The official Developer app is excellent and gets better every year, but I reach for this independently developed app when I want to stream (or download) a WWDC video. So, I’d like to thank Gui Rambo and all the contributors for their work every year in keeping this maintained and moving forward. I think it’s the best way to find and watch WWDC session videos, which you’ll be doing a lot of over the next few weeks!
I despair at how the marketing page for this API proposal (because apparently that's a thing now) feels to read. It's so high and mighty, putting the logos of every media outlet that covered the original story next to images of smiling kids and families. It's just… Ugh.
The proposal is in response to the recent situation where apps that were (mis)using MDM to monitor screen time were removed en-masse from the App Store. So, the companies involved have come together to propose an API that would help solve their problems. Even though the proposal is being ridiculed on Twitter, I do actually think it's a good idea. Will Apple implement it? No, but they are almost certainly already working on this problem internally, and this will be good input into that process. We should tell Apple what we want and need. It just doesn't need to be this filled with drama, but I guess that's just what you have to do in 2019. 🤮
The absolutely ridiculous idea that Apple will respond to this publicly at all, let alone before WWDC just makes this all the more frustrating. Start a countdown to next week's inevitable articles in the media about how Apple did nothing about the problem during their annual developer conference. Then, follow that up next year with the "WE DID IT!" articles when Apple announce some kind of API that vaguely addresses these concerns.
Am I feeling cynical today? I don't know what you're talking about. 😂
Open Sourcing the Windows Bridge for iOS
Back at the Build conference in April this year, Microsoft announced that they'd be building Objective-C support into the next version of Visual Studio, allowing Windows Phone apps to be ported/built with it. It's very much early days 😁 and there's still plenty of stuff missing, but it's an interesting project. The big question remains though, even when it's further along will developers bother porting apps given that they'll probably still need to build some Windows UI on top of their app's core?
So, beta 5 of iOS and watchOS appeared last night and no workaround is needed to get Xcode running on El Cap this time! 😃 Russ Bishop has a nice summary of the changes to Swift but otherwise it's very much business as usual.
We're probably 5-6 weeks out from a final iOS 9/watchOS 2 release and while we haven't yet got TestFlight support for iOS 9, watchOS 2 apps can now be uploaded and distributed to internal testers. I'd expect to see full iOS 9 support added very shortly, maybe even before the next beta.
The State of the Apple Developer Ecosystem
Nik Fletcher with a lengthy (seriously, 7,000 words) look at the state of iOS and Mac development in the lead up to next week's announcements. While I hope we can all agree that this platform we are sinking our valuable development time into is pretty wonderful, it would be ridiculous to claim that it was without problems. Nik covers all sorts of topics here, more than I can sum up in a paragraph so the easiest thing to do is make yourself a nice cup of tea and read the whole thing.
Imagining developing for a split-screen iPad
I'm still very much on the side of the fence that says this isn't going to happen next week and it seems like Roopesh Chander agrees. He brings up some great points on why implementing this would be very challenging. Status bar issues, edge swipe issues, keyboard issues and none of them have a clear solution. Edge swipes are probably easiest to fix (if the swipe starts in the other app but then moves, it gets cancelled and occurs as an edge swipe in the other) but even if that happens, this is just going to feel too weird. I'm sticking with a no prediction on this.
Bug reporting on Apple products is not the most rewarding process and transparency could certainly be improved. Daniel Jalkut puts the case forward that we should all be filing more bugs in response to Marco Arment's recent post on the same subject. I can say from experience that if you're attending WWDC next week and have a problem for the labs, arriving with a bug number gives you a much better chance at getting action on your problem. The engineers will love you for being prepared too!
Interface Builder - Curse or Convenience?
Florian Kugler on why he is considering dropping Interface Builder for his next project. I think the Auto Layout issues in IB are the most pressing here and while I am still a big proponent of IB and use it for all of our projects I also turn off Auto Layout for them all as well. Storyboards I am much happier with and while Florian points out some of the issues here for me they are not enough to consider not using IB. Interesting discussion though.
Relax and Build - Data That Will Change Your Life
Spending less time marketing and more time building is high on any developer's wish list. Make your life easier with Tapstream's SDK in your app (it's free) and let it help you grow your user base. Learn where your best users come from by tracking conversions for installs and in-app events, with 100% clarity. See what's working so you don't waste time on what's not. The signup and installation take only minutes - install it today and start collecting data for your next release.
I have heard several people talking about the possibility of the iPad release of iOS 7 being delayed briefly. I don't know if this rumour has any basis in truth or not but my guess is that if this does happen then iOS 7 only apps that are universal will simply disappear from the iPad store until 7 appears. I would bet that we will find out the final release schedule, including any iPad delays at the event next week before the final release to the public so there will be time to make plans based on that information.