Issue 139

28^th March 2014

Written by Dave Verwer

Sponsored Link

Winch is a plug-and-play iOS framework that you can use to build highly responsive apps that even work off-line. Winch makes this possible by replicating your data into a local database on the client to avoid network latencies at query time.

News

It’s certainly true that the App Store felt like a bold new frontier for gaming a few years ago and that it didn’t quite turn out into the revolution that it felt like it might. Of course, there are still people doing amazing work, and bringing mobile gaming to the masses is still a remarkable achievement. However the clones and freemium trash are definitely getting in the way.

I hadn’t really considered the implications of iOS 7’s multi peer networking in creating mesh networks like this but I agree with Mike Elgan that this is a significant app. I have a feeling that this is the first of many interesting apps which will take advantage of this feature of the technology.

Tools

Hayden Gomes on why you should consider carefully whether a BaaS is right for you. I have shied away from using this kind of service so far and this post covers the reasons to be cautious. Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t consider services like this and certainly this industry is in its infancy and will improve. As with everything, it’s a trade off between time saved now and hassle in the future.

Code

Jonathan Wight with a neat tool comprising of a Value Transformer which takes in a simple subset of HTML and spits out an attributed string. Then a UILabel with an additional setMarkup: method finishes the job by allowing HTML to be set directly and rendered into the label. One point to note is that the parsing methods here work well on a background thread, unlike the NSAttributedString methods for parsing HTML.

It should come as no surprise that this post by David Rönnqvist is wonderful. As always it’s not only the content that makes David’s posts invaluable but the interactive diagrams and explanations that accompany them. Outstanding attention to detail backed up with great content, what more could you ask for?

There is a famous story of Steve Jobs being given an early build of iOS which included sliders to tweak the parameters of the “wiggle” animation which plays when an app is about to be deleted. This new library from Facebook allows you to add this kind of tweakability to your own apps. In the discussions on Twitter around this during the week, this alternate library also came up which is a much more lightweight solution to the same problem.

Date manipulation is rarely a fascinating subject but we all have to do it at some point. Matthew York has put together this extensive library for extending NSDate with all kinds of extra functionality.

Design

Great advice from Jim Rhoades. The visual changes that came along with the new accessibility features in iOS 7 have the potential to affect how your app looks with them switched on. Read the replies as well as there are more suggestions on what needs testing. Basically, spend an hour with your app and the accessibility settings just to check everything is still OK.

Oz Lubling on increasing the speed of your app without making your code any faster.

Business and Marketing

The authors of Threes on the enormous amount of effort that it took to make their wonderful game. All of the clones are inevitable, I suppose, but they all lack the depth and attention to detail that went into the original. This lengthy post gives a glimpse into the blood, sweat and tears that went into this game and is a fascinating behind the scenes look into their development process.

Books

Keith Harrison with a review of Matt Galloway’s “Effective Objective-C”. This has been on my reading list for a while now but this has convinced me that I need to pick up a copy and actually read it.

Sponsored Jobs

Heyday is hiring an experienced iOS engineer to help build a beautiful lifelog that automatically records the places you go, things you see, and people you meet. Our small team of 9 based in South Park San Francisco, includes Zac West, who was the lead developer of Adium for over 3 years.

The Booking.com iOS apps have been downloaded over 20 million times all over the world - we are looking for highly skilled developers to join our mobile team in the vivid city of Amsterdam. Join our international team and help us to make the best travel app in the world.

LYNX is a communications agency with a highly technical focus. We have a longstanding history of developing high impact mobile applications for use within the healthcare market. We’re looking for a creative thinker who is as passionate about learning and tech as we are, to join our multidisciplinary team of Mobile Engineers.

And finally...

How to turn 15% into 50%.