I attended an Apple sponsored presentation yesterday on using the Xcode IDE to build iPhone and iTouch apps. It was a very well done presentation, and had me almost ready to rush out and buy a Macbook and iTouch to get started building cool apps — certainly easy to see why Apple App building has become such a popular past time (and big money maker for Apple).
Real ‘Apps’ run native on the phone, and utilize Interface Building and the objective-C language. Web apps (small ‘a’) are built with the iPhone/touch in mind using HTML 5 and javascript, made easy through the use of the Dashcode program. The advantage here is the site you build is also accessible to non-iPhone devices, especially if they are running Safari. In a business setting it will be hard to convince me that developing for the proprietary and closed iPhone environment makes much sense. Sites like m.mit.edu show how far a web standards approach can go towards providing a rich mobile experience — and backing an open platform accessible on many types of devices will pay off much better in the long term.
Sorry to say I have resisted the urge to grab a new Macbook. But probably my biggest take-away is how much can be done with structured XML. One of the two Dashcode examples in the presentation utilized the raw XML feed from the Apple Quicktime Movie Trailer site. Literally in 5 minutes the presenter had a very cool web app running on his iPhone just using the XML and the features in Dashcode. I have been talking about the power of XML for a while, but still haven’t drummed up much interest here on campus in making internal data sets available as structured XML. Maybe a quick slight of hand with a custom iPhone app can help show how useful this idea would really be. Maybe a little of the Apple magic will rub off…
Download Xcode – Apple Developer Connection
Get Xcode with the free iPhone SDK for creating iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac applications. The iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, iPhone Simulator, Interface Builder, Instruments, Dashcode, Shark, as well as compilers, frameworks, and samples.
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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