1 May 2012

iOS 5 By Tutorials Now In Print – and Giveaway!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

 

iOS 5 by Tutorials Now in Print!

iOS 5 by Tutorials Now in Print!

The iOS Tutorial Team and I are proud to announce that by popular request, iOS 5 by Tutorials is now available in print!

The book was so huge that we had to split it across two volumes, each volume clocking in at around 450 pages:

  • Volume 1 contains the first 10 chapters, covering ARC, Storyboards, iCloud, GLKit, and UIKit Customization.
  • Volume 2 contains the remaining 19 chapters – covering Twitter, Newsstand, Turn-Based Gaming, Core Image, and a lot more.

And to celebrate the launch, we’re giving away two free copies of both volumes!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post – in 48 hours we’ll choose one winner randomly, and one winner with the highest forum post count (forum mods excluded).

Please note that to win you must live in the United States. I’m sorry about this to our foreign readers but I’ve gotten bit one too many times with paying crazy shipping costs ;]

Update 5/4/12: And we have some winners! Congrats to our random draw winner jlchapman, and our most active forum member winner Phoenix! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!

If you’re interested in picking up a print copy, you can find it on amazon.com – again here are the links for volume 1 and volume 2.

Note that the print versions and PDF versions are completely separate products for sale separately.

That’s it – we hope you guys enjoy the print version! :]

Tags:

26 April 2012

Cocos2D-X for iOS and Android: Space Game

 

This is a blog post by iOS Tutorial Team member Jean-Yves Mengant, an experienced Android / IOS developer and designer.

Learn how to make a cross-platform space game!

Learn how to make a cross-platform space game!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to build a space game similar to the one we built in the How to Make a Space Shooter iPhone Game.

There will be one major difference – this will be written in beautiful cross-platform C++, using Cocos2D-X!

This means you’ll be able to run this game on both your iPhone and Android by the end of the tutorial. And with a little more work, you could get it running on other platforms as well – from Windows to Linux to the Mac!

This tutorial picks up where our Cocos2D-X for iOS and Android: Getting Started tutorial left off. So if you haven’t already, read that project first and get your project set up the way described there.

So put on your Star Wars CD to set the mood, and let’s get started! Keep reading!

24 April 2012

Cocos2D-X for iOS and Android: Getting Started

 

This is a blog post by iOS Tutorial Team member Jean-Yves Mengant, an experienced Android / IOS developer and designer.

Learn to create a simple iPhone and Android game with Cocos2D-X!

Learn to create a simple iPhone and Android game with Cocos2D-X!

Cocos2D is an amazing and easy to use framework, but since it’s written in Objective-C you can only write games with it for iOS and the Mac.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the same easy to use Cocos2D API, but have it run on Android as well? This way you could greatly extend the market for your app, without adding a lot of extra work!

Well, this is possible with the Cocos2D-X game framework! Cocos2D-X is a C++ port of the Cocos2D API, so you can use the API you know and love. And since it’s in C++, it works on many platforms – from iOS to Android to Windows to Linux and more!

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Cocos2D-X and C++ to produce a cross-platform “Hello World” app that will run under both iOS and Android.

And in a few days, I’ll post a follow-up tutorial that will show you a practical game example – a cross platform space shooter!

So grab your iPhone and/or Android device, and let’s get started! Keep reading!

19 April 2012

Core Data Tutorial Series Updated for iOS 5

 

Learn how to use Core Data in iOS 5!

Learn how to use Core Data in iOS 5!

This is just a quick note to let you guys know that our 3 part Core Data Tutorial Series has been fully updated for iOS 5!

This update was made by one of iOS Tutorial Team member and forum moderator Adam Burkepile. He added support for the latest iOS 5 APIs such as Storyboards and ARC, and the new built-in Core Data model editor in Xcode.

In addition to updating the tutorials to iOS 5, Adam has also completely rewritten the second part of the series to demonstrate a more elegant way to preload a Core Data database by creating a Mac command line app that uses the same model.

While we’re on the subject of updating older tutorials on this site, are there any other tutorials in particular that you guys would like to see updated? If so just drop me a note in the forums below!

Thanks and Adam and I hope you enjoy the updated Core Data tutorial series!

Tags:

Core Data on iOS 5 Tutorial: How To Preload and Import Existing Data

 

Failed Banks Preloaded Data with Core Data

Failed Banks Preloaded Data with Core Data

Note from Ray: iOS Tutorial Team member Adam Burkepile has kindly updated the Core Data series to iOS 5 – I’ll post an announcement about it in a bit.

This tutorial was completely rewritten in order to show a more elegant way of preloading data by making a Mac command line app that reuses your iPhone app’s Core Data model.

I wanted to repost this specially so everyone is aware of the update/rewrite. Enjoy! :]

This is a blog post by iOS Tutorial Team member Adam Burkepile, a full-time Software Consultant and independent iOS developer. Check out his latest app Pocket No Agenda, or follow him on Twitter.

This is the second part of a three-part series to help get you up to speed with the basics of Core Data quickly.

In the first part of the series, we created a visual data model for our objects, ran a quick and dirty test to make sure it works, and hooked it up to a table view so we could see a list of our objects.

In this part of the series, we’re going to discuss how to import or preload existing data into Core Data so that we have some good default data when our app starts up.

Note that there was an earlier version of this tutorial that showed you a hackish way to preload data by directly manipulating the SQLite database. The method shown in this tutorial is much preferred as it’s more elegant and less likely to break as things change with Core Data in the future.

In the final part of the series, we’re going to discuss how we can optimize our app by using NSFetchedResultsController, to reduce memory overhead and improve response time.

Before we begin, make sure you have the project where we left it off in part 1. If you need a fresh copy, you can download it here. Keep reading!

Tags: , , , ,

17 April 2012

Reader’s App Reviews – April 2012

 

Read about some great apps made by fellow readers!

Read about some great apps made by fellow readers!

This is a post by Reader’s Apps Reviewer Ryan Poolos, an iOS Developer and founder of Frozen Fire Studios. Checkout his latest game, Cyborg Livestock. Checkout his latest website, iHelp.

You guys must have liked the first Reader’s App Reviews because I’m back for April!

The response was overwhelming, we had over 35 apps submitted this month! Unfortunately we only had room for 15, so we gave priority to readers who post regularly on the forums and apps with that special something that can’t be ignored.

The apps posted aren’t in any particular order or rank. If your app didn’t make it in this month, try again next month!

I really enjoyed playing with all your apps again, and this month we have some incredible apps. If April Reviews needed a theme it would be sound.

The soundtracks in the your apps this month were incredible. One after another I opened each app to be blown away by original tracks perfectly themed to your app.

However a few apps take sound to the next level. One app uses sound as the game itself, asking you to remember which sound was played by which button. Another app takes it to a whole new level, allowing you to control the game using the sound of your own voice! Your sound engineers definitely deserve a pat on the back this month.

Keep reading to check out this month’s reader’s apps, ya’ll hear? :] Keep reading!

Tags: , , , ,

13 April 2012

How to Market and Promote your Games and Apps: Part 4/4

 

Learn how to market your iPhone and iPad apps!

Learn how to market your iPhone and iPad apps!

This is a post by iOS Tutorial Team Member Felipe Laso, an iOS developer working at Lextech Global Services.

Welcome back to the final part of our epic series on Marketing and Promotion of Games and Apps! We’re very happy with the response we’ve gotten and feel glad you’ve enjoyed the series.

As we mentioned before, this part will be light on text and more focused on providing stats for you as well as tips and tools shared by our awesome survey respondents.

Let’s get started and wrap this series up! Keep reading!

Tags: , , , ,

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »