joe mclaughlin
Mastodon Archive
Recent posts mirrored from Hachyderm.
i launched v2 of my music app Albums, and switched it to freemium. if you listen to albums on Apple Music (including iTunes purchases), please check it out (and/or share it with your friends who may like it!)
i also spent a little time working on a new landing page for the app, and i’m really stoked with how it all turned out. #indiedev
as the tedious parts of building software get cheaper, iteration gets easier, and craft matters more. the cream still rises to the top; the details still define the work.
if you made it this far and want to check out the app for yourself, i’ve added 50 spots to the testflight (iOS 26 + iPhone only for now).
let me know if you have any questions or feedback. thank you, and enjoy! https://testflight.apple.com/join/648azus1
app development is full of these types of problems that people will only notice if you get it wrong. if it feels “right”, the assumption is that it’s built-in functionality, even if it took days or weeks of careful tweaking, tuning, and building to nail it.
i don’t share any of this to complain, i’ve been building iOS apps since iPhone OS 2.0 in 2008, and it’s been the best job ever! making things that people love to use every day is awesome, and i hope i can keep doing it for many more years.
so i did it the hard way: i added a second window to my app that would float over the rest of the app and show a sheet. it could be accessed from any screen while not preventing other sheets throughout the app (perfect use for a window)
because i used a built-in sheet, its continued to “feel right” even as Apple has updated iOS, and the various default animation timings and curves that can make or break how things feel (often subconsciously)
so back to my app. it probably would’ve been easier to build my own custom sheet, but i felt like that would lead to a weird “almost native” feel. i wanted this app to feel right at home with the built-in apps.
like it was built by Apple, but better.
most iOS developers don’t need to use windows for their apps, and i’d guess many don’t even realize you can have more than one window.
we tend to think about the “screen” in apps, not the window that the screen is showing, because they’re often 1:1
so why did they think i was using my own version? because i was very clearly presenting more than one sheet from the same screen, which as i said earlier, doesn’t work.
unless… 🤔
there’s a component on iOS called a window, and it’s just like a window on your computer. iOS copied a lot of the underlying functionality from macOS when it was built, including the concept of multiple windows
this has led many developers to build custom sheets for their apps even to replicate the UX of system apps (like Maps). but: there are a bunch of tiny details about how the system version works and if they don’t match exactly yours will feel “off”
so how did i get mine right?
easy: i was actually using a native sheet 🙈
background: iOS devs have had a love/hate relationship with Apple’s sheet/drawer component because it has some weird limitations (like the same screen can’t present more than one sheet at a time)
one time someone gave me a compliment that “[my iOS app’s] sheet physics were perfect” (iykyk)
i was flattered, but the truth was actually cooler than mimicking the physics perfectly 🧵
(ps: i’m pretty sure the person was @CursiveHello, so thank you!)
life’s too short to gatekeep. we’re all figuring it out for the first time, in our own ways. drink your coffee however you want, code however works for you. there’s no one “right” way to live ✌️
just got back from a trip to Santa Barbara so it’s my first day at home between gigs. so far today:
1. woke up without needing to work
2. mowed and edged the lawn (pumped for the rest of spring/summer)
3. opened the new gap wedge my wife bought for my birthday (taking it out to a range session shortly)
4. received the Jumpman Jacks i treated myself to the day i signed my offer
Yesterday was my last day at Yahoo Finance. It was an interesting career experience being part of an acquired team and integrating our product into a much larger org + platform over the last two years, but I was itching to get back to a high-growth team.
