iPad Application Development For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 17

Finding Your Way

In This Chapter

Using the MapKit framework

Specifying and changing the type, location, and zoom level of a map

Identifying the iPad’s current location

Annotating significant locations on the map

One of the things that makes iPad applications compelling is the ability you have as a developer to incorporate the user’s location into the application functionality. One of the more compelling ways to do that is through the use of maps.

Including the capability to display a map in an application became important as people began to realize the kinds of solutions that can be delivered on the iPad. To many travelers, nothing brands you as a tourist like unfolding a large paper map (except, of course, looking through a thick guidebook). In this chapter, I show you how to take advantage of the iPad’s built-in capability to display a map of virtually anywhere in the world, as well as its capability to quickly determine the iPad’s location and then indicate it on the map. As I mention way back in Chapter 1, the iPad’s awareness of your location is one of the things ...