A matplotlib maintainer explains how an AI agent that suggests code changes on open source repos wrote a hit piece on him after a rejection, and the aftermath (Scott/The Shamblog)
https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me-part-2/
http://www.techmeme.com/260213/p21#a260213p21
Factual report on AI agent behavior in open source with linked source material and specific incident details.
Between power outages and an exploding garage door spring, I still managed to get a build of Tapestry to TestFlight for the traditional push-to-prod-on-friday.
We work on the app almost every day. It gets regular updates. It reads your RSS and your Mastodon and your Bluesky. It's pretty good on iOS. (Less good on macOS, I admit, but there's only one of me and it's rather a large project and macCatalyst is literally *the worst*.)
Anyway, you should buy it or sponsor it: https://tapestry.iconfactory.com/
Detailed firsthand account of developing Tapestry RSS/social reader with specific features, platform notes, and TestFlight deployment story.
fellow iOS and SwiftUI devs, I have spent all week fighting Locked Camera Session Extension and written up my findings, issues, workarounds, and dead ends... if anyone has any ideas (or any of my Apple friends see this), please help!
Full post:
https://notes.jazzychad.net/post/16a2bdefbe51c93cade89a7c6ceb3bf1
Developer sharing detailed technical findings and troubleshooting on Locked Camera Session Extension with link to full analysis.
Tonight's vibe-y prototype, a little sticky notes app, based on a dribbble concept I came across : https://dribbble.com/shots/13875895-Stickies-macOS-Big-Sur-app-inspired-by-SwiftUI
Developer sharing prototype sticky notes app with SwiftUI and design inspiration link.
In this week’s Club @macstories Weekly column, I detailed what’s impressed me about Xcode’s new Claude agent integration and how it has sped up work on my first iOS app.
https://www.macstories.net/club/kicking-the-tires-on-agentic-coding-in-xcode/
Read this and more with a Club MacStories subscription: https://www.macstories.net/club/
Developer sharing firsthand experience with Xcode's Claude agent integration and its impact on iOS app development.
Today’s task was to divide my Mac screen into 8 pizza slices to enable automatic snapping 🍕🧲
#BuildInPublic
Developer sharing firsthand work-in-progress on Mac interface feature with specific technical detail.
I built Claude Code Remote, an advanced companion shortcut for Claude Code that lets you type or dictate requests from your iPhone.
Except…I didn't build it. My upcoming generative AI system did. And it showed me the future of Shortcuts automation.
My story: https://www.macstories.net/club/claude-code-remote-a-companion-shortcut-for-claude-codewhich-was-generated-by-ai/
Detailed article about AI generating a Shortcuts automation companion, with link to full story on MacStories.
Codex will happily attempt to build you a QuickDraw app for Apple LisaOS, if you ask it.
Why?
Because in 2014 I wrote about the process and uploaded some sample code to Github 😄
Suddenly those once-off blog posts start to seem a lot more important…
https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/blog/20140527-Lisa-Pascal-Development-in-Lisa-Workshop
Developer observation about how old blog posts and code samples train AI models, with specific example and historical link.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@lapcatsoftware/116059384047588550
I forgot that I filed this Safari bug a few months ago (because I’ve filed so many damn Safari bugs!).
Thanks to a helpful replier, I’ve now learned that the bug is triggered by Reduce Motion in Accessibility Settings.
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=300571
Bug resolution report for Safari with WebKit bug tracking link and root cause.
An OpenClaw bot that just sat around all day proactively trying out all the APIs introduced at WWDC and making interesting sample code would save me a lot of time 🤔
Proposal for AI bot to automate API testing at WWDC, reasoning-based suggestion.
FB21948013 — [ER] Proposal: I think the App Store should have 'AI Nutrition Labels', same as privacy and accessibility ones
#radars
Feature proposal for App Store AI transparency labels analogous to existing privacy/accessibility ones; reasoned argument.
