You can only develop iOS apps on an Intel Mac. You will need to download Apple’s iOS SDK, which includes Xcode (Apple’s Integrated Development Environment), the iOS simulator, and other development tools.
You should join Apple’s iOS Developer Program, which costs $99/year, for three reasons:
- Downloading the latest developer tools is free for members.
- Only signed apps will run on a device, and only members can sign apps. If you want to test your app on your device, you will need to join.
- You can’t put an app in the store until you are a member.
If you are going to take the time to work through this entire book, membership in the iOS Developer Program is, without question, worth the cost. Go to http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/ to join.
What about iOS devices? Most of the applications you will develop in the first half of the book are for the iPhone, but you will be able to run them on an iPad. On the iPad screen, iPhone applications appear in an iPhone-sized window. Not a compelling use of the iPad, but that’s okay when you’re starting with iOS. In these first chapters, you’ll be focused on learning the fundamentals of the iOS SDK, and these are the same across iOS devices. Later in the book, we’ll look at some iPad-only options and how to make applications run natively on both iOS device families.
Excited yet? Good. Let’s get started.