It’s been a couple of months since the last Tampa iOS Meetup, and with summer drawing to a close and iOS 10 coming very soon, it’s time to kick things back into high gear. It’s going to be an interesting fall, what with the coming changes…
The first change is that Angela, who originally put this Meetup group together, landed a job in San Francisco and moved there. I want to congratulate her on seizing this opportunity — I did the same thing during the dot-com bubble of the late ’90s — and wish her the very best in her adventures in the other Bay Area. I’d also like to thank her for all the work she’s done for this Meetup group, which wouldn’t even exist without the initial spark that she provided.
As for me, I plan to stick around, and will continue in my role as this Meetup group’s organizer, lead speaker, and accordion player.
The next change comes from Apple, in the form of iOS 10, Xcode 8, and Swift 3, and we’ll be talking about what these new versions mean for you as iOS developers over the next couple of meetups.
The date for the next meetup is to be determined, but I’m aiming for early September, and the topic will be Building iMessage sticker packs and messaging apps for iOS 10. iMessage is one of the most-used iOS apps, and a lot of people seem to like adding a little flair to their communications, so the introduction of sticker packs and iMessage apps represents an opportunity for the developer looking to make a splash. Sticker packs have the added bonus of not needed any programming to develop.
The final change is one that I’d like your opinion on. I’m thinking of expanding the subject area of our Meetup group to cover these topics:
- iOS development, which it already covers,
- Android development,
- and IoT (internet of things) development
In other words, I’m thinking about expanding our group’s coverage to while I like calling development for “Tiny shiny platforms”. Would this be something that you’d be interested in, or would you rather stick to just iOS? I’d love to hear what you think — let me know by dropping me a line at joey@joeydevilla.com!