iOS Dev Weekly - iOS Dev Weekly - Issue 638

Taking a look at this year’s App Store Award winners, and something that all the apps have in common. 🏆
 

iOS Dev Weekly

 
View on the Web    Archives

ISSUE 638  December 1st 2023

 
Comment

  Comment  

 

It’s thrilling for any app developer when Apple shines their light your way. It’s great to find something you worked on in an editorial list, or even better if your app is lucky enough to be picked as “App of the Day”. 😍 But I’d imagine nothing compares to winning an Apple Design Award or being picked as an App Store Award winner, though, and this week, Apple shined its light brightly on 15 winners across apps, games, and projects with cultural impact.

I always like to try a selection of the apps that win these awards. Not only are they usually worthwhile and well-made apps, but if you’ve even half an eye on one day being considered to win one, it’s a great idea to look at what Apple values when picking winners.

Look at all this year’s winning apps, and you’ll find clean and uncluttered designs primarily using standard UI. It’s always a good idea to integrate new operating system features or this year’s hot new device hardware feature if it makes sense, but look specifically at the UI of AllTrails, Photomator, SmartGym, and Too Good To Go. They are all well-designed, of course, but look at how simple and “standard” their UI is. Each of them fits perfectly into their platform. That’s far from Apple’s only criteria for these awards, but it’s something that I see happen every year.

That’s not to say that the apps that move further away from “standard” platform UI are being (or should be) punished for it. There are many good reasons to do that, especially with apps like Proloquo, where familiarity with a different set of standard icons and concepts is far more critical. Either way, UI “fit” is fundamental.

Anyway, congratulations to all the finalists and, of course, the winners!

I think it’s likely that we’ll see these awards expand to another platform next year. Will your app be the first App Store Award winner on visionOS?

Dave Verwer  Permalink

 
 

  Sponsored Link  

 

Test your apps in the cloud, fast, with no complicated setup

Get testing faster than ever before with AI-powered automation in the cloud. Create and run all of your iOS mobile application tests easily, painlessly, and seamlessly. See how much easier testing is with Testim Mobile.

testim.io  Permalink

 
 
 

  News  

 

Apple’s use of languages and technologies in macOS Sonoma

It has only been a few weeks since Alexandre Colucci covered Apple’s use of Swift and SwiftUI in iOS 17, and here he is again with the same stats from Sonoma. It’s interesting to see Swift in the secure enclave and that Objective-C is going nowhere. It’s also notable that Mac Catalyst usage started to decrease this year, and SwiftUI is almost ready to swap places with it. Fascinating stuff.

timac.org  Permalink

 
 

  Code  

 

Using on-demand resources

I had no idea that the “on-demand resources” that Toomas Vahter talks about in this article were a thing. If you want a reason to click through, this is how to store something like an API key more securely than just embedding it in your code. My mind has been blown! 🤯

augmentedcode.io  Permalink

 

Gestures in SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose

Are you curious about Jetpack Compose for Android? I liked the idea of this pair of articles from Chase Lewis. The one linked above implements some standard gestures in SwiftUI, and this article shows the same gestures implemented with Jetpack Compose. It’s not so scary when you look at them side-by-side. 👍

medium.com  Permalink

 

Animation in RealityKit

I enjoyed this post from Matteo Altobello and Tiago Gomes Pereira, where they look at both triggering integrated USDZ animations and animating the models in space using RealityKit. It’s one to pay attention to if you’re thinking about visionOS.

createwithswift.com  Permalink

 

How to import Swift macros without using SwiftPM

Can you use a Swift macro without a Swift package? If you’re not ready to move over to SwiftPM yet, Pol Piella has a way to get it working. I’m not completely convinced it’s worth the effort, but it was an interesting process!

polpiella.dev  Permalink

 
 

  Design  

 

Frustration Using Apple News+

I wanted to love the magazines on Apple News+, but Sahand Nayebaziz is right that it’s hard to love. We’re four years in, and non-retina images and clunky navigation still prevail. This app should be a perfect iPad experience, but getting the publishers to make the necessary changes must seems to have failed.

sahandnayebaziz.org  Permalink

 
 

  Jobs  

 

iOS Developer @ Nos.social – Nos social is our attempt to build healthier social media by flipping the power dynamics of social media on their head. It's part of an emerging social ecosystem built on the Nostr protocol. We’re a fully remote, iOS first, open source, small team working together to build something great. Join us! – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (United States)

Founder/CTO @ XLIO – An opportunity to lead the development of a greenfield project requiring deep macOS integration (this is not "just another" Swift app) which will be installed on hundreds of thousands of devices worldwide. – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (United States)

iOS Developer @ KURZ Digital Solutions GmbH – Join KURZ Digital Solutions! Take the lead in developing innovative apps as an iOS developer and explore modern technologies in a dynamic team. Experience a culture of learning and creativity that combines tradition and digital innovation. – Remote (within European timezones) with some on-site work (Germany)

 Permalink

 

Is your company hiring? Reach thousands of developers for free by posting Swift or Apple-platform development jobs on iOS Dev Jobs.

