Advanced

With Advanced iOS 4 Programming, developers have the expert guidance they need to create amazing applications for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Inside, veteran mobile developer Dr. Maher Ali begins with a foundation introduction to Objective C and Cocoa Touch programming, and then guides readers through building apps with Apple's iPhone SDK 4 – including coverage of the major categories of new APIs and building apps for the new Apple iPad.

This book concentrates on illustrating GUI concepts programmatically, allowing readers to fully appreciate the complete picture of iOS 4 development without relying on Interface Builder. In addition, Interface Builder is covered in several chapters.

Advanced iOS 4 Programming delves into more advanced topics going beyond the basics of iOS 4 development, providing comprehensive coverage that will help you get your apps to the App Store quicker.

Key features include:

• Objective-C programming language and runtime
• Interface Builder
• Building advanced mobile user interfaces
• Collections
• Cocoa Touch
• Core Animation and Quartz 2D
• Model-view-controller (MVC) designs
• Developing for the iPad
• Grand Central Dispatch
• Parsing XML documents using SAX, DOM, and TouchXML
• Working with the Map Kit API
• Remote and Local Push Notification
• Blocks (closures) in Objective-C
• Building advanced location-based applications
• Developing database applications using the SQLite engine
• GameKit framework

Many Flex books cover the basics—this book does something different, and goes far further. The authors, leading Flash platform developers at Almer/Blank, working with Adobe User Group communities, are the creators of the Rich Media Exchange (RMX), a social media network for Adobe developers. In covering just how the RMX was built, this book contains all the knowledge you need to build similar large-scale Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex. From the inception of the idea through to deployment, the authors show the techniques needed to plan and build advanced applications. You'll learn how to use forms, styles, validators, video, sound analysis, and framework caching, ensuring you make the most of the new features introduced in Flex 3. Powerful applications require solid back ends. This book shows how to hook up a Flex application to PHP back-end systems such as Drupal and OpenAds. You'll learn how various parts of the RMX were built, including the blogs, event calendar, jobs board, and advertising system—elements that come together to really showcase the power of Flex. The RMX is built by Adobe Developers for Adobe Developers—a rewarding community relationship that guarantees results. The same spirit is carried into this book, with the authors wanting and helping to take you to the next level of Flash Platform application development.

In this book you'll learn how to

• Effectively plan, wireframe, specify, develop, and release large-scale Flex applications, and discover what other development tools you'll want to start using immediately
• Make your Flex applications look less like Flex with advanced styling and skinning techniques
• Harness advanced Flex form features, including coding validators and building your custom form components
• Implement a robust advertising system for a Flex application using OpenAds
• Build powerful, custom multimedia players in Flex, including video players with the native VideoDisplay class and from scratch, and music players with advanced sound visualization

Summary of Contents

• PART 1 PLANNING THE RMX
  • Chapter 1 Introduction to Flex 2 Applications
  • Chapter 2 Defining the Application: Introducing the RMX
  • Chapter 3 Planning the Application: Building the RMX
• PART 2 BUILDING THE RMX CORE FUNCTIONS
  • Chapter 4 Preparing to Get to Work
  • Chapter 5 Styling Flex
  • Chapter 6 Collecting and Working with Aggregated Content
  • Chapter 7 Secondary Navigation
  • Chapter 8 Forms and Validation
  • Chapter 9 User Communications
  • Chapter 10 Working with Video
  • Chapter 11 Advertising and Flex
• PART 3 BUILDING OUT NEW FEATURES
  • Chapter 12 Building the Blog
  • Chapter 13 Building the Jobs Board
  • Chapter 14 Building the Event Calendar
  • Chapter 15 Ideas for the Future: Extending the RMX
• PART 4 SPECIAL TOPICS
  • Chapter 16 RSLs and Persistent Framework Caching
  • Chapter 17 Search Engine Optimization for Flex
  • Chapter 18 Building an Audio Visualizer in Flex
  • Appendix The Evolving Flex Scene

This book is a compilation of advanced ActionScript 3.0 animation techniques for any user creating games, user interaction, or motion control with ActionScript. It's a compilation of topics that follow on from the author's earlier book, Foundation ActionScript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move, and things that became possible in the most recent version of Flash: Flash Player 10. This book covers a diverse selection of topics that don't necessarily lead one into the other. You don't need to start with Chapter 1 and read it cover to cover. Just start with any chapter that looks interesting and jump around as you see fit. In this book, you'll find chapters on advanced collision detection, artificial intelligence and steering behaviors, isometric projection, using the camera and microphone for input, 3D, and much, much more.

The book is also more experimental in nature. The techniques shown here might not be the best way to do things, but they should work well and get you started in your own efforts to achieve a perfect implementation. In fact, many of the chapters can be seen as introductions to very complex topics that could fill a whole book by themselves. Many of these subjects have been extensively covered elsewhere, but not necessarily targeted for Flash or ActionScript 3.0. So it took a fair amount of work to pull the data together and get it all working and explain it all clearly in ActionScript. This book will inspire you to find out about subjects that you might not have considered before, acting as a springboard into your own research into the possibilities of ActionScript 3.0.