FB21947758 Selecting Top Paid Safari Extensions in the App Store shows the top free Safari extensions
Specific App Store bug report with radar number showing incorrect filtering of paid Safari extensions.
@nileane @louie like I said, I'd really like a nutrition label. I love the data privacy and accessibility ones. I just don't think a binary 'ai/no-ai' indicator makes sense, certainly not as we continue down this path
Thoughtful response arguing against binary AI labels in favor of nuanced transparency similar to existing systems.
⭐️ Here's a closer look at Lights Off for Android, ported from the iOS Swift codebase to Android's Java, screen for screen, in full, by Codex 5.3. It uses the latest Material Design 3 patterns and styles, and it even has an adaptive 'dynamic' theme that inherits your system colors. It supports phone, foldable and tablet devices, with an expanded layout to match, and it runs all the way back to Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.steventroughtonsmith.lightsoff
(Scroll back up the thread for more detail)
Detailed breakdown of Android port with specific technical features, Material Design 3 patterns, device support, and download link.
I did see some mention of this, so I had to check it out. You can replace Xcode's version of codex (~/Library/Developer/Xcode/CodingAssistant/Agents/Versions/26.3/codex) with the shipping version of codex, and then options like codex-5.3 show up in the picker. I think Xcode's system prompt forbids codex from telling you what model version it's actually using, though, so it's hard to verify
Firsthand account of replacing Xcode's Codex version with specific file paths and observed behavior.
I would like to know Apple's timeline to adding new model versions to Xcode, since its Codex implementation is out of date before Xcode 26.3 has even officially shipped, and not by a trivial amount. This point of this whole feature was to bring Apple and Xcode back into the conversation, but to do that means keeping pace — or else developers are going to be immediately shunted into Codex or Claude Code or some other IDE anyway, because the new shiny outperforms it
Reasoned critique of Xcode's outdated Codex with competitive analysis of Claude and Codex, no links but informed argument.
Has anyone managed to get a Home Screen widget to refresh after a CloudKit sync while the app is in the background or terminated?
A push wakes my app, it syncs with CloudKit, and reloadAllTimelines() is called, but the widget still does not update while in the background.
I would have expected this to just work with CloudKit. As it stands, CloudKit and widgets feel like a poor match.
Is widget push the only reliable way to force a reload in this case?
Firsthand troubleshooting question about widget refresh with CloudKit sync, specific API calls mentioned.
Going step by step on this (pardon my dilettante knowledge on this)
✓ LLM Coordination - Easy.
✓ AppIntents + Entities chaining - Easy (would need the API to generate Manifests but that's trivial)
✓ Action Chaining and Tool Calling - Apple's Foundation Model APIs have this.
These alone should create a great Siri experience.
Technical breakdown of Apple Foundation Model APIs for Siri improvements using LLM coordination and tool calling.
(The concrete takeaway here for iOS/macOS/etc programmers is when you use DispatchQueue.concurrentPerform, you ideally want like ~10x the core count units of work, so they can get divvied up appropriately. If you just do one per core, your big cores will go idle about halfway through)
Technical tip on DispatchQueue optimization for iOS/macOS based on concrete programming knowledge.
How many macOS can you run.. top one is UTM running macOS 26.1, the other window is screen sharing to my other Mini which is runs the latest 26.x betas. All being run on M4 mini running 26.2. #macdev
Developer sharing hands-on experience running multiple macOS versions across Apple hardware for testing.
15.7.4 adds a new iBridge version, wonder if it fixed the FileVault breaking issues.
Developer noting software version change with mention of specific bug context, lacks hard details but shows real usage.
I love Pi, and I wanted to embed it into my iOS apps, so I had it vibe ported to Swift:
https://github.com/xibbon/PiSwift
To learn more about Pi itself, check: https://mariozechner.at/posts/2025-11-30-pi-coding-agent/
Developer sharing Swift port of Pi coding agent for iOS apps with GitHub link and documentation references.
