The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK (Developer's Library)

As a Linux developer, I had never touched a Mac for development in my life, but really wanted to launch my own iPhone app, StationStops for iPhone, which gives users offline access to Metro-North Grand Central train timetables.

Although due to NDA restrictions the book was delayed, when it finally did come out in PDF and finally book form, it was a critical piece to getting my iPhone app out the door and onto the iTunes store.

I think this is the first book that covers the official SDK, which is the critical difference between this book and the books before it.

Note: I worked with Erica for nearly a year at The Unofficial Apple Weblog. That said, our friendship has no effect on my review, if I didn't like the book, I simply wouldn't review it.

As someone with a modest Objective-C and strong (if rusty) C background, this book is just a fantastic resource. This is really the perfect type of book for a new iPhone programmer, because it explains the limitations of the SDK in real-world terms, and is much easier to navigate than trying to pile through Apple's documentation. Erica really does a great job of introducing a view or technique. I like the code snippets as a way to help learn the APIs. I'm unsure why one reviewer said this book doesn't help you learn how to use the SDK, I'm assuming that person just didn't have the required basic Objective-C knowledge to actually utilize the snippets and practices.

That's really the only caveat -- this is a book for beginning iPhone developers, not beginning developers. As I said, my Obj-C background is comparatively modest (though it is actually stronger thanks to the book), but I have the basic knowledge. If you are new to programming in general, this book along with Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa Programming for OS X or Steve Kochan's Programming in Objective-C (though Steve's book is a bit out of date, the new version is due in January) will help you get started.

All in all, this is a great book. I now feel like I actually understand the SDK, rather than just trying to experiment to try to get stuff to work. If you want to develop apps for the iPhone, this book will help you do just that.

I downloaded the e-book version the day it was released. I have ever since refered to it as gospel.

The layout and language is neat and well structured. The instructions are methodical and very easy to understand. Best of all the code avoids using any gizmos like IB and rather scripts it all as very effective samples.

Erica you are a messiah. Thanks for this book and thanks for giving newbies like me a chance to dare iphone programming.

I believe this will be a very useful book in the future. However, it's not really for beginners, life myself. If you are truly new to IPhone development and/or Mac development and want a book that helps get you up and running this is not it. I certainly can see a place for this book on my bookshelf, however. I just need to get the basics first.

I found this book very helpful in developing my iPhone apps. I also welcomed the "code snippet" method for documenting APIs in the pursuit of learning said APIs. While Apple has a lot of sample iPhone applications with source on the iPhone developers site, sometimes a code snippet focused on one topic, with an explanation of the workings of the code, is more helpful. I also found the inclusion of the details on some of Apple's hidden APIs very interesting ... the occasional peek behind the curtain is one of the things that make software development fun!