 Permalink

 
 

  And finally...  

 

How about making this year’s advent calendar a Swifty one? ❄️

 Permalink

 
You received this email because you subscribed via the iOS Dev Weekly site.
We'll be sorry to see you go but you can unsubscribe instantly.
 
Shiny Development Ltd. Daresbury Innovation Centre Keckwick Lane Daresbury Cheshire WA4 4FS United Kingdom
 
 

 
 

RSS

 
©2023 iOS Dev Weekly | Privacy Policy | Mastodon | Suggest a Link
 
Published with Curated

Older messages

iOS Dev Weekly - Issue 637

Friday, November 24, 2023

I'll keep using 🥽 to represent the Vision Pro until Unicode adds a VR/AR headset emoji, and there's nothing any of you can do to stop me! View on the Web Archives ISSUE 637 November 24th 2023

iOS Dev Weekly - Issue 636

Friday, November 17, 2023

I, for one, welcome our new CoPilot overlords. 🤖 View on the Web Archives ISSUE 636 November 17th 2023 Comment Did you watch the GitHub Universe keynote earlier this week? Or should I say, the GitHub

iOS Dev Weekly - Issue 635

Friday, November 10, 2023

The Swift Mentorship Program and package score transparency on the Swift Package Index. 🎉 View on the Web Archives ISSUE 635 November 10th 2023 Comment This year's Swift Mentorship Program just

iOS Dev Weekly - Issue 634

Friday, November 3, 2023

Content improvements and package metadata on Swift.org 🫨 View on the Web Archives ISSUE 634 November 3rd 2023 Comment You might have noticed a couple of changes to the Swift website recently. First, a

iOS Dev Weekly - Issue 633

Friday, October 27, 2023

A milestone for Swift package documentation! 🎉 View on the Web Archives ISSUE 633 October 27th 2023 Comment When we added DocC documentation hosting to the Swift Package Index, I was very happy with

You Might Also Like

Import AI 399: 1,000 samples to make a reasoning model; DeepSeek proliferation; Apple's self-driving car simulator

Friday, February 14, 2025

What came before the golem? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Defining Your Paranoia Level: Navigating Change Without the Overkill

Friday, February 14, 2025

We've all been there: trying to learn something new, only to find our old habits holding us back. We discussed today how our gut feelings about solving problems can sometimes be our own worst enemy

5 ways AI can help with taxes 🪄

Friday, February 14, 2025

Remotely control an iPhone; 💸 50+ early Presidents' Day deals -- ZDNET ZDNET Tech Today - US February 10, 2025 5 ways AI can help you with your taxes (and what not to use it for) 5 ways AI can help

Recurring Automations + Secret Updates

Friday, February 14, 2025

Smarter automations, better templates, and hidden updates to explore 👀 ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

The First Provable AI-Proof Game: Introducing Butterfly Wings 4

Friday, February 14, 2025

Top Tech Content sent at Noon! Boost Your Article on HackerNoon for $159.99! Read this email in your browser How are you, @newsletterest1? undefined The Market Today #01 Instagram (Meta) 714.52 -0.32%

GCP Newsletter #437

Friday, February 14, 2025

Welcome to issue #437 February 10th, 2025 News BigQuery Cloud Marketplace Official Blog Partners BigQuery datasets now available on Google Cloud Marketplace - Google Cloud Marketplace now offers

Charted | The 1%'s Share of U.S. Wealth Over Time (1989-2024) 💰

Friday, February 14, 2025

Discover how the share of US wealth held by the top 1% has evolved from 1989 to 2024 in this infographic. View Online | Subscribe | Download Our App Download our app to see thousands of new charts from

The Great Social Media Diaspora & Tapestry is here

Friday, February 14, 2025

Apple introduces new app called 'Apple Invites', The Iconfactory launches Tapestry, beyond the traditional portfolio, and more in this week's issue of Creativerly. Creativerly The Great

Daily Coding Problem: Problem #1689 [Medium]

Friday, February 14, 2025

Daily Coding Problem Good morning! Here's your coding interview problem for today. This problem was asked by Google. Given a linked list, sort it in O(n log n) time and constant space. For example,

📧 Stop Conflating CQRS and MediatR

Friday, February 14, 2025

​ Stop Conflating CQRS and MediatR Read on: m​y website / Read time: 4 minutes The .NET Weekly is brought to you by: Step right up to the Generative AI Use Cases Repository! See how MongoDB powers your