Side Project Spotlight

The trio discuss the state of the tech job market, especially for Apple platform developers. We touch on all manner of topics from how hiring practices are broken, to practical tips for new grads, to the utility of side projects, future hot platforms, and of course the "AI" question. There is a lot of good stuff in this episode. Enjoy!

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- Job Market Vibe Check

- Junior Developers

- Hiring Practices Are Broken

- Developer Demand Will Increase

- Apple Platforms Ever More Functional

- Tangent: Our Drexel Experiences

- Recent College Graduates

- Mohammad Faani’s Mention in iOS Dev Weekly

- https://iosdevweekly.com/issues/670?m=web#nDJBq0q

- Explore Tech Stacks

- Kotaro the Mercenary

- Utility of Side Projects

- Consultant Agencies

- Tying Things Together

- Crossing the Platforms

- The “AI” Question

- Steve Yegge’s Article: “The Death of the Junior Developer”

- https://sourcegraph.com/blog/the-death-of-the-junior-developer

- Kotaro’s Positive Ending…The Purge!?

- The Wrap-Up & One More Thing

- https://azamsharp.school

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

The trio is back from celebrating America to talk about Apple's horribly named "predictive code completion" in Xcode 16. Kotaro tries to use it with some interesting results and we compare Apple's current implementation with other similar products like Microsoft's Intellicode and contrast it with something like Copilot or Apple's forthcoming Swift Assist product. We also engage in an interesting discussion about when you should or should not use these code generation tools.

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- Kotaro installs macOS 15 beta

- Kotaro tries “predictive code completion” in Xcode 16

- Steve’s experience with Intellicode in Visual Studio

- DocC generation with Copilot in VS Code

- Generating unit tests with Copilot

- When and when not to use these tools?

- Future experiments

- Wrap-up

- PhillyCocoa.org

- One More Thing

- AzamSharp.school

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

The trio concludes our WWDC24 trilogy by discussing the vibes and themes we saw at this year's conference before ending with our picks for our favorite videos from the week. Links in the show notes!

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- WWDC Vibes

- Swift / SwiftUI All the Things

- V isionOS is Not Dead

- Designers are No Longer in Charge?

- SF Symbols 6 Talk

- “Spatial Computing” is the Future

- Quicklooks Talk

- Shaders

- Create / Optimize 3D Assets

- Game Development Skills

- “AI” & Siri Integrations

- App Intents

- Our WWDC24 Video Picks

- Kotaro:

- *Meet the Translation API*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10117

- *Demystifying SwiftUI Containers*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10146

- *Design great visionOS apps*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10086

- *Enhance your UI animations and transitions

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10145

- *Create custom visual effects with SwiftUI

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10151

- Steve:

- *Migrate your app to Swift 6*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10169

- *Xcode Essentials*

- https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/10181/

- *Bring your app’s core feature to users with App Intents*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10210

- *Meet the next generation of CarPlay architecture*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10111

- Aaron:

- *Meet AccessorySetupKit*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10203

- *Go small with Embedded Swift*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10197

- *Design advanced games for Apple platforms*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10085

- *Port advanced games to Apple platforms*

- https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10089

- The Wrap-Up & Jokes

- https://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

The trio convenes the night after the Keynote to discuss some of the highlights from this year's WWDC including "Apple Intelligence," UI animations, SwiftData improvements, Swift Testing, iPhone mirroring, and more!

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- Apple Intelligence

- Widgets Everywhere

- Zoom Transitions & Other Updates

- SwiftData

- SwiftUI Views @MainActor

- Xcode Tabs Now Make Sense!

- SwiftUI Previews

- Swift Testing

- iPhone miring on macOS

- Finally…

- Passwords.app

- Tap to Cash

- iPad Calcula tor App / Math Notes

- Wrap-Up & One More Thing…

- https://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

The trio discuss WWDC24 rumors and wishlists in advance of what feels like the biggest Apple conference in years. Stay until the end to hear our WWDC Bingo Card items and our guesses for how many times the acronym "AI" will be spoken during the keynote with Aaron making the most intriguing guess.

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- Developer Conference Season

- Year of “AI”

- Microsoft Recall Feature

- Copilot button

- Apple has already been using “AI”!

- CoreML

- Object detection

- Vision

- Hand gesture

- Photo identification

- Text-to-Speech

- Siri!

- MacRumors WWDC24 Rumors!

- https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/wwdc/

- Developer Wishlist

- “AI” code writing in Xcode

- SwiftData Improvements

- VisionOS improvements

- Siri Shortcuts Integration

- Widgets in VisionOS

- Bingo Card Items

- Arc Browser Sherlocked

- Widgets for VisionOS

- VisionOS 2.0 (not 1.5)

- Trello Sherlocked

- New game engine

- # of times “AI” spoken

- Kotaro - 20+

- Aaron - 1 single time

- Steve - 50+

- Wrap-Up & Jokes

- https://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

The trio discuss the new M4 iPad Pros, both the updates and the use cases. Who are these devices for and do the new models really represent the biggest update in the iPad lineup in years? Plus, Kotaro teases a new game to be built with Godot.