I'm taking a couple weeks off to reset + recharge, and then I'll be joining the team at Whatnot! I'm incredibly excited about the change and wrote a little announcement post with some expanded thoughts on my site: https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/after-yahoo/
can you imagine the alternate timeline where modern-day tablets weren’t invented until after the M-series chips (and equivalent) were created? iPadOS might be a fork of macOS instead of iOS, which would be such a better pairing with how capable the hardware is.
the whole world seems like it’s still asleep until you get to the gym parking lot
i could probably write an entire series of blog posts following up on why i think this is important, but i’ll try to summarize some of my thoughts:
in this age of “AI”, we’ve ended up with a lot of opinionated/biased software that we have little to no control over. we can adjust the prompts, but that’s only a band-aid to hide our lack of control over them.
it’s more important than ever to counteract these oversights with opinionated software that’s inclusive, well-meaning, and human.
reminder to myself more than anything: write opinionated software.
i don't think i have the self control to keep myself from doomscrolling all day, but some jazz and coffee will make it better, right? #vote
crazy idea:
Apple should hire remote folks to write great documentation again. this isn’t a role that needs to be on-site in Cupertino, it’s a role that’s probably best done by people who love to dive into the details with a warm cup of coffee in their home office with no distractions.
(spoiler alert: they’ve done this in the past, and they can do it again)
https://mastodon.social/@ctietze/113318316174183424
why do we still need new testflight beta versions to be reviewed? are there that many bad actors that this rubber sta... i mean, thorough review is worth it?
most software that's built today is super vanilla.
the “content” is supposed to be the differentiator, which leaves the rest of the app/site in the role of “empty container”.
i'm tired of not rocking the boat. i'm tired of being safe. i want to get back to building really fun and innovative experiences that people enjoy using! 🪄
true story: i put my AirPod Pros into my ears this morning, picked an album, and hit play. 30 minutes later i realized the album was playing through my office speakers, not my AirPods. Transparency mode is good! 😂
the beta images are available! please wait for my downloads to complete before you all start hogging the bandwidth, thanks. (also: don't follow my example, install them only on test devices) #WWDC24
i'm flipping back and forth so much during this “AI” segment of the #WWDC24 keynote. some things are great, others are varying levels of cringe/bad/awful.
the result of an SVP saying “all teams need to be building features based on an LLM, non-negotiable”.
some things are great! the team looked at the capabilities and the user needs and thoughtfully implemented something wonderful. other teams just threw something together that’s little more than a tech demo.
anyone know what bag Craig's phone was in? #WWDC24
charging my phone to 100% right now so that i'm ready to hop on the beta train #WWDC24 (don't follow my example, i'm a bad influence)
lots of "finally" feature announcements already this year #WWDC24
wait, they called it visionOS 2?! i did _not_ see that coming! 😲 #WWDC24
Craig hair helmet when? #WWDC24
My first impressions of the new 13” iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard written, edited, and published entirely from the iPad (with some added details of how I publish from the iPad for the curious): https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/blogging-from-anywhere/
fun Photo Booth bug on iPad OS when using stage manager: when the window is portrait orientation, the camera is rotated 90 degrees 🙃
one more indication that the current windowing APIs are hard to work with and need to be improved.
it's really a wild time to be alive that the marketing strategy for Google's Pixel phone is to show off the AI/ML photo manipulation features instead of camera/photo quality.
🥱: “our phone takes awesome pictures to help you capture a moment in time”
🤩: “our phone will help you manipulate reality to create a fabricated moment in time”
every time the ad comes on during the NBA playoffs i dislike it more.
there isn’t a more polarizing fast food opinion in all the land: In-n-out fries are actually good.
a short note outlining thoughts i had today about the similarities between a blog and a garden 🔗 https://josephmclaughl.in/notes/2024/03/25/0920/
made the mistake of making a batch of cold brew because of the warmer spring weather that we've had lately… then it snowed. the cold brew is good though 🤷♂️
typically i'm not a fan of DST, but in this case it's making a -16 hour timezone adjustment into a -15 hour adjustment, so i'll make an exception 😴
how soon after returning from Japan is too soon to book your next trip back? asking for myself.
