What you need to get started with iOS development

iOS is one of the leading and arguably the most advanced mobile platform in the world. Apple has invested a lot in it and continues to reap benefits out of it.

When Apple first opened the gates for the developers, it just took off. And after these many years, Apple can certainly boast of a bulging and ever accruing app store.

So how does one get started to be part of this Apple juggernaut ? 

Well, if you have decided to get on with iOS development for iPhone/iPod/iPad apps, you should be ready to spend some cash just to write a cool Hello World app !  as most of the things from Apple are proprietary and there are no freebies.

So here is what all you need:

1. Mac OS and intel based PC : Many would say that there are ways to develop iOS apps on windows machine but I won't suggest you to do that because the whole process is really painstaking and there are chances that you might not achieve what you had thought of at the outset. 

The development IDE and all the softwares needed for the development and the testing require an intel based mac machine and there is no running away from this fact. So rather than writing code on some windows machine using a sdk like DragonFly and then uploading the code to get the build, its better to get your hands on an intel based Mac machine. You can buy a macbook or a mac computer depending on your budget and plans. The Mac Mini starts from $699.

If budget is really a constraint, you can opt for refurbished machines available on the mac store or find a second hand machine from eBay. This can certainly bring down the cost.

2. Apple iOS Developer Program : To get access to the tools and also to code, test and deploy your apps to the app store you would need to register for Apple's iOS developer program which costs you $99 a year. Once you are a registered with the program, you can download the latest iOS sdk required to develop iOS apps for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The IDE provided by Apple is Xcode. One can download the sdk with Xcode only so you should be ready to download around 5 GB of data before even getting started.

The documentation from Apple is good to start with and there are plethora of tutorials available on the web.

3. iOS device : Although, Xcode comes with all the simulators, you would need to test the app on real devices before submitting it to the app store. The device needed depends on the  type of the application being developed and thus you would need to have access to an iPhone or an iPod Touch or an iPad or all three of them. 

The developer program allows you to perform ad hoc testing on selected devices ( Max 100) to understand how the application performs in a real environment.

Once you are done with your testing and satisfied with the results, you can submit the app to the app store for approval and if everything goes right, your app would be up and running on the Apple app store.

That's it. I hope this throws some light on getting started with iOS development.

Please do leave a comment if you see a wrong piece of information or if you feel that I have missed out on something crucial.

Happy coding !

A twitchy dilemma

A ten year old boy serves tea on all floors of our office building. He works all day and gets paid Rs 2000 per month for  his efforts. Today we talked to him at length only to find out that he doesn't want to work (which is quite natural considering his tender age). He has a brother (younger or elder I don't know) and his parents in his family.

The boy has joined a new school now which would engage him from 12 - 5 P.M. everyday and would continue with his job from 5 P.M - 11 P.M.

We asked him to quit his job and concentrate on his studies and playing. We agreed to help him out by giving him his salary amount as well without having to work. This would help him to take care of his expenses and also would keep him away from the work which he doesn't like.

I somehow could not convince myself that this was the right way to go about it. I have a feeling  that his move of ours might jolt his personal life and his relationship with his parents, brother and everyone associated to him. This philanthropy of ours might help him to get free time but would it necessarily be a good change in his life? We debated over this at length at our office and couldn't reach a conclusion.

Now I sought opinion of all the readers for a deeper analysis of this problem and the possible solutions. May be you can suggest a better way of going about this or even not going about this.

What all can be done? 

Mumbai blasts 2011 - We need 100 % result just like the Delhi University

Once again the city of dreams and ambition has been jolted and as expected, the following day of the blast has been full of blame game. BJP and Congress are giving stray dogs a complex with their fights and our 'great' congress leader Digvijay might be busy trying to find a RSS angle to the blasts. Rahul Gandhi feels that all these attacks form only 1 % (thank god that it is not more) of the total attacks planned against India. I swear many of us would have been dead had it been 2 or 3 %. And at the end of the day, normal services resume.

Mumbaikars have no option but to get back to their routine (which media calls Mumbai's spirit) and the victims are helpless and so are we as tomorrow it could be us and one day it will surely be us. Politician bashing is the first thing that comes to our mind and in a way it helps us get over the trauma. But no words could ever console the victims and their families. Time is the only healer for them.

The thing that troubles me the most is what were our intelligence and security doing? These blast spots were no wasteland or city outskirts. These places are the buzzing ones and have always been on the terror radar. Home minister says that there was no clear cut intelligence available. Was he hoping that terrorists would publish a full page ad in a national newspaper with exact date,time and venue? Dear PC, for god's sake don't give us that sh#t.

I don't want to compare India to the US or the  U.K. but we can't give up on this as if these attacks are like earth quakes and tsunami which are almost impossible to control. We blabber about diversity, man power and intelligence and yet we are the ones who are targeted again and again. 

Please be proactive and take actions to make ourselves capable of achieving the 100% that congress joker Rahul Gandhi (who must be aware of the pain of losing the dear ones more than most of us) has talked about.

PM says that we won't spare the perpetrators. I m sure they would be arrested after 20 yrs and then would be convicted for lifetime after another 20 yrs of court trial.

For India's sake dear PM, hang Kasab and Afzal Guru so that we can feel that you have done at least something apart from heading the most corrupt and shameless govt. of our times.

Let us also become more aware and vigilant and fight our own battle because even god wants us to help ourselves first and only then He would help

develop cross platform mobile apps

iOS, BlackBerry, Android, etc - where is it going to end? 

The world of mobile apps is witnessing an exponential growth and all the major players are in the race to the lead the pack.

Android and iOS seem to be the run away leaders at the moment but the developers are finding it harder day by day to cope up with technological advancements made by these platforms......It is already a challenge to master these technologies individually and to master them all is a totally different ball game.

That brings us to a point where we start to ponder over certain ways of overcoming this issue and the simple(to think) yet difficult (to implement) answer to it is : cross platform mobile apps.

With the advent of HTML 5 and powerful javascript and more and more powerful mobile devices, a new breed of platforms have arrived which allow creation of cross platform apps which means code once using standard web technologies and deploy on various platforms. 

The idea has gathered a lot of momentum in the last couple of years and some really good work has been done by the experts. The APIs are comprehensive and fast and usually cater for most of the functionalities and considering the amount of investment that is being made in terms of money and effort, it could be said that it is just the beginning.

The most buzzing ones according to me are:

• PhoneGap
• Appcelerator
• RhoMobile
• MoSync

Apart from the above platforms, Infosys has come up with a unique platform of its own by the name of Flypp which is a solution for operators and developers both. Infy hasn't opened it for everyone and that's why I wasn't able to go through it.

PhoneGap is my personal favorite because it is free and lightweight.

Hope this helps the developers who believe in hitting every mobile platform.

Three years of almost everything....

I haven't posted on my blog for past three years and I feel I have done quite well in still remembering the password and the email id to log on to blogger.

A lot has happened over these three years and to be honest, it has been a topsy-turvy journey.

From allegedly 'absconding' from my first job, to starting a new venture and then dissolving it, from cricket to tennis and from girlfriend to my soul-mate (fortunately the same girl), every transition has been intriguing and far away from what I had expected.

But now I feel there is this new awakening within me and its time that I began sharing my experiences with others as they might prevent people from making the mistakes that I made and also motivate or inspire them to do the good things that I have done.......

Really happy to be back........

I will write about technology specially mobile and web apps, some really good personal experiences and would also share my literary work created during the obscurity phase.