What you need to get started:

1. Get a Mac . Unfortunately this is really the only way to develop for the iPhone. You need to use the latest version of OSX (10.6.4 Snow leopard). Hackintoshes will be a pain to setup and it could be a headache waiting to happen for some. So, your cheapest option aside from the Hackintosh, is the Mac mini, which retails for a whooping $700! And this doesn't include a mouse or key board. Talk about a ripoff. But, if you want to develop for the iPhone it's going to be worth it.

2. Sign into Apple's website and download the iPhone SDK 4 . This is free of charge. When you are ready to publish the game on their app store you are going to have to be a registered developer, which costs $99.

3. Learn the following (The hard part):
-Objective C
-OpenGL

Objective C is somewhat similar to C, but it's syntax can be a bit overwhelming at first. For instance, instead of printf("Hello world"); it's NSLog(@"Hello World");. Additionally, the preprocessor directives (the lines that go in the global area above main) do not require the "include" portion and instead use "import."

Begin here!

This has been the most effective tutorial for beginners including myself. This will teach you the syntax of Objective C that you need starting from the very basics. Start under where it says "English Leopard Online Book."

As I learn more about OpenGL and objective-C I will update this thread. I'll also post how I do some of the apps my brother and I successfully accomplish. So, I hoped this gave you a basic idea of where to begin and what to learn first.

If anyone has any other suggestions or any other tutorials feel free to post them up.

Terminology Clarification:

-Cocoa is an API/programming environment for Mac, which Xcode uses and is built upon.

-Xcode is the program that comes with the SDK. You use it to program for the iPhone, which uses the Objective C programming language.

-OpenGL is an open source API that the iPhone uses to render both 2D and 3D graphics. You will use a plethora of OpenGL's predefined functions in order to create graphics for your games.

Really wish Apple didnt force people to get a mac to develop.

-- Mon Jul 05, 2010 10:48 am --

Not sure if you're making games or not but torque and unity are great platforms to start making games. Give me a shout out if you need 3d assests XD

Nice! A couple friends and I have the $99 registered dev account, and are planning to learn some iPhone coding over the summer.