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How to Use Twitter to Get More Downloads in 5 Steps
Turn Twitter into a free source of users: see how some of the best viral apps use Twitter to spread the word and get people into their apps. It's simpler than you think.
tapstream.com
News
Apps must be compiled against the iOS 7 SDK from Feb 1st 2014
This should be expected news and the timing seems about right. Just remember this does not mean that your apps must target iOS 7 only, just that they must be compiled with Xcode 5 and the iOS 7 SDK which you should have been doing for months already.
apple.com
2013 LLVM Developers' Meeting
The videos and slides have been published from the most recent LLVM compiler conference which was held in November. Naturally this is all very low level content but is always worth a look even if compilers aren't necessarily your thing.
llvm.org
Tools
SVGtoIcons
Joseph Lord with a new tool to generate icons and launch images at multiple resolutions from SVG files. I can see this working for simple icons but I do wonder whether SVG has the fidelity that you might be looking for with your icons.
human-friendly.com
Code
CocoaSPDY: SPDY for iOS / OS X
SPDY wasn't something I had heard of before I read this article but it looks like it's a binary implementation and enhancement to HTTP which has been adopted as the basis for the HTTP 2.0 spec. With that in mind, this implementation of the SPDY protocol in Objective-C is worth a look. I would imagine that to find this useful right now you would need to be solving some fairly big networking problems (like Twitter, for example) but that doesn't make it any less of an interesting read.
twitter.com
By your _cmd
Graham Lee with a deep dive into the Objective-C runtime looking at how the Foundation implementation of KVO works, then going on to reimplement the Observer Pattern from first principles before ending with going all Ruby on us to implement method_missing in Objective-C. If there wasn't enough low level content in the LLVM talks mentioned above then get your teeth into this as well.
securemacprogramming.com
Introduction to Core Bluetooth: Building a Heart Rate Monitor
I've been meaning to learn more about Core Bluetooth for a while now but this article by Steven Daniel finally made me actually take a look at it in more depth than "Oh, I know that thing exists". I was surprised how trivial it was to manage connections and talk with bluetooth devices using this framework. Worth a look if you haven't had a chance to investigate Core Bluetooth yet.
raywenderlich.com
macOS Development
Automating OS X app test build distribution across multiple OS versions
Fraser Hess with a few tips on setting up a VMWare environment and workflow for testing apps on multiple versions of OS X back to 10.6. He is using BitTorrent Sync to ensure all of the builds end up on each of the machines. Nice time saver.
cimgf.com
Design
Drag & Drop: Think Twice
Dave Feldman with a great post on combining touch interfaces and drag and drop. Luckily drag and drop hasn't really been overused in iOS or in third party iOS apps. Dave goes through some of the reasons why you should think carefully before implementing it in your app.
medium.com
Business and Marketing
Privacy in mobile apps: Guidance for app developers
The Information Commissioner's Office here in the UK published this report this week with some good guidance for thinking about privacy while developing mobile apps. Coming from the same department that published guidelines requiring explicit consent for cookies you might think of viewing this with a little scepticism but it's actually a very sensible look at mobile privacy and definitely worth a read.
ico.org.uk
What is App Store Optimisation?
Dan Counsell with an excellent article on optimising your app store listing for search and discoverability. This is a tricky subject which attracts lots of misinformation but Dan cuts through it all to give a clear and sensible set of tips on getting your app in front of users. He also includes a cheat sheet which has a great summary of tips too.
dancounsell.com
Quick reminder to get your ducks in a row today as this is the last day for any changes in iTunes Connect before it shuts down. You will not be able to make any pricing changes, do any submissions or edit any metadata until the 27th so make sure you're not caught out by that.
Another quick reminder, I am going to be taking my traditional one week break from iOS Dev Weekly next week. If you're also taking a break over the next couple of weeks then I hope you have a good one! I'll be back in the new year so I'll see you all then!
Dave Verwer