The Apple Blog

As a previous post indicated, Apple has yet to publicly release the iPhone/iTouch non-web SDK and it is still unclear if casual developers will be able to get their applications onto these new devices. As we all wait like expectant parents, there are some great resources out there for the current, Apple-preferred method of iPhone development.

Wrox Press recently released Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming: Building Applications for Mobile Safari by Richard Wagner. So far (not quite finished with it yet), the book is an great reference for iPhone web development and focuses on the most effective use of Joe Hewitt’s iUI framework. The CSS-heavy framework provides an excellent base for your iPhone/iTouch applications and enables you to focus on application design rather than device quirks.

One of the best features of the book is how Wagner drives home the need for applications to be both network-resilient and network-aware. The iPhone has the ever-tenuous EDGE connections to deal with and Wi-Fi is not always stable or speedy, even on the iTouch. This book and the iUI framework should help you quickly build robust and speedy web-based applications for either device and make you an overall better mobile-targeted web developer.

Web-based iApps will continue to have their place in the iWorld even after the on-device SDK is released and you can find additional resources over at iPhoneWebDev.

If you’re using the iUI framework, have read Richard Wagner’s book or have other suggestions for mobile web development, drop a note in the comments with your thoughts/experiences/suggestions.

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