A few weeks ago there was an extended discussion on the future of Objective-C and I linked to a couple of different stories on it. This week Jason Brennan posted a follow up to his original article. He argues that we're not thinking big enough by just considering a replacement for Objective-C and that we need to think of a bigger picture on how we build software in a more modern way. It's a lengthy article but certainly one worth reading, and looking back on in 5 years.
So, what comes next?
I do have something new to announce today! The newsletter will continue as usual, but you can also become an iOS Dev Weekly Insider.
Over the years, people have occasionally emailed asking if there was any way to pay for the newsletter. My reply has always been to say that just subscribing and reading is enough! That remains true, but if you asked me the same question today, I’d reply that becoming a Supporter would be for you.
But I wanted to offer more, so I’m trying something new. Become an Insider if you want a closer connection to the newsletter. I’ll be hosting weekly live audio discussions that take a more candid look at what’s happening in iOS development. We’ll typically start on the topic from my latest comment, but there will also be a chance to talk about the articles I linked to and the industry in general. I want these sessions to be live as I’m hoping they will be genuine discussions rather than a monologue, and I’d love to get to know the Insiders personally. The first chat will be early next week (scheduled via Patreon), and we’ll start by talking about the first story in this week’s news section around the App Store review process.
Finally, if you’d like my advice and guidance more directly, I now have a way to provide that on a One to One basis. I’ll get to know you and your app(s) and guide you on your trickiest product, design, and marketing challenges. The only thing to note here is that this is not coding support as there are far more qualified people for that side of things! These sessions are the first time I’ve offered consultancy outside big companies, and I’m excited to work with individuals or smaller companies.
All that said, I want to reiterate that I don’t want anyone to feel pressure to subscribe to any of these Patreon tiers. The newsletter remains free, and I have no plans to change that. However, if you would like to get an inside look or just say thank you for 500 issues, sign up to become an iOS Dev Weekly Insider today.
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Is your company hiring? Get your open iOS development positions listed in next week's iOS Dev Weekly by posting a Featured Listing over at iOS Dev Jobs.
Thanks so much to this week’s iOS Dev Weekly Insiders! Paul Hudson, David Olesch, Martin Pilkington, Douglas Hill, and Michael Fey. I really appreciate your support. ❤️
Want to join them? This issue’s discussion call is on Tuesday next week, so there’s still time to join!
Many years ago, back when I used to be a .net developer, I remember feeling frustrated by Microsoft developer marketing. They needed to sell Visual Studio upgrade licenses every year, so their messaging was always around what was coming in next year’s release. As soon as every major version released, it felt like it was already out of date because Microsoft immediately started hyping up next year’s enhancements.
Apple doesn’t have a sales model as Visual Studio did back in the late 90s/early 00s. In fact, in stark contrast, they never talk about what’s coming next! Instead, we, the community, have taken over that task, and from the minute the annual set of new operating systems ship, our minds turn to what’s coming next year. 😅 Will this bug be fixed? Will SwiftUI get that new API next year? Will Core Data be replaced with something that feels more at home with SwiftUI? How many times have you read an article titled “Is SwiftUI ready for production?” in the last year? It reminds me of the old feelings I had about the Microsoft sales cycle, except we’re doing it to ourselves.
Maybe I’ve changed as I got older, but over the last few years I’ve found myself wanting to think less about what’s coming next, and more about the present. I don’t pay too much attention to the latest rumours, and while I’m not immune from talking about or linking to articles on what might be coming in next year’s releases, I try not to dwell on it.
There’s always something new coming, and it can be tempting to say, “This will be so much easier when X gets released”. Unfortunately, I have bad news. When X is released, Y will be just around the corner, tempting you to wait for it, too.
There’s no better time to start building something than right now. It doesn’t need to be “pure” anything, and it doesn’t need to be using the latest trends in app architecture. It’s much more important to build the things you want to make than to ensure that they are perfect.
Note: Please ignore that last sentence if you’re building aircraft flight control systems or nuclear reactor security software. 😂
Even though some countries are making good progress with deploying vaccinations and reducing cases, there was little doubt that this year’s WWDC would be virtual again rather than in-person. So it was no surprise to see the announcement this week of another all-virtual WWDC starting on June 7th. 🚀
Apple is also bringing back the Swift Student Challenge for 2021. You have until April 18th to get your submissions in, so I’d get started now if you’d like to participate!
I already talked about my hopes for this year, so I’m excited to see what the Xcode team has achieved!
