iPhone User Interface Design Projects Review

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iPhone User Interface Design Projects ReviewLove it or loathe it, the iPhone and iPod touch have been a stunning success, largely due to the App Store -- over 100,000 apps at current count. It is, by all accounts, the largest gold rush to invade the application development scene since ... well, ever. Apps that pay attention to design and usability stand out from the rest of the detritus, and quickly become a success.
"iPhone User Interface Design Projects" devotes a single chapter to each of ten developers/designers who've stood out from the crowd. They talk us through their thought processes and workflows, their failures and ultimate successes. You can teach someone to write code, but can you teach something as subjective as interface design? Apple's "Human Interface Guidelines" document goes some way to achieving this goal, explaining what users expect from an iPhone app's interface, and how the various controls behave and interact. The HIG is an essential reference and fits the bill perfectly for most use cases, but doesn't offer insights into more creative interfaces. "iPhone User Interface Design Projects" augments the HIG by bringing the authors' experiences into the discussion. They explain what worked and what didn't - there's nothing like learning from other people's mistakes.
A common thread throughout the book is that design and usability is an iterative process - very rarely will your first design concept reach the App Store. Though the individual authors refer to it differently - wireframing, prototyping, mock-ups, etc. - you get a sense for the importance of knowing what the interface will look like and how it will behave before committing it to code. The book's technical reviewer, Joachim Bondo, contributes a chapter on the design of a prospective Google news reader. Refreshing in presentation, this isn't a post-development retrospective. As he explains in the chapter's introduction, he has a few ideas in his head, and he fleshes the designs out as your read along. You don't get to see the final interface, but that's not the point. What you do get is insight into his design decisions. Bret Victor presented the excellent "Prototyping iPhone User Interfaces" at WWDC '09, and Bondo's narrative is very similar in content.
Though I enjoyed (almost) all ten contributions, Chapter 7, for me, was the highlight of the book. Chris Parrish and Brad Ellis cover - in great detail - often overlooked concepts of user context and application flow, and the undeniable value of prototyping and specifications. Parrish and Ellis rightly won an Apple Design Award at WWDC '09 for "Postage", a visual and highly intuitive postcard creator, and they approach their chapter with similar attention to detail.
The odd-one-out is Ju'rgen Siebert's detailed discussion of typefaces, the implications of their usage on small-scale devices such as the iPhone, and a walkthrough of his "FontShuffle" app. As informative as the history and anatomy of typefaces was for me, I didn't see how it specifically related to the very restricted set of fonts on the iPhone. Siebert even goes so far as to mock up a Contacts screen with a font that isn't available on the device, suggesting that the screen's readability has improved as a result. I don't disagree; however, the iPhone's fonts are baked-in, and unless you want to implement a custom glyph rendering routine, it's a pointless argument on a closed device. This chapter represents a missed opportunity, in my opinion. I was initially looking forward to reading about the author's choice of available fonts under different scenarios, but was ultimately let down.
Where the book falls short is in its use of black and white screeenshots throughout. We're talking about the design of applications which are displayed on a full colour device. Colour clearly plays a very large part in the design of any user interface, so cheaping out with black and white screenshots was a mistake. What's even more unforgivable is that the downloadable eBook (which isn't free) doesn't have full colour plates! Come on, Apress! I think given the context of the book, we'd be prepared to pay a bit more for colour.
Who's this book for? Everyone who develops or designs for iPhone, novice to expert alike. Even if you've had success on the App Store, I guarantee there's something in here for you.iPhone User Interface Design Projects OverviewFollowing the best-selling Beginning iPhone Development, iPhone User Interface Design Projects is the first book dedicated to designing and implemented great user experiences on the iPhone. The iPhone has quickly become the coolest new platform for application development, and developers with all levels of experience and from all development environments are eager to learn how to do it. Not only is there money to be made for developers selling great-looking iPhone apps, but it's just a hell of a lot of fun for everyone involved

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Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects) Review

