Development journal
Why I built these apps, the choices I made, and the problems along the way. Twelve complete development stories by Weimao.
Independent developer Weimao shares the origins, design choices, and development stories behind his apps, along with life after a road trip around China.
SimpleSortSlimFrom Mac to iOS: the story behind SimpleSortSlim's filters, album management, similar-photo comparisons, and Live Photo conversion, saving space while leaving the decisions to you.
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FluffmarkHow Fluffmark grew from a shared annotation component into its own app, with automatic text layout, subject wrapping, a text brush, animated strokes, and platform-specific interactions.
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Focus FarawayAfter a road trip around China, Focus Faraway turned time spent concentrating into a virtual journey. This diary also follows the 3D characters from concept art to models.
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Always9PicsThe design behind Always9Pics: smart deduplication, one to nine long images, Story Mode, seams, Cover Magic, and keeping the original photos on your device.
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LivesLongStarting with Live Photo collages, LivesLong grew to include video stitching, video-to-Live-Photo conversion, and animated text that preserve a journey's movement and atmosphere.
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FrameCatFrameCat began with a simple goal: avoid black bars and lost resolution in phone screenshots, browse frame by frame, then save images separately or stitch them together.
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FrameFit - Auto ReframeWhy I made FrameFit: batch-adjust photos for phones and social platforms, using the subject and golden-ratio composition while keeping manual control.
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StepChefFrom struggling with recipes and wet hands to StepChef: recipe importing, shared ingredient preparation, step-by-step cooking, and our family cookbook.
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PeakSight - Altitude & ARInspired by a road trip around China, PeakSight explores GPS and barometric altitude, mountain identification, and the limits of a procedurally drawn ridgeline.
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RideMeter-Simple GPS ComputerFrom outings with folding bikes to a phone-based cycling computer: RideMeter's auto-pause, ride recording, MapKit navigation, and coordinate-conversion challenges.
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EasyMemeMaker-Make a Meme in 3From MemeZoo to MemeBao: why I built a tool for making GIF stickers from videos and Live Photos, and the choices behind its text, stickers, and playback options.
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