My year in apps

Here are some of the apps I built last year for myself. Experimenting with interactions, understanding the ever moving limitations of vibe coding, experiencing what’s easy now and what’s still hard. And ultimately also trying to get a feeling for the changing human role in these human + computer workflows.

The goal wasn’t to publish or even finish anything but to simply experiment and learn.

Some of the apps like Clip (for saving things) and Words (for super quick on-screen translations) I ended up using daily. Others remained stuck in experimentation not yet generating the value I imagined. Curious to see how this changes with models evolving over time.

• Clip, Ownable data collection (iOS, macOS)
• Motion, Contextual local data insights (macOS, Ollama)
• Compass, Personal contextual grounding (iOS)
• Stack, Evals for the rest of us (iPadOS, Foundation Model, Ollama)
• Curious, Location based inspiration (iOS, Wikipedia, Foundation Models)
• Words, Point to translate (macOS)
• Eyes, Glance to focus textfields (macOS)

Why apps?

Besides experimenting with a few TUI based scripts using the lovely Bubbles framework, I still find it very rewarding to build native apps for iOS and macOS. While the process of creation changed drastically, there’s still something special in exploring the identity and natural entry points for a piece of functionality across the entirety of a device experience.

Phew…

There is still a place for craft, deliberate thought and human touch. But this time around none of these are a given anymore. Every aspect of the creation process now needs to prove its worth and contribute clear value and increasingly so going forward.

Also fun to look way back.