So, what should you do in the next few weeks before the event? I liked this advice from Simon Støvring, especially the part about auditing your dependencies. There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to move forward with new features because you have a dead dependency at the core of your app.
Oh, and if you miss travelling to the conference, maybe you could also make that virtual this year? ✈️
I can’t wait to see what Apple have in store for us!
Something struck me as I watched the M1 chip appear in more hardware on Tuesday. It won’t be long until the whole Mac lineup has the same internals.
The “low” end of the Apple silicon Mac lineup now looks complete. The smaller laptops, Mac mini, and smaller iMac all have the same chip inside them, the M1. Yes, some of them have one less GPU core, but that’s such a minor difference it’s barely worth mentioning.
But what about the “Pro” Macs? What about more than 16Gb RAM and high-end GPUs, and all the other things “Pro” users want? I feel pretty confident that Apple will fall into the same consistent cycle for M-series chips that they have been so consistent with while producing the A-series. September will almost certainly bring us an A15 with the new iPhone, and I’d bet an M2 will accompany it with the capability for more memory and story around better or dedicated GPUs. I don’t think we’ll see the entire range of M1 upgraded to M2 chips immediately, but I think we’ll see it happen before the M3 arrives. Maybe the highest-end machines will get more cores via an M2X or similar, but wouldn’t it be great if the whole Mac lineup had their chips upgraded every year, just like the iPhone and iPad do?
Do you know what that would mean? It would no longer be possible to buy a bad Mac! Just pick the form factor you’d like, and that’s it. Do you want a small laptop with a keyboard? MacBook Air. Want a desktop with a built-in screen? The iMac is for you. Which machine is faster for X, or Y task? That is no longer a valid question. It would also mean that there wouldn’t be a bad time to buy a Mac, as you’d never be more than a year behind the latest upgrades.
Why am I talking about this? Especially when I try not to make predictions or dwell on what might be coming next. 😬
The promise of SwiftUI is the software equivalent of the Apple silicon chips. You can’t pick the wrong framework, and your code will (largely) be compatible with any Apple platform. Just choose a platform (or platforms) you’d like to target and start creating.
We may not quite be there today, but we’re moving closer to that reality with every passing year. SwiftUI is the Apple silicon of software frameworks. 🤩
macOS Software Engineer @ Elgato – Elgato's awesome software products require awesome engineers. We are looking for highly motivated engineers focusing on macOS desktop applications to extend our product portfolio and improve the existing products. Your future agile team is a mix of experienced and junior colleagues with various technical and cultural backgrounds. We are looking forward to meeting you. – München or Mönchengladbach
Senior iOS Developer @ Vivino – Join our incredible, multicultural, passionate and truly international work culture and empower people everywhere to enjoy wine to the fullest. – Copenhagen
Technical Lead, Mobile Engineering @ M1 Finance – M1 Finance, The Finance Super App, is on a 🚀 of growth! We want to empower our users to take control of their financial well-being, and we would like you to help us. If you are an enthusiastic mobile engineer looking for your next product challenge and mentoring opportunity, then we would be delighted to hear from you. – Chicago IL
Senior iOS Engineer @ DuckDuckGo – We are a diverse and fully distributed team from around the world, working toward our shared vision to raise the standard of trust online. Join our team as a Senior iOS Engineer and help shape the technology that powers the DuckDuckGo search experience. As part of our growing team, you will collaborate with team members at all levels to identify and close major gaps in our products. – Remote
Senior iOS Engineer @ onX – Are you an iOS developer who loves the outdoors? Join onX! If you’re passionate about writing great software, love playing outside, believe in protecting access to public lands, and want to dominate the off-pavement mobile GPS market – then join our team, where we empower millions of outdoor enthusiasts to explore the unknown! – Remote within the US
iOS Engineer (Multiple Levels) @ Turo – Help us build product features that delight guests who book vehicles on our platform and enable hosts with the tools they need to manage their fleet. The iOS team is actively transitioning our iOS codebase from Objective-C to Swift, and we’re learning SwiftUI together–in labs–as we migrate our internal, watchOS, and tvOS apps. It’s really an exciting time to be an Apple-centric engineer at Turo. – San Francisco CA
Mobile Full Stack Engineer @ Expensify – Join our passionate team of top-notch engineers to solve a real-world problem, and help people spend less time managing expenses and more time pursuing their real goals. As we revolutionize the way people manage their expenses, being part of the Expensify team means building the easiest, fastest, and most efficient platform to automate everything expense-related. – Remote, San Francisco, Portland, Michigan, New York, London, or Melbourne