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Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects) ReviewWhile some reviewers decry the intro "fluff" chapters and the simplicity of some of the projects, by the end of this short book, you will have been exposed to many of the capabilities of the Arduino microcontroller. I found the book's projects to be very informative and fun. One warning to buyers: You will need to buy a few more electronic parts to take full advantage of this book and it's projects. Here's what you should get:
1. 5-10 x 10K-Ohm resistors
2. 1 x Momentary push button switch (4 pin), compatible with a breadboard
3. 5 x LEDs of differing colors (most will work with the 3-5V output of the Arduino).
4. 1 x MOSFET or 1 x 5V actuated relay (this is to turn on/off motors)
5. 1 x solder-less breadboard
6. 1 x jumper wire kit (various lengths and colors of short wires)
7. 1 x LDR (light dependent resistor)
8. 1 x 9V (or similar magnitude) battery case with leads for a breadboard
9. 1 x small motor (5-9V).
It seems like quite a bit, but if you get and use these parts with the projects, you will learn how to use sensors to take in data from the environment, have the Arduino process it, and then drive a response (in the form of lighting LEDs, turning on motors, etc.). Fortunately, the Arduino itself is USB-powered, so the other power sources (i.e. the battery case) will only be needed to run things like the motor.Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects) OverviewThis valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open-source electronics prototyping platform that's taking the design and hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots of ideas for Arduino projects and helps you get going on them right away. From getting organized to putting the final touches on your prototype, all the information you need is right in the book. Inside, you'll learn about:
Interaction design and physical computing
The Arduino hardware and software development environment
Basics of electricity and electronics
Prototyping on a solderless breadboard
Drawing a schematic diagram
And more. With inexpensive hardware and open-source software components that you can download free, getting started with Arduino is a snap. To use the introductory examples in this book, all you need is a USB Arduino, USB A-B cable, and an LED. Join the tens of thousands of hobbyists who have discovered this incredible (and educational) platform. Written by the co-founder of the Arduino project, with illustrations by Elisa Canducci, Getting Started with Arduino gets you in on the fun! This 128-page book is a greatly expanded follow-up to the author's original short PDF that's available on the Arduino website.

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Beginning Arduino Review

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Beginning Arduino ReviewFinally, somebody got it right! I have to agree with Mr. Young and Mr. Laefsky's reviews, but feel that I should add just a bit more.
There are plenty of books out there on Arduino and I own or have examined most of them, so I thought my Arduino Library was full. I was wrong, this one was under the tree for Christmas and it's definitely a keeper. I read the book all the way through and then I started working through the activities early yesterday morning. Having now completed the projects through Chapter 3, I feel competent to review it.
The bottom line is that if you are starting out with Arduino and have been trying to piece together your skills from web tutorials and a few of the popular books, but have felt either out of your depth reading Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects, or that the material in, for example Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects) is too basic, this is the book that will vault you to the next level.
Books and tutorials on Arduino generally seem to trend toward two extremes:
On the one hand there is the "box of crayons" approach- tutorials (see practically every website of every vendor that sells Arduino and variants) that give very short and specific instructions on how to wire one or two components to Arduino and interact with them via a brief, illustrative, but not especially useful code example. These examples are intended, I guess, to give the reader some general ideas of the creative uses for Arduino, and the code snippets and discrete components are treated individually like crayons in the box of 64, with little guidance as to how they can be combined and blended together to make amazing and wonderful creations, or why you might choose one method of blinking an LED over another.
On the other hand, there is the pet project approach. These present someone's grand idea for a complex interactive project, usually costly, usually inspirational, but usually ill suited as a learning platform. You indeed can learn a tremendous amount by following along and building the projects in, for example, Practical Arduino: Cool Projects for Open Source Hardware (Technology in Action), and I did. But unless you actually WANT an internet connected, GPS enabled, refrigerator monitor (I'm making that up), you will end up spending a lot of extra time and money to nail down the knowledge to design your data logging cell phone seeker robot (I'm making that up too).
Beginning Arduino takes a third path. The projects are designed to be wired up on a breadboard with mostly reusable, reasonably priced components. You will not end up soldering something together only to realize that you are going to have to buy another one for the next phase in your learning. Each project is a bit more complex than the one preceding, but in each case the code and the hardware added push off into new areas and new uses. Once you complete a particular project, and the suggested exercises, you have a clear understanding of how the new component works and what you can do with the new code you learned. For me this lead to a much clearer understanding of how I could approach the challenges in my own pet project.
Before I started reading and working through Beginning Arduino, I had about decided that I would never grok C programming, feel comfortable with Arduino, or meet my ultimate goal of embedding Atmel chips in a variety projects floating around in my imagination. But over the past few days my enthusiasm and confidence have returned and I thank Mr. McRoberts for that.
One final note, while there are a few minor typographical errors, I can report that so far there has not been a single error that has interfered with the completion of a functional project. This is, in my experience, rare in a book with such technical depth. I applaud Mr. McRoberts and his technical reviewer, Josh Adams for such a fine job.Beginning Arduino Overview
In Beginning Arduino, you will learn all about the popular Arduino microcontroller by working your way through an amazing set of 50 cool projects. You'll progress from a complete beginner regarding Arduino programming and electronics knowledge to intermediate skills and the confidence to create your own amazing Arduino projects. Absolutely no experience in programming or electronics required! Rather than requiring you to wade through pages of theory before you start making things, this book has a handson approach. You will dive into making projects right from the start, learning how to use various electronic components and how to program the Arduino to control or communicate with those components. Each project is designed to build upon the knowledge learned in earlier projects and to further your knowledge in programming as well as skills with electronics. By the end of the book you will be able create your own projects confidently and with creativity.