💯
the older i get as a programmer, the more of my programming is done on walks and in notebooks. getting the syntax right is part of the gig, but not the main part.
https://mastodon.social/@GeePawHill/112055125552255449
at the risk of being the "old man yelling at cloud” meme... the incredible hardware we have and the ease of getting started writing software for it (cross-platform, SwiftUI, etc) has led to some really poorly optimized apps with bad UX.
back in the day, we were wringing every last little bit of performance out of the _megabytes_ of memory and small number of CPU cores we had. nowadays i run across tons of apps that use the main thread for non-UI tasks, leading to beachballs and stutters.
you know that moment of clarity and ambition where you know exactly what you want to do with the day right after you have your coffee and right before you open your work email?
slow mornings are the ultimate luxury
visionOS 1.1 beta 2 already?
the local symphony does movie nights where they play the soundtrack to a movie live along with a showing of the movie. tonight we saw Casablanca and it was exquisite! (if you have a local symphony, they may also do this, and i highly recommend going!)
Update to visionOS 1.1 beta went smoothly and it made me recapture my Persona on launch. Just did a similar capture to how i have done previously, but my Persona seems a _lot_ better, much less "wooden” or "dead”...
of course i’m installing the visionOS beta, what could go wrong? 🙃
my biggest complaint about Personas is not that they’re “bad”, it’s that you can only have one at a time.
if you get a good capture but you want to improve a single aspect of it, or wear a different shirt, you need to delete the old one before doing so.
MKBHD's third (and latest) Vision Pro video is great, and I really appreciate all the details and nuance that he shares. I wrote up a few words about how I'm looking forward to WWDC this year to see what visionOS 2.0 is going to bring 👀 https://josephmclaughl.in/links/2024/02/tomorrows-ideas/
every time i clean the front glass on Vision Pro it feels like im polishing a palantir from Lord of the Rings 🔮
oh also on Vision Pro:
i wrote about this on my blog, but now that i have the device in my hands i feel validated… reviewers that judged this device based on some future ideal version of the device? lame. judge the device on what it is, based on today.
a lot of reviews’ subtext was: “this is nowhere close to where the device will be in a few years”. you think?
this first gen is awesome, and future gens will be even better. that’s how things work. https://josephmclaughl.in/notes/2024/01/31/1116/
Vision Pro day one was awesome. I have one main question: multi-user support when?
congrats to all the Apple folks who have worked on visionOS, Vision Pro, and all the related frameworks and apps over the years to get us to this point! this is a huge deal and you all deserve to be celebrated!
it’s days like today i wish Apple had a credits screen like the old Adobe CS apps did. you all rock!
I couldn't help myself, I wrote up some of my thoughts about the App Store amid two different changes Apple has been forced to make to the way they operate it. https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/the-app-store/
There are people who’s “brand” is deliberately missing the point. Doesn’t matter what the issue, they’ll find a way to get it wrong. Rather than assume they’re unintelligent, it’s helpful to ask yourself why they might want to get something wrong in such a public venue… 🤔 (hint: social media interactions with “dumb” posts is always 10x higher than scientists or authors making well-reasoned points)
The truth since the beginning of the internet: don’t feed the trolls. 🫡
I don't think it's that big of a deal that apps like Netflix, YouTube, and others won't be available on Vision Pro on day one. I'm bummed, but I think with the limited number of dev kits that were sent out, it makes sense that the number of launch partners is pretty small. https://josephmclaughl.in/links/2024/01/visionos-safari/
Tweets are now notes – a short note introducing shorter-form content that I’m posting to my own website. https://josephmclaughl.in/notes/2024/01/19-1623/
but really… i changed my mind and preordered. see you all on 2/2! #VisionPro
Food $200
Data $150
Rent $800
Vision Pro $3,500
Utilities $150
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying
i recently made the decision to “sidegrade” my 16" MacBook Pro to the 15" MacBook Air. my main desire was to lighten my backpack a bit when travelling without needing to leave my laptop at home. so far i've been loving the lighter machine, but it’s not without it's tradeoffs.
if you're interested in reading about my decision making process and some of the comparisons, i wrote about it on my blog: https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/15-macbook-air/
I got the new Apple thing that everyone's been talking about today!
