Issue 319

22^nd September 2017

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

What a week! iOS 11 made its public debut, Apple increased the limit for over-the-air downloads, Xcode 9 has finally taken over, and Swift 4.0 has been officially released.

Although I won’t be updating to iOS 11 on my main device ‘til sometime next week, I’m definitely enjoying it on my iPod 6th gen. Looking forward to trying out all the new AR apps this weekend! 📱🎉

<p>Vicc Alexander</p>

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News

Looks like the release version of Xcode 9 had a fairly serious simulator performance issue in it. 🙁 If you’re impatient for an official fix, you’ll want to give this solution from Steve Troughton-Smith a go. If you don’t have an old copy of b3 lying around, read down the Twitter thread a bit.

Apple continues to focus on its aim to teach children and adults of all ages how to code. Considering all the excitement surrounding augmented reality, what better way than to update Swift Playgrounds with an all-new AR challenge? 😃

Code

To notch, or not to notch? That is the question every developer seems to be asking themselves and while some developers have gotten quite creative with the notch, others would rather pretend it doesn’t exist. If you’re part of the latter group, then check out NotchKit. It provides a simple way to hide the notch on the iPhone X, and create a card-like interface for your apps. 👻

Although animations can improve a user’s experience, sometimes they can also make it worse. Sash Zats has put together a useful checklist that will hopefully help us all get better at knowing when to show these delightful experiences and when to hold back.

I don’t think we’ve ever actually directly linked to AudioKit before (although there was a video about it in Issue 241) so let’s fix that by linking to this major new version that supports Swift 4 and has a load of new features as well!

If you’ve ever wondered what the correct way to structure your app bundle identifiers or dispatch queues is, you’re in luck. Here’s a short yet solid list of tips and tricks on how to make your life easier when dealing with extensions, in-app purchases, app groups and more.

John Sundell with a well-written guide on how to create your own custom collections and the benefits they provide. What better way to learn more about collections than building out your own implementation? 😎

Design

Like many of you, the first thing I did after installing the Xcode 9 GM version was test out my app on the all-new iPhone X simulator. Not surprisingly, there’s quite a bit of work to do regarding layout changes. Thankfully, Keith Harrison has put together a nice list of tips on how to do this easily. 😌

I’m glad to know I’m not alone in feeling a bit bummed about some of the design choices made in iOS 11. 😞 Having the design background that I do, and a constant itch for perfection, it’s quite unfortunate that there are many places in Apple’s latest software that lack polish and feel unfinished. Ryan Lau provides us with an extensive list of all the places Apple’s design falls short in iOS 11.

Roman Zimarev discusses ways in which apps use sound to improve the user experience, and how you can use similar techniques. A sound designer by trade, Zimarev provides an overview of the major types of sounds in mobile apps and the contexts in which you will want to utilize them. 🎶

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