iPhreaks

By Charles M WoodBusiness Technology Education How To Careers

iPhreaks episodes

October 08, 2019iPS 274: iOS Accessibility with Rob Whitaker
In this week’s episode of the iPhreaks Show the panel interviews Rob Whitaker, an expert in digital inclusion and accessibility. Rob starts by defining accessibility and explaining why it is important. He explains that 20% of the population has some form of disability, those customers need features to help the navigate applications. Everyone benefits from developers taking the time to think about their app works. Rob dives into some of the main areas developers should look at when making their apps more accessible. The first and biggest one is making sure apps support dynamic text. Dynamic text makes the biggest difference for most people. All Apple apps support dynamic text. Testing dynamic text is easy, and important; just increase the size of the text and make sure everything still looks okay and reads well. Also, dynamic text isn’t just about making text bigger, some users may prefer smaller text for privacy. With iOS 13 released, the panel asks about the new features for accessibility. Voiceover and Voice control are the big ones that will really unlock the way users can interact with applications. Voiceover will read the text and also describe pictures to the users. Voice control allows customers the ability to navigate applications much easier. Rob explains that in the UK there is an annual survey about internet use. Many people don’t use the internet because of a disability and inaccessibility of applications, of those many are physically disabled. Voice control can unlock the internet for them, allowing them access to tools and education that most people take for granted. Another new feature with iOS 13 is the grid view. Rob explains how this will be helpful navigating a map or something without explicit labels. He warns not to use it on pages where it could cover content. Testing accessibility is easy and quick. Rob encourages everyone to add it to their routine testing practices. The panel considers automated accessibility testing. Rob shares his disappointing experience with the tools currently available. The panel hopes that new tools will be made now that accessibility is finally getting more attention in the development world. Rob shares some of the common problems he sees in applications, such as making labels too long, marking things improperly whether accessible or not. For voiceover, he explains that it reads top left to the bottom right and when a display is designed out of order, the voiceover can be out of order and confusing. These problems can be easily avoided by swiping through and making sure that everything makes sense; he warns not to really on the visual display when doing this. Rob continues to give advice on making applications more accessible. Make sure you are clear about control labels and the consequences of a control. This comment inspires a realization in Peter, who shares an example of having two confirm buttons on the same page for different things and how that could be confusing to the users using voiceover and voice control. He and Rob consider ways to solve that confusion. Rob explains what accessibility hint is and how it gives extra context for things that might work differently than normal. Rob recently wrote an article on the European Accessibility Act. This is the first law of its kind that specifically mentions mobile. It also has categories and explains the requirements for each category. Rob explains how laws like these should incentives companies to make their applications accessible because if not they could be fined, while also alienating a portion of the population from buying your app. The episode ends with a discussion of Swift UI and how it can be a tool when it comes to accessibility. Rob explains how as a declarative UI it can make accessibility easier and more accurate. The panel considers the benefits of cross-platform accessibility since accessibility in a Mac app can be difficult. Panelists
Jaim Zuber
Peter Witham
Guest
Rob Whitaker
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan
Adventures in DevOps
Views on Vue
CacheFly
Links
What the European Accessibility Act (Might) Mean for Mobile Development
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview
https://twitter.com/RobRWAPP
https://rwapp.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/ReactNativeRadio/
https://twitter.com/R_N_Radio
Picks Rob Whitaker:
Jon Gibbins
Design meets Disability
Peter Witham:
Quiver
47 min
September 24, 2019iPS 273: The Why's and How's of Keeping Current
