As posting code on the blog can sometimes can get very cluttered, we have just set up a GitHub account for TUAW to make everything better and easier for everyone. This is where you'll be able to find code for our developer-related posts. We'll try to get some projects hosted in there very soon, so don't worry that it's empty now! If you haven't heard of it, GitHub is a hosting site for git revisions, which makes it a great place to host and interact with code of all kinds.

You can find our profile at http://github.com/tuaw today. What would you like to see on TUAW for iPhone/Mac development? Let us know in the comments below!

DirecTV, which I love dearly and which supplies signal to eight screens in my house, has just announced the NFL Mobile app [iTunes link] which doesn't go live until September 13th (although you can download it now). Once working, the app will let you watch live streams of all NFL Sunday Ticket football games, including the Red Zone channel. The Red Zone channel changes from game to game as the ball gets inside an opponent's 20 yard line while a narrator explains just what's going on.

The app also will display scores, statistics for players and teams, as well as video clips and highlights from each game. So far there has been no word as to whether video streaming will be available on 3G as well as Wi-Fi, but we'll know soon enough.

This is wonderful news for football fans who are already jonesing during pre-season, but it's not all hearts and flowers. For the privilege of using this free app, you need to plunk down $379.95 for programming. The NFL Season Ticket will run you $299.95 but that's not good enough to run the app. Additionally you'll need to toss in another $80 to buy the SuperFan package which gives you games in high-definition, stats and the Red Zone Channel, making the NFL Mobile app the most expensive free app in the world.

As I haven't seen the streaming yet, I can't comment on how good it might be, but I'm very encouraged due to the amazing implementation of the DirecTV Scheduling app [iTunes link], that Mel Martin covered upon its release.

I really love this app. It's much easier to use than the often arcane DirecTV web site for scheduling programs. Searching for programs is a snap. Just type in a few letters and all matches come right up. From there you can decide which receiver you would like to have record the show, set the recording, and even record a season pass which grabs every instance of the show according to rules you set up. Rules include recording only new shows, new and repeats, etc. It can also be set to 'record if possible' meaning that if shows are already set at that time they have precedence over your request, or to 'definitely record' which gives your newly searched show precedence over your record queue.

The only glitch I found isn't in the app, but most likely in the DirecTV system itself. If you have a DirecTV box running the TiVo OS, you cannot record season passes. My DirecTV 10-250 is one of these, but it's getting long in the tooth and doesn't record hi-definition shows from the MPEG-4 transponder in any event. More modern DirecTV OS machines like my DirecTV 20-700 will record season passes and anything else you can throw at it.

If you have DirecTV and an iPhone or iPod touch, you need to go and download the DirecTV app. With all the added functionality, you'll feel much better about paying your monthly bill.

Here are some pictures of both apps.

Here's a telling sign of the popularity of iPhone development: we posted about an online course being offered by Stanford just a few months ago, and in that time, the course has been downloaded over a million times through iTunes. The director of iTunes U at Apple says this is the fastest any course has ever hit the million mark.

Only those attending Stanford will get credit for completing the 10-week course, but the material is available to the public right there in iTunes. And of course there are lots of ways to learn how to make apps on the iPhone -- Auntie TUAW has answered that question, and we've even got an iPhone Dev 101 series to help you wrap your mind around all of it. The iPhone itself seems made for newbies, and considering that there's apparently lots of money to be had in Ye Olde App Store, it's no surprise that people are flocking in huge numbers to the documentation.

Whether any of those apps are any good, of course, is still up in the air. But who knows -- someone who starts with the free iTunes U course might one day be a game-changing designer. There's got to be at least one winner in those million downloaders, right?

It has been a while since the last iPhone Dev 101 post (and I must apologize for that -- sometime life can get in the way of different things, and this was one of those times). In this Dev 101 post, I want to take you through a few of my favorite resources for Cocoa/iPhone development. Some of these resources are books, while others are sites, but all of the resources are valuable to up and coming developers (and experiences developers) alike.

Books
Some books are just invaluable and couldn't be replaced with another. Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac is just that book. Currently in its 3rd edition, the book gives you much of the Cocoa programming information that you need to program for both the Mac and iPhone. There are only a few subtle differences in programming for these platforms, namely the use of the Cocoa Touch. If you ever have the chance, going to one of the Big Nerd Ranch Cocoa programming classes gives you the ability to learn Cocoa hands-on.

Another title that is useful to beginning iPhone developers is the Beginning iPhone Development book. This book has a useful approach to stepping into the world that is programming on iPhone. It talks about numerous topics including UI design, Quartz, and OpenGL. Also covered in the book are APIs like CoreLocation and interfacing with the camera.

If you already know Cocoa and a little about iPhone development, Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer Cookbook is a great jumping off point to start development. She assumes, however, that you already understand Cocoa.

Continue reading to learn about more valuable books, websites, and resources for iPhone/Mac developers.

Last month I wrote about some resources for learning Objective-C that I was using to learn how to write iPhone applications. Judging by the number of comments on that article, I thought that I should write a follow-up post about my progress and the status of my first iPhone application.

