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Chapter 1: Creating Killer iPhone Applications

Hardware accessories

You can also create new hardware accessories and communicate with them

either by a physical connection or Bluetooth. For example, there’s a dongle that

contains a transmitter you can use to broadcast audio from an iPhone to an FM

radio.

Embracing the limitations

The preceding sections make it pretty clear that the iPhone is positively

loaded with features you can leverage for use in your own application. All’s

not completely right with the world, however. Along with all those features,

the iPhone does have some limitations. The key to successful applications —

and to not making yourself too crazy — comes in understanding those limita-

tions, living (and programming) within them, and even growing to love them.

(It can be done. Honest.) These constraints help you understand the kinds of

applications that are right for this device.

Often, it’s likely that if you can’t do something (easily, anyway) because of the

iPhone’s limitations, then maybe you shouldn’t.

So find how to live with and embrace some facts of iPhone life:

✓ The small screen

✓ Users with fat fingers (me included)

✓ Limited computer power, memory, and battery life

The next sections can help get you get closer to this state of enlightenment.

Living with the small screen

While the iPhone’s screen size and resolution allow you to deliver some

amazing applications, it’s still pretty small. Yet while the small screen limits

what you can display on a single page, I have managed to do some mental

jujutsu on myself to really think of it as a feature.

When your user interface is simple and direct, the user can understand it more

easily. With fewer items in a small display, users can find what they want more

quickly. A small screen forces you to ruthlessly eliminate clutter and keep your

text concise and to the point (the way you like your books, right?).

Designing for fingers

Although the Multi-Touch interface is an iPhone feature, it brings with it limi-

tations as well. First of all, fingers aren’t as precise as a mouse pointer, which

makes some operations difficult (text selection, for example). User-interface

elements need to be large enough (Apple recommends that anything a user

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