In this week’s episode of The iPhreaks Show, Charles Max Wood (Chuck) shares some of his thoughts and advice for keeping current. He has started a keeping current email course through DevChat.TV and describes what lessons will be taught in this course. He encourages everyone to subscribe to the email course. This idea of keeping current is something Chuck has been thinking about for a while. He gives an intro to the subject, explaining the frustration programmers feel after the reach a level of knowledge in the developer community. They ask themselves what do I learn next? What should I be studying to stay current? Chuck counters that question with why. Why stay current? Chuck wants those who struggle with this to find their motivation behind staying current. He explains that if you are going to spend all this time to level up yourself you should have a goal to reach for. A common answer Chuck hears in response to this question is job mobility. Chuck shares some of his early motivations in staying current. It was partly wanting to stay competitive in the job market. Another part was wanting to sound smart. The last part was loving what he did and just wanting to learn more. Chuck gives advice for finding a job that you really want. He tells listeners to buckle down and really dive into the technologies at your current job so when you do go looking for a new one they know they can expect you to learn their technologies whether you know them or not. Another suggestion he gives is to find the company you want to work for and learn the technologies they are using. Your initiative and drive will impress them. Learning a skill for job mobility is okay but if you learn with a specific goal in mind the job mobility will come with it. Companies today hire based more on aptitude and compatibility than if you know the specific technologies they use. So Chuck's first bit of advice for staying current is to sit down and think of where you want to end up. Do you want to be a speaker, team lead, company engineer, blogger, podcaster or something else? He also tells listeners not to be afraid to change their end goal. Chuck explains that knowing why you want to stay current will help you know what to learn. Learning the technology a company uses is one example. If your goal is to speak at conferences, you might want to learn what topics are in demand, how to submit a good conference proposal, learn what people want to hear or what it takes to become a keynote speaker. If your goal is to become a blogger you will need to learn how to do SEO. If you want to become the software architect for your company you may need to improve your code organizational skills. The next question Chuck addresses is “how?”. Chuck recommends everyone get a plan. Some organizations like toastmasters have a plan already laid out. For those interested in blogging there is 31 Days to Building a Better Blog, a book that outlines step by step how to build a good blog. Courses and books can outline your plan, and if you can’t find one, write your own. When writing your own plan Chuck recommends finding someone who is doing what you want to do and ask them to list what you need to learn to do that thing. After that, you need to sit down and write out what and how you are going to learn. As Chuck has mentioned do not be afraid to change your goal. Chuck shares a time in college when he decided he wanted to go into patent law. He quit his IT job and took an internship. He hated it and within a few months had switched back to computers. So don’t be afraid to scrap your plan and do what will make you happiest. Now for the actual learning, Chuck explains that there are so many ways to learn podcasts, videos, blogs, books, and courses. He describes how he learns best and advises listeners to find out how they learn. If you know what works best for you, you can design your plan to fit your learning style. Chuck encourages listeners to try a bit of everything. He shares how his attitude toward books changed as he put their concepts into action and all because he tried everything. Also, something types are learning for conceptual learning while others are more suited for practical learning. Chuck explains how building and playing around with what you learn. He also encourages listeners to shares their experiences through blogs, video or podcasting. This way you will have a way to demonstrate what you learned. The last thing Chuck explains is that even after you've completed your plan sometimes these things take time. You may learn everything on your list only to find you have more things to learn before you reach your goal. Panelists
Charles Max Wood
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan
Adventures in Blockchain
React Native Radio
CacheFly
Links
Get a Coder Job
https://devchat.tv/blog/how-to-stay-current-effectively-in-2019/
JSJ 387: How to Stay Current in the Tech Field
31 Days to Build A Better Blog
https://thinkster.io/
https://www.pluralsight.com
https://www.facebook.com/ReactNativeRadio/
https://twitter.com/R_N_Radio
Picks Charles Max Wood:
Sometimes it takes time to get what you want
46 min
September 17, 2019iPS 272: Apple Event Analyzation
