Introducing the iOS 8 Feast!

Update 10/1: New giveaways added – now over $12,000 in value!

It’s the iOS 8 release date, and you know what that means: time to party!

This year marks our 4th annual iOS release celebration: the iOS 8 Feast.

The iOS 8 Feast runs over the next month, and consists of eight courses:

• Optional Appetizer: Bonus Tutorial Unlocks
• Second Course: Swift by Tutorials
• Third course: iOS 8 by Tutorials
• Fourth course: Core Data by Tutorials
• Fifth course: iOS Animation with Swift Video Tutorials
• Sixth course: iOS 8 Tutorial Month
• Seventh course: Surprise Announcement!
• Dessert: iOS 8 Feast Giveaway

During the iOS 8 Feast, we’ll help you get fully up-to-speed with iOS 8 and Swift development, no matter how you prefer to learn. You’ll learn about Adaptive UI, App Extensions, Cloud Kit, Handoff, Scene Kit, and much more.

Plus, we have over $12,000 in giveaways for lucky readers – our biggest giveaway yet!

Optional Appetizer: Bonus Tutorial Unlocks

If I had to pick one thing Apple introduced this year that has developers more excited than anything else, I’d pick the elephant in the room: Swift.

Swift has everyone excited, whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced developer. We have a lot in store for both during the iOS 8 Feast, but what if you want something right now?

Good news – we have an optional appetizer ready for you!

• Beginners will get started with iOS Development the easy way, by getting early access part 1 of The iOS Apprentice, 3rd Edition for free – now fully updated for iOS 8 and Swift!
• Experienced developers will brush up on one of the coolest (and also trickiest) new aspects of Swift: generics, in a free abbreviated chapter from our new book Swift by Tutorials.

In order to help unlock these optional appetizers, just retweet this post. If/when the post reaches 100 retweets, we will immediately send both appetizers to all newsletter subscribers. (Not subscribed? Do so here.)

Just click the button below!

Tweet

Second Course: Swift by Tutorials

Still hungry? Don’t worry, we’ve got a full course ready for you: Swift by Tutorials!

Swift by Tutorials is our brand-new book to help you learn everything you need to know about Swift to use it in real-world apps: via hands-on tutorials.

Swift by Tutorials is for developers who already have some programming experience, and want to get quickly up-to-speed with Swift development. If you are a complete beginner to programming, check out The iOS Apprentice instead.

No matter your level of Swift experience, you’ll definitely learn a ton – the book goes all the way from beginner to advanced material like functional programming, Swift and Cocoa, thinking in Swift vs. Objective-C, and more.

And best of all – this book is 100% complete and available today!

Swift by Tutorials is written by Colin Eberhardt and Matt Galloway, who bring tons of technical and writing experience, as authors of the iOS by Tutorials series and Essential Objective-C.

We hope you enjoy learning Swift with Colin and Matt!

Third Course: iOS 8 By Tutorials

Learning Swift is important, but just as important is learning all of the cool new APIs that came out in iOS 8.

For the fourth year in a row, we are releasing a brand new book to help you get up-to-speed: iOS 8 by Tutorials!

Here’s a quick preview of what you’ll find in the book:

• Adaptive UI: Learn how to make your apps adapt to different screen sizes with Unified Storyboards, Size Classes, Traits and more.
• App Extensions: Learn how to make extensions of all types, from Today, to Share, to Action, to Photo Editing and more.
• Cloud Kit: Learn how to store your app’s data between multiple users with the new and powerful Cloud Kit framework.
• Live Rendering: Learn how to expose and configure your custom controls in Interface Builder.
• Handoff: Learn how to pass the user’s current work between devices.
• Scene Kit: Learn the basics of using Scene Kit from an app developer’s perspective.
• Visual Effect (Blur) View and Vibrant Text: Learn how to easily add blur effects and vibrant text into your apps.
• And much more…: From UIKit improvements to photo improvements to the Modern WebKit framework, there are many more goodies in store for you!

This book is a result of the hard work of 14 members of the tutorial team, dividing and conquering the material. We went through the school of hard knocks, so you don’t have to!

As part of the iOS 8 Feast, we are releasing a new iOS 8 book each week. iOS 8 by Tutorials will be released next Wednesday, Sep 24.

We can’t wait to show you the book, and we look forward to seeing you use these cool new iOS 8 APIs in your own apps!

