Something I've been thinking a tremendous about recently is what makes something "Apple-like". While intuitively I kinda knew what it meant I found that I really struggled to boil it down to a concise explanation.

What I've come up with is three general maxims:
- The Best, and then Better
- Excellence for Everyone
- Beneficial and Brilliant

Since I strive to be “Apple-like" in my own work it seemed important to try and get specific about it.

Here’s my full thoughts: https://david-smith.org/blog/2026/06/03/apple-like/

It's the week before WWDC so time for my annual reminders:

- Start writing down a list of any questions or issues you’ve faced this year to pose in the group labs now

- If you're a watchOS developer now's a good time to start wearing your 2nd testing watch so that you'll have a week's worth of health data already loaded when install watchOS 27

- When considering what iPhone to prepare to be your summer test device ideally it would be a 15Pro or newer so that it can support Apple Intelligence.

You’ve probably heard of Unit Testing, Integration Testing and maybe even Field Testing…but let me recommend Celebration Testing. 😉

I couldn’t think of a better way for me to celebrate the lovely reception to Pedometer++ v8’s launch than to head to my favorite trails in the English Lakes and put it to some good use.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@daringfireball/116523341095226896

😁

As part of the launch of Pedometer++ v8 I'm doing a series of Design Notes posts exploring the design decisions in the update.

For the first one I'm talking through more than 6 years of work trying to perfect mapping for watchOS. I've tried loads of things over the years, both in terms of visual design and app architecture.

Lots of design dead ends and false starts, but I've arrived at a design which, after hundreds of miles of field testing, works and looks great.

https://david-smith.org/blog/2026/04/29/maps-on-watchos/