Reddit reviews Beginning iOS 5 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK

If you have no programming experience, I would recommend maybe starting with something else like Java (This is the book I learned from: http://www.amazon.com/Java-Concepts-5-6/dp/0470105550).

If you do have previous experience, or you are extremely motivated, I would recommend the book Beginning iOS 5 Development (http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iOS-Development-Exploring-SDK/dp/1430236051/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346266039&sr=1-1&keywords=beginning+iphone+5+development), a newer version of the book I learned from.

I got my first iPhone back in 7th grade (iPhone 3G), and fell in love with it. I loved downloading lots and lots of apps from the App Store (which had just been released), and was impressed by how creative many of them were.

Shortly after, I began to want to make my own apps. I had 0 programming experience, but thankfully my parents believed in me, and bought me a MacBook Pro to develop with (also for school work), and then I bought myself a book teaching the basics of iOS development (it was this book, but for iOS 2: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iOS-Development-Exploring-SDK/dp/1430236051). I followed the tutorials in the book, made some sample apps, and soon thought I knew enough to make my own apps, so I stopped.

Turns out, although I did technically know enough to go by, there was still plenty I didn't know. Thankfully, by working on my own apps, I was able to fill in the many gaps in my knowledge, and spent the next several years just refining my skills.

Years later, I came across an outdated code base for a Game Boy Advance emulator for iPhones, so I spent several months tinkering with it and getting it to work. This gave way to my most successful project by far, GBA4iOS, a GBA and GBC emulator that could be installed outside the App Store (http://gba4iosapp.com).

Now, I'm working on a new app, Delta, which will emulate SNES, GBA, GBC, and N64 games (http://deltaemulator.com). It's been a long road getting here, but by just continuing to work on my own apps I was passionate about, I was able to refine my skills and get better and better :)

tl;dr; got iPhone 3G, fell in love with it, bought a tutorial book on making iPhone apps, worked on several of my own apps for years, released GBA4iOS, working on Delta now!

I really wish I had started programming earlier. It's something that you easily have the capacity to learn at the age of 15 and you can teach yourself outside of school. I'd recommend getting some books from amazon. If you have a mac, learning iOS app development can be an awesome way to get started. You could get these 2 books (this and this) and be well on your way to developing iphone and ipad apps by the end of this school year.

I found the grapefruit books helpful, you may or may not. For whatever it takes to get a safari subscription, you can use those books, rather than buying some you may or may not like... My $0.02

Grapefruit books seemed to be the best to me:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iOS-Development-Exploring-SDK/dp/1430236051