Since I had a few programming classes in college (VB, C++), the logic of loops and decision statements was not a big hurdle. By using the learning resources like screencasts and books, I was able to get a better grasp of object-oriented programming (OOP) in general, and of course the syntax specific to Obj-C. I became familiar enough with Xcode just by using it for demo programs, and I used the wealth of iPhone developer resources from Apple to use the iPhone SDK. After paying $99 to Apple to enter into the iPhone Developer program, I was then able to access the forums; they were helpful in figuring out specific things (like how to preset a UIPickerView object).

I recently decided to embark on a personal challenge to learn Objective-C (the programming language behind Mac and iPhone applications) so that I could one day get applications into the App Store. I'm not looking to make millions with a fart machine app, but I do want to see some of my ideas come to fruition and end up on some iPhones. While we've previously mentioned how to delve into programming in Objective-C, there have been some recent releases of educational materials that can help those who want to learn the language:

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (book, $44.99)

This is the latest release of Stephen Kochan's series which some consider to be the Objective-C bible. It has a wealth of information jammed into almost 600 pages, and it will take you from simple variable assignments to advanced class implementation. I'm over halfway through this book, and the text is easy to read (not too high level), and is broken up in a visually appealing style with sufficient whitespace to be gentle on your eyes. If you're only interested in programming for the iPhone, you may only want to rely on this book for its wealth of foundational Objective-C material as it only has one chapter devoted to the iPhone.

With the iPhone SDK, Apple is pioneering a new mobile development platform that is ahead of it's time; however, this innovation comes with a major caveat: It requires Cocoa (or Objective-C) programming knowledge. You may ask "Why is this a problem?" Well, someone might have a really great idea for an iPhone application, but not have the programming knowledge to back it up and follow through with the idea. This is where AppLoop comes in.

AppLoop is a brand-new service that allows anyone with a web browser and RSS feed to create an application similar to the AP News app and submit it to the App Store -- without ever writing a single line of code. Their service works by generating a .plist file on the server side (based on your choices). The file is then passed through a couple of AppleScripts that generates the code based on the choices, and compiles it.

The entire app-creation process takes less than a minute to complete, and you have an application ready to be deployed to the App Store. Ad-hoc versions can be requested in advance of the app being placed on the App Store. Currently, AppLoop is offering the RSS reader application, but they have plans to add additional paid features down the road.

You can find out more information about this service by visiting their website, or by watching the video [link here] above. You can also see a gallery of screenshots from one of their applications.



Thanks for the information, Eric!

Evernote, a versatile (and oft-mentioned) note-taking application for Mac and iPhone (as well as Windows and other mobile platforms), has recently opened up a Service API. This comes as an intriguing extension to the basic AppleScript support found in the 1.1.5 release, and opens up the possibility of creating homegrown interfaces ranging from simple calendar/todo managers to "thick" clients which can manipulate the entire collection of Evernote data.

The AppleScript library itself is quite useful, albeit slightly limiting. You can retrieve lists of notes based on searches, create new notebooks and notes from a variety of sources, and obtain properties for the various elements of Evernote. The most interesting feature of the AppleScript library is the import/export automation capability. You can export (in well-formed XML) entire notebooks, or notes from a list (such as one generated by a search). These can be transported automatically by whatever means work best for your purposes, and then imported on the other end. This, to me, is primarily interesting because it allows for "local" synchronization of large libraries without using up online quotas. It's also ideal for automatic backup of your notes, among other potential applications: a recent MacOSXHints tip shows a means of adding notes to Evernote via Quicksilver, complete with notebook, title and tagging syntax. Open the Evernote dictionary in Script Editor for the full set of definitions.

The AppleScript library lacks the ability to add tags to existing notes, move notes or delete notes and notebooks. These functions can, however, be found in the Service API. I'm waiting on an API key today, but I'm looking forward to exploring the possibilities for both desktop and web applications. Libraries for the API are available in Java, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby -- along with sample code and documentation -- at the API overview page.

The last thing I'll mention is the query syntax, which can be of as much use in the Evernote search bar as it is in an AppleScript or API call. I hadn't fully realized the extent of the search grammar until I read the API documentation. For Evernote users who haven't explored this, it's a very effective way to build searches quickly without a lot of token-clicking. You can start with the basic tag syntax: tag:"tuaw", which will find every note tagged with "tuaw." Prefix it with a minus sign (-tag:"tuaw") to ignore any result with the "tuaw" tag. Combine multiple search parameters for boolean searches; the default search is "all", requiring the results to match every parameter in the string (AND), but you can prefix the query with any: to make it an OR search. Other possible parameters include created: and updated: (which respond to some natural language dates as well as a compact profile of ISO 8601), intitle: (search only in the titles of notes), as well as terms for narrowing to a specific notebook or querying just about any attribute of a note (latitude, longitude, altitude, author, source, etc.). See section C of the API docs for a full description of the search grammar.

It's great to see such a useful application continuing to expand itself and allow for third-party interaction. If you're interested in developing around Evernote, or just playing with the possibilities, stop by the developer page and take a look around.

