Lately a lot of people have been asking me:

How did you get started doing iPhone development?

And:

What are some good iPhone dev resources to get started?

So here are the answers to those questions and other iPhone dev FAQs in a nice tidy blog post that I can point to instead of repeating myself and sending out redundant email. If you are thinking of going down the iPhone dev road  and have a question I didn’t answer in this post feel free to leave it in the comments or email me: sue [at] roadschooled.com

How did you get started doing iPhone development?

It was pretty random and unplanned.  My phone crapped out about a year ago so I went to the Apple store in Palo Alto and bought a new phone.  After playing with it for a few hours I thought it was cool so I decided I was going to teach myself how to make iPhone apps.

What kind of coding background did you have?

Very little that was useful.  I knew a little self-taught HTML and CSS from doing websites and that is about it.  I knew no Objective C or Cocoa Touch.

Do you have a degree in computer science?

No.  I have a BS in Chemistry with a minor in Biology.   All of my computer skills are self-taught.

How did you teach yourself to code?

I used a combination of books and online resources.  A few of the resources I found helpful:

Apple iPhone Dev Center

Great place to start.  There is a ton of info on getting started, sample code, and advanced topic info for down the road.  Sign up for the developer program for free and download the SDK.  If you decide you want to build and publish an app there is a $100 developer fee.

Stanford iPhone App Dev Online Course – CS 193P

Download the lectures from the class on iTunes.  It helps if you know a little Obj C before watching this.  Provides a good overview of iPhone dev.

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition)

Good intro to Objective C.  (3rd Edition coming out soon.) Objective C isn’t the easiest to learn if this is your first programming language like it was for me.  There is a big learning curve.  But if I can do it you can do it.  Is it worth all the work to teach yourself to code?  That is whole another post in itself.

Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

There are some sample projects to work on to get used to Obj C and XCode.  I did a couple sample projects and then just picked elements out of the book that were useful for the app I was building.  There are a ton of other iPhone dev books available and I have picked through them at the bookstore while looking for elements I need to add to the app I was working on.  So my advice on picking an iPhone dev book is do a couple sample projects to get comfortable.  Then start building your app and pick out what you need from each book or from many of the online sources.

iPhone Dev SDK Forum

A good resource not only for getting started but also when you get stuck while building your apps.  Good place for finding workarounds to common dev problems.

Google

Google is your friend.  There is a ton of open source code available.  Once you know a little Objective C and Cocoa Touch you’ll know what keywords you need to search for to find some tasty code snippets for your app.

Hacker News

This isn’t specifically an iPhone dev resource but it is the best news site on hacking and entrepreneurship.

What is it like to be an indie iPhone developer?

Hmmm… It is a lot of work.  And a lot of ups and downs.  So pretty much I spend my day looking at this working from home or where ever:

Staring deeply into Xcode and desiring more coffee to stay awake:

And then there is the cool part where I get to test my apps out in the field at national parks:

The photos don’t really capture how much work it is for one person – more than I bargained for when I first started.  Which is the perfect segue into saying I need to bring this post to an end and finish the app I’m working on.  Peace out.

I have more answers if you have more questions.  Leave a comment or email:  sue [at] roadschooled.com

You can follow the iPhone dev part of my life on Twitter: @igreenearth

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

I’m setting my Joshua Tree National Park iPhone app to free for Father’s Day.  Thanks to all the dads out there who helped foster a love of the outdoors in their kids.

Get your free app here –> iJoshuaTree

iPhone Dev @ home in Berkeley CA

I haven’t posted to my blog much lately because I have been spending way too much time sitting in front of my computer teaching myself how to develop iPhone apps.  I have a lot to say about the past few months — too much — to the point that I don’t even know where to start.

I have learned a ton in the past few months not only about how to code iPhone apps but also about Silicon Valley, start-ups, and recession economics.  And while I was on the road, I met numerous people that were budget traveling because it was cheaper and better for their spirits than paying high rents and getting depressed about not being able to find a job.

I have no plans of hitting the road and moving from California in the foreseeable future.  So in the spirit of the recession, I’m going to be sharing on my blog everything I learn about starting up an iPhone dev business and other experiments I have done in the past on location independent sources of income.

And, of course, I’ll still throw in some of my usual travel style posts about what makes California a great place not only to visit but to live, such as:

Exploring the lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore,

hiking with pelicans along the coastal cliffs near Santa Cruz

and imagining a brighter future on a bench along West Cliff in Santa Cruz.

I would like to write how my first solo road trip in northern Minnesota 10 years ago was one of the best experiences of my life. But in actuality it kind of sucked. It was cold and drizzling, I got up to go to the bathroom in the drizzle twice during the night, and the next morning I woke up feeling exhausted since I hardly slept.

I’m not sure why I continued solo road tripping after that first night. I could have said I wasn’t cut out for it and opted to stay home and watch TV the next time I had some time off and no one wanted to go camping. But I chalked up the unpleasantness to inexperience and tried again.

The second time I went solo camping I was woke up in the middle of the night by raccoons fighting outside my tent. Imagine waking up to sounds like this and this right next to your head. Crank the volume up to the max to get the full effect.

Ah, the joys of camping. Despite those first few rough nights, curiosity and a love of outdoor adventure eventually won out and led me around the entire country solo camping. And while there were plenty more unpleasant nights (some good ones too), the journey as a whole was one of the best experiences of my life.

Sometimes I wonder what I would be doing now if I had given up on solo road tripping because of those first few rough nights ten years ago. Maybe I would be blogging about my favorite TV shows. Regardless, I would definitely be a much different person than I am today.

Today I woke up in a chair at the library at Stanford where I fell asleep teaching myself how to write code for iPhone apps. This whole iPhone developer / entrepreneur adventure is starting out just about as glamorously as my first solo camping adventures. But I’m sticking with it.

I wonder where I’ll wake up ten years from now.

I recently upgraded my crappy old cell phone that didn’t even have a camera to an iPhone.  All I can say is – I love my iPhone!  And I’m not sure how I managed without it.  All this time I could have been taking quick photos or videos, using the built in GPS when I was lost, and Yelping a quality restaurant nearby.  Oh well.  Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be thrifty especially when it comes to having the ultimate multi-functional travel device in your pocket.

So now I’m an Apple fangirl toting around an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.  The next logical step of course is to proclaim my love for the following free travel apps:

In a new city and need to find good place to eat nearby?  Yelp it. I loved Yelp on my laptop and I love it even more on my phone for easy access to reviews of nearby businesses.  I don’t even need to know where I am.  I just hit the geolocate button and it will map out where I am and directions to nearby businesses.

Need to check flight or hotel prices quickly?  Search 1000s of travel sites at Kayak.  Of course there are other travel price comparison sites (Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.) you can check also if you like but their apps are either non-existent or have severely limited features at this time so you are just better off visiting the regular websites.

Make your friends jealous by sharing your travel photos with them on Facebook.  You can take photos and video on your phone and upload them instantly.  It is amazing how many people I hadn’t seen in years that I have met up with because they saw in my status updates that I was going to be in the same location as them.

Why do you need the Skype app when you can just make a call on your iPhone?  Because sometimes you go over your minutes or you are calling overseas.  Skype rules for cheap calls.  The only snafu: You can’t Skype over the 3G network so you have to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Take a spin around the a virtual globe with Google Earth.  A very cool app to zoom in from outer space to your current location or spin the globe and daydream about your next travel adventure.

The iPhone is an amazing multi-functional travel gadget.  The apps and hardware (longer battery life, please) are only going to get better.  Mobile is the future.