Episode Summary In this episode of The iPhreaks Show Andrew Madsen and Evan Stone discuss the recent Apple Event and the announcements made there. To start, the panel discusses their thoughts one the event as a whole. The panel was surprised that the event was very product-driven with only a few mentions of software changes. Andrew did notice that when they did talk about the software they introduced it with the hardware as one product, which he enjoyed as a more holistic approach than in previous years. Apple Arcade and the games they featured is the next topic the panel discusses. Andrew explains that he is not much into gaming but even his interested was piqued by the games they demonstrated. Evan wonders how the games will translate across platforms. He is especially interested in how they will translate to the Apple TV. This brings them to a discussion of the Apple TV+. The panel considers the risk Apple is taking by only airing original content. They comment on the trailer for See that was shown at the conference. Andrew explains that they will have around 50 shows to start all over various genres. Evan brings up the very affordable price of only 5 bucks a month or free for a year when you buy an apple product. The panel considers how this strategy will help them build up an audience. Another product announced at the event is the apple watch series 5. The panel jumps into discussing the new health features. They share how impressed they were the videos that explained the new health features. Andrew wonders with all the amazing things the watch can do what will they come up with ten years from now. He and Evan consider the possibilities, warnings for heart attack or stroke, blood sugar monitoring and more. Moving on from the health features of the watch, the panel discusses a feature that has been a long time coming, the always-on screen. The panel considers why it took so long for this feature to come out. Evan shares his particular interest in this feature because of the safety hazards of looking at his watch while biking. Another new feature for the apple watch 5 is the added compass. The panel laughs as they never realized the watch didn’t have a compass especially because the apple watch 4 comes with GPS. The panel discusses how the compass may help other functionalities of the watch like GPS and maps. The final point the panel discusses about the new apple watch is that through Apple Watch Studios you can choose your case and band. The panel talks briefly about the iPad announcements, which they deemed the least interesting announcement. Apple is adding a smart connector to the low-end iPads and increasing the size of the screen. The panel considers how these changes along with pencil support make it a great deal. The main show at the event was the iPhone 11 presentation. The panel expresses how impressed they were with the way the iPhone 11 was presented. Along with performance improvements and a second camera, the iPhone 11 comes in a lot more colors than previous phones. Andrew is especially excited about the green phone and hopes to pick up a green iPhone 11 Pro. The panel considers the look of the phone. Evan expresses his disappointment with the square bump on the back where the cameras are mounted. They consider how cameras work and why the bump is necessary. They move onto the quality of the cameras. Andrew explains that while he is a camera and photography hobbyist, most of the pictures he takes with his phone are personal, family photos. Evan is not much of a photographer but loves having a high-quality camera on his phone. He especially appreciated it on his recent trip to Portugal. The quality of the camera makes a difference, the example they use for this point is by comparing a picture taken with an iPhone and one taken by a $50 android phone. There is no contest. However, Google cameras have gained a reputation for quality, the panel explains why this is a good thing. A little competition will help apple stay motivated in advancing its camera quality. Panelists
Andrew Madsen
Evan Stone
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan
Adventures in DevOps
Elixir Mix
CacheFly
Links
September Event 2019 — Apple
Apple Arcade
See Trailer
List of AppleTV+ shows
Apple Watch Studio
The Green iPhone 11
Light L16
https://www.facebook.com/iphreaks/
https://twitter.com/iphreaks
Picks Andrew Madsen:
https://www.wanikani.com
Evan Stone:
Advanced iOS Summer Bundle - 2019
1 hr 7 min
September 10, 2019iPS 271: The Compass to iOS Developement with Brian Voong
Episode Summary In this episode of The iPhreaks Show, the panel interview Brian Voong. Brian runs a YouTube channel where he teaches about iOS development. The episode of his channel that the panel discusses with him is about the Roadmap to iOS development. Brian starts by giving a brief overview of what his video contains and how it is given with the intent to help developers find jobs in the iOS industry. The YouTube video has over 40,000 views and the panel wonders who are all these people watching this video. Brian explains that YouTube is a major resource for many people learning about development. Also this video appeals not only to beginners but also mid-level and senior developers who want to know what to learn next. The video features a diagram that depicts the roadmap an iOS developer should follow, so people are interested to see where they stand. The panel dives into nitpicks of the roadmap. The panel disagrees that Swift is considered functional programming only. Functional programming on the map is at the top but the panel debates whether or not it should be further down on the map. The panel considers functional programmings place now that functional programming is becoming more prominent in the iOS world, especially with the Combine framework coming out. The panel points out that Swiftjective C is missing and wonders if it should have been included. Once you have mastered the basics the panel wonders at what is the most important thing to learn. Brian explains to those who