Cartographer Beta is available: https://pmcconnell.micro.blog/2025/05/07/cartographer-beta.html

Or see the landing page: https://spcartographer.app

Boost appreciated to get some actual testing done. Thanks!

#indieDev #macOSDev #hiking #BikeTooter

Some anecdata that may or may not be helpful but it appears that macOS apps are only thoroughly reviewed on first submission to TestFlight then subsequent builds are quickly approved for public testing. Same as iOS, in my experience.

After the first build is approved I typically see approvals in minutes if not seconds on subsequent submissions.

There may be a threshold of changes that triggers a more substantial review but I’ve yet to hit one.

#macOSDev

I use GitLab pages for app landing pages and it works well for these simple static websites. They even work with Let's Encrypt to get you setup with SSL.

What doesn't work great is every time I set up a site I have to retry the SSL setup several times until it sticks. I review all the steps, check it's all correct and mash that retry button. Eventually it works. Always takes several tries. Once it works it keeps working fine.

Moderately annoying but worth the cost (it's all free)

#indieDev

#FireTowerSaturday or something.

Got out for a nice hike before the rain.

#hiking

While many of my little scratch my own itch apps get little traction, and that’s understandable, it is nice when a review pops up and it’s 5 stars.

I don’t prompt for reviews so it’s even more gratifying that someone took the time to say something positive as we all know people have no problem navigating to the App Store to drop a 1 star review.

#indieDev #iosDev

@kixxauth CEO mojo is a product of marketing and marketing can only hide so many capitalist tendencies.

The emperor rarely has any new clothes.

I think #Apple may have finally reached the tipping point where Tim Cook needs to go to salvage any remaining goodwill with devs/consumers.

I understand the Wall Street types love him but I’m certain they can make almost as much money with slightly more ethical practices.

It’s that goodwill that kept them alive in the dark days and they have all but squandered it at this point.

@film_girl it’s the money. It’s always the money. Most devs and apps make next to nothing building for the largest Apple device market, iPhone. Why should they bother with the smallest?

Sure devs have been abused by Apple’s practices but if the money was there we would build for visionOS.

So now Apple has to let you link to other methods of payment within your app. Cool. That presumes they approve your app in the first place. Noting could go wrong there. This will go well.

@collin I have a single screen internet radio app that works on iOS, macOS, tvOS and VisionOS but it's kinda cheating since two of those are just the ipad version with some minor platform tweaks.

I think for a complex app it would take a lot of work but it would be possible

Hope I’m not jinxing anything, but lately if you open up Weather.app and use the radar view it loads and loads quickly. It’s almost useful at this point.

My bank, Key Bank, sends a survey any time you interact. Go to an ATM? Survey. Download a statement? Survey.

Who are the people who want to be so helpful they fill out these surveys at the risk of being phished?

And you probably can’t block their emails on the odd chance you need to see something.

Same with the hyper-needy Vanguard and their please don’t take your money and bury it in mason jars in your lawn emails twice a day.

Unrelated but related…
Immediately after my last post, I added a few things to the Reminders app in the Groceries list. It generally works well.

I need to get some rolls to make sandwiches. I entered “Rolls” Apple’s vaunted “Intelligence” added that item to “Canned Foods & Soup” it’s inconceivable how that mistake can be made.

I can understand how “rolls” may be slightly indeterminate but soup? “AI” == “BS”

It would be great if the next versions of Apple software worked as expected.

I log my meds everyday but since day one of this feature in the Health.app it will not recognize any log attempt from the watch. Broke for years.

Similarly I often use the stopwatch in Clock.app on my iPad to track time on tasks. The lock screen widget claims to stop/pause the timer. It doesn’t work.

This is little stuff but it’s all these little things that give the impression of a slide in Apple’s software quality.

Apple Sports app seems to have trouble showing upcoming games lately. I know my teams are playing but the app doesn’t

Sorry but the last thing I want to see when watching the Knicks who are down by 10 in the third is a commercial for Jira.

You know what’s not helpful when you’re trying to debug a regex? When the autocomplete reverses the parameters for the input and pattern.

This time it’s Visual Studio but all these “AI” tools can be a problem. Glad I only lost 5 minutes to that.

@dandylyons I do this with every app. Go for it.

I mentioned last week I would put together a blog post gathering my thoughts and process in working thru #SwiftData Migrations.

Have at it…

SwiftData Migrations and the Real World: https://pmcconnell.micro.blog/2025/04/15/swiftdata-migrations-and-the-real.html

#Swift #iOSDev #macOSDev

I decided yesterday that my number one wish for #wwdc25 is that App Store Connect will show the actual icons for apps.

I fear any more than that is asking too much.

I suspect the rest will be “AI” and new UI and things I don’t want or need.