The Advanced iOS 6 Developer's Cookbook Book Review

This book is what it claims to be and that is a cookbook on advanced topics. I would follow the author's advice and if you are a beginner with Objective-C or iOS, this book is not the one you want to start with. This book is however an excellent book for experienced developers. The first chapter kicks right into overdrive with a really nice overview of device specific development. It shows you how to get device capabilities and how to take advantage of that information in your applications. It continues on with 12 more excellent chapters which I have listed below. 1. Device-Specific Development 2. Documents and Data Sharing 3. Core Text 4. Geometry 5. Networking 6. Images 7. Cameras 8. Audio 9. Connecting to the Address Book 10. Location 11. GameKit 12. StoreKit 13. Push Notifications One of my favorite chapters in the book was on the use of attributed strings and Core Text. That is probably because I needed to use the knowledge in that chapter in an application immediately. It was perfect timing and it does a great job of showing how iOS 6 has been updated. I also used the chapter on Push Notifications immediately. I needed to understand how they work because we are using Airwatch which requires an Apple Push Notification Service Certificate. The chapter really helped clarify how they work, when to use them, and when not to use them. This book picks up where the authors book The Core iOS 6 Developer's Cookbook left off with networking. The chapter on networking included in this book covers handling authentication challenges, using the system keychain, and working with OAuth. I did not bother doing all the iTunes Connect registration required by Apple to use the GameKit chapter. Apple needs to fix this process. I only breezed through the GameKit chapter and the StoreKit chapter. I have no requirements for either in the applications I am currently building. Like the author's other books, this book is much more than just a cookbook with a bunch of recipes in it. I have used plenty of cookbooks and they are never readable from cover to cover. I usually just familiarize myself with the recipes that are available, read the ones interesting to me at the time, and throw them on the shelf until I need them. This one is both a great cover to cover read as well as a great reference. The author does a great job of mixing a traditional book with a recipe book. Each chapters contain both background information and recipes. This book lives up to the cookbook title. There is tons of code that comes with it and it is all very well organized and usable. The only thing I didn't like was that the author used HelloWorld.xcodeproj for the project name every time. After you open a few projects you have to go to Finder and the actual folder to reopen a specific one because all your shortcuts are HelloWorld.xcodeproj. Over all I found this to be an excellent book for experienced developers. It is a perfect addition to her The Core iOS 6 Developer's Cookbook.

The Advanced iOS 6 Developer's Cookbook (4th Edition)

Blender Master Class: A Hands-On Guide to Modeling, Sculpting, Materials, and Rendering Book Review

Blender is a beast. At least to a guy like me that is usual in code and not in user interface tools. Sure I use Xcode, Eclipse, and Visual Studio but they just give me a place to code. I have used Photoshop, GIMP, and Expression Studio which make you depend on the tools available but Blender is in a class of its own. I have downloaded it in the past around the time Big Buck Bunny was first released. I spent a few weeks playing with it, but got nowhere. This book convinced me to take another crack at it and I am really glad I did. The book starts off with an introduction to Blender and a short introduction to GIMP. GIMP is another powerful open source tool the author uses for 2D image editing throughout the book. For a great book on GIMP check out The Book of GIMP: A Complete Guide to Nearly Everything . I have a review of that book here. I have listed all the chapters below to give you an idea of all the high level topics covered. Each chapter is packed with tons of information. 1. Introduction to Blender 2. Introduction to GIMP 3. Preparation 4. Blocking In 5. Modeling the Details 6. Sculpting 7. Retopology 8. UV Unwrapping 9. Hair and Particle Systems 10. Texture Baking 11. Texture Painting 12. Materials 13. Lighting 14. Rendering and Compositing 15. Going Further I had Blender open almost the entire time I read the book. It took a little longer to get through because I kept getting sidetracked trying different things, and wanted to be in front of a computer with Blender on it, but I think it was worth it. Blender really is an amazing tool and I know the author said they have made great improvements to the user interface to make it more intuitive, but I would still be lost in it without a book like this. Without this book I would have never figured out how to do sculpting correctly or work with particle systems and paint textures. This book goes into some really advanced modelling techniques, which makes this book great for both the beginner and the advanced user. The book sticks to creating, texturing, and rendering models as still images. It does not cover the rigging and animation tools, simulation tools, or the game engine. That takes nothing away from the book and actually makes it better. Focusing on creating, texturing, and rendering models as still images the author is able to go in depth on a massive amount of topics. The book comes with some awesome examples. Without them I probably would have not have learned as much as I did. It was pretty cool to see how powerful Blend is and how awesome the results of using it correctly can be. The author does some really cool stuff. The author's writing style also made the very complex tools easier to understand. The book is written like he is there in the room with you helping you learn and showing you how to work through the steps of creating still images. This book has literally opened up a whole new world of creative possibilities. I now have Blender open every chance I get. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about Blender, or anyone working with Blender at any level.

