It took several weeks for Apple to approve my application, but I’m now an official, registered iPhone developer. And I’m out $99.
After getting all set up with Xcode, I built my first “Hello, iPhone!” application, which technically didn’t require me to write any code at all. It’s pretty easy to get up and running using iPhone simulator. Being able to load an app on the iPhone itself is quite a bit more work, however.
Apple doesn’t want just anyone putting apps on their phone, so you have to jump through a few hoops first. But after creating and downloading the variety of security certificates, I am now able to upload apps to the iPhone. I ran into a little trouble attempting to rename the built app (it is not nearly as straightforward as it should be). The renamed app would run fine in the simulator, but would not transfer to the iPhone. I ended up just starting over with a new app and it’s all working fine now.
Next up is for me to start working through the chapters of “Beginning iPhone Development (Apress)“. A new edition is out covering iPhone 3.0 SDK, but I have the original edition.
I find Objective-C to be a bit strange and Xcode doesn’t seem to be as integrated as Visual Studio is, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.