can see the diagram that there are close to 50 subjects listed for developers to learn. He chooses a few he thinks are the most important subjects to learn if a developer is hoping to get hired soon. He lists: learning how to work with a database, create crud screens, interact with restful API’s and do some effective network programming. Brain describes these as items to get your feet wet. The panel explains that you don’t need to know all of the items on the roadmap in order to get a job. It is more important to have all the basics and good problem-solving skills. Brian does mention some of the skills at the bottom of the roadmap that might be good to learn, such as Build Config, Jenkins and knowing how to deploy an app. Looking at the map, the panel wonders at the best way to read it. Initially, they assumed top to bottom would be best and in order of priority. Seeing deployment at the bottom, the panel describes the roadmap as more of a life cycle because they consider deployment a skill every beginner should have. The panel gives advice to new developers. It might seem that you need to learn all this stuff and then start coding but the panel explains that the best way to learn is through coding, running into problems and learning these skills to solve them. The panel compares it to learning a spoken language, in the beginning, it is about making yourself understood and as you speak it your grasp of the language will grow. They suggest letting the subjects find you when you need them instead of seeking them out. Brian explains why he recommends learning Jenkins near the beginning. He explains that so many junior developers have the exact same skill set and by knowing something like Jenkins you can set yourself apart from the rest. The panel shares why it may be important to know some CI stuff and be able to do a few things with it. The last topic they discuss in this episode is what tips and tools a developer should learn listed under the tips and tools heading on the roadmap. Brian suggests Break Point and Instrument. The panel explains what Instrument is most useful for, finding excessive memory usage and performance problems. Panelists
Andrew Madsen
Jaim Zuber
Evan Stone
Guest
Brian Voong
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan
GitLab | Get 30% off tickets with the promo code: DEVCHATCOMMIT
My Ruby Story
CacheFly
Links
iOS Roadmap to Professional Developer: Skills you MUST have!
Roadmap to iOS Development
https://www.letsbuildthatapp.com/course/youtube
https://www.letsbuildthatapp.com/
https://twitter.com/buildthatapp
https://www.facebook.com/iphreaks/
https://twitter.com/iphreaks
Picks Andrew Madsen:
http://www.waxtraxrecords.com
http://www.waxtraxonline.com
Jaim Zuber:
https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/
Evan Stone:
https://iosdevjobs.com/
Brian Voong:
https://github.com/Dimillian/MovieSwiftUI
47 min
September 03, 2019iPS 270: Siri in iOS 12 with Gui
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan
GitLab | Get 30% off tickets with the promo code: DEVCHATCOMMIT
My Ruby Story
CacheFly
Panel
Gui Rambo
Erica Sadun
Jaim Zuber
Andrew Madsen
Summary Back by popular download, iPhreaks episode 252! In this episode, the iPheaks panelist speaks with, their very own, Gui Rambo. Gui shares information about the new features with Siri in iOS 12. Gui talks about the extended integration of Siri with other apps in iOS. The panel continues to discuss the further contextual suggestions of Siri, as well as the customizable features and extensions with Siri. Lastly, Gui talks about a new app, the Shortcuts App, that may make an appearance in iOS 12. This is a great episode to learn more about the upcoming new feature for iOS devices. Links
iPS 252: Siri in iOS 12 with Gui
https://github.com/insidegui/Milkshakr
https://www.facebook.com/iphreaks/
https://twitter.com/iphreaks
Picks Gui Rambo:
Sharecuts.app
Erica Sadun:
Original iPhone Battery Life
Jaim Zuber:
Bear Cam
Andrew Madsen:
https://www.fifty-licks.com/
49 min
August 27, 2019iPS 269: Ray Tracing with Petrie Michael
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan
GitLab | Get 30% off tickets with the promo code: DEVCHATCOMMIT
My Ruby Story
CacheFly
Panel
Jaim Zuber
Abbey Jackson
Joined by Special Guest: Petrie Michael Summary Joining iPhreaks is our new panelist Abbey Jackson, an iOS developer from Vancouver, Canada and our special guest Petrie Michael, an iOS developer from Australia currently working in Japan. Petrie has joined the podcast today to discuss his recent talk at TrySwift about Ray tracing. After defining ray tracing and explaining how it works, Petrie walks the panel through his demonstration for his talk. The panel discusses the technology he uses and how a bigger project becomes much more complex using a Mercedes rendering he did. Petrie introduces binary space partitioning and how this speeds up the process. The panel asks Petrie for recommendations for beginners to graphics, how to get started and what language to use. Petrie shares his opinions on the state of the industry. The first being that modern programmers try to solve problems that don’t exist. The second being that programmers are neglecting to focus on things that encourage productivity. The panel discusses examples of these and how we can improve. Links