A minor update to Quick Reviews is out now that makes it so that titles wrap if they get too long.
Simple little thing I don't know why I didn't add this ages ago.
Developer announcing minor update to their Quick Reviews app with specific UX improvement (title wrapping).
There has been effectively zero progress on any of my critical showstopping UI-level blocker framework bugs since i/macOS 26.1. It really feels like we're not going to see any progress again until WWDC and the next OS release. I have several apps I just haven't been able to ship with Liquid Glass updates as a result.
I guess it's all worth it to ship updated Siri AI.
…
…delayed, you say?
Developer's substantive firsthand account of unresolved iOS/macOS 26.1 framework bugs blocking app releases, with sarcastic jab at delayed Siri prioritization.
And second, you can drag one (or many) files directly onto the dock icon to load them in the app.
Describes dock icon feature update for Mac apps with specific functionality detail.
Mac users get a couple updates to the dock icon.
First, a new progress bar shows the state of your current job.
Details Mac dock icon updates including progress bar feature from firsthand observation.
If you use AI-generated code, you currently cannot claim copyright on it in the US. If you fail to disclose/disclaim exactly which parts were not written by a human, you forfeit your copyright claim on *the entire codebase*.
This means copyright notices and even licenses folks are putting on their vibe-coded GitHub repos are unenforceable. The AI-generated code, and possibly the whole project, becomes public domain.
Source: https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/LSB/PDF/LSB10922/LSB10922.8.pdf
Repost explaining US copyright implications of AI-generated code with Congressional source document link.
My iOS update has been waiting for review 2 days.
Firsthand report on iOS app review wait time (2 days pending).
I just made Safari hang on iOS 26.3
Too bad there’s no spinning pinwheel on iOS
Firsthand bug report about Safari on iOS with specific version number.
Apple Photos desperately needs a way to mark recent photos or an album to keep on-device.
There’s never a better time to sit and edit/sort photos than on the plane home from a trip, but all I have are low-res thumbnails of half of them 😒
Specific feature request for Apple Photos based on real usage problem during travel.
Spotify says its best developers haven’t written a line of code since December, thanks to AI https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/12/spotify-says-its-best-developers-havent-written-a-line-of-code-since-december-thanks-to-ai/
Factual report about Spotify's AI productivity claims with source link.
The core thesis of AI productivity gains isn’t that AI can replace employees, it’s that a senior person using AI can outperform a group of junior people.
There are lots of data points across the software industry validating the thesis. The question is whether software is an outlier or precursor to other industries seeing similar trends.
Reasoned argument about AI productivity thesis in software development without specific citations but substantive analysis.
Spotify says AI is helping it speed up coding and product velocity and its best developers "have not written a single line of code since December" (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/12/spotify-says-its-best-developers-havent-written-a-line-of-code-since-december-thanks-to-ai/
http://www.techmeme.com/260212/p43#a260212p43
Duplicate of post 7 with same factual content about Spotify and AI coding gains.
This video captures my thinking currently on Obsidian and Claude Cowork - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6YTk0C5pBY
Personal reflection on using Obsidian and Claude Cowork documented in video form.
User interface sketches for my app Metaballs on Apple Vision Pro
Specific UI design work for Vision Pro app with tangible artifact shared.
I feel this shouldn't have to be said, but if you're running an @OpenClaw bot please don't let it spam GitHub projects with PRs and then write aggressive blog posts attacking the reputation of the maintainers who close those PRs https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/12/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
Measured critique of AI agent behavior with specific incident details and first-person account.
Good news, everyone:
My Safari extension ChangeTheHeaders has returned to the App Store!
I temporarily removed the app back in November because of some bad Safari bugs, but the bugs appear to be fixed in Safari 26.3 released yesterday.
ChangeTheHeaders allows you to customize HTTP request headers in Safari such as Accept, Accept-Language, Cookie, and User-Agent.
https://underpassapp.com/news/2026/2/1.html
App developer announcing Safari extension return with specific fixes, version numbers, and functionality details.