iOS Software Engineer @ Lose It! – We believe a small team of talented people can do great things. We are purpose-driven, with start-up energy and the stability of a profitable business with plans for the future. Our product-first strategy has helped millions of users live healthier lives. Lose It! offers incredible benefits, flexible hours and a balanced approach to work and life. Feel like the team for you? Let’s talk. – Boston MA
Senior Mobile Software Engineer @ Doximity – Doximity, the medical network used by over 70% of US clinicians, is hiring passionate Senior iOS engineers (remote-friendly!). You'll get to be part of an amazing product team and work on an app that is constantly evolving. Use your skills (Swift, MVVM, FRP) to be an integral part of our newly launched telemedicine feature. Apply today! – Remote within the US
iOS Developer @ Shape – If you're passionate about making state-of-the-art iOS apps, why not work together with some of the best developers and designers who share this passion? Our office is in Copenhagen - one of the most liveable cities in the world. We offer relocation support and help you get a VISA. We also like to host social events, morning runs, Friday bars, board game nights, LEGO days and much more. – Copenhagen, Denmark
iOS Specialist @ Darkroom – Tiny team, Apple Design Award-caliber product development, big scale and impact, fully remote team, competitive LA-based salaries anywhere in the world. If you want to build high touch products at scale, in a small team, this is the job for you. – Anywhere between California and Amsterdam
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Developer Evangelist @ Semaphore – You're going to love this role if you're passionate about teaching best practices (via articles, videos, presentations...) and interacting with the community. The focus is all about building, testing and deploying code. – Remote
iOS Developer @ Doximity – Doximity, the medical network used by over 70% of US clinicians, is hiring passionate iOS engineers (full-time remote!). You'll get to be part of an amazing product team and work on an app that is constantly evolving. Use your skills (Swift, MVVM, FRP) to be an integral part of our newly launched telemedicine feature. Apply today! – Remote within the US
iOS Software Engineer @ Strava – As an iOS engineer at Strava, you will build the athlete experience in the Strava iOS app. In this role, you will build the features that make the best part of our athletes’ days even better. You will work closely with our cross-functional team to ensure our technology is addressing real athlete problems while being reliable and performant. – San Francisco CA, Denver CO, or Remote within the US
macOS Software Engineer @ Elgato – Elgato's awesome software products require awesome engineers. We are looking for highly motivated engineers focusing on macOS desktop applications to extend our product portfolio and improve the existing products. Your future agile team is a mix of experienced and junior colleagues with various technical and cultural backgrounds. We are looking forward to meeting you. – München or Mönchengladbach
Senior iOS Developer @ Vivino – Join our incredible, multicultural, passionate and truly international work culture and empower people everywhere to enjoy wine to the fullest. – Copenhagen
Technical Lead, Mobile Engineering @ M1 Finance – M1 Finance, The Finance Super App, is on a 🚀 of growth! We want to empower our users to take control of their financial well-being, and we would like you to help us. If you are an enthusiastic mobile engineer looking for your next product challenge and mentoring opportunity, then we would be delighted to hear from you. – Chicago IL
Senior iOS Engineer @ DuckDuckGo – We are a diverse and fully distributed team from around the world, working toward our shared vision to raise the standard of trust online. Join our team as a Senior iOS Engineer and help shape the technology that powers the DuckDuckGo search experience. As part of our growing team, you will collaborate with team members at all levels to identify and close major gaps in our products. – Remote
Senior iOS Engineer @ onX – Are you an iOS developer who loves the outdoors? Join onX! If you’re passionate about writing great software, love playing outside, believe in protecting access to public lands, and want to dominate the off-pavement mobile GPS market – then join our team, where we empower millions of outdoor enthusiasts to explore the unknown! – Remote within the US
iOS Engineer (Multiple Levels) @ Turo – Help us build product features that delight guests who book vehicles on our platform and enable hosts with the tools they need to manage their fleet. The iOS team is actively transitioning our iOS codebase from Objective-C to Swift, and we’re learning SwiftUI together–in labs–as we migrate our internal, watchOS, and tvOS apps. It’s really an exciting time to be an Apple-centric engineer at Turo. – San Francisco CA
Mobile Full Stack Engineer @ Expensify – Join our passionate team of top-notch engineers to solve a real-world problem, and help people spend less time managing expenses and more time pursuing their real goals. As we revolutionize the way people manage their expenses, being part of the Expensify team means building the easiest, fastest, and most efficient platform to automate everything expense-related. – Remote, San Francisco, Portland, Michigan, New York, London, or Melbourne
