Issue 607

28^th April 2023

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

At the start of last year, the rumours of an Apple AR/VR/MR headset were so prevalent that I opened the first issue of 2022 with a comment about them. I guessed that no announcements were imminent.

It’s not just about correctly predicting whether Apple will or won’t announce something, though. I just re-read what I wrote, and I believe my reasoning still makes sense today. I don’t think VR/MR is any more compelling for Apple today than it was 15 months ago, mainly because of how people will perceive whatever is possible with today’s technology.

But if the rumbling was deafening at the start of 2022, it’s overwhelming now, and the tech press had nowhere to go other than to start talking about rumours as if they were facts. 🙄 I’m not fond of this practice, but it looks increasingly likely that there will be an announcement at WWDC. Even Tim Cook has been talking freely about the possibilities, and I can’t think of anyone who speaks as carefully as he does.

Naturally, we’ll have to sit through hundreds of “Apple is doomed” articles if people perceive whatever Apple announces to be too expensive, heavy, ugly, awkward to wear, or limited in functionality, just as we did after the slightly rocky launch of the Apple Watch, but if there’s one thing about Apple, they are outstanding at not letting the reception of a first-generation product get in the way of their long-term plans.

If Apple announces a device five weeks from now, it will be the next step in the line that started with this announcement in 2017, and whatever might be imminent certainly isn’t the final destination. They’ll refine the message and the device, and I’m sure in five more years, we’ll have those sleek, beautifully designed spectacles on our faces.

Either that, or I’ll write this comment again in May 2024! 😂

Dave Verwer

Sponsored Link

It’s almost time again for Apple to dictate your summer vacation plans. What breaking changes will they introduce? Which new APIs will you be scrambling to implement? Well, if you’re using RevenueCat, you won’t have to worry about any changes to IAPs or StoreKit – we’ve got you covered. If you’re not using RevenueCat, switching over is simple and our handy guides will walk you through the process. Check out our migration documentation to future-proof your app with RevenueCat.

News

First announced late last year, Apple has now published a preview of the open-source Foundation package, and this post from Tony Parker outlines the current state and next steps for the project.

They plan to focus on quality and performance first, then:

As a secondary goal, the project requests community proposals to add new APIs with focused scope to round out existing API functionality in Foundation. This will pave the way to explore how to add significant new APIs as the project progresses. In 2023, we aim to accept a small number of proposals with corresponding Swift implementations.

This is a great step for Swift and the whole ecosystem. It must have taken a lot to make this happen. 🚀

Code

I like the idea behind this new package from Dennis Müller. It tidies up the state management around presenting alerts, confirmations, full-screen presentations, sheets, and overlays in a clean way. If you’d like to learn more, there’s a great example in the Get Started section of the readme.

I’m a little wary of using the Mirror API for production code but it does have uses for unit testing.

Like Keith Harrison, I’d be cautious about using these APIs in your apps. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they may introduce a new class of bugs that Swift developers are not used to encountering. Tests would be a great place to experiment with them, though.

Design

David Smith:

Set a timer for 60 minutes and see where your design instincts will lead you.

Business and Marketing

It’s easy to forget about app preorders when you’re getting everything in line for a new app launch, but as Chris Wu shows in this launch postmortem, they can give you hundreds of downloads on day one as an indie developer. That’s a great head start over where you would have been.

Videos

The whole talk is worth watching, but I like the message in this three-minute clip from Luke Wroblewski, too. So many companies dip their toes in A/B testing, and it’s so easy to be misled.

Jobs

Senior iOS Developer @ Shareup – Want to build something new? Join our small, design-led team at @shareupapp to build the fastest, easiest, and most secure way to share anything with anyone. We use Apple’s best tech, including Swift Concurrency, Combine, Catalyst, UIKit, and SwiftUI, and you’ll work closely with our talented team. – Remote (within European timezones)

Apple Platforms Developer @ Cascable AB – Cascable is a small “indie” company based in Stockholm, Sweden. This is the job for you if you love working with and learning about multiple technologies. We have UIKit, AppKit, SwiftUI, and Swift-on-the-Server (Vapor) across our suite of products, and you’ll be working with all of them! – On-site (Sweden) with some remote work (within European timezones)

Senior iOS Engineer @ Reveri – We’re looking for an experienced, adaptable, and engaged Senior iOS Engineer looking to make a genuine positive difference in our member’s lives through self-hypnosis. 100% SwiftUI codebase, iOS 15+, Combine, and Concurrency. Small team, 3 iOS, 2 Android Engineers, every role has impact. – Remote (within European timezones)

If your company is hiring, you can post your open positions for free over at iOS Dev Jobs. Oh, and if it’s not you that’s responsible for hiring, I’d love if you would pass this on to the hiring manager.

And finally...

How on earth did I miss this?! 🤯