Ask HN: Developing for WinMobile vs Symbian vs iPhone | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Developing for WinMobile vs Symbian vs iPhone

2 pointsjoeblubaugh6 comments

I'm getting ready to start a project developing a mobile phone application utilizing the phone's camera and whatever other environment sensors are available on the device. Based on some code I'll be inheriting, it would be an advantage to be able to use C++ as part (though not necessarily all) of the project. I've spent some time looking at the development environments for the three platforms mentioned above, but I'm looking for some practical experience from hackers here. On which platforms is it easiest to interact with the camera viewfinder and other sensor data (GPS, gyros, accelerometers)? What's your preference?

In the iPhone, you can only use Objective-C, so unless you're willing to use it, cross it out. But mind that making apps for iPhone is a gamble.

I'd rather not port code, but honestly, 80% of the project will be new code from me, not old stuff, and I think ObjC is a nice language. I'm most concerned about the speed of access to and ease of use of the camera and sensor interfaces.

It might be a good idea for you to look at currently open-source iPhone apps and check out the source code. Specially those that interact with the camera and sensors. Here's a few links I found for you:

http://opensourceiphonesoftware.com/

http://sunsetlakesoftware.com/2008/10/02/molecules-source-co...

http://petersteinberger.com/2009/05/open-source-iphone-apps/

And one that interacts with the camera:

http://code.google.com/p/zxing/

You can use C++ on the iPhone, wrapped in ObjC for the API calls. See http://iPhoneDeveloperTips.com/cpp/c-on-iphone-part-1.html.

As far as using those features, it's fairly easy to do so using the iPhone SDK. I had no exposure to any other platforms though.

It might be a good idea to decide based on your target market..

My target market is the scholastic community, as part of a graduate school project.

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