Blender Master Class: A Hands-On Guide to Modeling, Sculpting, Materials, and Rendering

Sams Teach Yourself iOS 6 Application Development in 24 Hrs 4th Edition Book Review

If you want to learn iOS 6 development, this is a great place to start. The book spends the first several chapters covering the basics. The author first shows you how to get your system setup and how to install Xcode. He then covers the Xcode interface and the iOS simulator. After that he provides a short primer on Objective-C and then covers the Cocoa touch layers and the frameworks they contain. There are a ton of them but the author does a nice job of introducing them. You leave Hour 4 with a great understanding of the tools you have access to. The author continues with twenty more chapters broken down into hour long reads. Most chapters took me longer because I got sidetracked playing with the code samples. I have listed the chapters below. Their titles are descriptive enough to give you a good idea of what is covered. Hour 1. Preparing Your System and iDevice for Development Hour 2. Introduction to Xcode and the iOS Simulator Hour 3. Discovering Objective-C: The Language of Apple Platforms Hour 4. Inside Cocoa Touch Hour 5. Exploring Interface Builder Hour 6. Model-View-Controller Application Design Hour 7. Working with Text, Keyboards, and Buttons Hour 8. Handling Images, Animation, Sliders, and Steppers Hour 9. Using Advanced Interface Objects and Views Hour 10. Getting the User’s Attention Hour 11. Implementing Multiple Scenes and Popovers Hour 12. Making Choices with Toolbars and Pickers Hour 13. Advanced Storyboards Using Navigation and Tab Bar Controllers Hour 14. Navigating Information Using Table Views and Split View Controllers Hour 15. Reading and Writing Application Data Hour 16. Building Responsive User Interfaces Hour 17. Using Advanced Touches and Gestures Hour 18. Sensing Orientation and Motion Hour 19. Working with Rich Media Hour 20. Interacting with Other Applications Hour 21. Implementing Location Services Hour 22. Building Background-Aware Applications Hour 23. Building Universal Applications Hour 24. Application Tracing and Debugging The thing I like most about this book is the flow of topics. The author does a really good job of logically ordering the chapters so that you have learned what you need to know when you get to later chapters from the previous ones. The book also will work good as a reference. One topic missing was that I would have like to see is Core Data. The author gives a high level overview of it, but does not include it in any of the samples. The code samples are very well organized and usable. Each chapter has a iPhone and an iPad project except for the chapter on building universal applications. The best part about the code samples is they all work. That is not always the case anymore. I recently purchased a book on Core Data I had been really looking forward to getting my hands on. It had about 10 projects included as samples and none of them worked. After going back and forth with the author I threw the book on a shelf and decided to not even bother with it. He fixed three of them by the third round of updates. That gave me very little confidence in the advice he would offer in a book. I found the author's writing style made the book an easy cover to cover read. He is very good at explaining things at the right level of detail, and at the right time. You are not jumping all over the book because he is referencing you to other parts of it all time. I recently had that experience too and it isn't pleasant. All in all I highly recommend this book to anyone developing iOS or looking to start down that path. For more book recommendations check out my .NET, iOS, and Java Architecture and Development Book Recommendations for 2013

Sams Teach Yourself iOS 6 Application Development in 24 Hours (4th Edition)