David Smith

Independent iOS developer. Independent in general. Maker of Widgetsmith, Pedometer++, Sleep++ and Watchsmith.

Also at

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

I just got back from a 3 day, 61 mile hiking trip in the Scottish Highlands testing the Watch Ultra. Overall I was very impressed. It retains what makes the regular Apple Watch so good, while pushing out the edges of what it can handle.

Review/Video: https://t.co/4DxAwAvDoL

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

The best place right now to follow what I’m working on and what I’m learning is my blog (https://t.co/yWwaLn0WDM) where I’m writing a daily diary of my design and development process (just posted my 7th entry).

I’m also now on Mastodon, just in case. https://t.co/ESTBNz1BvK

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@alpennec @BenRiceM Oh lovely, thank you so much for letting me know. I looked but couldn’t find it

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

Design Notes Diary #4

https://t.co/312FJnLOmA

Doing some design work on my Live Activities…and pondering the question.

To Notch or not To Notch.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@scottsmithdev It was inspired by this Hacking with Swift tutorial, which is a good overview of the technique. https://t.co/yw4ZQ0IGVx

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

Design Notes diary #6
https://t.co/FuM4eo9Qze

Better graph scrolling, adding colored confetti in SwiftUI and an unexpected difference between iOS 16.1 and 16.2.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@sdw @jordibruin Ooo, ooo, and if we’re doing an SDW blogging renaissance…I learned so much from Cocoia back in the day. 😁

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@BenRiceM Exactly! That’s the kind of change that I’ll be iterating on next. To give as many affordances as possible to indicating what is happening

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

Design Notes Diary #5
https://t.co/0AwhRq8wGt

My process for capturing issues with my apps in development and designing a better system for scaling my step count graphs.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@jonasclindgren 🤔 that is very interesting, thanks for passing it along

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@nielsmann Thanks for the kinds words, it is very encouraging to hear!

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@parrots Thanks for the tip! I’m doing a similar approach currently (simplifying with the Douglas-Peucker algorithm I only half understand). In my case what also helps a ton is that I only need to send over points that are visible which is typically pretty small.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@jjrscott I wrote my own custom system so that I could be 100% confident it wasn’t collecting anything I didn’t want it to be. But I’ve heard great things about @Telemetry_Deck for a privacy respecting analytics system.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

It looks like the Apple Watch Ultra is selling very well. Essentially keeping pace with the 45mm Series 8, and actually outselling the 41mm amongst Pedometer++ users.

[For context the most used model right now is 44mm Series 6 at 11%, followed by 38mm Series 3 at 10%]

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@kylebshr It’s a really interesting idea. It certainly makes it a lot less noticeable.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@_ChrisHarris Yup, the map is coming from an OS maps API. I had the same idea with the corners. There is definitely something funny about the shape right now.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@ekurutepe Very nice! I hope you see good improvement.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

Design Notes Diary #1
https://t.co/IVplYfRrjq

More experiments with the Workout Screen.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

Design Notes Diary #1
https://t.co/3AwGiVGwFe

I’m trying a new approach to sharing my development process in a way that takes more ownership of the content, lessens my dependence on Twitter and hopefully increases the depth of the insight. A daily design/development diary.

[David Smith @_DavidSmith]

@mkflint Whoops! Thank you so much for letting me know