Geek Ninja Factory

Modern iOS Development

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:47:28 +0000

Aral Balkan will be teaching his iOS Development Workshop (Modern iOS Development) on November 26–28 in Brighton, UK. The course is three days long and teaches you how to make native iPhone and iPad apps using Objective‐C and Cocoa Touch. The class is aimed at giving developers solid foundations in iOS development. Prior experience in iOS development is not necessary.

For more information see the Modern iOS Development web site.

Native iOS Development Workshop in Brighton (iPhone & iPad apps with Objective-C and Cocoa Touch)

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:09:16 +0000

Become an iOS ninja in 3 days!

This unique and exclusive three-day course by Aral Balkan, author of the critically-acclaimed Feathers app, introduces you to Objective-C, the iOS SDK for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and Apple’s Xcode development environment (updated for Xcode 4 and iOS 5). The course is aimed at developers with little or no knowledge of iOS development.

Unlike purely academic courses, this is a pragmatic curriculum by a published iPhone developer, aimed at giving you a solid real-world foundation in developing and deploying iPhone applications using the iPhone SDK and Apple’s tools. Furthermore, Aral is a User Experience Designer and you will be learning not just how to develop iOS apps but how to build apps that conform to Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and to getting tips on user experience.

The course always uses the latest iOS SDK and covers iOS 5 and Xcode 4.2.

The class size is limited to 15 students to ensure that you receive personal instruction.

Day 1

Introduction to the iOS Platform and design considerations, Objective-C programming language, and Xcode.

Topics introduced include XCode 4.2, Interface Builder, the iOS SDK, a brief look at C, Objective-C, workflow, classes, objects, instance variables (ivars), methods, properties, protocols, UIKit, outlets, actions, and developing a workflow for working with UIKit components and performing common tasks using both Interface Builder and programmatic approaches (with tips on when to use which).

Other topics include handling rotations, memory management, organizing your code, logging, and debugging.

Day 2

Reinforcing and expanding the foundations.

Topics covered include using more complex components, including table views. Introduction to data sources, and delegates. Saving state. Performing view transitions and modal views. You will also see how you also already know how to develop for the iPad and we will cover some caveats specific to iPad development that you should keep in mind while designing and developing iPad apps.

The day ends with an example that uses Core Animation and custom touch handling (with circular hit testing) to animate and blow up the world (a “Goodbye, world!” example).

Day 3

Building a real-world app.

On the last day we will build a real-world Twitter-based example that uses all the skills and techniques we learned previously. This example will serve as a stepping-stone to start building your own first iOS app.

Topics covered include building table-based drill-down navigation, loading data and assets asynchronously to build non-blocking UIs, working with web services (via JSON/XML/etc.), understanding and using categories, and using third-party libraries.

At the end of the course, you will have the knowledge and skills to start building your first iOS app. You will have learned how to work with XCode and Interface Builder and know the foundations of developing iPhone applications using Objective-C and the iPhone SDK. Armed with this knowledge you can quickly learn to use any of the thousands of APIs in the iPhone SDK and create awesome iPhone apps.

Praise for Aral’s previous training courses:

“Brilliant explanations and analysis” – Samantha Grant, Tribal DDB
“Aral’s enthusiasm is contagious.” – Neil Webb, Cambridge University
“Enthusiastic, clear, helpful, professional” – Raymond Warren, Ebay
“I’m very impressed… excellent.” – Stephen Hamilton, MRM Partners

Prerequisites:

Bring your own Intel-based Mac laptop.
Register as an iPhone Developer (this is free).
Download and install the latest iPhone SDK and XCode.
Knowledge in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in at least one programming language.

Membership in the iPhone Developer Program ($99/yr) is not required but necessary if you want to test applications on your own device. Remember to bring along your iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad to test on.

Experience in an object-oriented programming or scripting language and previous development experience is expected (e.g., JavaScript, ActionScript/Flash, Java, C++, etc.) The course will expect knowledge of basic programming concepts (like loops) and basic object-oriented programming concepts (like inheritance) and familiarity with the concept of event-based programming. Experience in Objective-C or XCode is not required.

Android development workshop at Update 2011 by Richard Leggett

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:57:12 +0000

Learn Android development!

Overview

A two day workshop designed to provide a practical introduction to Android development fundamentals.

