4 ms·

iOS Reddit App Apollo's Developer Surprised by WWDC Callout

133 points by doctoboggan 3y ago

Ch4otic 3y ago
Permalink to the comment for those interested: https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/141kfmi/wwdc_2023_event_megathread/jn0mt8a/ https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/141kfmi/wwdc_2023_ev...
- renewiltord 3y ago
  Can someone explain for those of us who don't know? The comment links to this image right now https://imgur.com/6liBpal https://imgur.com/6liBpal and I see Disney+ and then some streaming media phone app.
  - jjcm 3y ago
    This was a picture taken by Apollo's developer, Christian Selig. It's just him showing he was there in person. While he got an invite to watch the event at Apple's campus, he was surprised by the shout out. For more context, with Reddit's API licensing fees, his app will go defunct should they continue forward.
    - renewiltord 3y ago
      Oh I see, the photo is unrelated to the shoutout. The shoutout itself is described by this user https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36205917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36205917 Thank you.
  - ozten 3y ago
    Apollo App is a popular UI for Reddit because their App and website are famously terrible (and Apollo is slick and awesome). Reddit told Apollo dev they would soon be charged $20 million per year. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36142285 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36142285 So various Reddit communities will go dark for 48 hours to boycott / protest https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36196343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36196343
- coolandsmartrr 3y ago
  Hi @dang, you may want to replace this submission's link to this
tmpz22 3y ago
What was the callout exactly? Was it a presentation where they showed the logo or interface - or did they directly call it out by name? Either way its awesome
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  [flagged]
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  I think it was Craig that specifically pointed it out in his iPad Widgets or something.
- futhey 3y ago
  When showcasing macOS widgets (46:18) Craig mentioned he could now add his favorite iOS widgets to the macOS desktop, including "Apollo for Reddit"...
  - dbg31415 3y ago
    For another week or two anyway.
    - replwoacause 3y ago
      3 weeks, actually
  - gerogerke 3y ago
    Here's a direct link: https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=2790 https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=279...
wilg 3y ago
Very nice if they did this as a supportive gesture. Apollo is great, and the kind of thing Apple needs to encourage on the app store. Unfortunately, Apple has a huge problem where the only developers that really "get" making great iOS apps are independent people or small teams. Every other major app is some kind of weird amalgamation of half-busted UX concepts from various platforms, probably because there's no good way to offer a service with a mobile app without having to design and engineer for the least-common-denominator. I'll also add that Apple's own iOS apps are often much worse than the third-party competitors in the space in terms of design and functionality, and update on a glacial yearly cycle, but have deeper platform integration than most developers can muster.
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  >Very nice if they did this as a supportive gesture The whole reddit API kerfuffle happened like 4 days ago. I think the presentations were recorded well before then- FWIW Kojima was in Cupertino 2 weeks ago
  - whazor 3y ago
    Switch the app icon in post?
    - dhritzkiv 3y ago
      The app was called out by name during a on-device demo. It would require ADR, and reshooting the actual device. Unreasonable for something that can be left in.
- derefr 3y ago
  > probably because there's no good way to offer a service with a mobile app without having to design and engineer for the least-common-denominator. Isn't the "good way", just to not treat "mobile" as a monolith, and instead have a separate team, with separate competencies, develop a separate app for each platform, such that each app can take advantage of all the strengths of each platform? Back in the early console-game times, if you had made an arcade game, you'd have one company, who knew Nintendo programming really well, do your Nintendo port; and another company, who knew DOS PC programming really well, do your DOS PC port; and so forth. Why did we stop doing that? Companies had enough money to do it back then. And the same companies are 100x richer now. They can totally afford a development team per platform, targeting that platform natively.
danloughney 3y ago
Apollo has received subtle call-outs before. I've seen the app icon in the montages before. Not sure how many times.

133 points by doctoboggan 3y ago

Permalink to the comment for those interested: https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/141kfmi/wwdc_2023_event_megathread/jn0mt8a/ https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/141kfmi/wwdc_2023_ev...

renewiltord 3y ago
Can someone explain for those of us who don't know? The comment links to this image right now https://imgur.com/6liBpal https://imgur.com/6liBpal and I see Disney+ and then some streaming media phone app.
- jjcm 3y ago
  This was a picture taken by Apollo's developer, Christian Selig. It's just him showing he was there in person. While he got an invite to watch the event at Apple's campus, he was surprised by the shout out. For more context, with Reddit's API licensing fees, his app will go defunct should they continue forward.
  - renewiltord 3y ago
    Oh I see, the photo is unrelated to the shoutout. The shoutout itself is described by this user https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36205917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36205917 Thank you.
- ozten 3y ago
  Apollo App is a popular UI for Reddit because their App and website are famously terrible (and Apollo is slick and awesome). Reddit told Apollo dev they would soon be charged $20 million per year. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36142285 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36142285 So various Reddit communities will go dark for 48 hours to boycott / protest https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36196343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36196343
coolandsmartrr 3y ago
Hi @dang, you may want to replace this submission's link to this

tmpz22 3y ago

What was the callout exactly? Was it a presentation where they showed the logo or interface - or did they directly call it out by name? Either way its awesome

wahnfrieden 3y ago
[flagged]
lotsofpulp 3y ago
I think it was Craig that specifically pointed it out in his iPad Widgets or something.
futhey 3y ago
When showcasing macOS widgets (46:18) Craig mentioned he could now add his favorite iOS widgets to the macOS desktop, including "Apollo for Reddit"...
- dbg31415 3y ago
  For another week or two anyway.
  - replwoacause 3y ago
    3 weeks, actually
- gerogerke 3y ago
  Here's a direct link: https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=2790 https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=279...

wilg 3y ago

Very nice if they did this as a supportive gesture. Apollo is great, and the kind of thing Apple needs to encourage on the app store. Unfortunately, Apple has a huge problem where the only developers that really "get" making great iOS apps are independent people or small teams. Every other major app is some kind of weird amalgamation of half-busted UX concepts from various platforms, probably because there's no good way to offer a service with a mobile app without having to design and engineer for the least-common-denominator. I'll also add that Apple's own iOS apps are often much worse than the third-party competitors in the space in terms of design and functionality, and update on a glacial yearly cycle, but have deeper platform integration than most developers can muster.

Rebelgecko 3y ago
>Very nice if they did this as a supportive gesture The whole reddit API kerfuffle happened like 4 days ago. I think the presentations were recorded well before then- FWIW Kojima was in Cupertino 2 weeks ago
- whazor 3y ago
  Switch the app icon in post?
  - dhritzkiv 3y ago
    The app was called out by name during a on-device demo. It would require ADR, and reshooting the actual device. Unreasonable for something that can be left in.
derefr 3y ago
> probably because there's no good way to offer a service with a mobile app without having to design and engineer for the least-common-denominator. Isn't the "good way", just to not treat "mobile" as a monolith, and instead have a separate team, with separate competencies, develop a separate app for each platform, such that each app can take advantage of all the strengths of each platform? Back in the early console-game times, if you had made an arcade game, you'd have one company, who knew Nintendo programming really well, do your Nintendo port; and another company, who knew DOS PC programming really well, do your DOS PC port; and so forth. Why did we stop doing that? Companies had enough money to do it back then. And the same companies are 100x richer now. They can totally afford a development team per platform, targeting that platform natively.

danloughney 3y ago

Apollo has received subtle call-outs before. I've seen the app icon in the montages before. Not sure how many times.