Introducing the iOS 7 Feast

Finally – the NDA for iOS 7 has been lifted!

iOS 7 delivers one of the most exciting set of changes that we’ve seen so far as developers. The new design direction means a massive disruption in the App Store is underway. Customers will be looking for apps that “fit in” with the new iOS 7 style and make use of the new technology.

This means tons of great opportunity for you – the type only seen every 3 to 5 years.

That’s why ever since the first day of WWDC, the Tutorial Team and I have been hard at work researching all of the new APIs and distilling them into a form that makes it quick and easy for you to get up to speed.

And for the third year in a row, we are running a massive celebration for the occasion. We are happy to introduce this year’s iOS 7 Feast!

The iOS 7 Feast consists of the following seven courses:

• Optional appetizer: Beginning Sprite Kit Tutorial
• Second course: iOS Games by Tutorials
• Third course: iOS 7 by Tutorials
• Fourth course: The iOS 7 and iOS Games by Tutorials Bundle
• Fifth course: iOS Apprentice Part 1 Updated for iOS 7
• Sixth course: iOS 7 Tutorial Month
• Dessert: iOS 7 Feast Giveaway

During the iOS 7 Feast, you’ll learn about all of the new APIs introduced in iOS 7 through easy to understand tutorials – designing for iOS 7, using NSURLSession, making games with Sprite Kit, the new Text Kit API, UIKit Dynamics, and much more.

Plus we have over $8,000 in giveaways for some lucky readers – our most epic giveaway yet!

Optional Appetizer: Beginning Sprite Kit Tutorial

As a gamer, one of the most exciting new additions in iOS 7 for me is Apple’s brand new 2D game framework: Sprite Kit.

Sprite Kit makes it incredibly easy to make 2D games and comes with its own built in texture packer, particle designer, physics engine, action system, and much more.

We think you are going to love it, so I’ve written a beginning Sprite Kit tutorial to show you the basics. Hint: it involves a certain ninja going pew-pew! :]

This tutorial is currently scheduled to run later this month. But what if you want it right now?

All you have to do is retweet this post to help get the word out! If/when the post reaches 100 retweets, we will immediately post the beginning Sprite Kit tutorial to whet your appetite. Just click the button below!

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Second Course: iOS Games by Tutorials

If you really want to learn how to make iOS games, a measly appetizer isn’t enough. You want the full course, and you’ve got it with iOS Games by Tutorials!

Here’s the trailer for the book, in case you haven’t seen it already:

In iOS Games by Tutorials, you will make five complete, fun, and polished games by hands-on tutorials – like a zombie action game, a space shooter game, and a top-down racing game!

iOS Games by Tutorials is for all levels of iOS developers:

• Beginner Developers will love the book because it shows you how to make five complete, fun, and polished games via easy to understand tutorials.
• Intermediate Developers will love the book because it has hands-on challenges to give you extra practice, and you’ll learn all the extra bits you need to know to actually make a game – like UIKit integration, Game Center, and Performance.
• Advanced Developers will love the book because the it covers advanced material you won’t find anywhere else. We have chapters on adding Juice to your game, displaying your game on a TV with AirPlay, and even making your own 2D game art!

Today we are releasing version 0.9 of the book, which includes 20 chapters and 649 pages. There are a few chapters left – they’ll be coming soon!

We have worked our butts off on this book and really poured our hearts into it. Our goal is for this to be the best game programming book you’ve ever read – so we really hope you enjoy!

Third Course: iOS 7 by Tutorials

All you non-game developers out there might be feeling a little neglected at the moment.

But don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you! For the third year in a row, we have made a new book that makes it quick and easy to get up-to-speed with all the newly released iOS APIs: iOS 7 by Tutorials!

Here’s a quick preview of what’s inside this year’s book:

