How do you make an App?

How difficult it is depends on your programming skill. iOS apps are written in objective-c. If you are already familiar with another objective-oriented language, a bit of C and common OO design patterns it will not take long to pick it up.
There are some getting started docs on the iOS Dev Centre: http://developer.apple.com/library/...?section=Resource+Types&topic=Getting+Started

If there is anything specific you want to know about developing apps or publishing to the app store I'll do my best to help :)
 
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Cheers L33. I'm looking at making it compatible for both Apple and Android devices but it looks like i'm going to have to do loads of research 1st on cross platform coding/compatibility etc.. If there's anyone here that has made their own App for either the Android or Apple platform then any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated!
 
As far as I know, Apple devices only run obj c and Android only run Java.

2 aren't cross compatible. Anything written for one would need to be ported/rewritten for the other.

Unless you're an experienced programmer or outsource to the boys in Bangalore, I'd be looking for easier ways to make money.
 
Christ... is it really that bad? If so, I might only have a go at one then. I've got the Android SDK installed and running but the Phone emulator seems quite slow for some reason, anyway of sorting it out?
 
Christ... is it really that bad? If so, I might only have a go at one then. I've got the Android SDK installed and running but the Phone emulator seems quite slow for some reason, anyway of sorting it out?
I don't use the emulator, you can just use an android phone.

If it's a reasonably simple idea have a play with the android appInventor, it's fairly restrictive and can be a bit laborious, but a nice prototyping tool.
 
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Correct me if I am wrong, but to use IOS developer tools you need to sign up to be an Apple developer first, which is almost $100 a year, BEFORE you get the tools to play about with, while Android tools are free and you only need to pay the publisher one off fee of $25 IF you decide to put an app in market. Can someone correct or confirm the apple one? If thats the case, thats a serious dick move, can't even play with the tools to see if you can get anywhere before forking out recurring costs!

Wrote my first app for Android recently, partly as a test and partly because I wanted one, and not knowing Java is a pain. I am used to C and been coding in it for years. The move is a little hard, especially when you don't know what Java expects, or what it provides. But thats part of learning.
 
Hang on, does Android ONLY support Java? I remember watching an interview of a Google engineer saying that most Android apps run Java but things like games are coded in C.
 
The NDK will enable developers to code some of the performance-sensitive parts of their programs in C and reuse existing C code on the Android platform. It comes with some limitations, however, and is not intended to serve as a full alternative to Android's Java development model.

The NDK does not provide access to platform framework APIs. It's intended to be used alongside Java to code individual parts of programs that require existing C libraries or higher performance. JNI is used as the bridge between Java and native code.
Article is from 2009, but I think it still applies, from what I seen so far (started looking at the weekend), for UI of an app, its XML style layout and static data. The design methodology here seems to be static data is declared and assigned to screen elements at startup, and the Java bits handle actual logic, and data assignments further down the line.

I took a quick look at the game engine earlier as well, but at the time my eclipse thing wasn't set up properly so it didn't work, but everything was Java based and thankfully there was no need in the messy UI xml driven design. Just make calls to construct screens and such... but like I said, the tutorial didn't work for me at the time.

app (shameless plug :p),
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but to use IOS developer tools you need to sign up to be an Apple developer first, which is almost $100 a year, BEFORE you get the tools to play about with, while Android tools are free and you only need to pay the publisher one off fee of $25 IF you decide to put an app in market. Can someone correct or confirm the apple one? If thats the case, thats a serious dick move, can't even play with the tools to see if you can get anywhere before forking out recurring costs!
Only half right, you can do everything upto putting it on a device without spending anything. The SDK including xCode and an emulator is free. To test on specified devices or submit it for consideration to the app store you have to pay the $99/yr.

However you do need to be running the latest version of MacOS to be able to do any iphone dev. It's doable on a hackintosh but next time I come to doing some iOS stuff I think I'm going to pick up a mac mini for less hassle.
 
I've made an iPad game on the App Store so have some experience. If you've never coded before then it will be difficult to jump in with a full app straight away. There are many tutorials out there to help you learn though. Just realise that it will take time to learn what you need. If you're trying to decide between android or ios app then choose the one which you have a device of as that's essential for properly testing your app. Also bear in mind that you generally need a computer running osx to develop iphone/ipad apps.

edit: I would suggest using an engine - you don't necessarily have to learn objective c, I only ever coded in c++ for my app.
 
First queston - Do you own a Mac? You can only code apps for the iPhone on Mac.

Other than that, start on whatever phone you already own. The emulator will only get you so far and eventually you'll need to test your app on a real device.
 
Only half right, you can do everything upto putting it on a device without spending anything. The SDK including xCode and an emulator is free. To test on specified devices or submit it for consideration to the app store you have to pay the $99/yr.

I stand corrected, but don't have a mac to try it on... Will see how far I can get with Android, seeing as just started out. But to make any real money I think you need to either have a million apps, on one platform or develop for both...
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but to use IOS developer tools you need to sign up to be an Apple developer first, which is almost $100 a year, BEFORE you get the tools to play about with, while Android tools are free and you only need to pay the publisher one off fee of $25 IF you decide to put an app in market. Can someone correct or confirm the apple one? If thats the case, thats a serious dick move, can't even play with the tools to see if you can get anywhere before forking out recurring costs!
$100 isn't really that much when you consider the amount of iOS devices out there... Plus you don't have to deal with Java!
 
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$100 isn't really that much when you consider the amount of iOS devices out there... Plus you don't have to deal with Java!
$100 to lose a greater %age per app, great deal ;)
but for any real success I'd always ultimately intend to develop for both. Which comes first is just which is easier for you.
 
If you want to make money, iOS is definitely the way to go. Surprisingly, it seems like any app developer looking to go cross-platform should go with Blackberry next.
That does surprise me a bit, but androids growth isn't going to falter in comparision to BB. I have little-no doubt that android will be ahead of BB by the end of the year. That said, a port from android -> bb could be easier than to iOS.
As I said though, unless you're willing to lay out expense on hardware to get started just go with whichever you have tools available for (including prior knowledge)
 
Just seen a easier app thing called 'App Inventor' from Google. I've not had time to mess about with the official Android SDK yet though this seems like an easier way of making apps but they only look basic.
 
Just seen a easier app thing called 'App Inventor' from Google. I've not had time to mess about with the official Android SDK yet though this seems like an easier way of making apps but they only look basic.
You're restricted to a single screen (although you can either hide/display elements or launch apps within your app to cover this), and it is as I said above a pretty laborious process to get anything functioning, primarily because there is no copy and paste and while it may be simpler/less prone to errors dragging and dropping instead of just coding is a real ballache.
That said, it is a really nice little tool, and even starting from scratch should take no more than a couple of hours to get something doing what you want on your phone.
Including doing some of the tutorials I spent maybe 3 hours making an app that keeps track of the squash scores between me and a mate
 
Hang on, does Android ONLY support Java? I remember watching an interview of a Google engineer saying that most Android apps run Java but things like games are coded in C.

C for speed, yes.

cross platform there has been talk of Android being supported by http://monotouch.net/ for a while, but not seen anything solid myself
 
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