Free Stanford iPhone dev podcasts downloaded 1 million times
Interest in iPhone development is hot enough to be setting records in another category Apple has pioneered: education podcasts. Stanford's iPhone course has recently hit a million downloads milestone in iTunes U.
Standford's class on iPhone development captured attention last fall when it was still uncertain how well Apple would tolerate any external discussion of development details related its mobile platform then entirely covered by a broad Nondisclosure Agreement.
Since then, Apple has relaxed its position as the iPhone has taken off commercially and after the company successfully patented a variety of key unique inventions related to its development platform.
Stanford's second iPhone class generated new attention after the university promised to publish it to the public as a free podcast using Apple's iTunes U, which itself is only two years old.
Some pundits expressed doubts about whether iTunes would support iPhone popularity to the same degree as it had for iPod sales, at least up until the iTunes App Store opened and began generating mobile software sales at a blistering rate.
Apple has served over a billion applications to iPhone and iPod touch users within the first nine months of the App Store, compared to the two years it took to serve the first billion songs to iPod users. In both cases, Apple was largely marketing third party products for a minimal cut to support store operations, seeking to fuel hardware demand with content rather than trying to profit on software sales.
Even so, the company has still earned profits on the transactions, which have been used to fund new developments in the iTunes Store and in iTunes itself, including support for podcasting, something that does not directly profit the company.
iTunes U is an example of this investment in podcasting. Apple has also developed podcasting support in GarageBand and markets the Podcast Producer feature of Mac OS X Server to universities and companies as a way to efficiently produce educational content, which can then be published through iTunes.
This has resulted in a tight ecosystem where universities are using Apple's podcasting tools to generate iTunes U content about developing for the iPhone, and students are using the iPhone to download this free content in order to learn about mobile development and profit from their education by writing new iPhone apps to be sold in the iTunes App Store.
Standford's class on iPhone development captured attention last fall when it was still uncertain how well Apple would tolerate any external discussion of development details related its mobile platform then entirely covered by a broad Nondisclosure Agreement.
Since then, Apple has relaxed its position as the iPhone has taken off commercially and after the company successfully patented a variety of key unique inventions related to its development platform.
Stanford's second iPhone class generated new attention after the university promised to publish it to the public as a free podcast using Apple's iTunes U, which itself is only two years old.
Some pundits expressed doubts about whether iTunes would support iPhone popularity to the same degree as it had for iPod sales, at least up until the iTunes App Store opened and began generating mobile software sales at a blistering rate.
Apple has served over a billion applications to iPhone and iPod touch users within the first nine months of the App Store, compared to the two years it took to serve the first billion songs to iPod users. In both cases, Apple was largely marketing third party products for a minimal cut to support store operations, seeking to fuel hardware demand with content rather than trying to profit on software sales.
Even so, the company has still earned profits on the transactions, which have been used to fund new developments in the iTunes Store and in iTunes itself, including support for podcasting, something that does not directly profit the company.
iTunes U is an example of this investment in podcasting. Apple has also developed podcasting support in GarageBand and markets the Podcast Producer feature of Mac OS X Server to universities and companies as a way to efficiently produce educational content, which can then be published through iTunes.
This has resulted in a tight ecosystem where universities are using Apple's podcasting tools to generate iTunes U content about developing for the iPhone, and students are using the iPhone to download this free content in order to learn about mobile development and profit from their education by writing new iPhone apps to be sold in the iTunes App Store.
Comments
The great thing about iPhone programming is that its a relatively easier subset of Mac programming and should encourage many more developers to give it a try.
Peace.
Following it myself. Highly recommended.
The great thing about iPhone programming is that its a relatively easier subset of Mac programming and should encourage many more developers to give it a try.
Probably the one thing people forget is that design really matters. In fact, I was watching one of the videos from the SDK event Apple had (if you're a Registered iPhone Developer, make sure to check out the links on the dev portal), and the video on design is INCREDIBLY important. Namely, you should have spent a SHITLOAD of time working on an app's design before you've even bothered to think of writing one line of code. Forgoing this step just leads to numerous headaches.