• Designing for iOS 7: Before you dive into the code, special guest designer and Apple design award winner Jeremy Olson will teach you how to design your apps to fit in well with the new iOS 7 style.
• UIKit Dynamics: Learn how to create user interfaces that feel real by adding physics behaviors like gravity, attachments (springs), and forces.
• Custom View Controller Transitions: Learn how to use your own custom animations when switching between view controllers in your apps.
• Text Kit: Learn how to support dynamic type in your apps, use exclusion paths, add dynamic text formatting, and even create your own eBook reader.
• Transitioning to iOS 7: Learn the nuts and bolts of taking an app designed in the skeuomorphic iOS 6 style and converting it to the new minimalistic iOS 7 style.
• What’s New in Xcode 5: Get a quick overview of the new features in the Xcode development environment itself, like asset catalogs and image slicing.
• What’s New in Objective-C and Foundation: Get a quick overview of new language features like modules, and important new Foundation APIs you should be aware of.
• Unit Testing in Xcode 5: Xcode 5 includes a new unit testing framework called XCUnit. Learn how to use it to add unit tests to your apps.
• Beginning Source Control in Xcode 5: Learn how to maintain your project under source control in Xcode 5, use advanced features like branching and merging, and integrate with GitHub.
• Beginning Continuous Integration in Xcode 5: Learn how to set up a continuous integration server, create a simple automated bot to build and run your project, make a web-based scoreboard, and automatically distribute your builds to TestFlight.
• Networking with NSURLSession: Learn how to write networking code with the new NSURLSession suite of classes, which are a great alternative to NSURLConnection and other similar third-party networking libraries.
• Multitasking: Learn how to keep your app’s data up to date, download large files, and get notified of remote updates silently in the background with new multitasking APIs in iOS 7.
• JavaScriptCore Framework: Learn how you can mix JavaScript with your native code in real time from your apps.
• AirDrop: Learn how to share data in an even simpler way with Apple’s new AirDrop support, built right into a UIActivityViewController.
• Peer-to-Peer Connectivity: If you want even more control, learn how to drop down into the peer-to-peer connectivity framework, which gives you complete control of the process of discovering and sharing information with nearby devices.
• Inter-App Audio: Learn how to connect the audio output of one app to the audio input of another app to create a suite of connected audio apps.
• What’s New in AVFoundation: Learn about the new bar code detection, video zooming, and speech synthesis capabilities in AVFoundation.
• What’s New in MapKit: Learn about the new directions, snapshot, and camera features in MapKit.
• What’s New in Core Location: Learn how to make an iOS app that acts as a beacon broadcasting a location, and a companion app to use the beacon.
• What’s New in PassKit: Learn how to make your passes look great in the new iOS 7 style, as well as using advanced features like QR codes, beacon activation, and much more.
• Bonus: Introduction to iAd: We also have a bonus chapter for you about integrating iAd into your apps, whether it be banner ads, interstitials, or pre-roll video ads.

Today we are releasing version 0.9 of the book, which includes 27 chapters and 823 pages. There are two chapters that we cannot yet include in the book (Continuous Integration) because they cover aspects of OS X Mavericks, which is still under NDA. When that lifts, we’ll release the final two chapters.

The best part of this book is you won’t have to pull out your hair anymore trying to deal with poor documentation or a lack of sample code trying to figure out how all this stuff works. We’ve done the hard work for you have tons of practical examples and code that you can use right in your own apps!

We think you’re going to love the book, and we hope to see some amazing iOS 7 apps from all of you.

Fourth Course: The iOS 7 and iOS Games by Tutorials Bundle

“Wow, both of those books sound pretty cool!”, you might be thinking (we hope!).

Well, we have good news for you – we have a special bundle for you where you can purchase both of the new books and save $10!

We were going to remove this $10 discount on the bundle as soon as NDA lifted, but since this is a big celebration after all we’ve decided to extend the discount for 48 hours.

So be sure to order the bundle and snag your discount before it’s too late!

Fifth Course: iOS Apprentice Part 1 Updated for iOS 7

If you’re completely new to iOS development (or need a brush-up on the foundations) we have good news for you too!

Part 1 of the iOS Apprentice Series is now fully updated for iOS 7!

The author of the series (Matthijs Hollemans) is also hard at work updating the rest of the series to iOS 7 and hopes to release the fully updated series soon.

The iOS Apprentice series was originally written for iOS 4, and Matthijs has consistently updated the series for iOS 5, then iOS 6, and now iOS 7 – all as free updates. Regular free updates like this is one of the benefits you get from purchasing books and tutorials on this site, which is hard to find anywhere else! :]

Wondering how to get access to the latest version of iOS Apprentice Part 1: Getting Started? If you are a newsletter subscriber, you will receive an email with the download link shortly. If you are an existing iOS Apprentice customer, you can find the latest download link on your My Loot page.

Matthijs and I hope you enjoy! :]

Sixth Course: iOS 7 Tutorial Month

And for those of you who don’t want to or can’t spend any money – don’t worry, we still want to give you a bunch of free tutorials to thank you for reading this site! :]

In fact, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the next calendar month, we will post a free new iOS 7 tutorial.

Here what you’ll see in iOS 7 by Tutorials Month:

• 5 abbreviated chapters from iOS 7 by Tutorials. We will be posting 5 chapters from iOS 7 by Tutorials for free on the site so you can see what they’re like. However, many of these chapters will be shortened forms of what is actually in the book, to avoid spoiling the content. But don’t worry – it will still be plenty to get you started!
• 4 Cocos2D tutorials ported to Sprite Kit. This site has a lot of great Cocos2D tutorials that would be great demonstrations of how Sprite Kit works. So this month, we’re going to port 4 of them over to Sprite Kit!
• 2 brand new Sprite Kit tutorials. We’re also going to release two brand new tutorials focused on Sprite Kit – we think you’ll like them!
• 4 older tutorials updated to iOS 7. It’s important to us to try to keep our existing tutorials as up-to-date as we can. So we’re going to get started by updating 4 of your favorites this month to iOS 7.
• Some secret bonuses! We might even produce some completely new iOS 7 tutorials not related to the book or tutorial updates. Keep your eyes open!