Fourth course: Core Data by Tutorials

Every app needs to store data, and Core Data is the best way to do so on iOS. But learning Core Data is notoriously difficult – especially when you get into more complicated areas like concurrency, unit testing, performance optimization, and more.

We thought we could do a lot to make Core Data easier to learn, taking you from beginning to advanced via hands-on tutorials – so we made Core Data by Tutorials!

The best part is Core Data by Tutorials is fully up-to-date for iOS 8 and Swift – the first one of its kind!

Core Data by Tutorials is written by some of our best authors, who bring years of hard-won experience using Core Data in large-scale apps: Aaron Douglas, Saul Mora, Matthew Morey, and Pietro Rea.

We will be releasing Core Data by Tutorials as the last book in the iOS 8 Feast: on Wednesday, Oct 15. We think you’ll find it well worth the wait! :]

Fifth course: iOS Animation with Swift Video Tutorials

Don’t worry video tutorial subscribers, we haven’t forgotten about you!

In fact, we have something very special in store for you. You get exclusive access to a brand new video tutorial series on iOS Animation – fully up-to-date with iOS 8 and Swift!

This video tutorial series by Marin Todorov teaches you everything you need to know to be an iOS Animation Master. Check out the introduction of the series to see for yourself:

The first part of the series is going to be released today, and more will come each week.

We think you’re going to love this series – it’s chock-full of amazing up-to-date content you won’t find anywhere else (enough to fill an entire book)!

And the best part is this is just the beginning of new Swift video tutorials coming your way – stay tuned!

Sixth Course: iOS 8 Tutorial Month

“That all sounds great,” you may think, “but what I really want is something FREE!”

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered as well :]

For the next month, we will be releasing a free tutorial every day Monday-Friday!

Notice that during the iOS 8 Tutorial Month, we will be releasing a new Swift book every Wednesday! Here’s the release schedule for your convenience:

• Wednesday 9/17 [Today]: Swift by Tutorials, The iOS Apprentice 3rd Edition, Part 1
• Wednesday 9/24: iOS 8 by Tutorials
• Wednesday 10/1: iOS Games by Tutorials Second Edition, The iOS Apprentice 3rd Edition, Part 2
• Wednesday 10/8: The iOS Apprentice 3rd Edition, Part 3
• Wednesday 10/15: Core Data by Tutorials, The iOS Apprentice 3rd Edition, Part 4
• Wednesday 10/22 [End of Feast]: iOS 8 Feast Giveaway Winners Announced

Check back every day for a new free tutorial – or every Wednesday for a new Swift book!

Seventh course: Surprise Announcement!

Next, we have a very special surprise announcement for you!

We are very happy to announce that by popular demand, we are hosting an official raywenderlich.com conference: RWDevCon!

The conference will run February 6-7, 2015 in downtown Washington DC. We are teaming up with John Wilker from 360Conferences to host the conference, so if you’re a fan of 360iDev, you’ll love RWDevCon!

What makes RWDevCon different from other conferences is that it will be focused on high quality, hands-on tutorials. Rather than just watching talks, you’ll get to participate!

In addition, all of the material at the conference will be coordinated as a team, much like we do for our books, so that you can get the most optimal experience.

For a short time, we are offering an Early Bird Discount of $100 off. Be sure to snag your discount while you still can – tickets are limited.

• Snag Your Discount Now!

The team and I can’t wait to meet you in-person! :]

Dessert: iOS 8 Feast Giveaway

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

The other day on Twitter I ran an informal poll to see what everyone’s favorite iOS dev tools were, and then asked the teams behind these tools if they’d like to join the Feast on an invite-only basis.

Tons of folks were kind enough to donate copies of their tools to join in the celebration – making the most epic collection of iOS dev tools ever!

(Are you a tool developer interested in contributing a prize? Contact me!)

The grand prize winner will receive a massive prize pack of 47 prizes split into 11 categories:

Coding Tools

1. AppCode 3 Personal License ($99 value): An intelligent IDE that helps iOS/OSX developers create outstanding apps with ease and pleasure. Now with basic Swift support!
2. Tower Git ($60 value): The most powerful Git client for your Mac.
3. Spark Inspector ($50 value): Monitor, understand, and experiment with your app structure at a glance with Spark Inspector. You have to see it to believe it!
4. Base 2 ($30 value): A Mac OS X application for creating, designing, editing, and browsing SQLite 3 database files.
5. Paw 2 ($20 value): A handy app to test HTTP calls and RESTful APIs. It lets you send HTTP requests (like cURL), and generates NSURLConnection or AFNetworking code.
6. Dash ($20 value): Instant offline access to documentation sets, and extremely handy snippet manager.
7. Update 10/1: New prize added! Charles ($50 value): A HTTP proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP traffic between their machine and the internet.

