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I’ve wanted to get in to iPhone application development for some time now, however I’m kind of stuck at a crossroads.  Do I want to learn how to develop apps for a jailbroken iPhone, which can give me much more freedom to all the phone’s features, but at the same time is not condoned by Apple?  Or do I want to learn how to use the official iPhone SDK which is much more restrictive, but would let me build apps that I could widely distribute and possibly profit from.  I guess both roads require a background in objective c or c++ programming, which I know nothing about.  I also have never programmed anything on or for a mac.  So I started looking for some good reading material that could help me get familiar with iPhone programming, as well as let me know what I would be getting myself in to.  I picked up a book called iPhone Open Application Development by Jonathan Zdziarski, which talks about programming apps for jailbroken iPhones.  The book is a little outdated now with the new 2.0 software out, and was written before Apple’s announcement of the official SDK.  I actually just saw that there is going to be a second edition released in the next few weeks, that is updated for the new 2.0 software (now I’m kind of pissed being I just bought mine last month).  The first edition however still gave me some valuable info on the inner workings of the iPhone platform, file systems, API’s and user interface.  I really need to learn objective c before I can use or understand a lot of the information found in this book, so I skipped around a lot.  The author is one of the original iPhone 3^rd party app developers and has since released many useful apps, my favorite being an NES emulator (see below).    

This book is defiantly an interesting read for anyone just getting in to iPhone app development, whether you’re using the official SDK or not.  Even if you have no programming skills but would like to start with the iPhone, this book can get you prepared for that.   Full product page and description for second edition can be found here  

The same author has also just released another book entitled iPhone Forensics: Recovering Evidence, Personal Data, and Corporate Assets.  I have not bought this yet, but it looks to be very interesting.  I guess the book focuses heavily on the iPhone’s security, as well as ways of recovering, analyzing, and securely destroying sensitive data.  The book also outlines a way to break through pass code protected iPhones, and uncovers other interesting security facts that most users have no idea about.  The author explained “This book started out as a law enforcement manual, only available to sworn officers for about six months. O’Reilly provided me the resources to expand it into a 150-page “small animal” book, packed with content, and is now available in book form.”  I’ve heard people complain that the book is a little short for its price, but if you get it on Amazon they are offering it for 26 dollars as opposed to the 40 dollars you would pay at a bookstore.  Product page and description can be found here