Let's start on the REAL app next week
This tweet resonated with me so much. 😀 The most successful things I've done never started as "the big idea". This newsletter, for example! 📰
Apple’s HomePod delayed until next year
Considering how little we saw about the HomePod at WWDC and in the following months, I'm not surprised to see this delay. However, from a developer perspective, this doesn't have a huge impact as the development potential of the platform is still quite limited. I'm glad Apple is willing to delay the release of products not ready for the mass market – I wish they were more willing to do this with software releases as well.
Next steps for the Swift Server work group
The try! Swift conference in New York this week hosted an announcement from the Swift Server work group about their plans, and here's Ted Kremenek with a quick summary. It's also worth checking out the Recommended Server Libraries section of the server page on Swift.org for a description of what this group is aiming for.
How to choose what app to make next
Yes, I switched a word in the title of this post from Jake Birkett but even though the article is talking about independent game development, the article is just as relevant for apps. Just replace every instance of "game" with "app" and you're set.
Paper: the next great iPad app, from the brains behind Courier
The Verge takes an in-depth look at Paper, the sketching and note taking app released this week by the people behind the cancelled Microsoft Courier project. It is great to see the ideas from Courier making it in to a real app.
Free training for mid to senior iOS developers – Next week
From August 2nd to 8th (that's this coming Monday!) you can join a FREE crash course for iOS devs who want to achieve an expert level of technical and practical skills – it's the fast track to being a complete senior developer! Get it now.
Join a free training course for mid/senior iOS devs next week
From May 17th to 23rd (that's this coming Monday!) you can join a FREE crash course for iOS devs who want to achieve an expert level of technical and practical skills – it's the fast track to being a proficient senior developer! Get it now.
Join a free training course for mid/senior iOS devs next week
From July 18th to 24th (that's this coming Monday!) you can join a FREE crash course for iOS devs who want to achieve an expert level of technical and practical skills – it's the fast track to being a complete senior developer! Get it now.
It's always slow at the start of the year for open positions, but I'm sure some companies are still hiring. Posting jobs on iOS Dev Jobs is still free, or pick a featured listing when you check out and your company might be the only one in this section next week.
Get ready! 😍
The time for wondering when “early next year” might happen is over, as Apple announced availability for its newest platform earlier this week, and it’s only three weeks away! 🎉
Does that mean you can submit apps to the store already? Yes, it does, and if you can’t wait to see what the App Store looks like on launch day, then Steve Troughton-Smith has a good Mastodon thread where he invited people to talk about their in-development visionOS apps.
It’s easy to be sceptical about whether Vision Pro will be a success, and I can’t say I don’t have some of those feelings, too! The widespread and mainstream adoption of an AR platform is a huge task from where we are now, and there’s no guarantee it’ll succeed, even with two¹ of the biggest companies in the world putting themselves behind it.
But the product that will be available in stores in a few weeks isn’t the “widespread adoption“ version of this type of device. The first few iterations over the next few years are here to lay the foundations for widespread adoption. Naturally, Apple isn’t going to pitch it like that. They’ll want everyone to know this is “the best Vision Pro we’ve ever made“, which is the truth, and which builds on the previous “best AR device we’ve ever made”, which was holding up an iPhone or iPad at arm’s length.
The other half of the adoption story is software, of course, and that’s where we developers come in. If you’re submitting an app in the next week or two and debut in the visionOS App Store on day one, and if spatial computing does go mainstream, it will be partly thanks to you! 😍
¹ I’ve not used a Meta Quest 3, but I understand its AR capabilities are significantly improved over previous versions.