What you'll learn
Controlling LEDs
Displaying text and graphics on LCD displays
Making a line-following robot
Using touch screens
Using digital pressure sensors
Reading and writing data to SD cards
Connecting your Arduino to the Internet

Who this book is for
Electronics enthusiasts who are new to the Arduino as well as artists and hobbyists who want to learnthis very popular platform for physical computing and electronic art.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Light 'Em Up
LED Effects
Simple Sounders and Sensors
Driving a DC Motor
Binary Counters
LED Displays
Liquid Crystal Displays
Servos
Steppers and Robots
Pressure Sensors
Touch Screens
Temperature Sensors
Ultrasonic Rangefinders
Reading and Writing to an SD Card
Making an RFID Reader
Communicating over Ethernet


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Robot Building for Beginners Review

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Robot Building for Beginners ReviewI'm an Electrical Engineer at U.C. I bought this book so I could learn some "real world knowledge" about the physical world instead of just theory. I only asked for (and thankfully received) a multimeter, soldering iron, and a cordless dremel drill for Christmas. After reading this book, I now remember why I chose my major--making a robot is a blast!
Being strong on the theory, I didn't learn anything in that regard. On the flip side, David Cook described the basics in a way that anyone could understand. What I really wanted to learn was to be able to put my Christmas presents to use. He spent a chapter just on the multimeter! I loved it. Also, every part of the robot was described in detail. I now know the difference between choosing motors, batteries, transistors, comparitors, diodes, potentiometers, photo-resistors, ect.
When I brought my first creation into my Electromagnetics class yesterday, I of course was asked to give a demonstration. From reading this book (to be honest a total of 3 times), I described everything about it in clear/consise detail. The only part I failed was receiving extra credit. Yes I did try :D.
I couldn't imagine a better book for beginners. There is a website that describes the robot AND the few typos caught (nothing that mattered), ways he took this idea and added a couple more in a similar project, as well as detailing the post construction of robots he's made since then. Cook goes into detail for troubleshooting a potential screw up you may make (If 'X' is happening then you probably did 'Y'). Yes I made one too--thanks for asking.
There is one part I didn't like about the project though--using an M&M's Mini tube to hold the motors. Being so close to Valentine's day, the only selection they had were PINK ones! Oh well, I named in Valentino anyway. I did find myself telling this story though to everyone that commented on my pink robot.
If you want to get into the hobby, buy this book. You can't ask for more. Just be prepared to catch yourself looking in the toy section of Target for lego technic tires when your fiance is wanting to register!!! BTW: you'll also catch yourself babbling on about your experiences in a review about this book too--cause you'll be so D@MN excited about making your first robot!!!Robot Building for Beginners OverviewLearning robotics by yourself isnt easy. It helps when the encouragement comes from someone whos been there. Not only does "Robot Building for Beginners" assist you in understanding component parts of robot development, but also it prepares you with techniques to learn new discoveries on your own. Author David Cook begins with the anatomy of a homemade robot and gives you the best advice on how to proceed successfully. General sources for tools and parts are provided in a consolidated list, and specific parts are recommended throughout the book. Also, learn basic safety precautions and essential numbering and measuring systems. An in-depth analysis of digital multimeters gives you all the information you need to select and obtain this valuable tool for yourself. Other tools and parts covered include: motors, wheels, resistors, wire strippers, needle nose pliers, tap and die, alligator clips, LEDs, solderless breadboards, soldering irons, heat-shrink tubing, photoresistors, transistors, chips, gears, nut drivers, screws, cut-off wheels, connectors, and batteries. "Robot Building for Beginners" is an inspiring book that provides basic, practical knowledge on getting started in amateur robotics. Author InformationDavid Cook - David Cook is an engineering section manager at Motorola. He has 20 years of experience as a software developer, creating everything from award-winning computer games to mobile background-check applications for police. Having self-taught himself electronics and basic mechanics, he comfortably relates his recent years of robot experiences to the average backyard scientist, without scholarly intimidation.

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