Ray Tracing in One Weekend
Graphics like Pixar using Swift
https://github.com/kapsy/swift_ray_tracer
Binary space partitioning
https://www.blender.org/
iPS 258: Learning Objective-C as a Swift Developer with Abbey Jackson
https://www.facebook.com/iphreaks/
https://twitter.com/iphreaks
Picks Abbey Jackson:
https://twitter.com/aumi_app
Aumi
Petrie Michael:
The Thirty Million Line Problem
51 min
August 20, 2019iPS 268: Use Compositional Layout back to iOS11 With This One Simple Trick with Katsumi Kishikawa
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry’s small plan
React Native Radio
DevEd Podcast
CacheFly
Panel
Jaim Zuber
Michael Holt
Evan Stone
Joined by Special Guest: Katsumi Kishikawa Summary Katsumi Kishikawa, a talented open source library creator from Japan joins the panel which now includes our newest panelist, Evan Stone, an iOS developer and consultant since 2011 based in San Francisco. Katsumi shares with the panel how he got started and why he created a library that lets you use compositional layout back to iOS11. The panel considers the cool features that can be used with this tool and Katsumi shares some new features he is hoping to implement before the iOS13 release. Katsumi explains how the code tricks the compiler to make possible to backport to older versions of iOS. The challenges in backporting to iOS12 and 11, including orthogonal scrolling is discussed. Katsumi shares a bit about an application he built called Swift-ast-explorer. Impressed with all Katsumi’s work, the panel wonders how he gets all this done and they thank him for sharing his work. Links
Using Collection View Compositional Layouts and Diffable Data Sources
https://github.com/kishikawakatsumi/IBPCollectionViewCompositionalLayout
http://iosdevbreak.com/
https://github.com/kishikawakatsumi/IBPCollectionViewCompositionalLayout
https://swift-ast-explorer.kishikawakatsumi.com/
https://devchat.tv/iphreaks/160-ips-iot-with-evan-stone/
https://twitter.com/k_katsumi
https://kishikawakatsumi.com/
https://www.facebook.com/iphreaks/
https://twitter.com/iphreaks
Picks Michael Holt:
https://quickbirdstudios.com/blog/combine-vs-rxswift/
https://rderik.com/blog/using-swift-for-scripting/
Evan Stone:
Revolution in The Valley [Paperback]: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
32 min
July 30, 2019iPS 267: In Defense of Core Data with Donny Wals
Sponsors
Sentry– use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry’s small plan
CacheFly
Panel
Andrew Madsen
Jaim Zuber
Michael Holt
Joined by Special Guest: Donny Wals Summary Donny Wals joins the panel to discuss his most recent talk at Try!Swift in Tokyo. The panel starts by discussing the most common complaints about Core Data. Donny shares how the changes made in iOS 10 and past updates solve these complaints. The panel discusses migration and how it has changed, making it much simpler and easier to use. Various Core Data features and their use cases are considered. Links
In defense of Core Data
https://twitter.com/donnywals
https://www.facebook.com/iphreaks/
https://twitter.com/iphreaks
Picks Andrew Madsen:
https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/overview
Michael Holt:
https://github.com/krzysztofzablocki/Sourcery
Donny Wals:
https://preview.disneyplus.com/
https://walt-disney.itsmycareer.com
55 min
July 23, 2019iPS 266: The Devchat.tv Mission and Journey with Charles Max Wood
Sponsors
Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan
CacheFly
Host: Charles Max Wood Episode Summary Charles talks about his journey as a podcaster and his mission with Devchat.tv. Devchat.tv is designed to home podcasts that speak to all developer communities. Charles also plans Devchat.tv to host shows for technologies that are on the verge of a breakthrough and will be a lot more widely available in the near future such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). There are new shows being added continuously to reach out to new communities, some examples of which are: a Data Science show, a DevOps show and an Open Source show. As a kid, Charles would record his own shows on a tape recorder. He was always interested in technology. While studying Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University, he worked in the University's Operations Center. Upon graduation, he started working for Mozy where he was introduced to podcasts. Listen to the show to find out the rest of Charles' story, some of the lessons and tips he learned throughout his journey and the evolution of the shows on Devchat.tv. If there isn't a show for your community and you would like there one to be, reach out to Charles. Also if there was a podcast about a programming related subject that ended abruptly and you would like it to continue, reach out to Charles. Devchat.tv would like to host these podcasts. Links
Charles' Twitter
EverywhereJS JavaScript Community
EverywhereRB Ruby and Rails Community
Find Your Dream Job As A Developer
Devchat.tv on Facebook
Devchat.tv
Picks
EverywhereJS JavaScript Community
EverywhereRB Ruby and Rails Community
Netlify
Eleventy
https://github.com/cmaxw/devchat-eleventy
1 hr 36 min
July 23, 2019iPS 266: The Devchat.tv Mission and Journey with Charles Max Wood
Sponsors
Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan

