Developers

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Some Developers Use TestFlight as an Unofficial App Store

Andrew Orr ·

Writing for Protocol, David Pierce shares stories from developers who use TestFlight as an unofficial App Store.

TestFlight is not an alternative to the App Store, it’s a staging ground on the way there. Developers told me Apple doesn’t review TestFlight apps very intensively, other than to make sure they’re not fundamentally broken or obviously malicious. And if Apple’s already reviewed, say, version 1.0 of your app, they say it won’t even look at 1.0.1. It doesn’t think of TestFlight as a long-term home for apps.

A cool, clever workaround to the App Store’s strict rules.

Podcast

Tidbits Managing Editor Josh Centers (#7) - BGM Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Josh Centers is the managing editor of TidBITS, as well as the author of many Take Control Books: Notes, Home Automation, Apple TV, co-author of Take Control of Preview. He also published Take Control of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13. And he’s recently joined The Prepared as an editor.

In his seventh appearance on the show, Josh explored the new faetures of iOS 14 and what he likes most—as he prepares for his forthcoming Take Control book. The App Libraries feature was at the top of his list. In segment two, Josh and I discussed a major, impressive research article he recently wrote about the often contentious relationship between developers and Apple and its handling of the App Store. We finished with thoughts on a next gen Apple TV 4K.

Apple Developer Mac App Updated With New UI
Cool Stuff Found

Apple Developer Mac App Updated With New UI

Andrew Orr ·

Today Apple released a developer app on macOS called Apple Developer, which matches the iOS app of the same name. In fact, this could very well be the Catalyst version of the iOS app. The reason I think so is because I noticed my “Get App Icon” gave me the iOS icon, even though I used the Mac link. Or, that could mean nothing. The app is meant to be your one-stop guide to developer news, and also a great place to watch WWDC 2020. Stay up to date on the latest technical and community information; browse news, features, developer stories, and informative videos; catch up on videos from past Apple events and download them to watch offline. There’s also an in-app purchase to sign up for the Apple Developer Program.

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How to File Great Bug Reports According to Apple

Andrew Orr ·

Apple shared post to its developer page to give advice on how to file great bug reports. It’s also good advice for people who like to beta test Apple software, so bookmark the page once iOS 14 and macOS 10.16 Redwood have been announced (I’m taking this opportunity to make my macOS name prediction).

You should always file feedback for any bugs you find while developing on Apple’s platforms; after all, we can’t fix problems that we don’t know about. But how can you be sure that the information you provide is helpful for triaging the issue, rather than a bug-solving dead end? Here are some of our top tips for making sure your bug report is clear, actionable, and — most importantly — fixable.

GitHub Codespaces Lets You Code Visual Studio on an iPad
Cool Stuff Found

GitHub Codespaces Lets You Code Visual Studio on an iPad

Andrew Orr ·

GitHub has a new tool it’s working on called Codespaces. It gives you a full Visual Studio coding experience in a browser. This means it can work on an iPad, Mac, and PC.

Codespaces sets up a cloud-hosted, containerized, and customizable VS Code environment. After set up, you can connect to a codespace through the browser or through VS Code.

I think this is exciting news. I don’t having programming experience but one argument in the “iPad computer replacement” debate is that developers can’t code on it.

Podcast

Musician and Programmer John Nastos - TMO BGM Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

John Nastos is a multi-instrumentalist, music composer and improvisor, saxophonist, an iOS app developer, book author and is currently on faculty at Portland State University as a Jazz Saxophone Instructor.

John is one of those special people who is an accomplished jazz musician, iOS developer and author. He tells a fascinating story about how he got started as a jazz musician and the people who mentored him. Along the way, he also fondly adopted the Mac, and that stood him well when it came time to develop some very popular, technical music apps that had never existed before. As an instructor, John teaches his students the principles behind music improvisation. His first book, The Mechanism lays out those core concepts. John is a gifted speaker and educator, so don’t miss this show.

TMO Deals

Blocs 3 Website Builder for Mac: $39.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on Blocs 3 Website Builder for Mac a fast, easy-to-use, and powerful visual web design software that lets you create responsive websites without writing code. This app works on the concept of stacking pre-defined sections to build fully-coded web pages. The promo video shows Blocs in action. Blocs 3 is $39.99 through our deal.

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This Startup Wants to Build a “GitHub for Data”

Andrew Orr ·

A startup called Gretel wants to build a “GitHub for data” so developers can safely access sensitive data.

Often, developers don’t need full access to a bank of user data — they just need a portion or a sample to work with. In many cases, developers could suffice with data that looks like real user data.

This so-called “synthetic data” is essentially artificial data that looks and works just like regular sensitive user data. Gretel uses machine learning to categorize the data — like names, addresses and other customer identifiers — and classify as many labels to the data as possible. Once that data is labeled, it can be applied access policies. Then, the platform applies differential privacy — a technique used to anonymize vast amounts of data — so that it’s no longer tied to customer information.

 

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Darkroom Photo Editor Latest to Go Subscription

Andrew Orr ·

Darkroom is the latest app to move to a subscription model. It affects new users only, and current users won’t lose their premium features they paid for.

For new users, Darkroom will cost $3.99 per month or $19.99 per year. And there is still a one-time purchase option at $49.99. Darkroom hopes that a switch to a subscription business model will increase its revenue and thus expand development of the app.

Subscriptions are annoying, but I don’t blame developers so much as Apple. This is exactly what they wanted because it means more money for them. I don’t Apple will ever add upgrade pricing to the App Store. That doesn’t benefit them. Subscriptions are part of Apple’s new Services business, whether the apps are Apple’s own or not.