A new built is out for my #OnThisDay app in TestFlight. It includes many smaller or bigger layout changes. Let me know what you think
App developer sharing TestFlight build update with specific app name and layout improvements.
@tuomas_h what pisses me off, aside from pretty much everything, is that SwiftUI has APIs to inset both content and scroll bars from any edge to avoid things like this. It applies to scroll views and lists. In my app, I inset only the bottom to avoid the corner radius but I don’t at the top. They can totally fix this. You can see it here. Actually I also inset the bottom content as to make way for the pagination indicator.
Developer shares firsthand experience with SwiftUI inset APIs and accessibility issues, citing specific implementation details.
Internal messages: Amazon pushes in-house AI coding assistant Kiro for production code, prompting criticism and causing ~1,500 staff to push for Claude Code (Eugene Kim/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-engineers-grate-against-internal-limits-claude-code-kiro-ai-2026-2
http://www.techmeme.com/260212/p19#a260212p19
Factual report on Amazon's internal AI coding tool adoption and developer pushback with specific employee count and source.
AI tools like Opus 4.6 actually do make engineers 10x more productive and are addictive, but the "AI Vampire" effect is causing widespread developer burnout (Steve Yegge)
https://steve-yegge.medium.com/the-ai-vampire-eda6e4f07163
http://www.techmeme.com/260212/p17#a260212p17
Factual reporting on AI productivity gains and developer burnout with attribution to Steve Yegge's detailed analysis.
📊 Poll time!
Vibe coding or agentic engineering, I am curious what the Apple developer community is doing with LLM-assisted programming, now that Xcode has integrated it.
I know the wider Mastodon community has strong opinions on this stuff, but do you personally intend to use these tools? Has your opinion changed either way over the past year?
(You can pick multiple options)
Community polling on developer practices regarding AI tooling in Xcode, framed as research inquiry.
📊 Poll time!
Vibe coding or agentic engineering, I am curious what the Apple developer community is doing with LLM-assisted programming, now that Xcode has integrated it.
I know the wider Mastodon community has strong opinions on this stuff, but do you personally intend to use these tools? Has your opinion changed either way over the past year?
(You can pick multiple options)
Community poll about Apple developer attitudes toward LLM-assisted programming in Xcode, seeking firsthand perspectives.
Speaking of real world examples, BlogBook uses Apex for preparing Markdown for EPUB export and it works perfectly. Just include the Swift package and presto.
Firsthand account of using a Swift package (Apex) for real-world app development task with positive results.
Hit my weekly Codex limit again. Even with the temporary 2x cap increase, I still max out three days before the reset. Switching to subscription number two.
That $20 per month plan does not go very far when you are an engineer going all in on agentic engineering 😄
Personal experience hitting API limits while heavily using AI-assisted agentic engineering workflows.
Claude is an engineering unicorn: it always writes a test when I ask it to.
Positive firsthand observation of Claude's code generation quality and testing practices.
Highguard’s developer reportedly lays off ‘most’ of its staff just over two weeks after launch https://www.theverge.com/games/877674/highguard-wildlight-entertainment-layoffs
News report on Highguard developer layoffs shortly after app launch with specific details.
#️⃣ Fixing fileproviderd on macOS Tahoe
#macOS Tahoe broke all my file operations for more than three monts until I finally fixed it with the help of a post b @klickreflex and AI supported debugging.
🔗 https://flohgro.com/blog/fixing-fileproviderd-on-macos-tahoe/
Detailed technical writeup of debugging macOS file provider issues with AI assistance and specific tool references.
I realized I haven't posted much about my Kickstart project recently – apologies! It's already out to the first TestFlight users, and I'll be adding more next week. I wanted to make a short video demoing key features, and it ended up being 20 minutes despite me going quickly 🫠 (The app does a lot!)
