News
The App Template Crackdown
I am all for cleaning up the App Store. I do, however, feel that Apple has not handled the ban on apps created by templates and generation services well. Though it's a difficult problem to solve, let's hope that there's a place for legit template apps going forward. This story details some of the app businesses that have closed their doors or had to drastically change how they do business.
Apple’s widened ban on templated apps is wiping small businesses from the App Store by Sarah Perez
Now Users Can Pre-Order Your Soon To Be Released App
You may remember when Super Mario Run came out last year and you could 'pre-order' the app. Now you can do that too 😁. This is a great tool to use when building your pre-launch marketing campaign.
Apple Opens App Pre-Orders to All Developers by John Voorhees
App Success
The Success Of Ulysses
More developer interviews to check out. The latest in this series from appfigures interviews Max Seelemann, one of the creators of the Ulysses app. Max talks about what gave them the idea for the app, the development process, and what strategies they used.
#AFtalks Special Edition: App Success Story – Ulysses by with Chantelle of appfigures and Max Seelemann
Design
How To Test Your Apps Without Owning An iPhone X
I would guess that most developers don't have an iPhone X. I decided not to purchase one, relying on the simulator for testing instead. Check out this post to see how the team behind the camera app Halide updated and redesigned without ever owning an iPhone X. This included simulating the X screen inside an iPhone 8 Plus! As you can imagine, the UI is pretty important in a camera app.
How to Design for iPhone X (without an iPhone X) by Sebastiaan de With
Xcode
Resources
Developer Stories To Inspire You
Check out these developer stories from Reflection for some inspiration or guidance in a tough app market.
Developer Stories: The Secrets to App Market Success, by Developers for Developers from Reflection
Jobs
Averity is hiring a Senior iOS Developer
Are you a Senior Mobile Engineer with extensive experience building SDKs in Objective C and Swift? Want to be part of a team whose code runs on well over a billion devices worldwide?
Career Concept Ltd is hiring a Junior iOS Developer
At Career Concept, you'll have the opportunity to be part of an innovative technology company who offers a SaaS product for the insurance sector.
Tools
Does iTunes Ever Open Randomly For You?
Sometimes it's the little annoyances that build up. One that I have faced at times is iTunes or Photos launching randomly. I remember spending at least 30 minutes one time trying to figure out why Photos would start up two or three times a day. Check out this free app that fixes the problem for good.
Introducing Overkill - Don't let iTunes interrupt your workflow by Felix Krause
An iMac Pro Performance Review
Thinking about the new iMac Pro for software development? Craig found he saved 30-60% on compile times with the new machine. Though pricey, if you can justify the expense because of the time it will save you, it may be worth it.
2017 iMac Pro Review by Craig A. Hunter of Hunter Research Technology
Beginners
Read These 10 Books
If I were to put together a list of best books for the beginner or intermediate iOS developer, it would look quite a bit like this. Great selection of iOS books along with a few that aren't iOS specific but are excellent resources for development in general.
Welcome! There has been quite a bit of Apple-related news this week, some good, some not so great. Take a look and decide for yourself. Hope everyone is having an awesome week. On to the links!
Side note: I had knee surgery Tuesday (everything went as planned), so if I go off the rails later in the newsletter and start in on how you should build iOS apps on the Surface or something, I'm going to blame the morphine. 😆 Seriously, there may be a sentence or two that don't make as much sense as I would like. Or ten maybe.
@cdbeshore