Marko Hlebar

Dad of one, balancing full time and indie iOS/macOS dev. Building video apps that protect privacy of your home and family.

Building in public.

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

Hi guys, I'm happy to announce what I've been working on last half a year 🤓!

A little backstory first. My wife @tratinche, and I had our son born a year ago, and since we're both working from home, an idea came to me that there should be a way to keep your family members private if they inadvertently hop into your video call.

Behold Xamera Camera (https://t.co/6LaiKMnO8i)

This app is a privacy first camera extension for macOS. It is designed so that it
- works with every video conferencing tool
- works with every browser (yes, finally filters with Google Meet on Safari)
- works with any app that supports picking a camera stream
- processes the stream 100% on device

Features:
Advanced Privacy
- will black out your stream if you're not the only person in camera view
- will black out your stream if you leave the camera

Filters
- Adjustable blur and black and white blur
- Color background
- Image background
- Black and white foreground (you can finally look like your Twitter avatar in the video 🥳)

Apply for early access in the link below!

This was built in private, but will continue adding features in public #buildinpublic

[INFINITEYAY✨ @infiniteyay]

I need to be real with you all. I've gone back and forth about posting this but I can't stay quiet anymore.

My 4 year old son has a severe neurological condition. He's non-verbal and autistic and requires constant specialized care. That alone turned our family's life upside down. We found treatments that are extremely promising but they're just out of reach right now.

Then a few weeks ago, my 11 year old was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

What was already the hardest chapter of our lives just got significantly harder. We have a 4 year old with intensive daily needs, an 11 year old whose health now requires around the clock management, and a 1 year old. There aren't enough hours in the day and there aren't enough of us.

The art and design markets have been going through some serious changes and it's left us in the tightest financial spot we've ever been in. I'm not here for sympathy. I'm here because love and will do anything for them and have to exhaust every option I can.

If you or anyone you know needs creative work, I have 15+ years of experience across brand identity, creative direction, advertising, content, and AI art. I've worked with adidas, Nike, Google, Valentino, and many others. I'm ready to start immediately.

If you love the art, I have a small curation of unminted new works and my PIECES drop is live on SR. I'm also very open to commissions.

I've always tried to show up here with energy and positivity. Right now the most honest thing I feel I can do is show up with the truth instead.

I'm going to get my sons the care they need and get my family to a place where we can all thrive. If you can help from any angle, please reach out. If you can RT, that matters too.

DMs are open. 🙏

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

Inspired by @almmaasoglu, for my weekend project I added dithering to https://t.co/eUJzXI1UXP.

Impress your boss by appearing all dithered up at Monday standup lol

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@mac_cain13 I've been meaning to do a running tracker at some point, but never have the time to do it 😅 looking forward to see what you guys conjure up, I'm sure it will be awesome.

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@KrauseFx Hey Felix, can you expand a bit on what you mean with floating video over other apps, just as a mirror or? I'm developing https://t.co/eUJzXI1UXP, it aims to provide the same camera UX in every meeting app you use + some privacy features.

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@_nghiatran @proxyman_app Amazing product @_nghiatran, I've converted a lot of colleagues to use it instead of said alternatives. Keep up the great work 🙌

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@GwendalBrossard I have lake Annecy pinned as my go to. You’re truly blessed!

[Marcin Krzyzanowski @krzyzanowskim]

I'm looking for a new job/opportunity 🫵
Preferably iOS/macOS. I'm good at it.
about me: https://t.co/byXyXd1tL0

Please spread the word 🙏 DM open.

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@daniel_nguyenx This is great advice, but also ask yourself why a lot. Why am I doing this?

[Adrian Eves @swifteves]

Anyone hiring for iOS? I'd love to be your guy. Please RT this to infinity and beyond!

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

Performance is a feature 🚀

Worked on performance fixes this weekend for https://t.co/6LaiKMnO8i. Managed to get ~20% less CPU (62% -> 49%) and ~10% less GPU (32% -> 29%).

There's a lot more that I can do in terms of performance improvements, but low hanging fruit was as simple as using CVPixelBufferPool instead of allocating a new CVPixelBuffer every frame, and some other minor tweaks.

Some customers asked about supporting Intel, but as a solo dev I don't have the capacity to pursue that. I tested it on my 2019 Intel, and it's still super choppy 😅

#buildinpublic

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

Users were confused about Advanced Privacy in https://t.co/eUJzXI1UXP, so in version 1.3.1, we redesigned this from a switch to a menu where you can have granular control over the features.

Hide Camera
- When someone else is in view 👥
- When I leave view🚶‍♂️

#buildinpublic

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@marcus_eckert does his magic again 😍

[Marcus Eckert @marcus_eckert]

Here's how to trigger the freeze effect. It's an easter egg, so it's a bid hidden.
Get the latest @RiveoApp.
Go to onboarding page 3 (you can show the onboarding again from the menu)
Wait 5s and it'll slowly start freezing over, leaving out the get started button

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@that_igor_ Had a tshirt with those graphics 🥰

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@mac_cain13 I’m really happy with my Steelcase Gesture!

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

The care and the details that are going into Bezel are still mind blowing to me. That is what Mac apps should be about. ❤️

[Mathijs Kadijk @mac_cain13]

Bezel is "a game-changing convenience" that "could very well become an essential tool for macOS".

Very, very honoured to read that on MacStories about our own app. 🙏

It's a great and detailed review of Bezel can really recommend to check it out: https://t.co/ww2YWtJA5X

[Mathijs Kadijk @mac_cain13]

Bezel is "a game-changing convenience" that "could very well become an essential tool for macOS".

Very, very honoured to read that on MacStories about our own app. 🙏

It's a great and detailed review of Bezel can really recommend to check it out: https://t.co/ww2YWtJA5X

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

I've done some bug and perfomance fixes on https://t.co/eUJzXI1UXP, this is now released on the AppStore!

Version 1.1.3
📈 Fix for Xamera extension using CPU even when not in use (thanks Ian)
🥶 Fix for frozen image when turning off camera mid meeting

#buildinpublic

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

@smilie_millie Thanks @smilie_millie , just learning how to do this :D

[Marko Hlebar @markohlebar]

Quite happy with numbers for https://t.co/eUJzXI2sNn in the past month. We are still doing basically zero marketing, this is mostly from organic SEO and ASO.

#buildinpublic