I’ve been messing around with iPhone development as of late. Let me start by saying, “Wow, that was much harder than I thought it was going to be.” (The programming was the hard part, not the telling you about it.) Truth be told most of my development time has been spent writing in high-level languages. HTML, javascript, CSS, and – my dear old friend – Actionscript (Flex, Flash, and Air.) Sure I’ve done some server-side hacking too, mostly in PHP and Coldfusion and a brief stint where I fell in love with C# (it really is a lovely language.) But I’ve never had to manage memory, never had to “drop into C”, and never had to type “alloc.” Never-the-less (I love that word) I was woo-ed by the many stories of “I spent the weekend learning Objective-C and now I have a dozen apps in the app store!” So I dove in head first thinking I could just learn the syntax and be off and running and found out there was no water in the pool. Possibly my own fault – but getting schooled by a programming language is a humbling thing. I mean, I get paid to code and make stuff. Now I’m looking this computer dead in face trying to make it once again do the things I know it can do…if only I knew the words it needs to hear. Er..see….read….nevermind…

Well, that’s enough of that – this is the year where I’d actually like to make something – preferably for iOS. Like many developers I spend a fair amount of time dreaming. Dreaming is fine and all but it…man I can’t believe I’m about to say this…it gets to the point where it’s just pathetic. Having an idea is great, fleshing out that idea is great, but day-dreaming about it day after day, then month after month, then year after year just turns it into an albatross. A living, thieving, lying albatross. The lie? That the aspiration you keep in your head is the same as the ambition that is takes to will something into existence. I definitely have that problem. My head is full of many wonderful and awesome ideas – my hard drive is full of 90% projects, things that would be incredible if I ever found the time to finish them. That’s enough of that.

So why iOS? Not hard to answer – great hardware, great market penetration, great tools. The idea of making mobile software really appeals to me – I like software you can hold in your hand – it’s like being able to have a portfolio in your pocket. Plus, I feel like my artwork looks really good on an iOS device – better than a monitor or a piece of paper at least.

What am I making? Honestly, I’m not sure yet. I’ve got some idea’s but if you gander at that second paragraph I wrote you can see I almost have a low tolerance for my own thoughts. Here are the ones I’m currently tangling with:

Minimal Facebook: A Facebook app without a lot a features – made for those who use facebook just like I do – to check out and comment on statuses.

Noah’s Physic Ark: A kids game about loading up the animals onto Noah’s Ark. I thought it could be fun to be physics-based so you could literally toss animals onto the Ark. This one holds a lot of promise just because I think it would be a lot of fun to work on.

Minimal Podcasting: I know there already exists some great podcasting type apps out there but they are loaded with features and other such cruft – I think just a nice, simple, podcasting-consuming app would be really…well…nice. Mainly, I think I’m just bothered by how close the pause and previous/forward buttons are on the default music app – I must hit “next” instead of “pause” at least two or three times a day and it just makes me want to rip a tree out of the ground by its’ roots and hit a car with it Hulk-style.

Office Pinball: Ok, I don’t even know how to explain this one – it involves pinball, harsh stereotypes, coffee, and the breaking of cubicle walls. Make of that what you will…

Office-themed Games: – I have a slew of undeveloped ones floating around in my head – still in the “figuiring out” phase and not yet in the “dreaming about making a million bucks but not doing anything about it” phase…

Kids Games: Same thing as Office-themed Games…

So I’m starting from zero. Nothing in the app store, no background in Objective-C, no money coming in from any sort of iOS freelance work. Just a Xcode, a desire to really make (and ship) something really neat, and a wasteland of 90% projects just begging that I not add anymore to the pile. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Why Jonathan Ive? I already have one pad, it’s a cheap multitouch drawing pad but it works and it cost $2.79. Why have you shown up with your keen sense of industrial design and apparent need to have everyones money? WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!

I don’t have too much to say about the iPad yet. The thing is darn pretty but if I had to make a choice between this or the iPod touch I think I would still be leaning toward the touch. The big feature for me would be an awesome drawing app but it seems like that already exists for the touch?

Either way, Apple continues to do a great job in devising more clever and nimble ways to try and wrestle more money from our purses…