Issue 548

4^th March 2022

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

It’s been around 20 months since Apple unveiled their Apple silicon roadmap and about 16 months since the first M1 machines landed on people’s doorsteps.

I don’t know about you, but doesn’t it seem like they’ve been around for longer than that? I had to double-check those dates! 😬

During that initial announcement, Apple said they planned to complete the transition to Apple silicon within two years, leaving them either 4 or 8 months, depending on when you start the clock. Of course, nothing is tying them to hitting that “deadline”. It’s frankly amazing that any of this transition has been possible during the last couple of years!

There are only two products left to announce before that transition is complete: A large-size iMac/iMac Pro and the Mac Pro. I’m deliberately not thinking about any of the hopes around a “Mac mini Pro” (that capitalisation!) as I’m sure that re-engineering their entire range of laptops and desktops to a new architecture during a pandemic has given them quite enough work. 😅

We may see the M2 generation begin, though. A15 chips have been in phones since September, and if Apple is planning to fall into a similar annual update cycle of M-series processor generation, we may see M2/Pro/Max chips based on the A15. However, given the size of this change, regular M-series generation iterations might only begin once the transition finishes. Then again, how hard can it be to switch processor generation mid-way through, though?! It feels like it should be trivial from my position of having designed and made a few PCBs in a school electronics class! 😂

Either way, the M1-based machines that we’ve seen so far have exceeded all of my expectations and running an M1 Max for the last few months has been a joy, so I’m sure whatever Tuesday brings will be impressive. It will also be a brief distraction from the awful current events for those of us lucky enough not to be directly involved. 🇺🇦

Enjoy the event!

Dave Verwer

News

App Transfers and the Small Business Program

I wish I had something more official than a tweet to link to on this subject, but Apple’s developer news site has no announcement of the changes. I did go and check the actual agreement, though, and sure enough, you may now transfer an app without Apple removing you from the Small Business Program. That’s great news!

I saw some confusion around what made this rule change possible now when it was not allowed at launch. I read the document and found the answer:

If You participate, either as a Transferor or a Recipient (hereafter referred to as an “App Transfer Party”), in the transfer of a Licensed Application, the proceeds associated with that Licensed Application will be included in the calculation of total proceeds of any App Transfer Party to determine eligibility for participation in the App Store Small Business Program.

It proceeds to give an example, but basically, what it’s saying is that if you make an app and then transfer it to someone else, all of the revenue (including revenue earned after the transfer) still counts against your quota for the Small Business Program. It’s not an unreasonable condition by any means, especially given that without it, you could easily exploit the system with transfers. But it’s one that all the other reporting on the subject seemed to miss. I guess I’m the only one who took the time to read the changes! 😂

Code

What’s new in Swift 5.6?

Here’s Paul Hudson with his regular look at the changes coming in Swift 5.6. Some of the changes introduced in this release are optional now, but their use becomes mandatory with Swift 6, so it’s worth being aware of what’s coming. The best way to learn about the changes is to read Paul’s article, though! As always, there’s also a playground demonstrating the changes and updates to What’s new in Swift too

Building a Custom Combine Operator for Exponential Backoff

One advantage of Combine is how modular everything is. If you’ve ever written code to back off when retrying network requests, the logic likely ended up quite tightly coupled to the networking code. Here’s a great article from Peter Friese explaining how to encapsulate that logic in a reusable Combine operator.

Better performance with canvas in SwiftUI

I enjoyed this article from Eric Callanan on performance testing various SwiftUI rendering methods. Predictably, drawing a complex view using multiple subviews is slower than using Canvas or images, but I was pleasantly surprised by how performant using a canvas was!

PlaygroundTester

Do you want to write tests in Swift Playgrounds 4? Paweł Łopusiński has the answer!

Jobs

iOS Developer @ onX – onX is a pioneer in digital outdoor navigation. We bring our outdoor passion to work every day with a singular goal–to awaken the adventurer in everyone. We do this by engineering industry-leading technology, and by crafting dynamic outdoor experiences. – Remote (within US timezones)

iOS Engineer @ Clay – We believe that Clay is the most stunning, powerful, and beautiful way to remember who you’ve met—and what matters to them. Clay is growing quickly, and our iOS app is extremely important to all we do. We like to be on the cutting edge- we are one of the most advanced SwiftUI apps in production. – Remote (within US timezones)

Senior iOS Developer @ Flightradar24 – With over 2 million daily users, Flightradar24 is the world’s most popular flight tracking service. As a member of our small iOS team, you’ll work on every part of our app and have a lot of impact. We care about code quality and building the best possible product, and so should you. – Remote (within European timezones)

iOS Developer @ Maple Media – Maple Media is an innovative mobile media company that acquires and operates category-leading apps that entertain, empower productivity, and enrich everyday life. – Remote (Anywhere) with some on-site work (United States in CA)

Only four featured jobs this week? Yes, but there have been plenty of other submissions. Where are the others, you ask? Right this way, please!

And finally...