Today the developer community is abuzz with Apple’s pre-release of the iPhone SDK. Developers who once used jail-breaking techniques to write software for iPhone and iPod touch can transition to an Apple-supported development platform and distribution model. While it won’t please everyone, I am quite happy with Apple’s model and the tight integration with Xcode.

As I put the finishing touches on a Ruby on Rails contract, I have been planning out applications I would like to build and use on my iPod touch. To get a head-start, I’ve been reading through iPhone Open Application Development as well 3D Math Primer and OpenGL ES Game Development. From the Internet, a few documents on accelerometers, the PowerVR MBX graphics chip, and the ARM11 processor are helping to round out my understanding of the Touch.

I consider myself a neophyte to this platform, with a small amount of Objective-C experience dating back 6 years, and more than a decade since I touched straight C. Any Mac OS X programmer has a huge head-start, and many people have even worked with the iPhone already.

“I am alway doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it” – Pablo Picasso

By starting at ground zero, and writing about the process, I hope to provide a useful resource to others new to the platform. Here I intend to summarize my research and experiments, at least to the extent which the Apple NDA allows.

For now, I’m just waiting for the Apple Developer site to settle down. Can you believe it? Huge demand.