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In my last blog post [1] , I wrote about my concerns over giving apps permission to access my photo library. Back then, I had found a workable, yet slightly cumbersome, solution involving a Shortcut [2] . I would run the Shortcut from a selected photo in the photo library and it would strip the metadata and then present a Share Sheet to send the cleaned photo to another app. Of all metadata, I am…
Since moving to Germany, one stark difference I have noticed between Germans and Americans is a focus on data privacy. Sure, Facebook and other social media are still popular here, but Germans, and Europeans in general, are more concerned about keeping personal data private. I’ve also noticed a shift in my thinking. While living in the US, I was a fairly heavy Facebook user. Over the last few…
The other day, a tweet popped up in my time line. 73939133 is the largest prime number with this curious property: if you take one or more digits off the end, the resulting numbers are all prime. pic.twitter.com/clwgA9jIiz — Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary) December 10, 2017 Now this has me thinking if there might be a larger one. Given there are infinite prime numbers, why wouldn’t there…
In my last post , I briefly mentioned that Alice and I started discussing a new app. Something that was borne from a recent App Store rejection. I mentioned, in passing, we were working out how to migrate our existing customers to the new app. As there is a strong relationship between the two, it is important to our business to retain as many of our customers as possible during the transition. The…
I am exhausted. I’m sitting at gate K16 in terminal 3 of Chicago O’Hare and I am exhausted . Release Notes 2017 is over and it always takes a toll on me. But it’s worth it. And let me be honest. I knew what I was getting myself into. This was my third Release Notes conference. Two and a half days of almost non stop suppressing my introverted Jekyll and trying to encourage my extroverted Hyde to…
I dislike those typical blog posts when the blogger tells the audience about how they’ve fallen off the blogging horse but are back and are here to stay. Usually, the blogger will write 2–3 more posts – sporadically – and thus dies a blog. So this isn’t that kind of post. Although it will become clear as to why I haven’t written in a while. [1] Starting late last year, I took an unexpected break…
WARNING – I’m not an expert at using mailing lists. But I am trying to get better. While the info in this post isn’t revolutionary or new, I’m capturing it here to remind myself of it. A couple of weeks ago, I attended Release Notes . I caught up with friends and met a lot of new, interesting people. I learned a lot and came away with good ideas. After returning home, I continued unfinished…
Back in February or March, I decided I wanted to start consulting in addition to creating my own apps. I wrote briefly about it in a post , but haven’t mentioned it since. In all honesty, getting into consulting ended up being a very slow process for me. I half hoped, foolishly, that simply announcing my interest in writing apps for others would be enough to get the ball rolling. And while several…
This is a continuation of last week’s blog post , which started with me talking a friend out of making an app for his business – thanks to Release Notes. One thing I realized after writing the post was how much I think about business. This, to me, is unbelievable . While I have always tried to think about the non-coding aspect of my business, Release Notes has really helped me up my game. It…
I had an interesting experience last week. I talked a potential client out of getting an app made. It was absolutely the right decision and I have Release Notes to thank for this. Sounds odd, right? Let me try to explain in a way that doesn’t make me sound like a crazy person. While I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, a friend and former colleague sent me an email. He is starting a side…
Today I want to write about Brexit. Well not quite. Brexit is only tangentially related. I woke up on Friday the 24th, rolled over, and grabbed my phone. The first thing I did was google the result of the UK referendum. Did they vote to stay in or leave the EU? I was pretty sure I knew the answer. I am not British, so why am I interested? I do have some British friends, but I am also completely…
I did not watch the WWDC Keynote live. For some reason, I rarely do. But I did watch it a few hours later, while working at my computer. Some things I liked. I am optimistic about improvements watchOS 3 will bring to my used-every-single-freakin-day Apple Watch. I like that Siri is being opened up to developers [1] . I’m intrigued by Apple’s use of differential privacy [2] . Some things I did not…
The first Mac I bought was a second generation MacBook Air. I bought it specifically for development and portability. I was in a long distance [1] relationship with my then girlfriend, now wife. So I was traveling a ton . That laptop was my main development machine for over three years. Can you imagine? It only had 2 gigs of RAM and a 120GB hard drive [2] . During this time, I had a couple of…
This is a followup to my last post on app analytics with a couple more gotcha examples [1] I ran into. I originally wanted to include them in the last post, but it was getting a little long. Time measurement issues An activity in Stories can be categorized as a lesson, review, story, or game. One thing that really interests us is how long our users spend in each type of activity on a per story…
For the last four years, I have been exclusively creating and selling my own apps. To me this was the definition of being indie. It wasn’t until I attended Release Notes that this definition started to evolve. At the conference, I met so many indies, who did not fit my preconception. I met freelancers, book writers, podcasters, bloggers, and people who made their living doing combinations of all…
The last four days, I was in Berlin for UIKonf . This was my first time attending the conference and I really enjoyed it. There were some great talks and I met a bunch of nice people. While at UIKonf, I had a fantastic opportunity to do something that scared me. Something that required me to venture out of my comfort zone and hopefully grow a little because of it. I’ve mentioned before that I’m…
I have never done much with analytics in my apps in the past. This is not, however, because I don’t think it’s important or useful. My problem with analytics is that it’s overwhelming. There is so much data available, a lot of times I don’t know what I need to track. However, I see my lack of knowledge as a fantastic excuse to learn through experimentation. In app analytics The driving force…
What’s going on with App Review? [1] Yesterday morning, I uploaded two apps to iTunes Connect. One that had to go through beta review to be sent to external testers and one that had to go through normal app review to be sold in the AppStore. Here’s the odd timeline (all times CET): 10:01 - Release app uploaded 11:38 - Beta app uploaded 15:46 - Release app rejected [2] 16:09 - Release app uploaded…
The following tweet recently popped up in my Twitter feed: The most important lesson for all creatives wanting to pursue a professional career: pic.twitter.com/1ysHiHjXCk — Jen Bartel (@heyjenbartel) April 29, 2016 While reading it, I found myself nodding along agreeing with every word. But something wasn’t right. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what, though, until I discussed it with my…
I write our Gus apps primarily in C++ sprinkled with a little bit of Objective-C code. My first app , which I still update, is written entirely in Objective-C. This means I have not had a need nor desire to learn Swift. I simply did not understand people’s fascination with the language. Ok, that is not entirely true. I do have one unreleased keyboard extension app written entirely in Swift. But…