I just finished the first iPhone app I have written “on my own” (ie using Apple’s sample code). Just a proof of concept app like the Backgrounds app that already exists, but it uses pages (the dots at the bottom) and allows you to save the wallpapers to your iPhone pictures so you can set the images as your wallpaper. I used the sample thumbnails from my favorite webcomic’s (Hijinks Ensue) iPhone wallpapers.
Wow. I have no idea how the authors did this, but they compressed 2,000 pages worth of information into only 500 pages. I can usually read 800 page programming books in two or three days, but this book took me five days. Excellent material, from beginner to intermediate. The only thing I could say is that this book left me wanting more, and not because anything was missing, but because this book covered so much information, and there is still more to learn. My only complaint was that it didn’t touch on URL schemes for app to app data transfer with the iPhone or Network I/O. Thankfully the book made sure I was fully aware of the documentation browser in Xcode so I can read up on these subjects. Just my two cents, but Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche, five stars! Check out Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK
Thanks to Google engineer David Oster, you will now be able to surf Google Earth with the Wii Balance board. The video on it is pretty cool. David has also said it will be all open source so the bluetooth drivers for the balance board will be available for other apps as well.