... the MacBook Air, right? That’s what everything is all excited about? Oh, right, the Vision Pro... yeah, don't think I’ll be preordering this gen. I eagerly await people's reviews though!
i think it’s perfectly fine for the entry level MBP to have 8GB of RAM. sometimes providing consumer choice includes offering a lower configuration than “experts” think should be the minimum.
i do think it’s funny to claim 8GB on M-series machines is equivalent to 16GB on a PC though… “they’re not comparable because of x, y, z, but if i had to compare… it’s definitely comparable to this arbitrary number the press has been saying we should have included”
…right.
thanks to everyone who checked out my office post over the weekend and offered feedback! i added a couple missing pieces (like my vinyl setup), more photos, and did a bunch of copyediting. sharing one more time today and then it's back to work on one of my other drafts 😅
if you think your audience would appreciate checking out the post, i'd appreciate a boost on my last toot. thanks!
Over the last several months I’ve been writing a blog post diving into all the details of my home office where I’ve worked for the last 7+ years. I’d love if you'd check it out and let me know what you think or answer any questions you have! https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/office-2023/
👀 early look for the weekend crowd:
i’ve been working on a blog post digging into all of the details of my home office with photos and links (weighing in at almost 4k words). i’d love if you’d check it out and let me know what you think! https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/office-2023/
if you’re looking to upgrade your M2 Pro/Max machines from January, more power to you. but i don’t think you really needed Apple to tell you they were worth the upgrade, right?
during the Intel days, we were literally begging Apple to release a “spec bump” MacBook Pro every year including the latest Intel chips so that if it was time to buy a new machine, you didn’t have to hold on for months and months because you’d miss out on a big performance leap.
now in the M-series era, we’re bashing Apple for *shudders* not emphasizing the [modest] performance improvements over the chips released 10 months ago and instead comparing to the two year old chips [and Intel]?
remember when people said AirPods were going to look weird in people’s ears since they didn’t have a cable? good times. #FreezingColdTakes
the 15 Pro Max feels like so much more than a minor rev, even though from the feature sheet that’s what it appears to be.
observations:
• feels noticeably lighter 🪶
• the combination of the [slightly] smaller bezels around the screen with the beveled edges of the frame make it appear significantly smaller 🔎
• maybe i hit the hardware lottery, but my display seems better than my 14 Pro Max (brighter/more vibrant) 🌈
• cameras seem really good 📸
thank you to everyone who worked on them!
pros of working with a predominantly east coast team while living in mountain time (2 hours earlier):
• by the time i log on, people are already in full swing – there’s code to review, questions/answers to read through, and good vibes in Slack
• things quiet down mid-afternoon and i get a good chunk of time to work on things uninterrupted
cons:
• meetings are always scheduled during lunch
i have so many blog posts i want to write and so little time to spend writing them
happy Tuesday from Dutch #dogsofmastodon
i’m always on the lookout for cool prints from digital artists, i love framing + hanging them in my office. anyone have recommendations?
whenever someone rewrites history claiming Apple should’ve simply adopted USB-C instead of inventing Lightning… remind them that the USB-C spec wasn’t finalized until two years after Lightning debuted (2014 vs 2012).
big “first day of school” vibes today at work 👨🏼💻
as someone who works on multiple different Macs (a Mac Studio, and two MBPs), having a single thunderbolt to plug in to any of the machines to get all my peripherals* connected is great, but i do wish there was a TB4 KVM so i could at least have the Studio plugged in all the time and then switch to one of the laptops. right now i resort to screen sharing from the laptops if i need something that's on the Studio.
*peripherals: pro display xdr, keyboard, mouse, ethernet, camera, etc.
today i finally get to talk about something big that’s been going on behind the scenes for a while: the startup i was working on (Commonstock) was acquired by Yahoo!
as part of the acquisition i get to continue working on the features and vision we’ve been building, but at a much larger scale 📈🚀 https://www.axios.com/2023/08/23/commonstock-yahoo-social-investing-platform
one of the #ADHD crosses i bear:
• start a project on my laptop because the break from routine helps me get into flow
• get into flow on laptop
• can’t switch to my desktop (more comfortable chair, faster compile times, bigger screen) for fear of disrupting flow
does anyone else read through their resume occasionally to get through a spate of imposter syndrome or just me? sometimes it helps to see what kinder me said about myself in the past.
