It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Yes. I am moving back to Los Angeles. “Has it been 3 years already?” you ask. No, it’s been 5. Time sure flies when you’re enjoying succulent doughnuts and delicious cocktails while waiting for lucrative career opportunities in the rain.
I can wait no longer and should be back in LA on March 1st March 14. Will it be my final resting stop? I wouldn’t put money on it. I’ve been entering the HGTV New Mexico dream home sweepstakes everyday so maybe it’s just a pitstop on the way to pine nuts and new age aromatherapy.
Anyway… I am coming back cold without a job and just my dog and my computer and whatever I can cram in the back of my truck.(Mostly rare first edition books about esoteric knowledge.) I will be holed up in my mom’s guest house in the ‘burbs until I find a gig. Know of any?
You can keep track of me on twitter @magdaZINE. One of my first priorities in LA will be teaching you all how to use it.
See you soon.
And to all you Portlanders, hasta la vista and thanks for all the doughnuts and moonshine. Tastes great but doesn’t pay the rent.
Just a quick reminder that I have started posting “sketchisodes” for Season 6 of LOST. As you may remember I started watching LOST last year and slammed through all 5 seasons in around 3 months.
I burned out from season 2 – 5, but every episode of season 6 will be captured. I love this crazy show!
After failing miserably at NaNoWriMo and marginal success at “tweet me a story,” I am going for the timed writing trifecta and just signed up for Script Frenzy which begins in April.
I should be able to write a 100 page script in 30 days, shouldn’t I?
This weekend I watched weeks two and three of the excellent Creative Techs/ O’Reilly iPhone web app development videos taught by Elisabeth Robson. They were so inspiring that I decided to refrain from completing my “magdaZINE Mobile” app until I watch the fourth and final class on tuesday.
UPDATE:
Tuesday is the last day to purchase the class for $39.
Here is a mock-up of my new home page design. As you can see, all of the Safari chrome is missing, and I have added a tabbed navbar at the bottom. I learned that with a bit of javascript the chrome can be removed and look more “app-like.”
We also learned how to listen for touch events with javascript and incorporate them into our designs.
Another thing I discovered is that there are many more ways to build iPhone apps besides Objective C.
Here is the short-list of authoring tools and frameworks:
1. HTML, CSS, javascript
2. PhoneGap
3. Dashcode
4. Xcode – (OBJ C & Cocoa Touch)
5. TapLYNX
6. QuickConnect JavaScript API
7. Flash CS5 (When it is released)
All of this is very exciting and I look forward to trying all of the approaches. I am also thinking about more ambitious projects for iPad apps.
Today I spent some time at Powell’s technical bookstore. Most of the iPhone books seem to regurgitate what is already on the web, especially the Apple developer docs. I suggest spending some quality time on http://developer.apple.com/iphone/ if you are serious about developing apps. At the very least read the Human Interface Guidelines for both iPhone and iPad. There is no need to spend a lot on money on books nor reinvent the wheel. Apple has already done a good job of providing excellent learning materials.
Can’t wait for Tuesday’s class. Mobile is the new web. Fun times.
First of all I just want to thank EduMobile for refunding me my tuition. As I mentioned yesterday, their program was way over my head. They honored their money back guarantee very promptly. It’s always nice to find honest companies online.
OK with that out of the way…
Yesterday, I purchased the O’Reilly/Creative Techs iPhone web app course which is taught by Elisabeth Robson. She is the writer of 2 of the “Head First” series of development books published by O’Reilly.
This class is just what I was looking for and is great for people who already know or are familiar with html, css, and javascript. The online class teaches you the basics of designing and coding iPhone web apps. Fortunately the web apps you develop for the iPhone also look pretty decent on other smartphone browsers like Blackberry, Android, etc.
This is a 4-week course recorded live in front of an audience at the Creative Tech Studios as well as a web audience. After each class the archives are available in the form of streaming or downloadable QuickTime movies. Since I started after week three, this is what I am using to learn.
Robson is an excellent teacher and the class is well structured and paced. I crammed through the first week of videos today and will build the first homework assignment this weekend. We are supposed to build a mobile business card for ourselves. What I decided to do was make a mobile friendly app of magdaZINE.com.
Here are some of my thumbnail sketches:
I need to review the iPhone Interface Guidelines before finishing these comps, but here are my initial thoughts for how my web app will work. It will also include twitter feeds as well as some RSS functionality. I will also be adding javascript to interact with the touch sensitive screens.