In this book, you'll learn how to:

• Leverage Flash 10 3D, the new drawing API commands, and Pixel Bender
• Create isometric worlds for games
• Construct powerful artificial intelligence routines including pathfinding, steering, and flocking behaviors
• Use numerical integration for real world physics effects
• Build advanced collision detection routines for more accurate simulations

Summary of Contents

1. Advanced Collision Detection
2. Steering Behaviors
3. Isometric Projection
4. Pathfinding
5. Alternate Input: The Camera and Microphone
6. Advanced Physics: Numerical Integration
7. 3D in Flash 10
8. Flash 10 Drawing API
9. Pixel Bender
10. Tween Engines

Are you getting the most out of your website? Google insider and web metrics expert Brian Clifton reveals the information you need to get a true picture of your site's impact and stay competitive using Google Analytics (GA) and the latest web metrics methodologies. Which marketing campaigns work best? How do you quantify their success? What indicators should you track? Packed with techniques and insider secrets not documented elsewhere, this book has the expert guidance you need to enhance your brand and increase your site's ROI.

Many Flex books cover the basics—this book does something different, and goes far further. The authors, leading Flash platform developers at Almer/Blank, working with Adobe User Group communities, are the creators of the Rich Media Exchange (RMX), a social media network for Adobe developers. In covering just how the RMX was built, this book contains all the knowledge you need to build similar large-scale Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex. From the inception of the idea through to deployment, the authors show the techniques needed to plan and build advanced applications. You'll learn how to use forms, styles, validators, video, sound analysis, and framework caching, ensuring you make the most of the new features introduced in Flex 3. Powerful applications require solid back ends. This book shows how to hook up a Flex application to PHP back-end systems such as Drupal and OpenAds. You'll learn how various parts of the RMX were built, including the blogs, event calendar, jobs board, and advertising system—elements that come together to really showcase the power of Flex. The RMX is built by Adobe Developers for Adobe Developers—a rewarding community relationship that guarantees results. The same spirit is carried into this book, with the authors wanting and helping to take you to the next level of Flash Platform application development.

In this book you'll learn how to

• Effectively plan, wireframe, specify, develop, and release large-scale Flex applications, and discover what other development tools you'll want to start using immediately
• Make your Flex applications look less like Flex with advanced styling and skinning techniques
• Harness advanced Flex form features, including coding validators and building your custom form components
• Implement a robust advertising system for a Flex application using OpenAds
• Build powerful, custom multimedia players in Flex, including video players with the native VideoDisplay class and from scratch, and music players with advanced sound visualization

Summary of Contents

• PART 1 PLANNING THE RMX
  • Chapter 1 Introduction to Flex 2 Applications
  • Chapter 2 Defining the Application: Introducing the RMX
  • Chapter 3 Planning the Application: Building the RMX
• PART 2 BUILDING THE RMX CORE FUNCTIONS
  • Chapter 4 Preparing to Get to Work
  • Chapter 5 Styling Flex
  • Chapter 6 Collecting and Working with Aggregated Content
  • Chapter 7 Secondary Navigation
  • Chapter 8 Forms and Validation
  • Chapter 9 User Communications
  • Chapter 10 Working with Video
  • Chapter 11 Advertising and Flex
• PART 3 BUILDING OUT NEW FEATURES
  • Chapter 12 Building the Blog
  • Chapter 13 Building the Jobs Board
  • Chapter 14 Building the Event Calendar
  • Chapter 15 Ideas for the Future: Extending the RMX
• PART 4 SPECIAL TOPICS
  • Chapter 16 RSLs and Persistent Framework Caching
  • Chapter 17 Search Engine Optimization for Flex
  • Chapter 18 Building an Audio Visualizer in Flex
  • Appendix The Evolving Flex Scene

This book is a compilation of advanced ActionScript 3.0 animation techniques for any user creating games, user interaction, or motion control with ActionScript. It's a compilation of topics that follow on from the author's earlier book, Foundation ActionScript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move, and things that became possible in the most recent version of Flash: Flash Player 10. This book covers a diverse selection of topics that don't necessarily lead one into the other. You don't need to start with Chapter 1 and read it cover to cover. Just start with any chapter that looks interesting and jump around as you see fit. In this book, you'll find chapters on advanced collision detection, artificial intelligence and steering behaviors, isometric projection, using the camera and microphone for input, 3D, and much, much more.

The book is also more experimental in nature. The techniques shown here might not be the best way to do things, but they should work well and get you started in your own efforts to achieve a perfect implementation. In fact, many of the chapters can be seen as introductions to very complex topics that could fill a whole book by themselves. Many of these subjects have been extensively covered elsewhere, but not necessarily targeted for Flash or ActionScript 3.0. So it took a fair amount of work to pull the data together and get it all working and explain it all clearly in ActionScript. This book will inspire you to find out about subjects that you might not have considered before, acting as a springboard into your own research into the possibilities of ActionScript 3.0.