Since Apple dropped the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) from the iPhone SDK, iPhone developers everywhere have started some awesome projects. From writing a book, to providing examples like Apps Amuck is doing, the development spectrum has exploded. The idea behind of Apps Amuck is to build on the iPhone app tutorials that Apple provides for developers. They are currently giving away one app per day for the next 31 days.

The tutorials they provide are small, one trick ponies that allow you to perform tasks like finding your location, building a fire, figuring out your IP address, and more. The site allows you to see a screenshot of the application, read a description, and download the source code to play around with. If you have a developer provisioning file (meaning you've been accepted into the developer program), you can even sync the applications over to your iPhone or iPod touch.

If you are not an iPhone developer and wish to play around with the applications, you will soon be able to download them from the iTunes App Store. For more information about the project, visit the Apps Amuck website.


Thanks for tip, Chris!

Do you want to write Cocoa applications, but happen to be handier with Javascript than with Objective-C? JSCocoa to the rescue! Similar in concept to RubyCocoa, JSCocoa provides a bridge between Webkit's JavascriptCore and Cocoa, allowing you to call C and Objective-C code, as well as build Javascript classes which inherit from Objective-C classes.

Visit the Google Code page for a quickstart and some syntax explanations. JSCocoa is open source and available for subversion checkout or direct download.

I unabashedly love TextMate, and I love my TextMate themes. I do, however, spend a fair amount of time in Xcode, which is why I was excited to find XThemes. With a little bit of drag and drop, you can convert any TextMate theme -- in all of its splendor -- into an Xcode theme.

Yes, it's for a limited audience ... namely TextMate die-hards who also use Xcode frequently enough to miss the themes they love (and have probably spent a fair amount of time tweaking). If you fit into this niche, you'll definitely want to take a look. XThemes: $0. Feeling at home coding outside of TextMate ... priceless.

Ah, game developers (especially EA game developers, of which id software's John Carmack is now one, after their announcement at E3 that they'd work together to publish games). They thrive on hype, and live, it seems sometimes, off of speculation. That's probably why Carmack has told Forbes that not only does he love his iPhone, and not only does he not want to "announce anything specifically," but id wants to make a game for the iPhone and "it would be," according to Carmack, "a graphical tour de force." See what we mean? Ah, game developers.

Anna Kang, who's the president of id Mobile (no relation), says that any id game they might be working on for the iPhone wouldn't be a new IP, so that puts it very much in the range of a Doom, Wolfenstein, or Quake game, and considering that another Wolfenstein sequel is being worked on right now, that probably makes it the most likely.

For his part, Carmack sounds really excited to have the iPhone as a platform (especially since he hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with Apple) -- he equates it in terms of power to a PS2 or Xbox, and says that a company could easily shell out $10 million on an iPhone game, be it a first person shooter or a deep MMORPG. But he admits that the 99-cent sales in the App Store can't support that yet, and it probably wouldn't be the best thing for id Mobile to pour their resources into something like that quite yet. Nevertheless, we'll wait and see what they come up with.

[via Joystiq]

Oh my. Still need convincing that the iPhone/iPod touch is the greatest gaming platform ever made? Then check this video of a couple Japanese researchers playing a game they claim to have put together "in about an hour": multiscreen, touch-based Pong.

On first glance, it looks like the game is even checking orientation of the iPods, but if you watch it a little further, when things go faster, you can see that it's actually just pushing the ball from screen to screen as it leaves. Still, if nothing else, a quick demo like this shows that multiple Touches (via a certain website, or on the same WiFi network, maybe, or -- hopefully -- just in close proximity to one another through Bluetooth or another protocol) can easily be made to connect multiplayer gamers.

As a demo, very nice (and it seems fun as a game as well). Can't wait to see a full-featured game that takes advantage of all of the iPhone's connectivity options.

[Via Waxy]

Way back in December, our Christmas Gift Guide featured our pick of the many OS X-related books out there. One of the recommendations was the (very excellent) Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass - commonly referred to as 'The Bible' in the Mac development community.

At the time the book was a little outdated -- however in the last couple of weeks an updated third edition has been published. New sections feature Objective-C 2.0, Core Data, Garbage Collection, Xcode 3 and Core Animation, meaning this third edition is all ready for many of the new technologies in Mac OS X Leopard.

At just $32 (via Amazon.com), this updated version clearly ought to be on every developer's bookshelf (and aspiring developer's wishlist).

Good news for indie game designers on OS X -- GarageGames has released version 1.7 of their Torque Game Builder, which allows programmers to create games for almost any platform from within an OS X interface. This latest release improves the editors for link points and collision polygons, as well as a new editor for vector objects and new t2dSceneObject methods. If you know what all that means, then you could probably program a better game than I could.

But the good news here is the one of the cheapest and best tools for game developers is now better than ever. Demos and trials of the tool are available on GarageGames' site, and licenses are as cheap as $100 for independent game developers. You've got the tools-- now go make us some great Mac games!

[Via Macminute]