Neil Smyth wrote:The iPhone and its peers in the smartphone market are remarkable technological achievements. In a device small enough to put in your pocket the iPhone can make phone calls, send and receive email, SMS and MMS messages, stream and play audio and video, detect movement and rotation, vibrate, adapt the display brightness based on the ambient lighting, surf the internet, run apps from a selection of hundreds of thousands, take high resolution photos, record video, tell you your exact location, provide directions to your chosen destination, play graphics intensive games and even detect when you put the device to your ear.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the iPhone is that all of these capabilities and hardware features are available to you as an app developer. In fact, once you have an iPhone, an Intel-based Mac computer, the iOS SDK, a copy of the Xcode development environment and the necessary skills, the only limit to the types of apps you can create is your own imagination (and, of course, the restrictions placed on apps accepted into the Apple App Store).

Beginning with the basics, this book provides an overview of the iPhone hardware and the architecture of iOS 4. An introduction to programming in Objective-C is provided followed by an in-depth look at the design of iPhone applications and user interfaces. More advanced topics such as file handling, database management, graphics drawing and animation are also covered, as are touch screen handling, multitasking, iAds integration, location management, local notifications, camera access and video playback support.

The aim of this book, therefore, is to teach you the skills necessary to build your own apps for the iPhone. Both the iOS SDK and Xcode can be downloaded for free and assuming you have an Intel-based Mac (sadly this book does not include one) and some ideas for some apps to develop, you are ready to get started.