Android has exploded onto the scene (~550 thousand activations a day, back in May!), developers are in short supply, this is where we come in. The workshop will take place in a classroom-like atmosphere, laptop in hand. We’ll go right from getting you set up to testing on your device. This workshop is perfect for anyone who has a history with Flash or Flex, Web development, iOS and any other object-oriented visual technologies.

What you’ll learn.

It doesn’t matter if you’re completely new to Android, we’ll work through modules throughout the day, each with a completed project for you to open and work from. These modules include designing user interfaces in layout XML, hooking up widgets such as Buttons and ListViews. Applying skins and themes (including the marvelous 9-patch!). Running AsyncTasks in the background to keep your UI speedy. All of the essentials. To top it off we’ll end by building a sample project that you can take away and modify.

On the day you’ll need a laptop and preferably an Android device with USB cable (the emulator can be quite slow), and already have the Android Development Tool installed (instructions).

Learn more!

This workshop has a lovely site all its own, check out The Android Workshop web site.

Space is limited, secure your place today!

HTML5 Workshop at Update 2011 by Remy Sharp

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:53:30 +0000

Use web standards to make mobile applications

Overview

Building rich interactive web sites…dare I say web apps – is a reality with the smart phone browsers shipping with all the latest JavaScript and CSS technologies.

This day long workshop will be a mix of introducing the latest technology & tricks on the mobile device and hands on practical exercises where you’ll get to play with what you’re learning.

Although this workshop will have an iOS focus, a lot of the technology we will look at applies to most new WebKit based devises (Android, Playbook, etc) and smartphones running Opera Mobile.

What you’ll learn

How to take advantage of unique properties of the mobile device, using some of the latest technologies
Handling and working with touch and other mobile specific events
Debugging approach: going way, way beyond the bad old alert
Working offline: storing application assets and all it’s data locally to the device
Looking at framework and libraries to speed up development and time to release
Deployment optimisations: getting your mobile app to your user real quick

Prerequisites

Bring your mobile device, preferably an iPhone or iPad with the latest OS
A little knowledge of CSS and JavaScript will help
The latest install of Google Chrome or Safari

Space is limited, secure your place today!

OpenGL ES development workshop at Update 2011 by Jeff LaMarche

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:45:26 +0000

Course outline

Welcome (& maybe a corny joke)
Introduction
- Very Brief History of OpenGL ES
- Overview of OpenGL ES Architecture
- OpenGL Naming Conventions & Datatypes
- Fixed Pipeline (GL ES 1.0) vs Programmable Pipeline (GL ES 2.0)
- Why OpenGL ES 2.0
- Introduction to GLKit
  - Other libraries for < 5.0 support
- When to Use, When Not to Use
  - Alternatives to OpenGL ES
- Hardware Architecture
  - GPU vs. CPU
  - Limitations of GPU
Fundamentals
- Cartesian Coordinate System
- 2D vs. 3D
- Vector vs. Scalar Datatypes
- Vertices
- Datatype & Terminology
- Role in Programmable Pipeline
- Polygons (Triangles)
- Winding Rule & Backface Culling
- Euclidian Vectors
- Color
The Programmable Pipeline
- Shaders
  - Vertex Shader
  - Fragment Shader
  - Intro to GLSL
    - Datatypes
    - Built-in Functions
- Attributes
- Uniforms
- Varyings
- Programs
  - MCGLProgram class
The Third Dimension
- OpenGL ES Buffers
  - Render Buffer
  - Frame Buffer
  - Depth Buffer
  - Configuring Buffers using GLKView
- Drawing
  - Vertex Arrays
  - glDrawArrays() vs. glDrawElements()
  - Drawing Modes (points, triangles, triangle strips, triangle fans, etc.)
Matrices
- Overview of Matrices
- Matrix Datatypes
  - GLKMatrix2, GLKMatrix3, GLKMatrix4
- Primary Uses of Matrices in OpenGL ES
  - Model, View, & Projection
- Model
  - Translation (Movement)
  - Rotation
    - Euler Angles & Gimbal Lock
  - Scale
- View
  - Look At
- Projection
  - Orthographic
  - Perspective
- Matrix Stacks
Lighting
- Overview of Lighting Concepts
  - Light Components: Specular, Diffuse, Ambient
  - OpenGL ES Lighting is a Cheat
  - Normals
- GLKBaseEffect lighting
  - Per vertex vs. Per pixel
- Shader Lighting
  - Per Vertex
  - Per Pixel
    - Directional
      - Simple
      - Blinn-Phong
    - Point Light
    - Spot Light
Textures
- Overview of OpenGL ES Textures
- Texture Units
- GLKTextureLoader
- Textures and Uniforms
  - Warning about glUniform1i() for texture use & relationship to shaders
- Blending Modes
- Repeating & Clamping Textures
- UV Texture Mapping
  - Texture Coordinates Datatype
- Cube Maps

