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News
iTunes Connect changes
Looks like a major update to iTunes Connect and TestFlight went live this week. Unfortunately I can't find an announcement post anywhere but there's plenty of great changes here, some which have been long awaited!
TestFlight limits have been increased on internal and external testers (up to 2,000) and builds now have a 60 day expiration up from 30. Bigger changes have been made to iTunes Connect itself though, with it now supporting 2FA on login and access to multiple developer accounts from a single Apple ID.
However, the most significant change to me is that you can finally set iTunes Connect users to only have access to a subset of the apps on your account. This, along with some more granular roles is huge news for larger companies where many people require some access, but not to every app.
Oh, and there's a new Shopping category on the store now too! ๐
All in all, this is a great set of updates!
Tools
Reveal-In-Github for Xcode
GitHub really shines for exposing the details of our source history in a readable (and shareable) way. Wouldn't it be cool if you could select some code in Xcode and instantly jump to GitHub? You'll want to check out this new plugin if that's where your source lives.
github.com
Jazzy
I've linked to Jazzy before but after mentioning that Appledoc were looking for help last week I thought it was worth another mention, especially as they just added support for Objective-C this week.
github.com
Code
MPParallaxView
I should have predicted a spate of UI components replicating the parallax buttons from tvOS into to "standard" UIKit (even though it's all there, but hidden). If you're looking for a tvOS style parallax view/button, you're certainly in luck as there have been (at least) two released this week MPParallaxView and TVButton.
github.com
YYText
This new rich text editing library from Yaoyuan looks very impressive. It's still based on CoreText behind the scenes but replaces TextKit (and UILabel/UITextField/UITextView) with custom components for layout and display. An ambitious project and while I haven't tried it, it certainly looks good.
github.com
Where "where" may be used?
The "where" keyword in Swift is very handy, and you're probably using it at least a little. However, do you know all the different places it can be used? Marcin Krzyลผanowski has written up a nice summary.
krzyzanowskim.com
The Sin in Singleton
Ah singletons... What would we argue about if they didn't exist? Ben Sandofsky has a good article explaining when not to (and when to!) consider using one.
sandofsky.com
Design
Signing into apps on Apple TV sucks
I linked to an article on this subject last week, but this week Benny Wong has taken the idea one step further. His approach uses Bonjour and an existing iOS app to make the login process even smoother. Since the post was published Riz Sattar has also put together an implementation of this method as a library, Voucher which is also worth checking out.
medium.com
The Next Step for 3D Touch
Rian Van Der Merwe with a detailed summary of the state of 3D touch right now as well as a collection of posts and prototypes for possible new uses of the technology. However, it's probably also worth reading Lukas Mathis' post on how 3D Touch hurts usability before you get too excited. ๐ข
uxbooth.com
Business and Marketing
Sideloading and f.lux
Interesting story this week of the f.lux iOS app taking advantage of everyone being able to get a certificate to install apps on their devices. I can see this is frustrating for f.lux but I think I'm on Apple's side of asking them to stop doing this. The review process is certainly flawed, but I still feel it's better than nothing. If sideloading became mainstream, I think it would cause more harm than good to the platform.
justgetflux.com
Videos
LLVM Developers' Meeting Videos
Videos from the recent LLVM Developers' Meeting. These are all predictably low level talks, but there's sure to be something in here to catch your interest if you're interested in the Swift compiler. I must admit, this goes way over my head though, I swim in (very) shallow water when it comes to compilers! ๐ณ
youtube.com
So Apple are doing some more tech talks and this year the focus is going to be on tvOS! Great news, especially as it didn't get any coverage at WWDC. Registration for tickets is now closed but If you didn't get your name in the hat in time, I'm sure there will be videos!
Dave Verwer