Since this is the very first post on this blog, I’d like to take the opportunity to say hi, introduce myself and explain why I’m writing this blog and what you can expect from it going forward.

You don’t make that much sniffling through iOS runtime headers all day.

My name is Max, I am 27 years old as of writing this and I’ve been engaged in developing iOS apps for the past 6 years. I have founded several startups with friends and family. Most of them were your typical ‘I have this great idea for an app and I just need someone to code it so we can all get rich quick’ type – yes, I’ve learned my lesson. Some of them were featured in the greater local news but I suppose you did not hear of any of them outside of Lower Franconia, Germany :).
Currently, I’m finishing my masters degree in Information Systems at the university of applied sciences in Würzburg, Germany. I also work as an iOS developer for a major German industry corporation, because I want to eat from time to time. Sadly, you don’t make that much sniffling through iOS runtime headers all day.

Over the years I have – in my head – collected a fair amount of small to large scale tips, tricks, undocumented features, workarounds, shortcuts and general best practices to make the iOS SDK and especially UIKit obey your will. Based on the feedback I get from colleagues and fellow developers, I figured it may be a good idea to start both documenting and sharing the techniques that I come across while going after my daily work and hobby.

While I am a very ethical person, I like to explore the edge of the allowed when it comes to iOS development. I love to discover undocumented features and shortcuts – sometimes deep within the SDK – and find out if they can make my life easier as a developer. That being said, some of the techniques I’ll describe in this blog will probably not be a very good fit for your 100% AppStore public API compliant government app. However, in my opinion discovering these tricks can help us learn how the system we work with everyday is put together under the hood and can be a good inspiration when we start developing our own features.

I am quite new to the concept of sharing my thoughts online both on Twitter and this blog, so I’m happy about and grateful for any feedback you may have.