Time permitting

Space & World Organization
- Overview of Spaces
  - Model Space (aka Object Space)
  - Camera Space
  - World Space
- Modeling a Camera System
Advanced Lighting &Shader Effects
- Normal Mapping & Dot 3 Lighting
- Toon Shading
Keyframe Animation
- Overview of Keyframe Animation
- Drawbacks
Quaternion
- Overview of Quaternion
- Quaternion Datatype
  - GLKQuaternion
- Conversion from Quaternion to Matrix and Back
Skeletal Animation
- Overview of Skeletal Animation
- Benefits & Drawbacks compared to Keyframe Animation
- Ways of Representing Bones & Skeletons
  - Joints vs. Bones
  - Quaternions vs. Matrices

Space is limited, secure your place today!

Geek Ninja Factory at Update 2011

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:19:35 +0000

Geek Ninja Factory is staging a new mobile conference in Brighton this September called Update 2011.

Update 2011 is a one-day conference that takes place on 5th September, 2011 at the Brighton Dome concert hall in Brighton, UK as part of the inaugural Brighton Digital Festival. Update features world-famous speakers from iOS, web, and user experience giving inspirational TED-style keynotes, 45-minute Geek Ninja Battles (moderated panel debates on mobile platforms, tools, and technologies), short tech-beats, and even live music and visualizations.

If you want to kick things off in style, you can also join speakers and sponsors on the evening of the 4th for the Royal Banquet – a champagne reception, private tour, and dinner for 90 people at the Royal Pavilion. We will also be ending things off with a bang with the A Night at the Museum after-party at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

Update is a unique, hand-crafted experience that you shouldn’t miss if you’re into mobile.

Geek Ninja Factory will also be hosting a series of workshops following the conference on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of September. Including an iOS Design Workshop by Sarah Parmenter, iOS Development Workshop by Aral Balkan, Android Development Workshop by Richard Leggett, HTML5 Workshop by Remy Sharp, OpenGL ES Workshop by Jeff LaMarche, Core Data Workshop by Marcus Zarra, Core Animation Workshop by Drew McCormack, and Appcelerator Titanium Workshop by Kevin Whinnery.

Core Data Workshop at Update 2011 by Marcus Zarra

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:34:25 +0000

Conquer Core Data with the master, Marcus Zarra

(Please note: You can take just one of the days or both.)

Introduction to Core Data (6th Sept)

This is a full day workshop on Core Data. In this session we will start at the beginning of Core Data and work very quickly up to the daily usage of Core Data. What do we use most often and how? What do all of the bits do?

Some things we will be discussing:

Creating a Core Data Stack

Creating managed objects

Finding existing managed objects

Versioning the data model

This will be a workshop format so there will be exercises and one on one opportunities as well as open periods where the class decides what direction the tutorials will take.

Advanced Core Data Workshop (7th Sept)

This is a full day workshop on Core Data. In this session we will be taking a deeper dive into Core Data and all of the sharper edges. This workshop will assume you have a working knowledge of the fundamentals of Core Data.

Some things we will be discussing:

Threading, threading, threading

Importing and exporting

Performant Searching

Edge case migrations

Real world horror stories and solutions

This will be a workshop format so there will be exercises and one on one opportunities as well as open periods where the class decides what direction the tutorials will take.

Take both workshops

Get started in Core Data and go beyond the basics by taking both classes together as a two-day workshop.

Space is limited, secure your place today!

Core Animation Workshop at Update 2011 by Drew McCormack

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:24:21 +0000

Learn how to use animations in your apps on iPhone and iPad

Overview

Core Animation underpins the user interface of virtually all iOS apps. Even if you don’t use the framework directly, it forms the base upon which the view classes rest, and has consequently played a pivotal role in the success of the platform.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to leverage Core Animation in your own apps, to provide feedback to the user, and — dare we suggest — add delicious effects and other eye candy. We’ll start the day learning about utilizing Core Animation via the UIView class, before moving on to more advanced usage and the CALayer class. Numerous types of animations will be covered, from basic translations and rotations, to dissolves and advanced transforms. Techniques for producing sequences of animations will be discussed, and you’ll even learn how to apply and animate Core Image filters.

