Alive!

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. Things have been quite crazy. I've got a couple of super-secret projects I've been working on that can't announce just yet, plus I've been keeping busy doing contract work for clients to try and catch up a bit financially from how long More iPhone Development took to write.

On top of that, we've decided to move from Central New York to Florida, so we've got the added burden of trying to get the house ready to go on the market. Plus, our washing machine broke. It seems that the closer we get to the end of a fiscal quarter (royalties are paid quarterly), the more likely a major appliance or car will crap out. Last quarter, it was my wife's car. This quarter it's the washing machine. Doesn't make sense to buy a new one and then pay to move it, so we're without a washing machine until the move, meaning more time devoted to hand washing and/or going to the laundromat. A family of six (plus a dog) generates a lot of laundry.

Don't mean to complain, the washer wasn't exactly new and these things happen, but I wanted to let you all know why the pace of new posts lately has slowed down so much the last week or so. I haven't forgotten you all, I'm just having trouble finding the time to do everything I need to do.

On a happier note, I ordered an iPad today. I'm starting with a dev device, but if we like it, we'll probably get another one or two for the family later one. I'm pretty excited about the opportunities this device presents, and I can't wait to see some of the killer apps people devise for that big touch screen. I've got a few SDK 3.2 topics I'd love to cover here but, alas, the whole NDA thing has stifled me a bit as well.

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Availabilities

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. Once the book was finished, I decided to take a few days mostly away from the computer, which would have been glorious had I not come down with the flu. I'm now mostly recovered, and thought I should announce a few things.

I've had several people ask me when the book would be available, so here is the information I have currently.

• The eBook should be available tomorrow-ish here
• The dead-tree version should ship by the end of the year. Orders placed at online booksellers like Amazon should ship out by December 31. The book may not show up on bookstore shelves quite that soon, however, as it takes some time for them to get through the distribution channels.

I'm also announcing my own availability. With the book done, I now have the bandwidth to take on new contract work, for the first time in quite some time. If you're looking for an experienced person to do iPhone development, code or architecture review, or in-house training, drop me an e-mail at my first name, underscore, my last name at mac dot com.

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Boot Camp Imminent

Well, it's not just under 48 hours until I teach my first workshop. I'm a little harried right now. I'm comfortable teaching and speaking in front of groups, but I've never taught anything of this scope before, so I underestimated the prep time involved. I haven't slept much this week, and the situation doesn't look like it'll get much better before Friday.

If you e-mail me, IM, or tweet me in the next few days, please don't be offended if you don't get a response. I will try to catch up after the weekend and will be responding only to urgent e-mails in the meantime. I'm going to be mostly shutting out the world in an effort to get everything done and make sure that I'm satisfied with the workshop materials.

Despite the stress, I'm actually very happy with what I've gotten done so far. I think I'm really starting to understand what makes iPhone programming hard for both new programmers and experienced programmers coming from other languages. I guess we'll find out in a few days if I'm right about that, though.

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