High Caffeine Content

A Month With OpenAI's Codex March 01 2026 I'm no stranger to using ChatGPT for development — a good chunk of the migration of all my apps from Objective-C to Swift, over a hundred thousand lines of code, was done with LLM assistance — but I've been sleepi…

The iPad Pro Manifesto (2024 Edition) May 14 2024 Another year, another series of incredibly-overpowered new iPads Pro, another round of '…shame the software sucks, though' reviews.

Intel Virtualization and Apple Silicon March 25 2022 The transition to Apple Silicon brought about many exciting things, but one of the capabilities left behind was access to the world of Intel-based virtual machines.

Where Mac Catalyst Falls Short February 16 2022 When the first UIKit-based apps appeared on macOS Mojave, it was abundantly clear that there was a long way to go before this technology was appropriate for developers making new Mac apps.

Catalyst Sample Code Roundup June 05 2021 I thought it would be a good idea to round up the various pieces of sample code I've created for Mac Catalyst just to get everything in one place.

Supporting Catalyst's Optimize for Mac with Manual Layout May 16 2021 A key part of supporting Catalyst's new Mac Idiom (Optimize Interface for Mac) is having a way to ensure that every hardcoded number you use for layout has a value both for iOS, and for…

Manual UIKit Layout May 13 2021 Whenever I mention that I don't use Interface Builder, Storyboards or Auto Layout, developers, especially newer developers, ask me how it's even possible to write UIKit apps like that.

Broadcasts 2 + Swift May 10 2021 It's been a whole year since the release of Broadcasts on iOS & macOS, with a couple dozen significant updates in the in-between adding major new features, including: A RadioBrowser-powered directory of thousands of statio…

Pastel June 10 2020 All of us have a list of projects we'd like to do someday, when the stars align.

Broadcasts: Streaming Radio April 01 2020 Way back in 2016 I built myself a mini streaming radio player app to use at home and give to family.

Shortcuts for Mac June 10 2019 One of the most interesting rumors before WWDC was that Shortcuts might be coming to the Mac, which of course raises all kinds of questions re the future of automation on macOS.

Beyond the Checkbox with Catalyst and AppKit June 07 2019 WWDC 2019 is here, and with it, a new way to write apps on the Mac: Catalyst.

WWDC, A Wish List (2019 Edition) June 01 2019 This piece first appeared on MacStories on May 27th, 2019.

Why Apple needs iPad apps on the Mac June 01 2019 Dieter Bohn makes his case for why Apple should go all-in on Marzipan.

(Don't Fear) The Reaper May 22 2019 With the rapidly-upcoming introduction of UIKit apps to the Mac, I've been reminiscing on Twitter quite a bit about Apple's transition to Mac OS X, and just how NEXTSTEP and Mac OS found common ground despite being two…

Translating an ARM iOS App to Intel macOS Using Bitcode May 18 2019 When Apple introduced Bitcode and made it mandatory on watchOS and tvOS, they kinda hand-waved away questions about why it existed, with nebulous claims about it being useful to tune-up b…

Turntable March 29 2019 I picked up a simple motorized turntable and photography light tent, and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes to photographing miniatures & paint jobs.

Casting Scenery Pieces with Hirst Arts Molds March 24 2019 Taking a break from code for a bit, I thought it would be fun to document another project; this Christmas I found myself finally biting the bullet and picking up some of the amazing terrain molds…

Deeper Integration with Marzipan March 07 2019 Despite appearances, this is a UIKit app running on macOS Mojave via Marzipan using all the techniques referenced in prior posts.

Making Marzipan Apps Sing March 02 2019 Preamble Fair warning: this post is going to be code-heavy, and it's more a series of examples rather than a tutorial — not everything you need will be listed here.

Bringing iOS Apps to macOS Using Marzipanify March 01 2019 At WWDC 2018 Apple gave us a ‘sneak peek’ at perhaps one of the most impactful developments on macOS since the transition to Mac OS X: UIKit apps running on the desktop.

WWDC Wish List February 28 2016 I don’t often do this, but this year I think it’s important; Apple is more open & receptive to feedback today than it ever has been.

TV Channel App on tvOS November 07 2015 As an internal demo, I put together a set of RTÉ channels for tvOS - quickly thrown together using official public HD streams.

Native UIKit apps on Apple Watch September 12 2015 Security This is not a jailbreak.

Redux: When is a Smartphone OS not a Smartphone OS?

MPW, Carbon and building Classic Mac OS apps in OS X January 24 2015 MPW In 2014 I came across a project on Github described as “Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop (mpw) compatibility layer”.

Lisa Pascal Development in Lisa Workshop May 27 2014 Tonight’s project: learn how to write code that runs on Apple’s LisaOS.

NetBoot PowerPC & Intel Macs from Mavericks Server April 25 2014 As part of some maintenance here, I did a little research as to how to set up NetBoot for various different Macs.

The Quest for A Perfect Lotto Machine Simulation January 14 2014 Today, Lotto Machine went live on Google Play for the first time, 23 months after the launch of the original on iOS.

2007's pre-M3 version of Android: the Google Sooner May 05 2012 When Google first showed off Android, they showed it running on a device very similar to Blackberries or Nokia E-class devices of the time.

When is a Smartphone OS not a Smartphone OS?

Return AirPrint Sharing to Mac OS X v10.6.5 November 10 2010 Today, Apple released Mac OS X v10.6.5 which was supposed to bring AirPrint to any printer connected to your Mac.

Apple's iBooks Dynamic Page Curl February 15 2010 A week ago at NSConference I decided to try and figure out how Apple performed the page curl animation shown in the iPad announcement keynote.

Nook v1.0 on Android Emulator December 22 2009 I decided to check out the Nook earlier today; naturally it’s not available in Ireland so I downloaded the firmware update from Barnes and Noble and set to work on getting it to run on something.

Speech Synthesis on iPhone 3GS July 06 2009 Posted this on Twitter a week back, but maybe it’s of some interest to blog readers; here’s how to do simple voice synthesis on the iPhone 3GS (3GS-only, I’m afraid).

Using Dynamic Library Injection with the iPhone Simulator [REDUX] January 14 2009 Previously I had blogged about developing dynamic libraries / SpringBoard plugins using the iPhone Simulator included with the SDK.

How to enable Emoji systemwide November 23 2008 As an addendum to my last post, I decided to figure out how to enable Emoji systemwide.

Using Dynamic Library Injection with the iPhone Simulator October 25 2008 UPDATE: This method no longer works for iPhone OS SDK 2.2 - please see my new article for an updated method.

Flare Kit: Learning Interface Builder’s Plugin Model July 09 2008 Well I’ve been spending the past few days furiously trying to learn something new.

Using Core Image Filters On or Under an NSWindow March 23 2008 So just to kick off I thought I’d drop a little Cocoa code to apply a Core Image filter to, or underneath, a window.