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- New iPad Pros

- What are iPads useful for?

- Pencil Pro updates

- What Nobody Else Told You About Tandem OLED and M4! (Snazzy Labs)

- https://youtu.be/3moprE5S3Qc

- Kotaro teases a new game to be built with Godot

- https://godotengine.org

- Killer Klowns from Outer Space

- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095444/

- Wrap-Up & Jokes

- https://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

Joe Cieplinski returns to the pod to talk about his latest app, The Last Word, a journal app for tracking your personal cocktail journey. Built using the latest iOS 17 technologies from SwiftUI to SwiftData with a cross-platform design that includes visionOS, our discussion touches on many topics that will be of interest if you are starting your own greenfield side project app.

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions / Welcome Joe Cieplinski

- The Last Word in Cocktails app

- https://havethelastword.app/

- iOS 17, SwiftUI, SwiftData, VisionOS

- Story behind the name

- Opinionated Design

- Custom Artwork

- App Store Optimization

- App Store Subscription

- RevenueCat article about using StoreKit 2

- https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/engineering/ios-in-app-subscription-tutorial-with-storekit-2-and-swift/

- Meet StoreKit for SwiftUI WWDC23 Video

- https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10013/

- App Store Analytics

- AppFigures

- https://appfigures.com

- VisionOS Apps / Development

- MKBHD Disney VR floor video

- https://youtu.be/1KEtxTQUzxY

- Future plans for The Last Word

- Where to find Joe

- Mastodon

- https://mastodon.social/@jcieplinski

- Web

- https://joec.design

- Get the App!

- https://havethelastword.app

- Wrap-Up

- https://phillycocoa.org

- One More Thing…

- WWDC wishes from Joe

- New PencilKit

- SwiftUI photo capture & other updates

- SwiftData updates

- VisionOS Window Management

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

Jumping off from one of our topics last episode, this week we are tackling the idea of working a 9 to 5 with a side project. What are the challenges? How do you maintain motivation? What time management strategies work? Are there any tools that can help you stay organized? Steve has some concrete tips based on his recent experience trying to juggle side projects and a day job while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Kotaro and Aaron provide the perspective of developers working a traditional in-office, corporate job and the challenges that creates for side project success. Along the way, we discuss how to make a website using Swift, the WWDC24 announcement, and Kotaro shares his latest insights about Reality Composer Pro. There are some good tips, tools, and techniques in this episode for those trying to find a healthy balance while working towards that side project dream.

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- Using Swift to Build a Website

- https://github.com/twostraws/Ignite

- https://github.com/johnsundell/publish

- Flutter vs React vs Native

- News: WWDC24 Announced

- Fun With Reality Composer Pro

- 9 to 5 Lifestyle with a Side Project

- Four Thousand Weeks book (not an affiliate link)

- https://www.amazon.com/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Management-Mortals/dp/0374159122

- Sleep++

- https://sleepplusplus.app

- Wrap-Up & Not a Sponsor

- https://AzamSharp.school

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

Kotaro has been doing the 9 to 5 thing for a while now and he's been thinking about his days as a consultant and what it means in 2024 to "go indie." The trio discuss some of the options they see in the present day including consulting or SaaS, making educational content, traditional app or game development, whether the Vision Pro gold rush might be the most attractive option and more. Plus, Aaron finally tries a Vision Pro and Kotaro waxes nostalgic for his former indie app, "Dividend Calc." This is a great episode for anyone looking to "go indie" in 2024.

## Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- Indie Opportunities

- Our last discussion on this topic: #40: “Going Indie”

- https://podcast.phillycocoa.org/episodes/40-going-indie

- Consulting or SaaS Business

- Bombing Brain Interactive

- https://www.bombingbrain.com/

- Release Notes Podcast

- https://releasenotes.tv/

- RelaNet

- https://relanet.com/

- Educational Content / Workshops

- AzamSharp

- https://azamsharp.school

- PointFree

- https://www.pointfree.co

- Design+Code

- https://designcode.io

- Indie App Success

- https://getslopes.com/

- Indie Game Success

- 9 to 5 with a Side Project

- Vision Pro Gold Rush!

- https://sandwich.vision

- Tangents & Our “Going Indie” Strategies

- Tangent: SPM Problems

- Tangent: Aaron tried a Vision Pro!

- Tangent: Dividend Calc History

- Wrap-Up & Jokes

- https://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.