It has been quite some time, Apple made a big boom all across the globe since its launch of iPhone. It was launched primarily for the US market, but within a year's time, iPhone was available all around the world. There are many users who are now using iPhone, but I feel it is important for the existing users as well as for prospective users to have a basic idea and introduction to the device in general and its potential for programmers to get the full value for their money. iPhone is an experience in itself and you will feel it from the moment you hold it in your hand. Some like its functionality, some its sleekness, but to me, its compact form, bigger and wider screen and the touch technology, enchants me. Every user know about the "touch technology" of the device, especially the multi-touch, where an user uses only two fingers touching the screen at the same time at different places. But there is more to iPhone than just "touch technology". Few important features include: 1. Location Finding: Using GPS technology, it can figure out its position in the world at that particular time. 2. Accelerometer and Orientation: iPhone has the ability to detect motion in three dimensions. 3. Programmable Camera, address book Technically speaking, iPhone exists in two largely similar versions: the 2007 original release and the 2008 3G release. Each device contains a 620 MHz ARM CPU. The CPUs are designed specially to improve the battery performance and reduce heat. Both the versions include 128 MB RAM and 4 to 16GB Flash memory. The primary difference between the two devices centers on the global positioning system (GPS) and networking. Few other technical specifications: 1. iPhone is built on Apple's OS, which itself is built on Unix. 2. iPhone has 480 x 320 touch screen. 3. Supports LAN and WAN networking using Wi-Fi. 4. Uses GPS over Wi-Fi. Programming Basics In 2008, Apple released the iPhone SDK, a developer toolkit that allows programmers to develop iPhone application. iPhone SDK lets you develop two type of applicationsâ€"Web development and Native iPhone Application development. iPhone SDK uses the Objective-C language, which is an extension to the C language. Objective-C as implemented by Apple is built entirely around Objects. It is used throughout the iPhone OS’s frameworks. Windows, views, buttons, sliders and controllers exchange information with each other in the form of events and actions in order to make the program run. Each object in Objective-C is represented by a header file (.h) and a source code file (.m). Although, iPhone OS frameworks provide many standard classes, but sometimes you may have to write your own subclasses. When you write your own subclasses, you will need a new header and source code class together to represent the new subclasses. The iPhone OS is divided in to four layers, Cocoa touch, Media, Core Services, Core OS. Each layer contains variety of frameworks that you can use in your application/program. To be an iPhone developer you will need the following: 1. A Mac running Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.4 or higher 2. The iPhone SDK for iPhone OS, which you can download from Apple's website . The iPhone SDK contains all the tools and utilities you need to develop iPhone applications. Now, the next step is to get yourself registered on the iPhone developer program with a nominal fee. This registration gets you an Apple secured certificate that can be used to test developed applications on the device itself. You’ll also need iPhone SDK and XCode IDE that comes along with the SDK. Now, you are ready to start coding your first iphone application.
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