language called C based on Small Talk.

OOP in depth

OOP is made up of several elements including objects, classes, instance, co routines, virtual methods and message passing. Each element has its own separate function but when combined into OOP, this brings together all these elements in what can be described as a collection of activities and tasks that make it easier for programmers to create and design programs, as OOP’s crucial elements are designed to respond or be controlled similar to certain universal aspects.

A good example would be the element of an object within OOP. In OOP, an object is a related function or behavior, an object can be linked to a real world thing such as a person or even an animal. In OOP, an object is accessible to other elements of software applications, although access is restricted to predefined instructions. Classes is another example, classes can be defined as the master plan from which the objects are created, the classes provide structure for object-oriented computer programming. Methods too are an object’s abilities, while message passing is an interfacing feature through which object communicate. Each object can respond and be controlled individually making it easier to manage programming as opposed to the older conventional methods.

All these together create part of or a collection of “collaboration” that provide programmers with a language that is both consistent and fluid for the development of applications and software.

iPhone iPad Programmers community

Apple’s App store is the largest software market in the world, with over 150,000 applications in its catalog and 5 billion applications downloaded and continuously growing. With the updates Apple is making to its iPhone and the iPad also contribute to this growth. Apple’s App Store is also home to arguably the largest individual platform developer community. Apple has made the development of an application for the iPhone and iPad much easier to develop, more and more developers are looking to cash in on the growth of the market.  

Developers can discuss and find assistance on various issues relating to applications and their development, view and post comments of various forums and participate in discussions. One of the things that is unique about Apple is its rather uniform effort in its developer communities, especially developers using Apple developer tools such as xCode and objective-c programming. OOP plays a major role in Apple’s MAC OS X, which is the foundation kernel for the iPhone OS or iOS. For new and upcoming App Store developers, these communities can assist them in the different technical aspects of developing applications for the App Store and the programming languages involved.

There are several Apple Developer communities online, that cater for different categories of applications with the App Store. Apple itself maintains its own Developers’ community that provides more official information and resources for iPhone and iPad App Developers. iOS and the new developer agreement have brought wide spread changes to the Apple Developers and the need to connect with the community to ensure a smooth transition of applications built on past programming methods is absolutely essential 

Various iPhone/iPad Communities

Because of the sheer volume of applications and Developers that the Apple App Store has, several communities have been set up that cater for the different applications that are in the App Store catalog. If you seek to find help, a simple research on the internet will reveal information about the different communities. Finding the right community will depend on the type of application you are seeking to build or have already built. The most common communities as for Games, iPad and the iPhone, there is also the official Apple Developers community.

Because of the different programming methods and languages that have been used by many developers, it would be best to join a community or forum that is dedicated to your preferred programming language. For newer developers, that would mean objective-c programming based communities and forums as the clear choice. Though Apple does not maintain an unbiased forum for its Developer Community, there are other such Apple Developer labeled communities online and the wealth of discussion and research information available to any Apple Developer.

As the old saying goes, Iron sharpens Iron. Apple Developer communities help the evolution of the App Store to be fueled and grow to be on the cutting edge of global software development, regardless of which programming language one might use. After all, it is the largest developer community.

Revolutionary devices- iPhone and iPad

Development of the revolutionary devices:

        

iPhone and iPad are nothing but the revolutionary devices. Apple designed and developed iphone and revolutionized these iphones into the cell phone market. But apple then thought that this isn’t enough. So Apple then tried to revolutionize computer and technology; and hence they designed and developed another revolutionary device namely iPad.

iPad- tablet computer:

iPad is a tablet computer which works like a iphone of bigger size. Apple’s smaller versions were iPod touch and iphone. These ipod and iphones was overcome by ipad. This ipad is a modified version of ios by multi touch display which is actually sensitive to finger strips.

iPad runs for the applications specified for it as well as those written for iPod touch and iPhone. iPad comes with several applications and some are improved versions of applications developed for the iphone.

Some of the applications of ipad:


• Safari
• Mail
• Photos
• Video
• Youtube
• IPod
• iTunes
• App store
• iBooks
• Maps
• Notes
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Spotlight search


Benefits of iPad over iPhone:


• Size :

Size is one of the major benefits of using iPad. The screen of the ipad is about 10 inches. The size of the ipad is very large and because of this large size the usage of ipads increases. So this benefits the users in many ways. Applications can be sent with bigger size. Workers also find it more convenient as they will have large amount of screen to work with. Thus size makes the ipad a perfect technology piece.

• Keypad:

The other benefit of using ipad is keypad. It provides a full keyboard with touch screen facility for an ipad which is more efficient for the user.

• Battery life:

The other major benefit is battery life. Ipad provides a maximum battery life of 10 hours. But the battery life may even be more which actually depends on the type of application the user may use in.

• 3g option / wi-fi capabilities:

iPhone sometimes are not that much efficient because the concerning network becomes slower and then it starts overloading. But this ipads can actually overcome this drop out.  Ipad gives some useful plans such as monthly 3G plans. Not only this it also helps in some of the Wi-fi technologies which actually attracts the users.