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Whether you’re a coding beginner or an experienced programmer new to iOS, these days it is possible for anyone to develop an iOS app, especially with the advent of Swift for the upcoming iOS8. However, if you like Objective-C better, it is still a viable language to code iOS. Here are some sites that will help you learn how to develop iOS apps.
Naturally, the most detailed tutorial you can find is this 500-page free ebook provided by Apple, which also serves as the coding manual for developers. This massive guide is written to help beginners and experienced programmers alike, so it's definitely a great and clear source for those who are willing to invest the time to read the entire book. Swift is designed to be easier for those without programming experience, so now is definitely the time to get started on learning swift if you're new to coding and haven't learned Objective C yet!
If you're not ready to invest in the new Swift language, you can still refer to Apple's official documents on Objective C. Many programmers with experience have found it quite helpful. As Swift is based off of Objective C and C, you'll have little problem learning Swift after you've mastered Objective C.
Raywenderlich is arguably one of the best resources for beginners to learn iOS development, as its tutorials are concise and easy to understand for total beginners. The site offers written and video tutorials for both Objective C and Swift, and as their slogan is to offer tutorials for developers and gamers, naturally they have tutorials for coding iOS game apps with unity or corona. They also have a forum where you can ask questions about iOS development. All in all, if you don’t want to read the apple developer documents yet, this is the site to go to.
Formerly known as the New Boston, this site offers a wealth of free video tutorials for all-things programming, and that includes 65 videos on Objective C and another 37 devoted to iPhone development. The videos are thorough and clear, which makes this a great option for those who don’t like to read written tutorials.
iOS blog offers extensive tutorials for both Objective C and Swift for non-programmers, from how to build your first app to how-to guides such as integrating social media in your apps along with other tips and resources for iOS development.
This site offers how-to guides for developing apps in iOS 8 using swift, though it is probably going to be more helpful to intermediate programmers who already read the official Apple documents for swift.
AppCoda offers an extensive series of tutorials for total beginners to get started on building their first iOS apps step-by-step. The site also offers many how-tos and tips for general iOS development, which many may find helpful.
People who already have some basic understanding of the C programming language may find this site quite useful in learning Objective C, which is the language iOS apps are written in. The tutorials area clear and covers the basics for coding Cocoa apps for iPhone. The author of these tutorials has been published with O’Reilly.
If you want to learn app development from a professor like a college student, what better way to do so than watch the Stanford App courses? Every year Stanford releases free video courses on iOS app development, which can be downloaded from iTunes.
Those who already have some programming knowledge but are new to iOS development may find Tutorials Point quite helpful, as the site is catered towards helping intermediate or advanced programmers with prior knowledge get started on iOS development.
Geeky Lemon offers a wide range of how-tos for iOS development, mostly for Objective C.
Think & Build isn’t updated frequently, but when it is, there are several helpful how-to articles and tips about Objective C and Swift, mostly with a focus on UI-related coding such as 3D drawing and animation in iOS.
Bloc offers bootcamp training courses, but they also have a free tutorial on how to build an iPhone game app with swift, which should be pretty interesting and helpful.
Chris is an iOS developer who blogs iPhone app development tutorials for beginners with no programming experience. He has written guides for both Objective C and Swift, while also offering general tips for app developers.
With over 29k enrolled students and a rating averaging about 4 stars, this the most popular iOS course on Udemy for good reason. Many students had found the courses concise and efficient, and the pricing is quite reasonable as well for 350+ videos that teaches you how to build 14 apps step by step. Definitely something to check out for aspiring Objective-C developers.
Treehouse is one of the leading online coding education providers and a great learning resource for beginners. Their site offers quizzes and coding challenges to help cement what you have learned, and their member-only forum is quite active in answering any questions. Suffice to say, many beginners have found the extensive video course collection clear, concise, and easy to understand.
For those who already learned how to develop iOS apps and are looking to improve themselves, NS Hipster is a great place to get tips and tricks for Objective C, Cocoa, and even Swift, so many iOS developers may find this blog an interesting read.
Another great blog for advanced developers to get some tips and tricks on iOS development, Natasha the Robot offers quite a few helpful articles.
To learn some interesting new things about Swift as a language, the Airspeed Velocity is a good blog to follow. The author has a curious mind and likes to post about interesting things he has learned, and is also quite quick to respond to any feedback about his articles.
If you need inspiration or just want to learn how some app controls work, then Cocoa Controls is a great site to follow. Who knows, you may decide to use some of the code components here, and it will definitely save you a lot of time as well.
If you’re new to iOS development and somehow not using source control and somehow have never heard of Git, many iOS developers will strongly urge you to start using it. Git is a free, open source system used by pretty much all developers and all companies.
Most iOS developers probably already know about AFNetworking, and for good reason. It is an extremely useful networking library that makes it easier for apps to handle network requests, and loads images quite fast indeed. If you’re new to iOS development and have never heard of AFNetworking…well, now you have.
Again, one of the must-use tools for iOS development if you need dependency management for using various codes made by other people. This neat little plugin for Xcode will help you fetch the newest codes from open-source libraries, resolve dependencies, and save space for your project. There is pretty much no alternative to this tool, and there are many tutorials on how to use it as well. Make sure to try this plugin out once you’ve nailed the basics of iOS development!
Bugs are inevitable, and no matter how much of a pain they are to deal with, all coders have to resolve them as timely as possible. Crashytics is now owned by twitter, and it is a great and free tool for handling crash reports for iOS only apps.
Like Test Flight, HockeyApp also handles distributions and it has a thriving community of independent app makers, and is compatible with many third-party tools such as GitHub.
Designed specifically for Objective-C, this debugging tool is faster and more powerful than NSLog, and gives a more detailed log than the one produced by iPhone.
The Spark Inspector is a powerful debugger for iOS apps, and it gives you a real-time 3-dimentional view of your app’s interface by hierarchy to make it easier to debug. It also lets you monitor the NSNotificationCenter in real-time to help developers debug notifications.
