Beginning iOS 5 Application Development

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

OVER THE PAST YEAR OR SO, the development landscape of Apple's iOS has changed greatly. The successful iOS is now in its fifth iteration, and the Xcode IDE has transitioned to a much easier-to-use version 4, with a tight integration of Interface Builder. I have received a lot of feedback from readers of the previous edition of this book, many of whom appreciate the hands-on approach that it takes. I also have received feedback from readers who are stumped by the changes that have occurred between Xcode versions 3 and 4; but such confusion epitomizes the rapid pace of change that all developers experience.

This new edition of the book was revised to cover both new technologies and the various feedback I have received. I had a thorough relook at the exercises readers were having issues with, to ensure that they can be easily followed and achieve the effect I intended. I also took this opportunity to revise all the examples using Xcode 4, which is the IDE included with iOS 5. Of course, this book covers new iOS 5 features — notably, the new iCloud feature that ships with iOS 5. I have also added some topics that would interest most iOS developers, such as how to import and export documents from within your application, programming the various sensors in iOS, and using JSON web services.

Writing a book is always exciting, but along with the excitement are long hours of hard work, straining to get things done accurately and on time. I would like to take this opportunity ...