Developer Diaries

I was in the development lab in Munich for one day but am not allowed to report my experiences or impressions here, except (maybe) posting a photo of the entry door.

I had the opportunity to test some of my apps on a real device. The time did not reach for testing everything that I wanted. A day was just much too short for doing anything in depth.

Another big problem was, that the Apple AppStore for the device is not available yet in Germany. So no TestFlight app could be downloaded. All my 40++ iOS apps could not be tested for compatibility on the visionOS this way.

It was not allowed to make screenshots or videos of my apps either, nor of me, wearing the device nor from the development lab itself.

Today I wrote and submitted the following complaint to Apple AppStore Review:

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that from now on I will no longer submit any further attempts (guaranteed to always fail) to submit applications to the Mac AppStore.

Apparently it is not possible to implement a cross-device client/server solution for users via Apple AppStores. It is a prerequisite that such solutions are delivered to users synchronously. The Mac Appstore can’t seem to cope with the speed of my developments either. More such applications are planned.

This circumstance ultimately leads to a tragic user experience and inconvenience of the application for the user, which could have been avoided. But this also means that we now have to tell users why this is the case and who is to blame.

For example, it cannot be the case that the Apple review process limits the functionality of apps to such an extent that the applications ultimately become useless and worthless. In fact, this has happened several times recently.

Here is a quote from a chief developer at Apple:

“We’re thrilled to see how they’ll continue to push the boundaries for what’s possible.”  (quote: Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Greg Joswiak )

This statement is downright absurd as it is in no way consistent with reality, as any attempt to implement such a maxim will obviously fail at the very beginning due to the way it works and the limitations of the entire app review process.

From now on we are forced to deliver the distribution of our server applications (macOS apps), which are a prerequisite for the operation of the client applications, directly to the users and to also tell the users the reasons for this.

We will therefore avoid wasting any further resources and energy dealing with the inadequacy (special points: performance and completeness ^^) of the AppStore review processes. Unfortunately there is no time for that.

I would also recommend forwarding this contribution to the responsible authorities for the operation of the review process, as this could improve something for the future.

Kindest regards,
<developer name>

Here is a quote from the current internet marketing hype:

…

More than 1,000 apps are now available in the App Store for the Apple Vision Pro, an Apple exec has revealed.

The announcement comes just over two weeks after the headset launched, at which point Apple said there were 600 apps in the store.

In a Tweet, Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Greg Joswiak said: “A huge thank you to our developers!

“Their hard work has already resulted in over 1,000 incredible spatial apps explicitly designed for Vision Pro, along with over 1.5 million compatible apps.“

“We’re thrilled to see how they’ll continue to push the boundaries for what’s possible.”

…

Especially this last quote is just like a scam, a slap into the face to developers. Pfffh … ‚to push the boundaries for what is possible‘…

This is just ridiculous if I look at what happened to me just one day earlier. The second beta version of my ‚Vision Teleport‘ app, that actually tried to ‚push the boundaries‘ was REJECTED by the Apple Appstore Review Teams. At least the macOS server part of this client/server combination of apps. For very questionable reasons: for ‚pushing the boundaries‘.

The app tried to implement the creation of virtual displays on the Mac for improving user experience with the Apple Vision Pro. The users can create virtual displays on the macOS and project these to the spatial workspace of the Vision Pro for allowing real productivity with a Mac, connected to the Vision Pro.

Up to 4 displays could be projected this way with quite acceptable performance and comfort. In contrast to the overly limited Apple ‚virtual desktop‘ implementation, which will blackout your Mac’s display and only allows to project a single display with limited features.

What we have done is what we would think, is ‚pushing the boundaries’, giving the users something useful to work with, giving them a real value…

So far so good. But the dream went away. (But maybe we will find a bypass).

This is the reality and this is the contradiction to Apples continuous marketing hypes, which obviously are always a kind of giant bunch of empty words and worth nothing. Well, it is not even approximately the truth. It is actually rather masking the truth.

Here‘s another example:

I did release ‚CineVision 3D’ in the very early days of the Vision Pro AppStore, at a point where the device even was not released.

CineVision 3D is a configurable IPTV player app with immersive space integration.

The app initially also included a feed with over 10.000 curated IPTV provides from allover the world. Providing some value to the users, ‚pushing the boundaries‘, so to say… ^^

… and Apple Review Teams REJECTED the app therefore!

I was asked to remove all the 3rd party content and the 10.000 items *.m3u feed , so all the heart, for making this app even available to the AppStore. ( All of the providers in the feed were freely and publicly available streaming services worldwide, by the way. )

The result was, that I‘ve got an entire bunch of zero stars from the users after launch of my ‚now bare bone’ app, logically, literally saying the app is total crap, a scam and the developer is probably a scammer too…

Now, this is a nearly perfect example of all the stupidity of this entire AppStore reviewing process and the results by such. Leading to useless scam and crap, finally pumping out a none-value for the users…

And think on all the wasted time and all the lost revenue, the lost value, with this, on my side now.

I was not only investing loads of time into releasing this app, but also money for licensing content for this app.

Apple promised to ship so-called Developer Kits for the launch of the Apple Vision Pro. So far my research goes, literally nobody actually really got such ‚Developer Kit‘. Especially not if you are a single Individuum, no matter how many apps you even released yet or how much serious interest you‘d have.

I applied to the Developer Kit for the Apple Vision Pro multiple times (these kits are loaned with just ridiculous terms of usage by the way) but never even got a reply. Even if I developed 6 apps for the start of the Apple Vision Pro, based on the Xcode beta versions and the Vision Pro simulator. 5 of these are released to the official AppStore at the point of this writing. Some more are in active development.

