In two weeks I'll be at the iPhone Developer Summit. I'm presenting an intro to native iPhone development. If you are attending make sure to stop by and and say hi.

I'm going to be at WWDC next week. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to meet up. Perhaps twitter would be a good way to coordinate. I'm @JulioBarros

Looking forward to it.

I'm teaching a two-day work shop for the iPhone Intensive meet up group at Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale, June 5th and 6th, 10 am - 6 pm. Register for the workshop at http://iphoneintensive.eventbrite.com.

Build iPhone applications under experienced instructors with lectures, course materials and exercises in a hands-on setting. Join a small group to learn the fundamentals of iPhone development. Ramp-up your skills and learn how to get your apps onto the iPhone App Store.The training program includes continental breakfast, lunch, snacks and refreshments along with ample networking opportunities.

On the first day you will build a complete application from start to finish. At the end of the day you will have created an application similar to popular applications in the app store and will have learned about:

• Xcode, Interface Builder, Objective-C
• Cocoa Touch, and (MVC) Model, View, Controller and Delegate patterns
• iPhone tables and playing media
• Using web content
• Photos and touch event handling
• Timers and animation

The second day you will learn more advanced development methods using the Cocoa Touch framework. Topics will include:

• Custom table cells
• Custom views
• Core Animation
• Multi-touch events
• Timers and threads
• Memory management and finding leaks
• Debugging and tracking down errors

Register for the workshop at http://iphoneintensive.eventbrite.com.

As you may have heard Apples Object persistence framework "Core Data" will be available in the next version of the iPhone OS. Unfortunately, the details are still under NDA so it will be a while before iPhone specific information will be available. However, there are a several good sources of Mac desktop Cocoa Core Data information that will help you get a head start on what you need to know. These include:

Build a Core Data Application at Cocoa Dev Central is a good tutorial that walks you through the steps.

ADC Core Data Video Tutorial by Wolf Rentzsch is really good. The Mac OS X 10.4 UI will take you back in time but the content is really good and still applicable today.

The Mobile Orchard has a nice article with a couple other resources.

Of course Apple has a lot of information that is iPhone specific as well as more general Core Data resources.

And finally Core Data by Marcus S. Zarra is a must have for anyone interested in learning the Core Data framework. The book is currently in Beta form but I am really glad I read it and it has saved me a ton of time already. It is targeted at desktop Cocoa developers but iPhone developers will get a lot out of it. All throughout the book topics are explained in plain English with practical advice for your various options.

What other resources do you know about? Let me know.

Like iPhone development and want to take your skills to the next level?

Want to learn some tips to make your applications stand out and programming even faster and more fun?

Come to our one day intermediate iPhone programming class. Where we will cover topics such as:

• Custom table cells
• Custom views
• Core Animation
• Multi-touch events
• Timers and threads
• Memory management and finding leaks
• Debugging and tracking down errors

This class is best suited for people with some experience programming with the SDK. We'll cover intermediate topics so you should have already built or experimented with a few apps on your own.

Attendees must bring their own (or rented) laptop with the iPhone SDK installed.

Lunch will be provided.

In order to maintain a good student ratio attendance is limited so register now.

*** Note: We will not be able to discuss the details of 3.0 unless the NDA has been lifted at that time.

Interested in getting a good understanding of building an application
for the iPhone and iPod touch?

Want to get an overview of the iPhone SDK as quickly as possible? Then
immerse yourself in our intensive one day iPhone development overview
class and build The 8 hour app.

In The 8 hour app class we'll build a complete application from
start to finish. At the end of the day we will have an application
similar to popular applications in the app store and will have
learned about:

• Xcode, Interface Builder, Objective-C
• Cocoa Touch, and (MVC) Model, View, Controller and Delegate patterns
• iPhone tables and playing media
• Using web content
• Photos and touch event handling
• Timers and animation

This class is best suited for people with some programming experience
in a C like language with some basic familiarity with the SDK who are
looking for help getting started in this exciting technology.

If you prefer a more in depth class we also offer a 1 day intermediate class.

Attendees must bring their own (or rented) laptop with the iPhone SDK installed.

Lunch will be provided.

*** Note: We will not be able to discuss the details of 3.0 unless the NDA has been lifted at that time.

Programming the SQL database on the iPhone, SQLite3, with the C interface can be tedious.

Some people recommend FMDB from Gus Mueller but even that is a bit too low level. It feels a lot like a JDBC if you know some Java.

A little while back, after looking at various persistence frameworks, I started using SQLitePersistentObjects. Its a great little project started by Jeff Lamarche of "Beginning iPhone Development" fame. He gave a presentation at 360iDev and put his slides online .

The best thing about SQLitePersistentObjects (SQLPO) is that it is super easy to get started. Just subclass you data object from "SQLitePersistentObject", declare your properties and you are ready to call save and find. You don't have to create the database or define the schema or anything else. It handles common data types right out of the box and you can extend it with your own data types if necessary.

Some things to think about:

• Memory management - SQLPO does not hide or solve memory issues for you. If you do a findAll on your database of images you are likely to run out of memory.
• Performance - SQLPO does a lot more for you than the C interface or FMDB so it can be a bit slower. They are working on improving this. It may not be an issue for you application though if you are smart about indexes, careful with your queries, learn to use paired arrays and remember it is a phone and not an enterprise DB server.
• Threading - I would like to have the user thread creating data and have another thread processing those records (perhaps uploading them). I don't known for sure if SQLPO is meant to be used like this and if it is safe for multiple threads to be accessing the framework concurrently.
• Advanced Features - SQLPO is awesome but it is not Hibernate (yet). Some advanced features (lazy loading) have not been implemented yet. Again, I find it a lot better than other frameworks but don't let your expectations get carried away.

If you are looking for a persistence framework for the iPhone I suggest you take a closer look at SQLitePersistentObjects

Last week I spoke at the awesome 3060iDev conference (I highly recommend it next time) in San Jose. I talked about my experiences with Android as compared to the iPhone and iPod Touch (more accurately Cocoa Touch). After my slides we we had a very interesting conversation and many people in the audience were knowledgeable on the subject and had a lot to contribute.

The thrust of my presentation was that though I admired the openness, flexibility and what has been accomplished with Android I don't feel it is a viable competitor in the mass consumer market at least in the near term.

Its openness does bring up some interesting possibilities especially in vertical business segments. And in particular if/when Android is ported to a tablet based computer there will be many many exciting applications based around in the field data collection and presentation. Think guided tours, meter reading, opinion poll taking, mobile point of sale, etc.

Many people have been proposing tablets for a long time (grid, palm, etc) but I think now maybe we are finally close. And with the possibility of running Cocoa Touch and/or Android is really exciting.

I've attached the slides from the talk.

Like iPhone development and want to take your skills to the next level?

Want to learn some tips to make your applications stand out and programming even faster and more fun?

Come to our one day intermediate iPhone programming class. Where we will cover topics such as:

• Custom table cells
• Custom views
• Core Animation
• Multi-touch events
• Timers and threads
• Memory management and finding leaks
• Debugging and tracking down errors.

This class is best suited for people with some experience programming with the SDK. We'll cover intermediate topics so you should have already built or experimented with a few apps on your own.

Attendees must bring their own (or rented) laptop with the iPhone SDK installed.

Lunch will be provided.

Class will run 9:30-5 Friday April 3.

In order to maintain a good student ratio attendance is limited so register now.

The class is only $400 with an early bird pricing of $300 through Friday March 13th.

Sign up at EventBrite Or contact us and we can invoice you or you can pay through PayPal.