And I have a sneaky surprise about iOS 7 Tutorial Month: actually, it never ends. :]

Although after this month the post cycle will probably quiet down a bit from 3 times a week to something more sustainable, all of the tutorials posted on this site from here on out (with a few exceptions) will be iOS 7 compatible. We know you want the latest and greatest.

So check back here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (and then just keep on reading!) for some amazing free iOS 7 tutorials.

Dessert: iOS 7 Feast Giveaway

Last but not least, we have a particularly sweet ending to the feast this year.

The Tutorial Team and I came up with a list of the best tools and conferences for iOS developers, and asked the teams behind these if they’d like to join the Feast on an invite-only basis.

So this year contains a particularly awesome list of giveaways – I think of it as every iOS developer’s dream list. It’s the best line up of prizes we’ve had so far!

It’s so awesome that I tried to enter myself, but Vicki wouldn’t let me! :]

The grand prize winner will receive a massive prize pack of 33 prizes split into 10 categories:

Coding Tools

1. AppCode Personal License ($99 value): An intelligent Objective-C IDE that helps iOS/OSX developers create outstanding apps with ease and pleasure.
2. DeployMate ($20 value): DeployMate helps you identify unavailable, deprecated, and obsolete API usage in your Xcode projects. Mentioned in our Supporting Multiple iOS Versions and Devices tutorial!
3. Spark Inspector ($40 value): Monitor, understand, and experiment with your app structure at a glance with Spark Inspector. You have to see it to believe it!
4. Tower Git ($60 value): The most powerful Git client for your Mac.

App Sales Monitoring Tools

5. AppViz 3 ($49 value): Get a 1-year subscription and early beta access to the best tool for monitoring your iOS and Mac App Store sales.

Design and Mockup Tools

6. Briefs ($199 value): The essential app design and mockup tool for a professional design workflow.
7. Paint Code ($100 value): PaintCode is a vector drawing app that generates Objective-C code in real time. Mentioned in our PaintCode tutorial series!
8. Spectrum ($20 value): Intuitively design beautiful color schemes on your Mac.
9. xScope ($30 value): Eight tools in one that will help any designer or developer do their job faster and produce more accurate results. Ideal for measuring, aligning, and inspecting on-screen graphics and layouts.

Image Editors

10. Acorn ($50 value): An easy to use Mac image editor, designed for humans. With a ton of new features and refinements, you will make beautiful images in Acorn!
11. Pixelmator ($15 value): An inspiring, easy-to-use, beautifully designed image editor built to help you create stunning new images and edit your existing photos.

Game Tools

12. Glyph Designer ($40 value): Design beautiful fonts for your iOS games.
13. Particle Designer 2.0 Indie License ($60 value): Create amazing particle systems for your games with a visual editor. Now 100% redesigned, and fully Sprite Kit compatible!
14. Texture Packer ($39 value): The sprite sheet creator that turns chaos into order!
15. PhysicsEditor ($19 value): Edit your physics shapes with ease!

iOS Controls

16. ShinobiCharts Standard ($395 value): Bring your app’s data to life with these professional chart components.
17. ShinobiGrids Standard ($395 value): Powerful data grids you can add into your iOS apps.
18. ShinobiEssentials ($195 value): A kit of popular UI controls you can add to your apps like carousels, overlay panels, progress indicators, and more.

Conference Tickets

19. CocoaConf ($800 value): A free ticket to any CocoaConf event in 2013 or 2014 – plus the pre-conference workshop!
20. 360iDev ($800 value): A free ticket to 360iDev in 2014 – also includes the pre-conference workshop!

PDF Books and Starter Kits

21. iOS Games by Tutorials ($54 value): Learn how to make iOS games using Apple’s brand new 2D game framework: Sprite Kit!
22. iOS 7 by Tutorials ($54 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 7 like Text Kit, UIKit Dynamics, and NSURLSession.
23. iOS 6 by Tutorials ($44 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 6 like Auto Layout, Collection Views, and Passbook. Still relevant in iOS 7!
24. iOS 5 by Tutorials ($24 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 5 like ARC, Storyboards, and Core Image. Still relevant in iOS 7!
25. The iOS Apprentice Series ($72 value): Learn how to make iPhone and iPad apps via epic length tutorials – for complete beginners!
26. Monster iOS ($25 value): A great introduction to making apps – with a side dish of vampires!
27. Space Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a full side-scrolling space game with Cocos2D!
28. Platformer Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a Mario-like platformer game with Cocos2D!
29. Beat ‘Em Up Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a pixel art beat ’em up game with Cocos2D!

