I talked about platform-fit in today’s comment, so you won’t be surprised to hear that a native Mac app for dealing with GitHub and GitLab issues interests me! That’s exactly what Sonar is, and it looks good. I’ll try it for the next couple of weeks and see how I fare with breaking the habit of opening GitHub in a browser.
My only worry with apps like this is that if they are not successful enough to support the further development needed not to lag behind feature development from the official services they interact with (GitHub and GitLab in this case). I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the audience for this app is big enough!
People often ask me about a new app idea they want to build, and one thing I always try to think about is, “Is this app boring enough?”
Obviously, “boring” is subjective, but the number of success stories I have heard over the years where the problem isn’t glamorous and the solution doesn’t leverage the latest trends is striking. Marketing your app becomes easier as there’s less competition on keywords, and users love your app because it solves a problem they don’t enjoy dealing with.
If you want to make an app for fun or as a hobby or side project, that’s a whole different thing, and you should go for whatever that idea is, even if it includes every buzzword on the front page of TechCrunch. But if you want to increase your chances of building a successful business out of your app, you might find more success in a quiet corner of the App Store creating something that most developers never think about.
You’ll never rub shoulders with the startups building with the latest AI technology or get written about by top news sites. In fact, one reason I’ve not mentioned specific success stories here is that some people who have found success with this kind of app seek out a quieter time with their successful businesses. Drawing attention to how successful their apps are would only draw their attention away from running those successful apps!
So next time you pitch an app idea to someone, watch for that vacant look that happens when someone completely loses interest in what you’re saying. If you see that, your idea may just be dull enough to make millions! 😂
How My App Ended Up In An Apple Ad
Ever wondered what it's like to be featured in an Apple TV ad? Robleh Jama writes about the experience and the affect it had on sales.
Anything that improves network connectivity on mobile devices has to be a step in the right direction and it looks like iOS 7 shipped with support for fallback network connectivity through multi-path TCP. It appears that Siri is the only feature of the OS using this right now but hopefully it will be expanded to the rest of the OS (and 3rd party apps) in the future. Imagine not having to dive into the settings when you get trapped in a dead WiFi network.
Changes are coming to the app review process
I'd be surprised if last week's shouting prompted this as Apple doesn't tend to make sudden moves in situations like that. Regardless of why this happened, it's a good step forward:
Additionally, two changes are coming to the app review process and will be implemented this summer. First, developers will not only be able to appeal decisions about whether an app violates a given guideline of the App Store Review Guidelines, but will also have a mechanism to challenge the guideline itself. Second, for apps that are already on the App Store, bug fixes will no longer be delayed over guideline violations except for those related to legal issues. Developers will instead be able to address the issue in their next submission.
What happens when Apple decide to offer you the opportunity to be featured in the Apple Store app (rather than the App Store app)? Ben McCarthy talks about his experience when Obscura was featured. Good article in general, but specifically I found the fact that this generated lots of requests for localisation really interesting.
Xcode 13 code indentation is next level. 😂
Senior iOS Engineer at farmerswife, Mallorca (Spain)
Help create the next generation of project management tools.