In-depth

This one-day workshop will be very hands on, with the aim of imparting skills that you can take away and start using in your own software straight away. You will need to bring a laptop with Xcode installed, so that you can complete the exercises, and build and run examples.

The workshop will be based around a single, deceptively simple example: bouncing a ball. In the real world, bouncing a ball poses little challenge to most of us, but — as will become apparent as the day progresses — bouncing a virtual ball with Core Animation can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. Riffing on this one example will introduce all of the skills you need to incorporate Core Animation effectively in your own iOS apps.

Here is an outline of the day’s sessions:

What is Core Animation, and what is it good for?
Introduction to the framework, explaining what it is good for, and — just as importantly — what it is not good for.

UIView Animations.
How you use class methods in UIView to access basic features of Core Animation. We’ll start bouncing the ball, but only in very basic ways. We’ll also look at how timing is controlled in Core Animation, and how you can combine animations to make animated sequences.

CALayer: The Unsung Hero.
Digging down into the Core Animation framework itself, we’ll meet CALayer, the class upon which everything depends. You’ll learn how to put content into your layers using Quartz drawing, or an existing image.

Implicit Animations.
You get a lot for free with Core Animation. Often you don’t need to write any code at all to produce great animations. In this section, you’ll learn how that works, and how you can set default animations for your layers which are triggered by events.

Explicit Animations.
Sometimes you can’t leave it to chance: you need to get down and dirty, and build your animations up by hand. In this session you’ll be introduced to explicit animations, and the two most important animation classes: CABasicAnimation and CAKeyframeAnimation. We’ll start to bounce the ball in more creative ways, including accounting for inelasticity to improve realism.

Transforms.
You can apply advanced mathematical transforms to layers to create interesting effects. Translate, rotate, scale, skew, and everything in between. What’s more, transforms are fully animatable. We’ll use some of these transforms to add more physical effects to the ball, squashing it on impact, and introducing spin and wobble.

Other Layer Classes and Effects.
In this session, we’ll look at some of the more obscure aspects of Core Animation. Layer classes to create gradients, shapes, and even particle effects. We’ll also learn how to apply and animate Core Image filters. Your balls will never look the same again.

Space is limited, secure your place today!

Titanium development workshop at Update 2011 by Kevin Whinnery

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:14:58 +0000

Learn cross-platform mobile app development with JavaScript!

Course overview

The Titanium Mobile workshop will be an intensive two day training course on the fundamentals of writing native mobile applications in JavaScript.

Over two days, attendees will develop a cross-platform mobile application leveraging Titanium APIs for local and remote data access, rich media, filesystem I/O, location services, Facebook Connect, and more.

Throughout the course, we will learn and emphasise the proper use of platform appropriate user interfaces and JavaScript best practices. A functional Titanium Mobile development environment and beginner level JavaScript knowledge are required for the best possible experience during the course.

Bio

Kevin Whinnery is a core contributor and evangelist for Appcelerator, Inc., developers of the Appcelerator RIA framework. Prior to joining Appcelerator, Kevin carried out server-side Java programming and UI development for ERP vendor Lawson Software and technical consultancy Perficient, Inc. Kevin is also the author of the upcoming book Appcelerator In Action from Manning Publications.

Space is limited, secure your place today!

iOS Design Workshop at Update 2011 by Sarah Parmenter

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:59:48 +0000

Learn to design apps for iPhone and iPad

Overview

Designing for iPhone and iPad is becoming a natural progression in many jobs and an expectation from employers.

The learning curve can be quite steep and many underestimate just what is involved with designing for these devices, finding themselves knee deep in a project but not knowing where to start. This workshop will conquer the unknown and is suitable for anyone who is starting out in iOS Design or expected to design for iOS Devices as part of their everyday job. By the end of the workshop day, you will be able to plan, design and prepare final documents for developers and gain a full knowledge of all the essential stages of designing for iPhone and iPad.

A basic knowledge of Photoshop will be required for the design session late morning and a flair for design a bonus, but obviously, not essential.

Schedule

Morning

Introduction to iOS Design

ADS Writing and Preparation

Wireframing, covering interaction design and planning

Design Session

Afternoon

Design Session continued

Designing the perfect icon

Preparing for Retina Display (iPhone 4)

Preparation of final documents for onward developers

Space is limited, secure your place today!