iOS developers

Planet of the Apps is a series of interviews with app developers about making, marketing and maintaining apps in the App Store.

Indie developer and podcaster Casey Liss used to hate SwiftUI, Apple’s controversial UI toolkit for crafting apps. A lot of developers have a deep and abiding animus for SwiftUI, including Liss himself. But after using SwiftUI to create his latest app Callsheet, a movie and TV database app, he’s now a huge fan.

“So much of SwiftUI, I love,” he said in a wide-ranging and surprisingly-interesting interview. “I went from nothing to a fully functional app … in the span of a couple of weeks… It was stunningly fast.”

July 7, 2011: Three years after its launch, the App Store passes 15 billion downloads.

This represents a major milestone for Apple. The App Store offers more than 425,000 apps, which give the iPhone and iPad incredible capabilities and add to the devices’ wide appeal.

The iPhone 12 lineup accompanied what was arguably the biggest iOS update in years, and, as we all know, new features open the door for new apps. That, too, presents opportunities for aspiring app developers to make it big in the ever-expanding app market.

Apple moved back a deadline to prevent iPhone and iPad developers from posting software updates to the App Store built with out-of-date tools. Developers now have three more months to upgrade.

Apple warned developers today that it’ll soon automatically reject any iPhone or iPad software submitted to the App Store if it wasn’t written with the iOS 13 SDK.

Apple posted a Transporter application to the Mac App Store to make it easier for creators to send content to the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Books or the iTunes Store.

Previously, this was a Java-based command-line tool, so an app should be much more user friendly.

You are ready to embrace macOS Catalina. Then start saying your goodbyes to a list of 235 apps that won’t work with Catalina.

A third-party software developer running a beta version of Catalina discovered the list. Developer betas help software designers determine whether their apps will work with an operating system update before it launches.

The latest early-release version of iOS 12 was made available to developers today — but it disappeared shortly afterward.

This afternoon’s release of iOS 12 beta 7 was met with widespread complaints that it runs slowly. Apple seems to have pulled the OTA version within an hour or so.

Apple wants developers to stop selling iOS applications and start renting them instead. The reason is simple: this forces users to pay more for software.

Apple held a secret meeting in New York City last year to convince developers to give up charging users a one-time fee for apps, and go instead to reoccurring charges.

Want to make mad bank? Learn to program iOS apps. The career website Dice compiled average iOS developer salaries, and the numbers are a touch breathtaking.

The results are broken out by geographical area, with cities that have the highest costs of living also offering the most generous salaries. But even the lowest paychecks are enough to get that Porsche you’ve been wanting. Or a home and family. Whichever.

I’m not so thin-skinned that I can’t handle the occasional criticism. But there’s something about App Store reviews that really bugs me.

Like most indie developers, I put blood, sweat and tears into my app, Reps & Sets, which I develop with my partner. It’s our baby, and we love and cherish it. So when some random dude posts an inaccurate one-star review, I’ll be honest: It hurts. That’s why I’m so excited that Apple will be giving developers the chance to reply to reviews in iOS 10.3.

For developers, iOS is as vibrant a platform as ever. There’s plenty of room for new and seasoned developers alike to make their mark, which makes this duo of lessons in iOS 10 and iOS 9 from Mammoth Interactive a valuable resource for coders of any skill level.

It offers nearly 200 hours of top-shelf instruction, and right now you can get the entire iOS coding bundle for just $29 at Cult of Mac Deals.

The indie rock band Airplane Mode does indeed get its name from the feature on an iPhone that shuts off wireless transmission.

The name and the resumes of three of the band’s musicians — well-established iOS designers — have led more than a few people to assume they have found a source of cute parody music about Apple culture.

In fact, you won’t find any iPhones, iMacs or odes to Steve Jobs in the lyrics of the tight, hard-charging synth-driven music. However, the band’s roots in Apple culture permeate everything else, from its use of technology and understanding of social engagement to its start-up energy.

And there is one other way: Airplane Mode is making money.

Windows 10 hasn’t been the hit on mobile that Microsoft hoped it would be, but the company has a new plan to get iOS developers to bring their apps to Windows: poach them at WWDC.

If you’re working toward app-making mastery, you need to stay on top of the key languages and frameworks for iOS. For first-time coders and seasoned developers alike, we’ve got three kick-ass courses offering hands-on experience with Xcode, Swift and Objective-C, plus other fundamentals that will hone your chops and up your marketability.

Oh, and another thing — each of these courses is discounted by at least 90 percent.

Cult of Mac is at WWDC and AltConf fishing for ProTips. It’s a rich hunting ground — it’s the world’s biggest gathering of Apple developers, the alpha geeks, experts par excellence. What’s a ProTip? A ProTip is a nugget of knowledge, a little bit of expertise from someone in the know — a pro.

It sounds counterintuitive, but for many iOS developers, the easy part is getting people to download their app from the App Store. The hard part is getting people to use the app. Ideally, developers want them to use the app regularly. They want them to get into the habit of using it.

How do you do that? Sally Shepard, an app consultant who spent many years working with big publishers, has a great little tip.

If you’re an iOS developer itching to get your hands on an Apple Watch, it might be your lucky day.

Apple is giving registered developers a chance to get an Apple Watch delivered by next week, which is much better than the June shipping estimate for everyone else.

John Hayward-Mayhew is one of the most prolific iOS developers ever to peddle a blackjack game. Over the past four years, the 25-year-old entrepreneur flooded the App Store with an astonishing 600 separate apps — everything from endless runners such as Dangerous Caveman Bum Runner to dentistry games like Emergency Dentist Race — raking in close to $1 million in the process.

The most miraculous part of all? He can’t even code.

But by taking advantage of one of the App Store’s great weaknesses, and borrowing a game plan from one of Hollywood’s most unusual impresarios, he’s built a one-man gaming empire.

San Francisco-based developer Giacomo Balli doubled his take on his iPhone apps thanks to an April Fools’ Day joke. When he ratcheted up the price to an eye-popping $4.99 for an app that catalogs books, he got downloads instead of complaints.

The App Store lets devs change the sale price of their apps pretty much any time they like, but most folks take conventional routes: cutting prices during sales or dropping prices to free. Balli made his previously free apps premium with just a toggle.

“There weren’t any app updates, either,” he told Cult of Mac over the phone. “Just the price.”

Dice’s monthly report of the IT job market continues to show that developers remain the most in-demand jobs. Fully half of the top ten jobs listed are for various kinds of developers with mobile app development ranking as the second most in-demand skill.

That’s not too surprising all things considered. As we noted this morning, a recent Symantec study notes that 59% of companies are actively working to create mobile versions of their internal line of business. That doesn’t even take into account customer-facing apps, which are more and more seen as a requirement.

Other in-demand development skills include Java, Microsoft .NET, web, and the rather generic software developer. Java stole the number one slot. With one exception, development skills make up the top five skill sets. The one non-developer position was related to data and network security.

Are you interested in making iPhone and iPad apps for the App Store? If you’d like to get your feet wet, or at least see what’s involved, Apple has posted a new walkthrough called “Start Developing iOS Apps Today.”

The simple guide takes you through the initial setup and teaches you about basic tools, frameworks, Apple’s design policies, and more. The goal is that you will be able to create an app from scratch and have it ready to debut in the App Store.

Apple began emailing iOS app developers today to tell them all about a new “auto-ingest” tool for retrieving iTunes connect Sales & Trends data. The new tool is Java-based and will run on any operating system, giving developers quick and easy access to their daily or weekly sales reports.