The goals is to make the UI very usable for large fingers and to get to the content quickly. I was tempted to make the home page one big graphic but that would mean one more click to get to the content. I’m still thinking about it though. Speed is also essential for mobile apps so I don’t want to slow things down with a ton of graphics.
I was also thinking of making mobile friendly versions of all my websites. Even though I could use the WP-touch plugin for WordPress sites, these customized sites look so much better. More work, but worth it.
Day four continues with orienting myself to what I can do with the iPhone. After lusting after the iPad, I’ve decided to not get off track. I’ll focus my first learning efforts on the iPhone.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I purchased an online training package from EduMobile. They create development training for mobile devices. Their training includes weekly assignments that need to be turned into a tutor that is assigned to you when you sign up for the class. The videos included in the training were not very helpful and poorly produced. My first week’s assignments were way over my head and assume knowledge of C. Well the class wasn’t advertised that way. I just asked for my money back.
I also discovered a couple of very simple video tutorials that I had purchased on CartoonSmart.com’s website ages ago. I forgot I had them. I watched them again and they were also helpful at orienting me to Xcode, but also failed to explain a lot of why certain things were being done. Once again I was disappointed
It seems like a lot of training could use some sound instructional design practices (I know I keep saying this. It’s true.) I was starting to worry that I was going to have to figure out everything by myself with books and online docs, but then a miracle happened.
I got an email invitation to view a couple of sample training videos from Creative Techs and O’Reilly. They are collaborating on webinar training sessions with videos archived on oreilly.com. This was a session on building web apps with html, css, and javascript for the iPhone, taught my Elisabeth Robson. Even though I really want to build true iPhone apps I watched the free videos. She knows how to teach. I signed up for the 4 week class which is only $35 until February 2nd.
Developing my first apps as web apps seems like a good first step for me especially since week four includes an easy Objective C project. Based on what I have seen so far Robson is pacing the class well. Since I already know html, css, and some javascript I feel success is easier with this approach and will help phase me into the harder stuff.
The free demo videos have already introduced me to some javascript libraries that I wasn’t aware of as well as tools to make cross platform mobile web apps.
Tomorrow I should have some samples of my work to show you.
My progress was a bit derailed due to Apple’s iPad event. Since iPad uses the iPhone SDK, I now have 2 devices to develop for. Unfortunately you can’t just design for iPad and scale down. Soooo… I spent a good chunk of time today downloading the iPhone 3.2 SDK which includes all the new goodies for the iPad. It’s cool to see the big simulator launch in Xcode.
My original app ideas were clearly designed for the iPhone’s real estate, but now I am wondering if the iPad is a better platform for what I want to do. Decisions, decisions. But I am getting ahead of myself. I still need to learn Objective C.
Today I tried to get through more Stanford videos, but frankly they are too long and not very useful.
Since my time today was limited due to freelance work, I decided to spend time looking for resources that would serve as a more basic introduction to the iPhone app development process.
I also went back to iTunes to look at Apple’s “Getting started” videos. I highly recommend that you watch these first before looking at anything else. They are professionally produced and serve as a great overview of Xcode. I had no idea that Xcode included so many great tools for debugging and performance analysis. These videos are located within iTunes University. Check them out.
Tomorrow I will crack open Xcode and work on my assignments from EduMobile. (After I watch the Apple “tablet” special event.:)
Day one of my iPhone programming training began by deciding what I needed.
Stanford iPhone course
I downloaded the Stanford iPhone course from iTunes awhile ago, but never watched it. After watching a few minutes of it I realized that I would need a multi-tiered approach to learning how to program for the iPhone. The guys teaching this course are youngish male geeks from Apple. They are obviously very smart and know what they are doing but their teaching skills leave much to be desired. This is a case where experienced Instructional Designers should be hired to help these subject matter experts share their knowledge. Expert does not necessarily equal teacher.
They also lectured primarily with bulleted PowerPoint (or Keynote) lists. The 2 lectures I watched were really boring. I got nothing out of them. The course is designed for people who have a basic understanding of Object Oriented Programming which I do, but these guys really need better presentation and instructional skills.
There was also a bonus video on iTunes called “How to build an iPhone app that doesn’t Suck.” I appreciated this lecture on audience and persona development, sketching, and creating paper protoypes before programming.
I will continue to watch…
They also have weekly assignments that can be downloaded from Stanford’s site.
EduMobile
I’m not exactly sure where I first heard of EduMobile. I think when I still had my LinkedIn account I might’ve “friended” them. Anyway, they offer several development courses for mobile devices including the iPhone. The course is $200 for 10 weekly lessons comprised of video downloads and assignments. You are also assigned a tutor for email correspondence. I had a coupon for $60 off so this course cost me $140. It has a money back guarantee if not satisfied.