Mockup Tools

8. Briefs ($199 value): The essential app design and mockup tool for a professional design workflow, for Mac OS X.
9. AppCooker ($20 value): Design apps like a chef – right on your iPad!

Design Tools

10. Paint Code 2 ($100 value): PaintCode is a vector drawing app that generates code in real time. Now fully up-to-date with Swift!
11. IconBeast ($75 value): A set of elegant 3,000 iOS tab bar and toolbar icons for iPhone and iPad!
12. xScope 4 ($50 value): Ten 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.
13. Pixelmator ($30 value): An inspiring, easy-to-use, beautifully designed image editor built to help you create stunning new images and edit your existing photos.
14. iOS Hat ($20 value): Turn Photoshop layers into Objective-C or Swift!
15. Update 10/1: New prize added! CrazyTalk Animator 2 Pipeline ($300 value): CrazyTalk Animator is built from the ground up as a revolutionary 2D animation software to generate character animations for your games or apps.

Game Tools

16. Spine Essential ($75 value): Spine is dedicated to 2D animation, providing an efficient workflow both for creating amazing animation and for integrating it into your games.
17. Particle Designer 2.0 Indie License ($75 value): Create amazing particle systems for your games with a visual editor. Now 100% redesigned!
18. Glyph Designer ($40 value): Design beautiful fonts for your iOS games.
19. Texture Packer ($39 value): The sprite sheet creator that turns chaos into order!
20. PhysicsEditor ($19 value): Edit your physics shapes with ease!

Productivity Tools

21. 1Password for Mac ($50 value): The most popular password manager for the Mac!
22. Reflector ($13 value): An AirPlay receiver that allows you to wirelessly display your iPad or iPhone on your Mac. Great for making app videos!
23. Soulver ($12 value): A handy app to help you play around with numbers, more conveniently than a traditional calculator.

iOS Controls

24. ShinobiCharts Standard ($395 value): Bring your app’s data to life with these professional chart components.
25. ShinobiGrids Standard ($395 value): Powerful data grids you can add into your iOS apps.
26. 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

27. RWDevCon ($599 value): A free ticket to our official raywenderlich.com conference: RWDevCon! Meet up with the team, learn, and be inspired!
28. 360iDev ($800 value): A free ticket to 360iDev in 2014 – also includes the pre-conference workshop!
29. Update 10/1: New prize added! CocoaConf ($800 value): A free ticket to any CocoaConf event in 2013 or 2014 – plus the pre-conference workshop!

PDF Books and Starter Kits

30. Swift by Tutorials ($54 value): Learn Apple’s brand new programming language, Swift, the quick and easy way: via hands-on tutorials!
31. iOS 8 by Tutorials ($54 value): Learn about the new APIs in iOS 8 such as Adaptive UI, App Extensions, and Cloud Kit!
32. Core Data by Tutorials ($54 value): Take control of your data in iOS apps using Core Data, Apple’s powerful object graph and persistence framework.
33. The iOS Apprentice, 3rd Edition ($54 value): Learn how to make iPhone and iPad apps from the ground up, with a series of epic-length tutorials for beginners!
34. iOS Games by Tutorials, 2nd Edition ($54 value): Learn how to make 2D games for the iPhone and iPad using Apple’s brand new game framework, Sprite Kit.
35. iOS 7 by Tutorials ($44 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 7 like Text Kit, UIKit Dynamics, and NSURLSession. Still relevant in iOS 8
36. iOS 6 by Tutorials ($24 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 6 like Auto Layout, Collection Views, and Passbook. Still relevant in iOS 8!
37. Space Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a full side-scrolling space game with Sprite Kit!
38. Platformer Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a Mario-like platformer game with Sprite Kit!
39. Beat ‘Em Up Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a pixel art beat ’em up game with Sprite Kit!

Video Tutorials

40. 1-year raywenderlich.com Subscription (Beta) ($180 value): Get full access to our complete catalog of video tutorials – plus get access to a new video tutorial each week!