took a little break from mastodon et al over the last month or so.
it's nice to reset and remember i’m not required to scroll through the text that appears on the screen to survive. have been reading [books], traveling, and thinking about apps/updates in the extra time. dipping my toes back in 👋
“Apollo for Reddit” [until its killed by Reddit’s upcoming capricious API pricing] #wwdc
@christianselig killer shoutout dude!
the dashboard is back!! #wwdc
remember when all the rumors sources claimed the Mac Studio was dead? 😂 broken clocks, they’re right occasionally. #WWDC
good morning and happy #wwdc to all who celebrate!
run, don’t walk to see “Across the Spider-verse” 7/7
having an absolutely wonderful time in Honolulu with my better half. much needed break to reset and refocus. 🤙🏼🌴
for real though, who's working on the next iteration of Path?
after what seemed like an incredibly long and gloomy winter (even by Utah standards), it seems like we've turned a corner and it's finally nice enough to sit outside and work from the patio
feeling a little sluggish this morning after a busy weekend, but still feels pretty great to sit down in my office and kick the week off. Glitch Mob is bumping, the caffeine is hitting, and xcode is compiling 🎵🧑💻
having some landscaping work done this week and right now they're running the rototiller, so it's a great day to blast the Meteora 20 LP in the office.
if you know me you know i'm a pretty optimistic person, but as the weather transitions from winter into spring, my optimism levels go through the roof ☀️🪴
this is just like… my opinion man… but Figma is not good software.
i usually alternate between two competing desires:
1. wanting to retire and move to a remote mountain cabin
2. wanting to retire and move to a remote tropical island
unfortunately i can't do either 😂
i’ve been thinking lately about the term “content creator”:
in my opinion, the problem with a lot of the “content” that’s put out there, it’s that it’s made with the sole purpose of sucking up time and attention. art is best when the goal is the art, not the consumption metrics of the art. with the rise of “AI generated content”, this is more important than ever.
make things because you enjoy making them.
really appreciate all the love on Albums over the last couple months since i shipped v1! it’s been really fun seeing it resonate with so many people 🤘 (crossed 200 net copies sold yesterday!)
once again for those in the western hemisphere: i’m launching my new app @albums on Product Hunt today and would really appreciate an upvote there to help people discover the app. thank you! https://www.producthunt.com/posts/albums-2
For those that are awake, Albums is launching today on Product Hunt! It’d really mean a lot to me if you could help others discover the app by upvoting it or sharing a comment! Thank you! https://www.producthunt.com/posts/albums-music-library
really happy with how this accent wall turned out in my office. just a few more pieces before i can write a home office update post for the blog!
man i hate april fools day 😂
there are really only two classes of “jokes”:
1. the jokes i wish were true and aren’t, ending in disappointment.
2. the jokes that never should’ve been made to begin with.
of all the many hats i wear as an indie dev, the one that's hardest for me is copywriter. it's difficult to strike a balance of conversational/relatable while not going over the top with marketing-speak or relying on clichés. (working on a new product page for @albums)
at the end of the day i only want people to buy the app if it works for them/their habits, but i also don't think saying "shrug, i made this app, try it if you want?” is very confidence-inspiring 😂
happy mlb opening day to all who celebrate! we got a fresh dumping of snow (~3inches), so my opening day brats will take a bit more commitment to make.
now that @albums v1.2 is out, maybe my brain will let me focus on other projects, like the big app redesign at my day job. always harder for me to focus when i have something about ready to get over the finish line. https://indieapps.space/@albums/110104448575230990
the hardest part about working on side projects is wanting to work on them all the time. i enjoy my day job, but i _love_ my side projects. maybe one day.
it’s sad watching people leave their roles at twitter (many of them after fairly long tenures there). i am a very optimistic person – some might say too optimistic – but the last few years it seems like it’s been one thing after the next and sometimes it gets me down.
