I'm a decent C programmer, but I have no experience with Objective-C.
What resources (books, tutorials etc ...) can you recommend me for learning Objective-C and iOS development ?
I have a MacBook Pro from 2011 (Lion and Xcode 4.3.3) and an iPhone 4S that I can use for tests.
Programming in Objective-C - Kochan (http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-4th-Developers...) I am currently halfway through this book, it is primarily focused on the actual Objective-C language, and almost nothing on actual iOS/Cocoa Development (some small bits in the later chapters). I was recommended this to learn the underlying language before jumping in, very enjoyable so far, the exercises are great.
I have heard good things about both Nerd Ranch books (http://www.amazon.com/iOS-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/...) and will likely use that for introduction to Cocoa and iOS SDK.
Originally I planned on using "Beginning iOS 5 Development" from Apress as the iOS SDK learning book (http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iOS-Development-Exploring-SD...), but it seems that the reviews are quite low compared to previous versions.
Finally, if you enjoy learning through video, the Stanford course is very highly recommended, through iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/ipad-iphone-application-...). I found them very useful to start with, but I felt I wasn't learning much syntax through the videos, the talking portions are very in depth, but the coding portions are very quick (and went over my head due to not knowing Objective-C!). I will likely return to these when I have a working understanding of Objective-C.
(Most of these tips from my understanding of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3403049/best-book-resourc... and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1939/how-to-articles-for-...)
I've seen the Objective-C book from The Big Nerd Ranch and 50% of the book is about basic C. This is not appealing to me, obviously if you know nothing about C (or you have limited experience) this could be a good match for you.
If you've worked with other event-driven GUI frameworks in the past, check out Sadun's book.
If your goal is to just ship apps, pick a framework or tool that lets you get your app out there as fast as possible - PhoneGap+Sencha Touch/Kendo Mobile for informational apps or something like Corona for games.
If your goal is to learn Obj-C and build apps using it, you should just pick a basic app like a todo list, twitter client, whatever... and just solve the problems one at a time until you have a working app.
Books and tutorials are fine, but they're also a great way to procrastinate building the app that you are trying to build. If you are trying to build something, just build it.
Otherwise I agree with what you said about starting with a small application.
http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/ipad-iphone-application-dev...
Free 9 week iOS course in SF. I've applied, so should you! They seek a wide variety of programmers, so don't be shy. Clearly it's affordable, and the hours are awesome (something like 1-9 so outside people can come after work and present). It's free only for the summer, otherwise it's $7500 for early admits.
edit: apparently, the summer application is closed. Still, it's a good reason to get to SF (not that anyone needs one more...)
That being said, I still think Objective-C is the way to go if you are an individual developer. For a company with a large .NET base of coders for e.g. makes more sense to use MonoTouch.
It will get you started: