Reddit mentions of Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (3rd Edition)

First learn C well. Objective-C is a rather minimal addition to C's syntax, and so while your process will be different, since you'll have to think about objects and messages, you will mostly be doing C programming when you do ObjC programming.

I'm guessing you want to program in ObjC because you want to write Cocoa apps or iOS (iPhone, iPad) apps. If so, once you learn C get a hold of This book. It's simply the best (better than all the rest).

I disagree with the suggestions of podcasts, videos, and developer documentation. You really need to start here:
Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X

The Hillegass book is kinda the Cocoa bible. Clicky.

1. You should learn Objective-C. Start with Learning Objective-C from the Developer site, and follow the rabbit trail to other documents. Also, read up on iOS Application Design
   
   
2. Yes. You can register your app to be woken up in case of a significant location change. Or, you can register your app for continuous location updates in the background, which will kill the user's battery if not used correctly. See Executing Code in the Background.
   
3. It may be easier for you to pick up Cocoa programming on the Mac before going to the iPhone. Pick up Aaron Hillegass's excellent Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX and read the first five chapters. (I noticed that Hillegass has produced a new iPhone Programming textbook. I haven't read it but it has good reviews).

this is a great book on Cocoa and OSX programming. The author worked for NeXT (the company that originally created what is now known as Cocoa) and Apple, and now does Cocoa consulting and is generally a well regarded expert. This book is also an enjoyable read to boot.

Take the beaten path. One of the niceties of developing for an established commercial operating system is having a central and authoritative source for documentation, rather than having to comb the web for fragments of information. There are certainly decent books available, but developer.apple.com has everything you need.

Begin at the Mac OS X Reference Library. You seem anxious to dive in, so the Cocoa Application Tutorial, available from the "getting started" section of the reference library, will be an ideal first stop.

This is the cocoa book I have.

Looks like there's not only a kindle edition but a newer one as well.

Best of luck!

For iOS devices, you're going to want to start here, this will get you familiarized with the NeXtStep family of jive turkeys, followed up with a more formal introduction to Objective-C. I'll be honest, having some working knowledge of C will never hurt you, so after you're done with that, take a peek at K&R.

If you're aiming for Android, you have a bit of a different education outlook, I'd recommend brushing up with Head First Java. When I started poking around with Android, I read Hello, Android most of it should be still pretty relevant. I'm not entirely sure if it has been updated as of late, I outgrew it rather quickly, and if you do too; pretty much anything and everything by Mark Murphy is relevant. Best of luck!

I've got started on iOS programming 3.5 years ago reading the Kochan Objective-C book (probably the 3rd edition).

I am (was) an experienced programmer and found Kochan very helpful, specially on the memory management side of it. Learning C came after that, when I needed to do something that required more performance on iOS.

I also read part of Hillegass Cocoa book because I had it at hand, which got me a good starting point to learn Cocoa Touch online.

Pick up Aaron Hillegass' book and also look at the Apress series. For online stuff, cocoadevcentral.com is a good place and I'd also recommend the Objective-C Beginner's Guide. There's a ton of resources out there, just keep poking around online.

Only two months left

I learned objective-c with this book - http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-Stephen-Kochan/dp/0672325861

Then to make GUI apps and learn about Cocoa I read through this one -http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321503619/

I found Objective-c frusterating at first but eventually decided it was not so bad. If you know a bit of C then Obj-c isn't that difficult, it's getting to know all the Cocoa classes and stuff that takes time.

Something else I found useful was using the tab completion in Xcode to find things that sounded similar to what I was trying to do and then reading the docs in Xcode.

Maybe try to write a few simple command line programs, then translate some of your other programs to Obj-c, and finally have a crack at building a GUI app.

I was very please with Aaron Hillegass's book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X

I started with this book and then switched over to learning iphone stuff. Teaches you xcode, cocoa and basic obj-c.

Start with a language like Python. After that it is easier for you to learn C, because you will know at least the basic programming constructs like If-statements, loops, variables etc.

I would learn C with the book The C Programming Language. It's the standard bible for C, short and to the point, and one of the best technical books ever. A good C knowledge is IMHO necessary and useful, because sooner or later you have to use C libraries or at least fall back to the C interfaces of Mac OS or iPhone OS to do certain things that aren't there in the Objective-C abstraction layers.

After you have a solid C knowledge, you can learn about Object Oriented Programming and Objective-C. Apple has a good introduction to both topics: Introduction to The Objective-C Programming Language.

After you know the language, you can learn about Cocoa in the Cocoa Fundamentals Guide and do your first graphical Cocoa application with Xcode and Interface Builder with the Cocoa Application Tutorial.

Then buy the book Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass. You will learn to use some of the most important Cocoa classes. After that you can stay with the Apple docs and reference.

When you know Cocoa, you can do your first steps with iPhone development very easily by watching the peepcode.com introduction videos IPHONE VIEW CONTROLLERS PART I and IPHONE VIEW CONTROLLERS PART II - oh, peepcode has even a Objective-C introduction video OBJECTIVE-C FOR RUBYISTS but it's very ruby-centric...