Issue 481

Comment

It’s (presumably) Apple Silicon time! Of all the events that Apple have held since WWDC, this is the one I’ve been most looking forward to. That’s not to say that the new iPhones and other products aren’t exciting, but this is the one I’ll be glued to.

I won’t make any hardware predictions or comment on any of the rumours. I’m happy to be surprised by the specifics in that department. What I will say is that I expect that this event will continue the message from WWDC, that Apple care deeply about the Mac platform, and the things that make it special. The Mac and macOS were the stars of the conference, and the Big Sur betas have lived up to my expectations through the summer. I can’t wait to see their vision of what the next generation of hardware will make possible on the platform I use all day, every day.

Whatever they announce, I’m not planning on buying anything as I’m still delighted with my 16” MacBook Pro from last year. I’m hoping that I can stay strong and remain a happy owner after Tuesday’s event. Wish me luck! 😬

News

Swift Concurrency Roadmap

It started just over three years ago with a manifesto, and this week we got our first glimpse at what that manifesto inspired, and a peek at what concurrency in Swift might become. The Swift team have clearly been working hard on this, and it comes in several parts. First, the roadmap gives a great overview of the goals for the project. But you can also read about actors and actor isolation, how it will interoperate with Objective-C, asynchronous functions, and structured concurrency.

It's worth reading, especially the roadmap. But it's also worth noting that this is the first public draft of a set of significant language changes that will be introduced over multiple Swift releases, so don't feel like you're falling behind if you don't read all of this! That said, I'm excited about the direction this is heading.

App privacy questions available in App Store Connect

Alright, this is one you need to pay attention to, and it's going to be enforced soon! As of December 8th, you'll need to describe what data your app collects, and what you, or third parties you pass it to do with it every time you submit a new app or an update to an existing app.

Depending on the size of your company, you may not know what your company is doing with the data your app collects. It might take a bit of work to pull this information together, and you've only got a month to get your ducks in a row, so get started now. I'd say this is the best place to get started.

Tools

Atlantis

I first wrote about Proxyman in Issue 448. It's a network debugging tool in the same vein as Charles, and it's lovely. There's always an annoying step with these network debugging tools though. Setting up the proxy and trusting the certificate is a pain. Nghia Tran has taken it upon himself to solve the problem. Rather than use a proxy, install this library in your app, and it'll stream network requests directly to Proxyman. Easy!

Code

Replicating Types in Swift

There are few people who I'd trust more than Drew McCormack on the subject of syncing data between multiple devices. I've been following the progression of his latest set of posts on the subject, and this week saw the final instalment, so it's time to let you all know about it. This is a complex subject and one that I don't really feel qualified to talk about, but I know Drew is!

How to use GeometryReader without breaking SwiftUI layout

GeometryReader in SwiftUI sounds like such a sweet, innocent API, doesn't it? Reading is good for you, and can't possibly do any harm, can it? What? It can break my whole layout? Oh... 😬 Here's Majid Jabrayilov with some tips on keeping it under control.

Break + Label

I also didn't know that this feature of Swift existed, and like Nick Lockwood I'm also not sure how I feel about it. I agree with this, though:

This seems like a good tool for adding bugs to spaghetti code, but I can see it having its uses.

Modern Launch Screens

In the beginning, a launch screen was a single image. Then a multitude of images, then a storyboard, and now? What's the best way these days? Let's learn from Kristaps Grinbergs.

Business and Marketing

App Store Marketing Pro Tip

I've said this a few times in this newsletter, but it's important to remember that Apple only know about your major new app release or update if you tell them about it. Thanks to Oscar Falmer for the reminder!

Books

Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

I learned Objective-C and OS X development from a Big Nerd Ranch book. I struggled along on my own for a while, but pretty quickly realised I needed something a bit more formal to learn from and bought a book which still lives on my bookshelf today!

They're still writing books too! This one, by Mikey Ward, concentrates primarily on the language, but also includes a brief run into SwiftUI at the end of the book.

For full disclosure, Mikey sent me a review copy of this book.

Jobs

iOS Developer @ Doximity – Doximity, the medical network used by over 70% of US clinicians, is hiring passionate iOS engineers (remote-friendly!). You'll get to be part of an amazing product team and work on an app that is constantly evolving. Use your skills (Swift, MVVM, FRP) to be an integral part of our newly launched telemedicine feature. Apply today! – San Francisco CA, or Remote within the US

Senior iOS Engineer @ DuckDuckGo and Senior macOS Engineer @ DuckDuckGo – Rather than rely on interviews, we base our hiring decisions on demonstrable work performance. We achieve that by asking our candidates to complete paid projects, which largely resemble the type of challenges they would be solving at DuckDuckGo every day. – Remote

Senior iOS Developer @ Atomic Robot – Atomic Robot works with some of the most exciting companies and brands to help them bring their innovative projects to life! We have a highly collaborative team that is focused on high-quality engineering and continuous learning – Remote, or Cincinnati OH

Software Engineer, iOS @ Lyft – Lyft is looking for iOS developers who want to own large projects and have a monumental technical impact in a 100% Swift codebase. Come join the ride and help us fulfil our mission of creating the real-time transportation network of the future! – San Francisco CA

And finally...

This is why I'm excited about Apple Silicon Macs! 😍

Issue 481 November 6th 2020