Author: John Ray & Sean Johnson
Publisher: Sams
Pages: 696
ISBN: 978-0672330841
Aimed at: Mobile developers new to the iPhone
Rating: 4.5
Pros: Comprehensive and well presented
Cons: Doesn't cover Objective C
Reviewed by: Harry Fairhead

This is a good introdcution to iPhone application development. It doesn't cover learning Objective C and if you are new to the language it is better to learn it first. There is no way that this is going to get you started on iPhone development in 24 hours - it would take longer to read the book and the information density is reasonably high.

The book is in colour which is an advantage when it comes to looking at the screen dumps of the applications. It also does a good job of explaining the iPhone UI, how to use it and what you might use it for.

It starts from the very basics - how to get set up, developing your first applications - and then works its way thought the different areas of iPhone development - images, animation, getting the users attention, rotatable and scalable interfaces, extending the touch interface, using the accelerometer, maps and more.

It ends with a look at debugging and distributing your application.It is particularly useful if you have never worked with the Apple environment before - they not only think different, they do things different.

Overall the book reads well and its not heavy going but you are going to have to contend with a few typos that occasionally stop the example program working. Stick with it and get it working and you will probably learn more - as long as you don't just give up.

Overall this is a book with some problems but on balance it's worth getting a copy. Let's hope that the second edition irons out some of the kinks.