Show HN: Learn iPhone and iPad development in less than an hour
diveintoios.com
diveintoios.com
I think for a video, people would like the experience of being guided through by someone knowledgeable. They don't want a book; and they don't want a dry lecture. They want a substitute for an expert friend at their elbow. You don't need to impress with exhaustive detail - a beginner can't absorb it anyway.
So, for example, just say "⌘B to build and run it", instead of the several commands you go through. And not list all those methods for UIViewController. Instead, start with what is a UIViewController, in terms of the user-experience. i.e. why would you want one? Then, once the listener is motivated, introduce how to use it with an example.
I'm reminded of Steve Jobs, always thinking of the user's point of view (not the complete technical details); and using huge fonts with a small amount of text on slides.
But... honestly... maybe some people want exactly what you are doing. (if your younger self would have benefited from it, that's strong evidence that someone else would too.) Including the accent, your youth, audio quality etc. For each person that X is a negative, there can be another for whom it's a positive. Target those people who value what you value. You don't need to please all the people - just really please a small number, and that's enough for a one-man venture. Once you have a foothold, you can broaden your scope.
(Of course, if you strongly agree with some of the suggestions here, then they are now your values - and you should adopt them!)
I guess there's too much text in some slides. But then again, the text is required to supplement the tutorials. Guess I've got to figure a way to make it less heavy.
P.S. I did start with what a UIViewController is, it's just that I cut to the part with the methods and all. My bad.
I personally wouldn't be compelled to buy it mainly because:
- I hear a "non-native" accent. I'm not a native english speaker myself, but for some reason this makes it very hard for me to listen over a longer period of time. I have the same problem with podcasts. This might be something very particular to my tastes though.
- The trainer sounds too young. I love to have people teach me things that have "been around". Somebody that knows Smalltalk/Lisp/... might be able to explain to me WHY things are done in a certain way as opposed to HOW they are done. Looking a bit at the linkedin profile behind the site creator (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sidwyn-koh/26/4/495), I'll have to say that it doesn't really change my impression.
- The audio quality of the samples isn't that great. It's either audio compression artefacts or a bad microphone. Especially at that price, I'd like something as basic as the audio quality to be good.
- The website logo looks like MS Paint art
1) I'm from Singapore and English is my first language. 2) Good point. 3) I've actually been experimenting with mics, but I'll definitely re-record once I find the right one. 4) I hired a designer from dribbble to help me out. MS Paint Art, seriously?
Again, thanks for your suggestions.
http://earlh.com/dump/hn/20111016-ctj3ptc2jqf1m46bg1sh4skhis...
I once heard a very simple trick on a Mixergy interview. Record yourself under a blanket. The interviewee who was a professional audio/video consultant explained that with a simple iPhone and by being under a blanket to kill surrounding sounds you can almost get a studio quality recording.
This would also obviate some of the risk for the buyer? I.e. if they buy the first one and hate it, they aren't out $50.
(btw, don't get me wrong- $50 is CHEAP if you guys do a good job-- I'm wearing my marketeer hat with this comment)
Basic Package - You get the Basic Course
Premium Package - You get the Basic and Intermediate Courses
Complete Package - You get the Basic, Intermediate, Advanced Courses
If you change your mind and wanna upgrade after watching the videos, feel free to drop me an email at sidwyn AT diveintoios.com.
Again, we're working to have more customizable options for you guys.
This response doesn't address the concern of the comment that initiated it. He was suggesting that your program which currently consists of 3 $50 chunks might be too expensive for someone to risk the purchase of the first tutorial.
If you could divide the beginning tutorial into a few smaller lessons, it would be far easier for someone to justify giving your program a chance. While $50 isn't a huge amount of money, your competitors have given consumers the ability to sample their videos for a much lower price.
If you can't divide the beginning tutorial, perhaps you could create another, shorter video from scratch, and market it at a cheaper price. Once you have established a reputation people may feel more comfortable buying the complete set of tutorials.I don't think it is really an issue of it being illegal, it just gives the appearance that this person is trying to sell his wares on top of Mark's reputation.
(no offence to the author of diveintoios)
Of course, samples are available! Here they are: http://diveintoios.com/samples
In the meantime, please use the direct Vimeo links:
Basic Package: http://vimeo.com/30582950 Premium Package: http://vimeo.com/30583073 Complete Package: http://vimeo.com/30583124
One thing I've noticed in the iOS sector, is that there seems to be a lack of developers in this particular area (possibly due to the steep learning curve). The supply cannot meet the demand. The best way to solve this, in my opinion, is to encourage more developers to try the iOS platform by kickstarting their development.
I've spent quite a bit of time on making these tutorials and thus I cannot afford to simply give them away. The lectures are based on careful thought and personal experience in my lifetime of making iOS apps.
Being able to teach a skill and being good at that skill are related but different abilities.
It seems really really hard to believe that Scott Meyer really hasn't got production code to his name, even as at least an occasional consultant.