i sincerely hope we as human beings can work together towards a more fair and equitable world for all.
if you need a timeline cleanse, i wrote a quick post about raising our puppy Dutch as we approach his first birthday 🥳 (with pictures of course) https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/dutch-pt2/
the year is 2023 and writing proper keyboard avoidance code on iOS is still difficult. edge cases on edge cases (especially if you want to properly account for hardware keyboards, split screen or stage manager on iPad, and the floating keyboard)
i wish there was a way to plug in a USB-C device to my MacBook Pro and turn off powering/charging the connected device. anyone know of a macOS utility that does that?
i’m convinced that if you’re doing software development right, most people won’t notice ~90% of the work you did, and that’s ok.
if you're curious about the backstory behind my app @albums, i finally wrote down an overdue announcement post on my personal site. i dive into why music is so important to me, my guiding principles for developing the app, and more.
if anyone takes the time to read it, i'd love to know what you think! https://josephmclaughl.in/posts/albums/
before i even started working on @albums i wanted a quick and powerful search for my music library that was always within reach. it’s been super fun making my wish come true this week! https://indieapps.space/@albums/110027850182649084
so the backstory to this photo of Dutch is that i took his squeaky ball that he was playing with to encourage him to settle down for the night.
instead he started scheming ways he could retrieve the ball from the back of my nightstand 😂
unrelated... what are people putting in indie app press kits nowadays? anyone have a best practices doc or particularly proud of one they've put together?
if anyone in the press would like to check out the latest version of @albums which just shipped with support for iPad (unlike the upcoming classical music app), i'd love to get you set up with a promo code. feel free to reply here or email me: joseph at zero1software.com https://zero1software.com/albums/
submitted version 1.1 of @albums to Apple for review. by far the least fun and most stressful part of the developer experience, but necessary to get this huge update out.
also on the heels of the announcement that Apple’s new classical music app won’t support iPad… version 1.1 of Albums will support iPad 🎉
git stats: 30 commits, 40 changed files with 2,978 additions and 769 deletions. not bad for a month on a side project!
when someone purchases my app and then goes to the trouble to reach out and compliment it and/or suggest fixes and features it really puts a smile on my face! it's really fun to make an [opinionated] app and have it resonate with people.
this weekend’s agenda:
• put the finishing touches on the @albums 1.1 beta
• go snowboarding
kudos to anyone and everyone who shares work in progress in any public forum. every time i do it i’m scared for any number of reasons (will people like it? is it wrong? will i hate/change it two minutes after i post it?)
it’s scary being a perfectionist on the internet.
anyway, i've been working on a now playing screen for my app @albums so that the screen reflects the album artwork, but all the text and controls are still readable with high enough contrast. here are a couple examples (wip):
can i vent for a second? telling your friends “oh wow, this looks professional!" is not the compliment you think it is if the thing you're complimenting is in any way tied to their profession.
uh yeah, the app does look professional, do you know why? i'm a professional app developer and have spent almost 15 years honing my craft and hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hours working on the app you're looking at. it damn well better look professional.
/vent
it’s really disheartening to read stories like this seemingly every other week. app review is the final boss that you need to defeat before releasing your app to the store, and often you have no control over whether you’ll win.
when apple introduced the “spam apps” rule, it was supposed to filter out “low effort” submissions. but like all subjective measures, it’s arbitrary and without recourse. 100s of hours invested in an app only to be told “no” at the threshold. https://lucas.love/blog/pagi-app-store
there's no better feeling in iOS-land than when you really nail a custom interactive transition 🤩
got coffee this morning via the drive through and as we were pulling away one of the employees exclaimed “is that dutch?!” (our dog’s name)
we’ve made it ladies and gents, we’re regulars. probably helps that our dog is so cute 😊
for the curious: the main win was pre-calculating the cell sizes (whenever a setting/resize event caused them to need to be recalculated). these devices are so fast now that we get lazy/complacent running a few minor calculations in `sizeForItemAt:`, but that’s called every time a cell is going to come on screen. save some cycles, precompute sizes if possible.