My first lesson consists of 3 videos; an introduction to the Xcode programming environment, an introduction to Objective-C and an intro to the course. The weekly training package also includes an assignment, reading list, and sample source code.
This series seems a bit more “user/audience friendly” than the Stanford videos but I was amazed by the sloppy production values. You could hear street noise and there were long pauses in the screencasts. For paid training I would expect some level of basic editing. Oh well, we’ll see how this develops in coming weeks. At least they did walk you through Xcode which was more than the Stanford videos.
Apple Developer videos
Apple’s iPhone development site includes a link to introductory videos on iTunes. I also download all of them, but didn’t get a chance to watch. This is an action item for tomorrow.
The developer site also has a wealth of documentation and PDF downloads. Man, there is a lot to learn…
I also feel the need to supplement my training with at least one book. It’s off to Powell’s I go.
Xcode and iPhone SDX iPhone apps can only be developed with Xcode on a Mac (for now.) Theseitems are available on Apple’s iPhone developer site for free. This is a 2.5 gig monster download so be patient. I had an older version of Xcode and the iPhone SDK. I was able to install over it without uninstalling anything. Thank you Apple for making it easy.
You will need an Apple ID to download these materials. This can be your MobileMe account or iTunes account. Any account that you use to purchase Apple products or services will work.
iPhone developer program
While it’s not necessary to join the iPhone developer program to learn, it is necessary to enroll if you actually want to submit apps for sale on iTunes. I signed up to also give me added incentive to learn. It costs $99 for a single user license.
iPhone Stencils
After watching the movies I also downloaded PhotoShop stencils for comping the look and feel of my apps. There are stencils available for many applications including Omnigraffle. Just Google “iPhone Stencils” and knock yourself out.
In 2003 I met a Canadian couple that was on their 25th wedding anniversary. We were participating in David Morehouse’s “Remote Viewing course” in San Diego. They said that they were celebrating their anniversary by experiencing 25 amazing new things. I’ve shared some of my experiences with remote viewing in previous editions of magdaZiNE (i think) and won’t discuss it here, but the idea for this couple’s 25th anniversary really resonated with me and I decided that I would learn at least one amazing new thing every year. So far I have.
This year I am determined to learn how to develop apps for the iPhone. It satisfies my criteria for “amazing” because I am not a programmer. I have coded html/css and dabbled in actionscript, but this will be very different. It will be difficult. It will take me out of my comfort zone and require lots of study time.
I just signed up for the iPhone Developer’s program at Apple. I also downloaded the Stanford iPhone course on iTunes and signed up for the programming course at EduMobile. I will also undoubtedly buy books. No stone will be left unturned until I have at least one app in the iTunes app store.
Since I have so far noticed very different approaches in they way iPhone programming is being taught, I will also document my learning experience here on magdaZINE.
After my bitter failure at NaNoWrimo, I entered the “tweet me a story” contest. “TMAS” was more my speed. It only required stories that are 140 characters or less. A few weeks ago registered participants including myself, were emailed a word that had to be included in our stories. We could submit up to three stories. I received the email a couple of hours before the deadline so I “winged it” and managed to slap together a couple using the word “window.”
This week they released the top 25 stories for each category. Somehow both of mine made it and now you, my adoring fans, have the opportunity to vote on the finalists from each category. My two stories are #3 and #12 on this list. Have at it.
UPDATE: I Successfully made it to the semi-finals with the word “window.” Unfortunately my entries into to the finals were unsuccessful using the word “below.” That’s OK, we’ll get-em next year.
This weekend I watched weeks two and three of the excellent Creative Techs/ O’Reilly iPhone web app development videos taught by Elisabeth Robson. They were so inspiring that I decided to refrain from completing my “magdaZINE Mobile” app until I watch the fourth and final class on tuesday.
First of all I just want to thank 
Day four continues with orienting myself to what I can do with the iPhone. After lusting after the iPad, I’ve decided to not get off track. I’ll focus my first learning efforts on the iPhone.
My progress was a bit derailed due to Apple’s iPad event. Since iPad uses the iPhone SDK, I now have 2 devices to develop for. Unfortunately you can’t just design for iPad and scale down. Soooo… I spent a good chunk of time today downloading the iPhone 3.2 SDK which includes all the new goodies for the iPad. It’s cool to see the big simulator launch in Xcode.
Today I tried to get through more Stanford videos, but frankly they are too long and not very useful.
as a good basic primer in learning the language. I may also get 
Day one of my iPhone programming training began by deciding what I needed.