Print Books

31. Effective Objective-C ($45 value): Tutorial Team member Matt Galloway recently wrote an awesome book on getting the most of your Objective-C code – and the grand prize winner gets a copy!
32. Advance Print Copy of iOS Games by Tutorials ($54 value): Right now we only sell the PDF version of iOS Games by Tutorials, but later this year we’ll be making a print version. We’ll send the grand prize winner the first copy of the book printed!
33. Advance Print Copy of iOS 7 by Tutorials ($54 value): Similarly, be the first to get the print version of iOS 7 by Tutorials when it’s ready!
34. Advance Print Copy of The iOS Apprentice Series ($72 value): Similarly, be the first to get the print version of the iOS Apprentice series when it’s ready!

Bonus Loot

35. raywenderlich.com T-shirt ($25 value): Sport a stylish black t-shirt with a colorful mosaic iPhone design!
36. Plus… cold hard cash for a new iPhone 5 S! ($199 value)

In total, the grand prize has more than $4,000 in value!

Do you wanna be this guy? Make your first entry into the contest by clicking the button below!

Tweet

Huge thanks to all of our sponsors and friends who helped make this massive giveaway possible. Don’t thank us – thank them for putting the community first!

Please be sure to check out their pages – these are the tools and conferences we know and love, and they are must haves for serious iOS developers.

Bonus Prizes

We want to give as many people as possible a chance to win. So in addition to the grand prize winner, we’ll be giving out a bunch of bonus prizes to random retweeters!

• 10 people will win a free raywenderlich.com PDF book or starter kit of their choice, and geeky magnet set! ($129 value)
• 7 people will win a 1-year subscription and early beta access to AppViz 3, the best tool for monitoring your iOS and Mac App Store sales. ($49 value)
• 7 people will win a copy of Tower Git, the most powerful Git client for your Mac. ($60 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of PaintCode, a vector drawing app that generates Objective-C code in real time. ($100 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of Spectrum, a tool that helps you intuitively design beautiful color schemes on your Mac. ($20 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of xScope, eight tools in one that will help any designer or developer do their job faster and produce more accurate results. ($30 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of Spark Inspector, a tool that helps you monitor, understand, and experiment with your apps’s UI structure at a glance. ($40 value)
• 3 people will win a personal license of AppCode, an intelligent Objective-C IDE that helps iOS/OSX developers create outstanding apps with ease and pleasure. ($99 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of DeployMate, a tool that helps you identify unavailable, deprecated, and obsolete API usage in your Xcode projects. ($20 value)
• 3 people will win a set of iOS Controls: Either ShinobiCharts, ShinobiGrids, or ShinobiEssentials. ($395 value)
• 3 people will win a 71 Squared game tool: Either Particle Designer 2 or Glyph Designer. ($40 value)
• 1 person will a copy of Briefs, the essential app design and mockup tool for a professional design workflow. ($199 value)

That’s a lot of winners – 50 in total – so you have a lot of chances to win. This makes for over $8,000 in value of awesome loot to win!

To be eligible for this epic giveaway, all you have to do is send one or more tweets during the iOS 7 Feast with the #ios7feast hashtag.

You can retweet posts with this hashtag (including this one!) or just send general comments. It’s OK to submit as many tweets as you like (as long as you aren’t spamming of course!) We will choose random winners from all of the tweets marked with the #ios7feast hashtag, and they’ll get all the epic loot!

Want to make your first entry? Just tweet this post with the #ios7feast hashtag by clicking the button below!

Tweet

The random drawing will be in a month, when the iOS 7 Feast is complete. So make your entries early and often! :]

Where To Go From Here?

Once again, there’s been a lot of exciting news and announcements in the iOS 7 Feast! It’s like Christmas for iOS devs – or Thanksgiving I mean ;]

To sum it all up, here’s what you need to know:

• Want a Sprite Kit Tutorial right now? Retweet this post – if it reaches 100 tweets we’ll post the first tutorial right away!
• Want to learn to make iOS games with Sprite Kit? Check out our new book iOS Games by Tutorials!
• Want to get quickly up-to-speed with the new iOS 7 APIs? Check out our new book iOS 7 by Tutorials!
• Want to save with the bundle? Hurry up and snag the $10 off discount before it’s too late – just 48 hours left!
• Want tons of free tutorials? Come back here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next month for a new post on iOS 7!
• Want to get mad loot? Send one or more tweets during the next month with the #ios7feast hashtag!

The Tutorial Team and I hope you enjoy this feast, and that you’re fat and happy by the end!

Stay tuned for a bunch of great iOS 7 and Sprite Kit tutorials, and if you have any questions or comments about the iOS 7 Feast, please join the forum discussion below!