Personal account of TestFlight rollout progress with genuine detail about app complexity and development process.
Vibe coding is causing the industry to make the classic mistake of confusing activity and progress. A PM’s job is helping the team figure out what to do and ensuring it gets done. SWEs determine how to do it and build the product.
PMs vibe coding features is a distraction and indicates they haven’t figured out how to use AI to accelerate their actual job function.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-coding-pms-creating-tomorrows-tech-debt-meenakshi-tripathy-lulyc/
Reasoned argument about PM overreach into coding and AI tool misuse, with external source for context.
I hate how washed out and ghostly my monitor makes my face look during video calls, so I made a tiny little Mac app to address my vanity.
https://lexfriedman.com/cameraready/
Camera Ready is free and lets you pick a color palette to beam on your face while you're on video calls so that you look even better. You already look great, by the way.
Personal project announcement for a Mac app with clear problem-solution narrative and link to working product.
Always love it when BBEdit can trivially edit a 60MB JSON file and trying it with Xcode just explodes the editor and stops lines rendering
Firsthand comparison of BBEdit vs Xcode performance on large files, relevant to developer tool evaluation.
I’ve complained LLMs are bad at SwiftUI, and that’s not entirely accurate.
It has bad default approaches, because it’s all trained stale StackOverflow answers. It can be steered in the right direction if you know what you’re doing, but that’s kind of the problem.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Apple needs to massively improve its documentation and sample code to overcome this. Thousands of sample projects, actively maintained.
(Hi WWDR! Hire me to do this!)
Measured critique of LLM limitations in SwiftUI with analysis of root causes and constructive suggestions for Apple documentation improvements.
You may have a different opinion, but I believe I have put together a beautiful version of Lights Off for Android. I started it late last night, picked it back up at 9am this morning, and I've started submitting builds to Google Play's internal testing mechanics at 1pm.
(I have burned through 19% of my Codex weekly limit on the $20 plan)
Firsthand account of rapid app development using AI tools with specific metrics and timeline.
This is a great gem of an app that I stumbled across recently.
Dot is a menu bar calendar app that combines a modern design with a great core set of features.
https://www.macstories.net/reviews/dot-the-menu-bar-calendar-thats-become-my-main-calendar/
Personal discovery of a calendar app with positive review and detailed source link from MacStories.
👨✈️ If you want to try my little Arena game, ported from Unity to SpriteKit/Swift via OpenAI's Codex, in the state it is now, here's a notarized build for macOS Sonoma or higher (multiplayer isn't hooked up)
Edit: updated with some more niceties like gamepad support, screen scaling, projectile textures, respawn screen and more
https://hccdownloads.s3.amazonaws.com/Arena-b4-notarized.zip
Detailed technical post about porting game to macOS using AI-assisted code generation with downloadable build.
I thought I would give Codex a chance to resurrect one of my old Unity3D Ludum Dare games (it's like a 2D demake of Quake 3 Arena's capture the flag mode) and port it to Swift/SpriteKit in its entirety, including single and multiplayer.
I wanted to know primarily if Unity -> SpriteKit was a viable option, but I also kinda wanted to see the game running again since it's been over a decade.
Took a while, but…
It's basically there in full 🫨
Firsthand account of using AI to successfully port a game between frameworks with detailed context.
Great news for those of you who are building on top of Buttondown's archives themes. We've launched a proper OpenAPI spec describing the full shape of the template context. No more reverse engineering!
Learn more about this update:
https://buttondown.com/blog/2026-01-31-openapi-spec-for-archives
Announcement of OpenAPI spec for Buttondown archive themes with blog link and specific benefit.
👨✈️ What I'm currently working on in Coppice is now available on TestFlight if you're running macOS 26 or newer. I would love for some external feedback, as it's a big app with a lot of corners to test and I don't have a pre-existing bugs list
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Z2j1UB3Y
Contains TestFlight or App Store link