Print Books

41. Advance Print Copy of Swift by Tutorials ($54 value): Right now we only sell the PDF version of Swift 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!
42. Advance Print Copy of iOS 8 by Tutorials ($54 value): Similarly, be the first to get the print version of iOS 8 by Tutorials when it’s ready!
43. Advance Print Copy of Core Data by Tutorials ($54 value): Similarly, be the first to get the print version of Core Data by Tutorials when it’s ready!
44. Advance Print Copy of The iOS Apprentice, 3rd Edition ($54 value): Similarly, be the first to get the print version of the iOS Apprentice, 3rd Edition when it’s ready!
45. Advance Print Copy of iOS Games by Tutorials, Second Edition ($54 value): Similarly, be the first to get the print version of iOS Games by Tutorials, 2nd Edition when it’s ready!

Bonus Loot

46. raywenderlich.com T-shirt ($25 value): Sport a stylish black t-shirt with a colorful mosaic iPhone design!
47. Plus… cold hard cash for a new iPhone 6! ($199 value)

In total, the grand prize winner will receive over $6,000 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 and sticker! ($129 value)
• 10 people will win a copy of AppCooker, a popular iOS app mockup tool that works on your iPad! ($20 value)
• 10 people will win a copy of Paw 2, the missing HTTP client for OS X. ($20 value)
• 10 people will win a copy of Soulver, a handy app where you can play around with numbers more conveniently than a traditional calculator. ($12 value)
• Update 10/1: New prize added! 10 people will win a copy of Charles, a HTTP proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP traffic between their machine and the internet. ($50 value)
• 7 people will win a copy of Dash, a handy offline documentation viewer and snippet manager. ($20 value)
• 7 people will win a copy of Reflector, an AirPlay receiver that allows you to wirelessly display your iPad or iPhone on your Mac. ($13 value)
• 3 people will win a set of iOS Controls: Either ShinobiCharts, ShinobiGrids, or ShinobiEssentials. ($395 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of PaintCode, a vector drawing app that generates Swift code in real time. ($100 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of Particle Designer 2 and Glyph Designer, two essential tools for iOS 2D game development. ($99 value)
• 3 people will win a personal license of AppCode, an intelligent IDE that helps iOS/OSX developers create outstanding apps with ease and pleasure – now with basic Swift support! ($99 value)
• 3 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 Texture Packer and PhysicsEditor, two essential tools for creating sprite sheets and physics shapes for your iOS games. ($58 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. ($50 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of xScope, ten tools in one that will help any designer or developer do their job faster and produce more accurate results. ($50 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of 1Password for Mac, the most popular password manager for the Mac! ($50 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of Base 2, a Mac OS X application for creating, designing, editing, and browsing SQLite 3 database files. ($30 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of Pixelmator, an inspiring, easy-to-use, beautifully designed image editor built to help you create stunning new images and edit your existing photos. ($30 value)
• 3 people will win a copy of iOS Hat, a handy tool that turns Photoshop layers into Objective-C or Swift! ($20 value)
• Update 10/1: New prize added! 3 people will win a copy of CrazyTalk Animator 2 Pipeline, a revolutionary 2D animation software to generate character animations for your games or apps. ($300 value)
• 1 person will win a copy of Spine Essential, a tool to help you animate sprites for your games! ($75 value)
• 1 person will win a copy of Briefs, the essential app design and mockup tool for a professional design workflow. ($199 value)

That’s a lot of winners – over 100 in total – so you have a lot of chances to win. This makes for over $12,000 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 8 Feast with the #ios8feast 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 #ios8feast hashtag, and they’ll get the epic loot!

Want to make your first entry? Just tweet this post with the #ios8feast hashtag by clicking the button below!

Tweet

The random drawing will be in a month, when the iOS 8 Feast is complete. So make your entries early and often! :]

Where To Go From Here?

If WWDC this year was like Christmas for iOS devs, then this has gotta be our Thanksgiving :]

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

• Want some Swift tutorials right now? Retweet this post – if it reaches 100 tweets, we’ll send out the new tutorials right away!
• Want to learn about Swift, iOS 8, and Core Data? Check out our new Swift by Tutorials Bundle – the first book was released today, and the remaining this month!
• Want tons of free tutorials? Come back here every Monday-Friday for the next month for a new tutorial on Swift, iOS 8, and more!
• Want to meet the team and fellow readers in-person? Sign up for RWDevCon: The Tutorial Conference, before tickets sell out!
• Want to get mad loot? Send one or more tweets during the next month with the #ios8feast 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 8 and Swift tutorials, and if you have any questions or comments about the iOS 8 Feast, please join the forum discussion below!