great scrolling performance should be table stakes for any app. all our high end devices can scroll 120fps, and yet some apps struggle to maintain 30ish.
anyway, spent part of today tuning the scrolling in @albums and hot damn it’s looking good. scrolls like butter.
got a new toy
one of my favorite things to do when creating reusable components or helper functions in a codebase is to add a simple set of comments using triple forward slashes (///) so that they appear nicely formatted when ⌥-clicking on the symbol in Xcode.
self-documenting code is great... but good documentation can be better.
one of the most satisfying things is replacing custom components with standard ones (where it makes sense).
today's success has been replacing a half dozen different "custom" navigation bars in our app with system ones that look identical or better and behave in a more consistent and predictable manner (with transition animations for "free”). #iOSDev
what are some technologies that when they work are so magical they're almost "too good to be true", but when they don't work there's seemingly no way to troubleshoot or fix them?
i'll start: bluetooth
today i fought the rectangles and came out the winner, but it was close.
feels so nice to be able to browse and send toots from my mac via Ivory (thanks @chrispederick and @esamecar for sounding the early alarm!)
one of the things i appreciate about shipping an indie app is the opportunity to hone skills outside my immediate wheelhouse. this morning i spent probably far too much time tweaking a template to share reviews, but i enjoy how it stretches my brain in different ways from building apps. here’s a before/after of my initial take (which i shared this morning) and the reworked version.
life is good, appreciate all the love today ❤️
i’m excited to announce my new app @albums is available on the app store today for $2.99!
i’ve been tweaking and tuning the core premise for over three years and over the last few months i’ve put in the work to get it to v1.0. there are plenty of features missing, but this is a great starting point for the future development.
if you listen to complete albums via Apple Music/iTunes, i’d be honored if you’d check it out and let me know what you think! https://apple.co/3XmlZlf
any recommendations for good office plants? desktop, shelf, or floor are all good. my office gets almost entirely indirect sunlight.
this article is fascinating and i resonate with a lot of it. maybe it’s time to give it a try? thanks @gn for sharing https://ungated.media/article/lowercase-magic/
I’m really excited about the upcoming release of my first indie app in over 12 years (my last indie app was released in 2010 😱), which I submitted to the App Store yesterday.
If you’re interested in getting updates, I’ve created an account on indieapps.space and I’ll keep the promotion to a minimum over here – @albums🎵
I couldn’t sleep last night and found myself scrolling through the local timeline of Hachyderm.io and knew I had found my people. All the wonderfully nerdy stuff y’all are up to is so fun to read about!
👋🏼 Time for a re-introduction as I’m moving to Hachyderm.io
👨🏼💻 I’m a software engineer that’s been primarily focused on iOS and macOS applications since 2008. I’m back at a startup after spending time at bigger companies like Apple and Time Warner. I’m also working on some indie apps at Zero1 Software.
⛰️ I love the outdoors and spend time mountain biking, snowboarding and hiking with my wife and dog around SLC, Utah. I’m a big sports fan and follow MLB, NFL, NBA, golf, and F1.
I built an iOS app to browse and play albums from your Apple Music library and I think it’s finally ready to see the light of day. I have lots of fun plans for it and would love to get feedback from people outside my immediate circle. What’s working for you? What isn’t? Thanks for taking a look! 🎧
(If you can spare a boost, I’d really appreciate it! 🚀)
Some days it hits me how lucky I am to get to work from here.
T̶w̶e̶e̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ Tooting from the public version of @ivory by @tapbots.
Direct link while App Store search propagates: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ivory-for-mastodon-by-tapbots/id6444602274
I’m sorry, but your web app will never be as good as a native app.
Exhibit a:
I wish more people showed where they lived on the internet. Not stalker-level house/apartment pins, but city would be nice. I see all these cool pictures and I wonder where they’re from but I don’t want to be that annoying guy in the replies asking “is this around Lake Tahoe?!”