" I have not written production software in over 20 years, and I have never written production software in C++. Nope, not ever. Furthermore, I’ve never even tried to write production software in C++, so not only am I not a real C++ developer, I’m not even a wannabe. Counterbalancing this slightly is the fact that I did write research software in C++ during my graduate school years (1985-1993), but even that was small (a few thousand lines) single-developer to-be-thrown-away-quickly stuff. And since striking out as a consultant over a dozen years ago, my C++ programming has been limited to toy “let’s see how this works” (or, sometimes, “let’s see how many compilers this breaks”) programs, typically programs that fit in a single file. (make? Who needs stinkin’ make?) My living is based on C++, but it’s not by virtue of the programs I write in it."
That's incredible. Of course, I know how bad most C++ programmers really are, so it's particularly hilarious what he's saying.
I wonder if there's a sort of Lake Wobegone World where all the C++ programmers are good, instead of copy/pasting idiots.
"Sidwyn is an experienced trainer who teaches iOS development to numerous individuals, professionals and companies. "
"Experienced trainer".
Not "badass developer that has gotten rich building apps."
The site doesn't represent in any way that Sid will teach you how to write an app that will make you rich. It's totally focused on learning to program. Home page, everything. (Unlike the get rich real estate seminars that essentially represent that the person running the seminar has made a fortune and you can learn their secrets. In that case your comment is obviously valid.)
Knowing how to program and knowing how to evaluate the market and write a program that can make money are two different things.
As only one example, would you rather learn about programming from Joel Spolsky or from Mark Zuckerberg? (And I'm specifically saying programming not what Zuckerberg could offer that isn't related to programming..)
Edit: "evaluate the market and write a program that can make money" I'm not saying this is what Zuckerberg did by the way.
Portfolio is pretty impressive.
It also happens to be bullshit, most often repeated by people who have never actually taught.
One of the best ways to achieve mastery (particularly with technology) is to teach it. In other words, teaching engineering to others makes you a much better engineer.
There's plenty of room to compete (and I wouldn't suggest that you attempt to compete on price, since video-only learning becomes commoditized quickly), but if you're going to be competitive you will have to convey some sort of value other than "learn how to code in iOS with our video!!1!"
Ours is 'Learn iPhone/iPad development in less than an hour'. It's targeted at the people who can't concentrate for long, and those who find the learning curve too steep.
P.S. Use 'hackernews' upon checkout for a 10% discount :)
Your email is not showing in your profile. You need to put it in the about field because the email field is private.
1) learning how to program in Objective C 2) learning how to use Xcode (probably one of the worst IDEs I've ever used) 3) learning how to use the specific parts of the iPhone like iteracting with the camera, etc.
There will be a lot of issues to deal with, such as accessing the camera, storing the photo, uploading it to the web site, etc, that are non-trivial. Without a knowledge of C/C++, it might take you on the order of months, not days.
I picked up "Beginning iPhone 4 Development" and was new to both iPhone develoment and MacOS. It took me about 2 weeks to get a working app that just posted text to a Google App Engine backend, although a lot of progress was made over 1 weekend of straight coding and playing around. My biggest frustration was learning how to use Xcode, but I basically just followed the book and it ended up being a pretty good tutorial.
I don't want to be a hater, but $50 for a video tutorial that promises to teach you iPhone development in under 1 hr sounds unlikely. There are A LOT of details that need to be addressed, and I feel like the "Beginning iPhone 4 Development" book is pretty damn good as an introduction, so that's probably money better spent.
Also I used the iPhone development course from Stanford on iTunes U, which is quite comprehensive (these guys will be pretty much competing with this series, which is top notch and also free):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-...
It would be better to go the Peepcode route and have ala carte mini videos about specific tasks. How to make a digital photo filter, how to get CoreData working with iCloud, how to make a complicated UI, etc. There are a lot of materials out there about beginning iOS development. There are not very many materials about intermediate-advanced iOS development.
The other option would be to really amp up the production values. All video lessons I've seen, including the Stanford ones, are simply too slow. I usually watch them in 2x speed. The other problem is that the Xcode view is never optimized. It's always slightly difficult to see the text. Much moreso if you are watching it on an external TV set.
His slides are awesome too. He uses my favourite font: Comic Sans MS ;-)
I'm guessing I need to buy the full package ($150) to learn about camera stuff for my photo sharing app. Or can I learn it with the cheaper options too?
- Kill the power point like slides in the videos, they are not very useful. Such information is better represented as text, so it can be searched and easily referenced.
- Lower the price for the video's they are way too high. I imagine 99% of this information can be easily found on google with a simple search.
- The videos look unprofessional to me, seems like they need an editing pass.
You may get more traction if you release the basic package for free. This allows users to evaluate the videos and buy more when they want the intermediate and advanced courses. At the current price I wasn't even enticed to look at the sample video after seeing the $50 price point for a basic package. Good luck.
Provided the OP actually knows what he's doing, and there's no reason to doubt that, I'm glad to see him doing this, as I believe that the more material on the market the better. I like learning from different teachers, even if they cover the same thing. That said, this was a bit pricey for my tastes, but that's only because I've spent so much prior to today.
Basic Package - You get the Basic Course
Premium Package - You get the Basic and Intermediate Courses
Complete Package - You get the Basic, Intermediate, Advanced Courses
If you realize you need/want to upgrade after finishing the videos, feel free to drop me an email sidwyn @ diveintoios.com to upgrade. Would be happy to accede to your request.
Listen... you hear that? That's the Titanic creaking.