With the first day of the initial release of the new ‚ groundbreaking ‘ Apple device, very few native apps were available at all, but I was part of the game, at least. With some really mixed personal feelings therefore. Feelings in the sense of guilty conscience…

Because approximately 98 percent (if not more) of all these currently available apps were developed exclusively with the simulator, never even touched a real device. The simulator has at the moment massive leaks, issues and problems. It is quite questionable whether the apps developed on base of this will run seamlessly on a real device.

That’s also approximately what the global user experience with that new device actually was and still is…

So the relatively low quality and count of the available apps for the Vision Pro is mis-conceptually house-made. Apple did not fulfil their promise and obviously announced the thing with the ‚Developer Kits‘ just for promotion purposes, not really planning to deliver.

They rather preferred to cooperate with loads of influencers instead to m(f)ake campaigns, giving the impression everything is just perfect and ‚somehow magic‘. Such people obviously got devices prior the official release. Devices, that should better have been delivered to DEVELOPERS, actually.

Now, where allot of customers of the first hour will return their device for several more or less shocking reasons, there is a little bit of hope, that Apple will deliver these, now used, devices to developers, who desperately asked for a loaned device since months of active development, finally being able to test their native apps, already released to the AppStore and make their products finally ready for usage and real user experience.

Hell, even the strange 4:3 screen ratio of this down-stripped, function limited simulator did not approximately match the real devices capacities and dimensions.

I am not sure about what with the returned devices will happen. Maybe they will be resold to other customers after cleaning, polishing and re-packaging. ^^ But I am quite sure, that this is one of the cardinal mistakes that Apple did make, with the release of the Apple Vision Pro, turning out being finally more a kind of a total fail.

I guess, up to 50 percent of the initially purchased devices will ship back to Apple. With some justification and with some satisfaction too. Most of the customers will probably return it for mainly financial reasons, or just wanted to have some influencer-alike ‚free first hour testing fun’ with it or for real headaches and also for real disappointment reasons. On hardware and on software side.

Developers are set off and disappointed by all these facts too, for sure. And this leaves traces.

And I actually think, Apple did earn this drastic receipt quite justified this time. If Apple does not overthink especially the relationship to their serious developers from ground up, there will grow up quite a disaster with this sooner or later.

I get the impression, Apple gives a shit on their developers. The most obvious is, that the top does nothing know from the terrible chaos at the bottom.

It is like these continuous rejections with the AppStore submissions for the craziest reasons, which let you shake your head. And make you feel like a stupid school boy each time, teached by anonymous reviewers with no name, but with commentless ‚potential issue -catalogue copy and paste’ behaviour, people (or just automats?), who very often do not have a clue about what your app is all about, nor what your users want, nor how much time you did spend on developing it.

Or just the fact, that Apple now offers a development hardware extension for the Vision Pro, specifically for developers, with a purchase price of 299,- dollars! Now thats really funny. And it is really quite stupid. And also damaging dangerous to a healthy developer community.

( I, at least cannot buy such expensive extra tools easily, not even from the sum of my yearly income, that the AppStores are usually generating. Not to mention, that I won‘t be able to buy an Apple Vision Pro for 4000 bucks straight out of the pocket ever. Not even with any most moderate rate payments. )

Welcome to the developer diaries.

I am a developer for more than 30 years now, started initially with CA Basic, Visual Basic, Visual Studio, Delphi, C++ Builder, Java, Actionsript, Assembler, PHP, Javascript, HTML … and all other kind of coding stuff. I am autodidact and learned everything by myself. I can say, developing was kind of a really strong passion from the beginning. My most liked programming language path was and still is: C and C++.

My main focus always was on creative apps in multimedia, graphics and especially music.

Today I am full-time developer for apps on all Apple platforms, mainly and daily working with Apple‘s Xcode and loads of graphics and media design software and also a bunch of professional audio software. The main programming language is now Swift, not so much hating it like Objective-C/C++, but also not loving it that much, especially lately with all that degradation to SwiftUI, more a description language than a proper programming language – a quite typical Apple frustration factor by the way.

I have currently loads of released apps in Apple‘s AppStore, but the income via the AppStores is honestly and usually not even reaching the yearly costs for the expensive hardware, that is required regularly as the necessary tools for development. And we developers, as well known, do have to pay for the privilege to be an Apple developer (a yearly fee od 100 bucks, for literally nothing). ^^

This blog is mainly for unloading all my frustrations, as I can actually say for sure: Nothing in that 30 years was so frustrating and entirely unsatisfying, and somehow ill, than the last 5 years developing on and for Apples platforms and devices.

All in all, Apples permanent control and rejections and their entire relation and sight to developers in general is a kind of modern art of discrimination and let me often feel like a stupid child, a bloody beginner, who knows nothing and also can nothing and I am asking myself, how long I wanna go thru this misery any longer, loosing completely all my fun with coding, yet, loosing completely my entire passion for software development.

There is really something quite ill in that entire Apple eco system, something that also makes me ill personally. I am not the only one, who feels like that. I have seen many people wenting away from this masochist Apple development disaster, people who were more brave and consequent than me obviously, finally and no longer were willing to spend the rest of their life with such frustration and sadism. Mostly older and more experienced people, not the youngsters of course, who always will skip quickly on the devil‘s train until they get more wise and more experienced too…

So this personal blog also shall help me to become more clear, to become healthy again and making some decisions for the (remaining) future. It also shall be there for Apple, possibly thinking about their behaviours a bit and seeing the future more clearly too.

WARNING: This personal blog is highly emotional.