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Ask HN: What's your Mac OS App side project?

18 points laksmanv | 3 comments | 17 Oct 24 02:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.796s | source

I'm curious if any HN'ers here have any fun mac os projects they've built or even have an income from? I feel like we hear a lot about saas and iphone apps, but not mac os apps as much. I have a mac os app idea, and I'm also wondering if anyone knows of a good book on building a mac os app business? Or perhaps a book on building an iphone app company would be sufficient and applicable to mac os?
1. fandorin ◴[17 Oct 24 17:45 UTC] No.41871842[source]▶
Almost exactly 1 year ago, I built a simple macOS app to run randomized photo slideshows (turns out - it's not an easy thing to do on macOS!). I got some nice initial traction (no paid ads), received user feedback, added more features, did a few releases, and after 6 months introduced a one-time fee (needed only if you want to run a slideshow with more than 150 photos; otherwise the app is free to use). And it turned out - people find it valuable and buy the license :)

I have not published it via the App Store though. It's a direct distribution (via .dmg, but it's checked & notarized by Apple so I needed to pay $99/year fee to be able to do that). I'm using Sparkle to handle the updates.

replies(1): >>41873844 #
2. zerr ◴[17 Oct 24 21:11 UTC] No.41873844[source]▶
What if you ignore Apple notarization?
replies(1): >>41877262 #
3. fandorin ◴[18 Oct 24 08:00 UTC] No.41877262[source]▶
If the app is not notarized by Apple, the user will get a warning message after opening .dmg file saying that "<APP_NAME> not opened: Apple could not verify <APP_NAME> is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy". And the user needs to close this popup and open a .dmg file again and then it's possible to install the app. It's a poor UX and most of the normal users will not install the app.

More info here: https://support.apple.com/en-ph/102445