New WatchKit Book: Preorders Now Available!

Ever since WatchKit was announced, the team and I have been digging into the SDK and releasing a bunch of articles, written tutorials, and video tutorials.

And as you may have guessed – we’re also already hard at work on a brand new WatchKit book! :]

The book is called WatchKit by Tutorials, and we are happy to announce that today it is available for preorder!

Keep reading to find out what’s in the book, and how you can save by preordering!

Book Overview

WatchKit by Tutorials is tailored toward folks who already have some iOS experience, but are looking to learn how to develop apps for the Apple Watch – all the way from beginning to advanced topics.

In the first part of the book, you’ll start with an iOS app that helps you choose recipes and shop for ingredients, and then you will create Glances, Notifications, and an Apple Watch app that works hand-in-hand with the iOS app.

In the second part of the book, you’ll dive into more advanced topics like advanced text, image caching and animation, performance, and more.

Here is the tentative table of contents for the book (note this is subject to change):

• Chapter 1, Hello Apple Watch!: You’ll click File\New Project and write a simple Apple Watch app from scratch!
• Chapter 2, Architecture: Apple Watch apps have a very interesting architecture; part of the app resides on your iPhone, and part on the Apple Watch itself. Learn how it works!
• Chapter 3, UI Controls: Learn about the new WatchKit-specific UI controls, such as WatchKit labels, images, buttons, switches, sliders, maps, and more.
• Chapter 4, Layout: Apple Watch apps don’t use Auto Layout; they have their own layout system. Learn how it works and how to support different watch screen sizes!
• Chapter 5, Tables: Tables are an extremely useful control in Apple Watch development – learn how to use them here!
• Chapter 6, Menus: Learn how to use menus to let users perform tasks in your app, rather than cluttering up your user interface with buttons.
• Chapter 7, Navigation: Learn about the three styles of navigation you can use in your WatchKit apps: hierarchy, page-based, and modal.
• Chapter 8, Glances: Give your users a quick preview of your app’s content on their Apple Watch, using Glances.
• Chapter 9, Basic Notifications: Learn how to present notifications of events from your app directly on the Apple Watch.
• Chapter 10, Custom Notifications: Take your notifications to the next level through the power of custom notifications!
• Chapter 11, Deep Linking with Handoff: Learn how to tap a glance or notification and go to a particular screen inside your app, by using deep linking with Handoff.
• Chapter 12, Sharing Code and Data: Learn how to share code and data (such as a Core Data database) between your iOS app and WatchKit extension.
• Chapter 13, Advanced Text: In WatchKit, there is more to text than meets the eye! Learn about standard font styles, custom fonts, internationalization, and more.
• Chapter 14, Image Caching and Animation: The only type of animation supported in WatchKit is playing a pre-made sequence of images. Learn how to generate and work with these in practice!
• Chapter 15, iCloud Document Storage: iCloud documents are a great way to transfer data between your apps. Learn how to use them here!
• Chapter 16, Performance and Tips/Tricks: This chapter includes a bunch of tips and tricks to get the best performance from your apps.
• Appendix, Setting up a Push Notification Server: Learn how to set up your own push notification server so you can send notifications upon events to your Apple Watch users.

By the time you’re done the book, you’ll know everything you need to make your own Apple Watch apps!

Preorder Now and Save!

When the WatchKit book is released, we will sell it for $54, just like the rest of the books on our site. If you preorder now, you can save $10 off the final price!

So be sure to preorder now and get your savings while you still can!

The team and I hope you enjoy this new WatchKit book, and we can’t wait to share it with you!