CacheFly
Host: Charles Max Wood
Episode Summary
Charles talks about his journey as a podcaster and his mission with Devchat.tv. Devchat.tv is designed to home podcasts that speak to all developer communities. Charles also plans Devchat.tv to host shows for technologies that are on the verge of a breakthrough and will be a lot more widely available in the near future such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). There are new shows being added continuously to reach out to new communities, some examples of which are: a Data Science show, a DevOps show and an Open Source show. As a kid, Charles would record his own shows on a tape recorder. He was always interested in technology. While studying Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University, he worked in the University's Operations Center. Upon graduation, he started working for Mozy where he was introduced to podcasts. Listen to the show to find out the rest of Charles' story, some of the lessons and tips he learned throughout his journey and the evolution of the shows on Devchat.tv. If there isn't a show for your community and you would like there one to be, reach out to Charles. Also if there was a podcast about a programming related subject that ended abruptly and you would like it to continue, reach out to Charles. Devchat.tv would like to host these podcasts.
Links
Charles' Twitter

EverywhereJS JavaScript Community

EverywhereRB Ruby and Rails Community

Find Your Dream Job As A Developer

Devchat.tv on Facebook

Devchat.tv
Picks
EverywhereJS JavaScript Community

EverywhereRB Ruby and Rails Community

Netlify

Eleventy

https://github.com/cmaxw/devchat-eleventy
1 hr 36 min