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UI for iOS: Filling Gaps in the UIKit Framework
Telerik UI for iOS is a native development toolset featuring an advanced Charting library, Calendar and AppFeedback controls. Integrating the controls in your Xcode project is very straightforward thanks to the easy to use API. The product comes with dedicated support and detailed documentation. Download a trial now.
telerik.com
News
TestFlight Beta Testing
After 6 years of juggling 100 devices per year the wait is finally over as Apple's TestFlight beta testing launched this week. You can now invite up to 1,000 beta testers per app, based on Apple IDs rather than UDIDs and then distribute betas through iTunes Connect. There is a lightweight review process before your first beta is able to be shipped but once that's done you can distribute future versions freely. Looks like builds can also be uploaded with iTMSTransporter as well which is great for those with an automated process.
apple.com
AppCode and Swift
Great news if you are a fan of AppCode, I'm an Xcode user myself but seeing "SourceKit terminated. Editing functionality temporarily limited." just a few more times might make me reach for an alternative.
jetbrains.com
Tools
Rollout.io
Rollout allows you to dynamically enable/disable methods to work around crashes and other issues in your shipped apps without having to immediately ship new code. Despite how this sounds, according to their FAQ this is App Store safe. I'm not sure I'd actually ship with this but I find the idea interesting.
rollout.io
iOS Device Summary
James Dempsey has updated his iOS Device Summary diagram to include the new iPhone and iPad models that have shipped over the last few months. Always useful to have something like this handy.
jamesdempsey.net
Code
Clean up the application delegate with initializers
I like this post by Klaas Pieter Annema about cleaning up your App Delegate, specifically the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method which tends to get cluttered up with all sorts of framework and 3rd party service initialisations.
annema.me
The Point Of Optionals?
Sam Deane on optionals in Swift being more than just a language feature by also helping improve readability and explain the intent of source. I especially liked this post as it reminded me of some of the internal conversations I've been having with myself as I learn Swift. The language itself is pretty easy to learn and I was up to speed in a short amount of time, but really figuring it out is going to take longer.
bornsleepy.com
Design Patterns In Swift
Oktawian Chojnacki with a nice set of samples detailing how to implement some of the classic design patterns in Swift. It doesn't concern itself with the "why's" or "should you's", it's just a concise page with sample code. Nicely done.
github.com
Design
Design Details: Inbox by Google
Brian Lovin with another instalment of his wonderful Design Details series. I've also been playing with Google Inbox myself and it certainly has some interesting UI details. Like Brian, I also really like their use of very obvious navigation bar colour changes to indicate your position within your mailbox. You should read the whole article though as there are so many more things to notice.
brianlovin.com
Creating Mobile Designs That Scale
Marc Edwards with a great presentation from Adobe MAX this year. This talk is about more than just creating designs that scale and is actually a great recap on a whole load of modern Photoshop techniques that we should be using.
bjango.com
Sponsored Jobs
iOS Engineer - App Annie - Utrecht
Building exciting new products that will disrupt the market.
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One of the things I like about my weekly round up of iOS development events is that it sometimes lets a story settle a bit before I need to write about it. That certainly happened this week and while the eventual outcome was positive, I'd imagine this won't be the last case like this that we'll see before everything settles down again as iOS 8 made so many new types of apps possible.
Dave Verwer