I’m loving Louie Mantia’s new-ish blog. The writing is genuine and really resonates with a lot that I’ve been thinking about. I’m trying to be more authentic with my writing this year as we distance ourselves from “the corporate web”. https://josephmclaughl.in/links/2023/01/teenage-web/
I’m so glad Apple is bringing back a new higher end HomePod! https://www.apple.com/homepod-2nd-generation/
I don’t need a new MacBook Pro. I don’t need a new MacBook Pro. I don’t need a new MacBook Pro.
But maybe…
I’ve been using the long weekend to get a (non-work) app closer to my 1.0 milestone. The first line of code in the project was written over the 2019 holiday break (then 2020 happened and all motivation for side projects vanished).
It’s feeling really good to get it so close to shipping! 🚀
Whenever I find myself browsing eBay, I wonder why every seller is still using a camera from 2008.
Unrelated: I am the leading bidder for a gently used iPod Hi-Fi (and you all better not go and out-bid me!)
You should go buy fonts (and stuff) from @simplebits, they’re excellent and add tons of character to anything you’re working on! I use his Cartridge font on my website right now for the headings. https://mastodon.social/@simplebits/109665979743680117
The best New Year’s resolutions are the ones that are just as applicable on August 27th as they are on January 2nd as they are on January 1st. If it’s a “one shot and you blew it” type of thing, you may want to rethink it. The goal is improvement, not perfection.
I wrote a few words about my theme for 2023 – consistently show up – on my blog. What are you all working on this year?
Me waking up early any day of the week: why is this even a thing? Yuck. Never again.
Me waking up early to go snowboarding: oh hell yeah, let’s go!
<insert inspirational remark about aligning incentives or something>
Incredible powder day up at Brighton! A super fun end to calendar year 2022, but definitely not the end of the snow season! 🏂🤙🏼
I love little touches in apps that show that the dev/team is part of the target demo.
Went snowboarding tonight and my group was calling it, so I ended my session on Slopes (by @parrots). As we headed out I saw the lift line was empty, so I went on One Last Run™. Since I’d already ended my session, I started a new one. As I was riding up I thought “it’d be cool if you could merge sessions so all your stats are combined”, but oh well…
Guess what? Slopes auto-merged my last run 🤯👏🏼🏂
This week is all about side projects, snowboarding, and maybe a blog post.
Starting by giving https://joemc.xyz a little love:
• Changed my data importer to pull toots instead of tweets
• Added back my snowboarding section for the season
• Embedded my investment portfolio (via Commonstock)
Thinking I might give the site a fresh coat of paint as well. This design has been fun for the last year, but I’m ready for a change.
It’s been a while since I spent the Christmas holiday away from the frigid temps of the Rocky Mountain West. It’s odd ordering an iced coffee on Christmas Eve, but I’m not mad about it!
I spent almost 15 years on the bird site. Made a lot of good friends, had great conversations, laughed at funny jokes, and watched news unfold in real-time. It’s a bummer it came to an end, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the open web.
The fediverse is only one part of this whole thing. We need people to write articles instead of long Twitter threads, embrace web apps that rely on open standards for distribution, and pay for services and content that you value.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays from our family to yours! 🎄
I want a way to auto-filter any post I’ve seen (via boost or direct follow of the account) in the last {time period} (adjustable: 3d, 7d, 30d). Would love this to be a server-level feature, but a client specific implementation wouldn’t be the worst thing either.
Your boosts are great, keep them coming, but I see the same ones every day. 😅🚀
“Reserved” a Rivian R1T. Estimated for a late 2023 delivery, but I’m super excited!
Have had a wonderful time visiting #Seattle this weekend. Rainy, but super fun!
Me: *trying to get a midnight snack*
Dutch: is there anything for me over here?
Seeing so many familiar faces here brings a smile to my face! Over the past few weeks/months I’ve wondered if we had lost something special forever, but I’m feeling optimistic that we’re still in a good place.
We took Dutch to my parents’ place for Thanksgiving and he loved playing in the snow every day. It’s the little things in life, you know?
Five and a half years later, I guess we’re all back here. Hey all! 👋🏼
Hmm… will this one last as long as App.net?