In this book, you'll learn how to:

• Leverage Flash 10 3D, the new drawing API commands, and Pixel Bender
• Create isometric worlds for games
• Construct powerful artificial intelligence routines including pathfinding, steering, and flocking behaviors
• Use numerical integration for real world physics effects
• Build advanced collision detection routines for more accurate simulations

Summary of Contents

1. Advanced Collision Detection
2. Steering Behaviors
3. Isometric Projection
4. Pathfinding
5. Alternate Input: The Camera and Microphone
6. Advanced Physics: Numerical Integration
7. 3D in Flash 10
8. Flash 10 Drawing API
9. Pixel Bender
10. Tween Engines

Are you getting the most out of your website? Google insider and web metrics expert Brian Clifton reveals the information you need to get a true picture of your site's impact and stay competitive using Google Analytics (GA) and the latest web metrics methodologies. Which marketing campaigns work best? How do you quantify their success? What indicators should you track? Packed with techniques and insider secrets not documented elsewhere, this book has the expert guidance you need to enhance your brand and increase your site's ROI.

With Advanced iOS 4 Programming, developers have the expert guidance they need to create amazing applications for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Inside, veteran mobile developer Dr. Maher Ali begins with a foundation introduction to Objective C and Cocoa Touch programming, and then guides readers through building apps with Apple's iPhone SDK 4 – including coverage of the major categories of new APIs and building apps for the new Apple iPad.

This book concentrates on illustrating GUI concepts programmatically, allowing readers to fully appreciate the complete picture of iOS 4 development without relying on Interface Builder. In addition, Interface Builder is covered in several chapters.

Advanced iOS 4 Programming delves into more advanced topics going beyond the basics of iOS 4 development, providing comprehensive coverage that will help you get your apps to the App Store quicker.

Key features include:

• Objective-C programming language and runtime
• Interface Builder
• Building advanced mobile user interfaces
• Collections
• Cocoa Touch
• Core Animation and Quartz 2D
• Model-view-controller (MVC) designs
• Developing for the iPad
• Grand Central Dispatch
• Parsing XML documents using SAX, DOM, and TouchXML
• Working with the Map Kit API
• Remote and Local Push Notification
• Blocks (closures) in Objective-C
• Building advanced location-based applications
• Developing database applications using the SQLite engine
• GameKit framework

Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Web Premium How-Tos: Essential Techniques is a concise, economical, current, and informed guide to the key techniques for creating inviting and accessible Web sites using Adobe Creative Suite CS5. Readers choose the How-Tos guide when they want immediate access to just what they need to know to get results. This book shows readers the Dreamweaver CS5 features they need to manage Web sites; design page layout with CSS styles; and generate menu bars, tabbed panels, tooltips, datasets, and forms with validation scripts. It gives readers the Photoshop CS5 skills to prepare photos and thumbnails for the Web. It teaches Illustrator CS5 techniques to create Web banners, navigations icons, and scalable graphic elements. It shows how to create scrollbars and buttons in Flash Catalyst CS5. Readers can learn to generate animation in Flash Professional CS5, and they can discover ways to integrate Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash to create cutting-edge Web sites with custom video players, animation, and interactivity.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Power Users: Advanced Capabilities and Techniques is for Mac OS X users who want to go beyond the obvious, the standard, and the easy. If want to dig deeper into Mac OS X and maximize your skills and productivity using the world’s slickest and most elegant operating system, then this is the book for you.

Written by Scott Granneman, an experienced teacher, developer, and consultant, Mac OS X for Power Users helps you push Mac OS X to the max, unveiling advanced techniques and options that you may have not known even existed. Create custom workflows and apps with Automator, run Windows programs and even Windows itself without dual-booting, and sync data on your hard drive, on your phone, and in the cloud—learn all of these techniques and more.

This is not a book that talks down to you; Mac OS X for Power Users is an essential book for experienced Mac users who are smart enough to know there is more to be known, and are ready to become power users.

What you’ll learn

• How to create your own custom workflows, apps, and services with one of Mac OS X’s hidden gems: Automator.
• How to share an external USB hard drive with a Windows and Linux users and mount a network drive using SSH
• How to run Windows—or even Linux—while youíre still running Mac OS X, without dual-booting. Even run the three major operating systems—Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux—at the same time!
• How to customize Safari to make it even better than it already is.
• All about browser options—Chrome, Opera, Camino, Stainless, and Arora.
• How to manage data on your hardrive, on your phone, and in the cloud, with almost instantaneous syncing.
• How to protect yourself and your valuable data. Find out lots of great, useful info on firewalls, encryption, passwords, backup, and more.

Who this book is for

This book is for people who already know how to use their Macs but want to go beyond that. They want to be more efficient and productive, and they’re not afraid to try new techniques and software to do so. They also realize how valuable their data is, and they want to protect it in the smartest ways possible.

This book is also perfect for anyone who administers a group of Macs, because they will find lots of useful methods for managing their machines and also helping them work together.