But here at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, there is nothing that can match self-paced study. Why take the slow road when there's a far faster, more efficient and less error-prone way!
Myself, I've watched every video that exists, read every published book on iPhone development, been to WWDC (and watched the Stanford lectures, too) and by far and away, the path of least resistance consists of two things...
First, watching Apple's excellent well-constructed videos -- the originals, the Tech Talk Tour (excellent) and the sessions from WWDC at your own pace, when you're ready.
And second, the book "Beginning iPhone Development" by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche stands above the others with it's superior and incredibly thoughtful construction, introducing you to everything you need to know to push your boat away from the pier, just when you need to know it, and with a sense of gratification and accomplishment all along the way.
When you follow through a book and type things in with your fingers you take advantage of sense memory learning, as well. Furthermore, you are pretty much guaranteed there won't be huge gaps in your basic knowledge which will certainly create a lot of confusion, wasted time, and errors, nor will you waste time learning about things don't yet realize you didn't need to know, which is unavoidable when we read Apple's formal documentation.
I have 3.0 from friend, real copy not some torrent. Anyway I am not a developer but I do have some great game ideas if someone wants to PM me. It's a game that wouldnsell in the millions. First person shooter. That's all I'll say for now.
Peace.
LMAO!
That's the real trick, isn't it? Ideas are a dime a dozen, giving those ideas form is the difficult part.
Thing about the iPhone is that it's easy to write an app. Problem is that it's hard to write a great app.
Probably the one thing people forget is that design really matters. In fact, I was watching one of the videos from the SDK event Apple had (if you're a Registered iPhone Developer, make sure to check out the links on the dev portal), and the video on design is INCREDIBLY important. Namely, you should have spent a SHITLOAD of time working on an app's design before you've even bothered to think of writing one line of code. Forgoing this step just leads to numerous headaches.
Working out the functions and screens on a series of notecards prior to coding is helpful.
Frankly, I find it amazing there are as many apps as there are on the App Store. Especially since it appears many new devs are either new to programming or new to Apple.
Working out the functions and screens on a series of notecards prior to coding is helpful.
Frankly, I find it amazing there are as many apps as there are on the App Store. Especially since it appears many new devs are either new to programming or new to Apple.
I think it's a combination of "easy to learn enough to get something working" (even if it's pretty lame), relatively low initial investment, and the notion that, if you're lucky, you might just make a mint (even though odds are you won't, especially if you have a crappy app).
For a while there it seemed like anyone who could come up with a "cute" idea, no matter how trivial to implement, could make a quick 20-30k, no sweat. I doubt that was ever true, but how many people heard tell of some fart app or flashlight app or goofy noise app raking in some serious dough and rushed out to buy a book on iPhone programming?
I would imagine there will come a point, if it hasn't come already, that folks will come to understand that the gold rush is over, and app store growth will either slow or trend toward higher quality apps.
I think it's a combination of "easy to learn enough to get something working" (even if it's pretty lame), relatively low initial investment, and the notion that, if you're lucky, you might just make a mint (even though odds are you won't, especially if you have a crappy app).
For a while there it seemed like anyone who could come up with a "cute" idea, no matter how trivial to implement, could make a quick 20-30k, no sweat. I doubt that was ever true, but how many people heard tell of some fart app or flashlight app or goofy noise app raking in some serious dough and rushed out to buy a book on iPhone programming?
I would imagine there will come a point, if it hasn't come already, that folks will come to understand that the gold rush is over, and app store growth will either slow or trend toward higher quality apps.
The average novelty app will continue to flood the 'free app' categories, but the clear trend recently has been for deeper, better designed apps that range from $2.99 and up (I've noticed a number of them priced around $5.99).
The legendary Stanford CS 106A and CS 106B courses are also available on iTunes - highly recommended for a thorough grounding in Java and C++.
Ideas are free; implementation sells.
Now why in the world would I need a Fred Sanford iPhone. "Watch it $ucka".
You're not related to Toni, Tone, Tony are you?
Now why in the world would I need a Fred Sanford iPhone. "Watch it $ucka".
There's an app for that.