Issue 525

Comment

Even before the pandemic, our industry was always more remote-friendly than others. Mainly because given a laptop, phone, internet connection, and USB cable, we’re pretty much ready to go!

Of course, over the last 18 months, things have moved even further towards software development becoming an entirely remote industry. Even as lockdowns have eased and businesses where in-person collaboration is beneficial have returned to the office, most companies that rely on knowledge workers have stayed remote as new variants rise and fall.

In feedback and conversations about the re-launch of iOS Dev Jobs, I’ve noticed several people with a strong preference for remote work that includes zero travel or in-person contact. It set me wondering how far the definition of “remote work” has shifted. A couple of years ago, even the most remote job would still have one or two “all hands” meet-ups per year.

Of course, it’s completely natural that a pandemic would cause a swing in opinions on this topic and everyone has their own set of criteria for “remote”. However, it set me thinking it might be a good idea to see a broader view of the community’s thoughts than the few anecdotal conversations I’ve had.

So I put together a short survey. It will literally take you one minute to complete.

What does “remote” mean to you?

I’ll report on the results next week.

News

App Store submissions now open for 🤫

Is everyone ready with their updates? 🤞 That which must not be named starts rolling out on Monday!

Xcode 13 Release Notes

Xcode's official release notes are always worth a skim; You never know what you might have missed. Like, did you know about the improvements to Instruments, the linker, or localisation this year? There's plenty that doesn't get blogged about by the community.

Tools

Create compile time reminders in Xcode

This is a useful technique from Robin Kunde. Think about it like the equivalent of "Hey Siri, remind me to change this when the next release of Swift comes around". 👍

Code

Swift Regrets

These "regrets" from Jordan Rose are fascinating. It's easy to think that when Apple adds something to Swift, the language designers all agreed on it, and it shipped with every one of them sagely nodding in complete satisfaction and agreement. Of course, that doesn't happen anywhere! Find the full list of posts here.

Validate your iOS and Android translations with Locheck

This new tool from Steve Landey will be invaluable if you have a large app with localisations. It checks for several types of bugs that are easy to miss when you're not constantly running in all your localised languages. 👍

Restricting Dynamic Type Sizes

Here's Keith Harrison with an article on handling edge cases with dynamic type. It gets a mention in the article, but it's worth calling out again - Be careful if you're thinking about doing this. While it's sometimes necessary, dynamic type is there for a reason, and you should only restrict it when it really needs it. 👍

Design

Supporting Multiple Watch Sizes

New screen sizes! Jake Behrens has some new documentation with what you need to know if you have a watchOS app.

Business and Marketing

New marketing tools from Apple

I'm not sure I 100% see the value of this new image generation tool from Apple without the ability to add at least a little custom text to the created images. They look great, but will they be impactful if every app has to use duplicate copy and design? It seems like a strange thing for Apple to have spent time doing. 🤷‍♂️

Jobs

iOS Engineer (US Remote) @ Karbon – Fully remote since day one, Karbon has spent the past 12 years building amazing apps for the best clients in the world. We’re a small, closely-knit team of iOS and Android engineers with an obsessive attention to detail. We value quality over quantity and focus on only a few key projects per year. – Remote (within US timezones)

Senior Remote iOS Native Engineer @ MartianCraft – MartianCraft has been making Mac and later iOS software for discerning clients for nearly two decades. Our team of in house engineers and designers is second to none. As a full-time remote company for more than a decade we understand the needs, requirements, and pitfalls of working remotely. – Remote (within US timezones)

iOS Engineer - Multiple Levels @ Turo – Help us build product features that delight guests who book vehicles on our platform & enable hosts with the tools they need to manage their fleet. We're actively transitioning our codebase from Objective-C to Swift, and learning SwiftUI together as we migrate our internal, watchOS, and tvOS apps. – On-site (United States in CA)

Lead iOS Developer @ Loop – If you care about mental health, we are working on something very new and different in the field. What started late last year as a platform for on-demand support groups, has turned into a new type of highly affordable solution focused on those with moderate to severe Social Anxiety. – Remote (within US timezones)

Open Source Project Lead - SwiftUI @ DockYard – We have a high-value open source project that we need an experienced Swift/SwiftUI engineer to help us complete. Experience with Elixir is a plus. – Remote (Anywhere)

Junior, Senior, Lead iOS Engineers & Eng. Managers @ Capital One – We are a Bank/FinTech that reaches tens of millions of consumers every day. We're mobile first and have 200+ native mobile devs. We make use of Swift, Combine, Bazel, Xcodegen, Fastlane, etc. Our app is always in the top 10 Finance apps. We're looking to hire 40+ devs & managers of all levels! – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (United States in IL, NY, or VA)

iOS Engineer @ onX – Are you an iOS developer who loves the outdoors? Join onX! If you’re passionate about writing great software, love playing outside, and believe in protecting access to public lands – then join our team, where we empower millions of outdoor enthusiasts to explore the unknown! – Remote (within US timezones)

iOS Engineer @ Protégé – Protégé is looking for a passionate, hardworking engineer to help make it easier for people to access their dream careers. The codebase is 100% Swift, salary and compensation $100,000–$130,000/year with excellent health insurance. Background in AVFoundation, AVKit, and GraphQL are a big plus. – On-site (United States in IL) with some remote work (within US timezones)

SwiftUI Engineer @ Eimy – Eimy develops consumer electronics and services that improve the lives of a billion users worldwide. Our Munich team is hard at work to make our dream of better communications for everybody a reality. We are looking for iOS Engineers to help shape our state-of-the-art SwiftUI apps. – On-site (Germany)

Are you hiring? Here, have this. 🎁 Are you looking to be hired? You'll want this one instead, or possibly this one. 🎉 Everyone happy? I thought so! 😂

And finally...

If you ever feel useless, it could be worse...

Issue 525 September 17th 2021