We rolled out AI coding tools for writing code. Seven months later, engineers use them just as much for design docs, test plans, and PRD reviews. The biggest gains weren’t where we expected. Yes, engineers write code faster and write more tests. But the real shift was upstream. Increasingly clear requirements. Fuller test plans. Design docs that get pressure-tested before the first line of code.…
The AirPods seem to be the one recent product release from Apple which isn’t receiving a slew of negative attention. Though I’m not as bearish on Apple’s recent releases, I would agree that the AirPods are the strongest, and most exciting, of the 2016 lineup. Pairing perfection . The pairing of these bluetooth buds is a smile inducing experience. So simple, it’s the way you’ve always wished…
Being a developer tied to a platform run by one company, I listen carefully to the messaging around new tools which support that platform. Swift was delivered with strong messaging and that messaging has continued in the months since its announcement at WWDC ‘15. I believe strongly that Swift is the future of iOS. You can read my initial thoughts on Swift, here . With growing support from within…
This post will be a little more technical than most on this site. I wanted to explore how to create a Watch App which shares data with its companion Phone App via Core Data. Though this seems reasonably straight forward to achieve, I didn’t see a lot of info on the developer forums. Furthermore, there were a few tricks to getting it to work that I felt were worth sharing. Below, I cover Core Data…
WatchKit is the new development kit provided by Apple and is ready for us to start building Apple Watch powered Apps, Glances and Notifications. The Apple docs are awesome, so dig in there for more, but I’ll give a high level look. So how does it work? Essentially, an Apple Watch app is installed on the customer’s watch when they install a watch-enabled app on their phone. You could think of a…
2014 has been one of the strongest for Apple’s product line in many years. In the first 9 months of the year, the following updates were announced, each of which may eventually move the needle for Apple’s business: HealthKit: central spot for all of our health tracking apps and devices HomeKit: central spot for all of your home automation apps and devices Swift: new language to woo more devs. More…
A new programming language was by far the biggest conference surprise. Although an interesting development, I think that applying Swift in practice has people asking a lot of interesting questions. Things like, did I just lose my job security? Should I adopt Swift in my project now? Questions that I’m not sure Apple will have direct answers for as I think each team will need to assess their skill…
Best ever? Quite possibly. This year’s WWDC put the Developer back at the centre of the conference. I think most developers would agree that there was a strong lineup of both customer and developer announcements. Ultimately, Apple’s customers will win twice thanks to Apple being strong on both fronts. Apple once again showed that it gets the fact that apps power the platform; both their own and…
There are over a million of these things , we know. And yeah, 70% of them are list apps of one type or another. So why did we endeavour to build yet another iPhone list app? We wanted to learn . iOS 7 Only . We wanted to see what we could build if there were no legacy strings attached. How fast could we could we put together a polished app that’s not beholden to previous operating system releases.…
Turns out developing for iOS 7 takes on a rather different feel, depending on your app’s legacy. It goes something like this. If you’re building a brand new iOS 7-only app, then it’s absolute dream to develop. Super simple. However, if you’re adding iOS 7 support to an existing app, then you’ve got some work ahead; not all of it fun. New app, iOS 7-Only . For those apps which will come into being…
