Customer Reviews
This is a book written for people who don't need to read a book about iPhone development - By: Seraph, 26 Nov 2008 
I was utterly disappointed with this book as I've been a long-time reader of Erica's posts on TUAW.com & have enjoyed her efforts on MacBreakWeekly & her less official iPhone development.
Unfortunately the problem with this book is that she is too experienced to talk to anyone but other experienced developers. With her 'Hello World' app, traditionally the first app you will learn to writein any language, you are told to throw away parts of the folder structure that Apple sets upin XCode, along with some of the pre-written code & use the code she writes with absolutely no real explanation of why. The net effect is to leave you utterly lost, not really knowing what you can & cannot do with the tools you are given.
The second problem is that it seems that Erica seems to have written the bookin a huge hurry. No time is taken to explain anything. Maybe I'm not the target audience for the book but I was absolutely none the wiser about the basic toolsin the SDK after reading the first thirty or so pages & I am an object-oriented ActionScript developer with some experience with the MVC design pattern so should have some affinity with the OOP code usedin Objective-C (even if the syntax is a bit more alien).
I have since bought Beginning iPhone Development - Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark & Jeff LaMarche & have found it's pace much more manageable & feel much more able to take on the examples after reading through the theory.
Colour me unimpressed! - By: Mr. Wayne Pascoe, 10 Nov 2008 I've learned a large number of languages, toolkits & SDKs over the years & been part of the review process of a fairly well known book as well, so believe me when I say this is not a great quality book!
If you read the back cover & even the prerequisites, you might think this book is for you. The prerequisites page only mentions the following with regards to knowledge required: "Familiarity with Objective-C". No mention is made of familiarity with writing software for OS X, but by page 23 we're seeing statements like "These essential frameworks enable you to build your iPhone applications using the same fundamental classes & calls you are familiar with from the Macintosh". This is followed on 24 by a comment about Info.plist - "It works the same way Info.plist files work on the Mac." Even as early as page 7 we're seeing things like "As with the Macintosh..." This book does not stand well on its own & that will make it less accessible to some people.
Then we get to the missing stuff -in the very first project, we're instructed to "Drag the three image files from the Chapter One Project folder provided with this book..." Provided where? There's no CDin the back, & I've not found anythingin Chapter 1 so far that tells me where this resource is supposed to be included.
The first code listing spans almost two full pages as a single block of text. While the code is commented, there is no in-line breakdown of what each section is & you'll find yourself flipping back to previous pages to tie what you read there back to the code being displayed. Once this two page block of code is over, you don't see it again during this chapter - there is no further discussion of the code so you have to take it on faith for now & learn about it later. That's fine for a 10 line "hello world" app, but not really acceptable for an introduction to a language / framework like Cocoa.
Allin all, first impressions are not good. This is not a book to rival the kind of book we've become used to with the Aaron Hillegass definitive reference for starting OS X programming. It will serve more experienced Apple developers well, but will be frustrating for new users.
Good book, but lacking in places - By: Mr. M. J. Galloway, 10 Nov 2008 
I found this book useful, but it definitely lacksin places. I am using it as a resource for finding out little tricks or tips on how another programmer lays out their work. It's a useful resource, however it won't teach you the SDK from a beginner to an expert - grab Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X for that!
Useful samples, not for beginners however - By: M. Housley, 05 Nov 2008 I thought this book was well written but be aware it does throw you into the deep end pretty much immediately. I would recommend this book mainly to developers who are already familiar with the basics of building iPhone applications as there really isn't much of a beginners introduction here.
The book we've all been waiting for! - By: Matt Sephton, 29 Oct 2008 
This is a brilliant book, & contains a whole host of fantastic examples that shed a lot of like on developing using the iPhone SDK. Clearly written, great examples, & covering all topics needed to create a great application. This book will take some beating.
Of course, there is much more possible with the SDK than is coveredin the book but this book will give you all the knowledge you need to push forward on your own.
