Issue 268

Comment

So, everything is live and apart from a short lived, but major issue with OTA updates in the first hours it seems to have gone fairly well. Adoption is already up above 20% which is impressive, but quite predictable these days. The more interesting metric will be when it rises over 75%, but we'll have to wait and see on that one.

As usual, there's a featured section on the front page of the store for apps built for iOS 10 and oh... so... many... sticker... packs!

So when do we start talking about iOS 11? 😬

News

Swift 3.0 Released!

Ted Kremenek on the official Swift blog with a summary of the 3.0 release. It's great to see the links to all of the proposals that came through the swift-evolution process and made it into this release. If you haven't started migration from 2.x already, it's probably time to start thinking about it a bit more seriously. The 2.x compiler isn't going to be around forever.

The App Store Keyword Algorithm Update Takes Effect

It's started! I've heard from a few people this week saying that they have had emails about their apps no longer passing review and being flagged for removal. Then, this article by Gabe Kwakyi shows that apps with long names are also starting to lose search rank. I don't think any apps have actually been pulled yet, but the clock is ticking.

Tools

Hushing the iOS Simulator

Have you noticed the iOS simulator is much noisier with logging in Xcode 8? If you're like me and prefer a quiet console then Russell Ivanovic has a great tip to quieten it down. This feels like it should be default, with the option to turn it on if you need it.

Writing good bug reports

Such a great article by Peter Steinberger on how to submit amazing bug reports to Apple. Check out that list of the bugs they submitted in 2016 too. We could all be more like Peter and his team 😀

Code

What's New in Swift 3

If you're looking for a comprehensive look at all of the changes between Swift 2 and 3, Daniel Steinberg has what you need with this three part post. Start with this link to part one and then move on to parts two and three. While we're on the subject you might also enjoy Sam Davies' 3 minute guide and Erica Sadun's has released a book on the same subject this week.

Introducing the Airbnb iMessage App

This is such a great post from Andriy Sergiyenko and Noah Martin on the iMessage experience with the AirBnB app. From beautifully describing the problem that needs solving, through the design of the extension and finally some technical details and gotchas. This is definitely worth a read.

Working with JSON in Swift

I'm pretty sure I promised never to link to another post about parsing JSON with Swift, but I think this one from the official Apple Swift blog warrants a one time exception. Rather than be all clever about it, they advocate a very simple approach without any automation based on reflection. This is also the approach I still use (except I separate my networking logic), so that's good! 💯

Preparing Your iOS App for Extensions

Nick Bonatsakis on splitting code into separate frameworks so that it's available from both the main binary as well as the multitude of extensions you'll be creating in iOS 10. I wouldn't bet on extensions being any less important in iOS 11+ as well, so you'll want to pay attention.

Business and Marketing

The iMessage App Store: First Thoughts & Observations

Ortwin Gentz with some commentary and stats from the iMessage app store. Obviously sticker packs dominate, and skew the numbers in terms of business models. But even so, paid up front is the most prevalent choice for apps too. I wonder how long that will last? Especially when the person you're using a paid app with also has to buy it.

Overcast trying ads, dark theme now free

Marco Arment writing about experimentation with business models. The problem with making big changes with how your apps make money is that it can feel really risky, and in many ways it is! This is the third business model for Overcast, but what's the alternative? To just blindly push on with an original decision? I find this a really interesting subject.

Videos

(Some) AltConf 2016 Videos

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I didn't know how I was going to link to all of the AltConf videos as there were so many, all being published separately. Well, this makes things easier! The schedule page on the AltConf site now has the available videos directly alongside the sessions. It's going to be a while before all the content is live, but the alternative of waiting until the process is complete would deny you all the fantastic talks that have already been published. Get watching!

As well as a thank you to the organisers of AltConf, I also want to thank Realm for the amazing work they're doing with these, and all of the other community videos that they produce. Thank you!

And finally...

Building an Entire iPhone App in an Hour

Hilarious talk from Marc Edwards and Russell Ivanovic. 😂

Issue 268 September 16th 2016