This week the app I have been working on for the past year has finally been released. I first wrote about this app in “Is Cursor worth it for developers?”, back in March 2025.
The initial version started as a vibe coded project to see what was possible. I had never programmed anything in Swift before so getting the initial draft out using Cursor was quite useful.
So why then did it take a year to release the final version?
As a lot of people have realised, LLMs can be great for quickly prototyping something but the code they produce isn't necessarily production quality. The more I tested the application the more bugs I found.
I ended refactoring large parts the codebase to make it maintainable and learning a lot of Swift along the way.
Apple also released iOS 26 with the glass interface that I still haven't got used to. That broke a few things but also made a few other features better too.
You can find more about the app here: HabitTed - Habit Tracker and on its app store page HabitTed - App Store.
Overall I found the process of releasing the app quite painless. I have heard people complain about the back and forth with Apple trying to get their apps approved, but I found the process fairly smooth.
I suspect this is largely because this is a simple, completely local application. There is no tracking, or calls to any third party (including myself) everything remains on device. I sent the app for review on Friday 6th March, and it went live on Wednesday 11th March. It took another day before you could find it in search, but it is there now.
So why did I add to the hundreds of other habit trackers available in the app store?
My wife and I tried quite a few habit trackers, and they either had UIs that we didn't like, or worked fine but required a monthly or yearly subscription to unlock the most basic features.
- Streaks - This is a nice free option and is fine if you don't have many things that you want to keep track of. I wasn't overly keen on the UI though and preferred something in a list format. I also didn't need the health features.
- Grit - This one seems to get a lot of promotion but has a lot of tracking built and requires a $1.99 - $9.99 monthly subscription!
- HabitKit - Another one that gets a lot of promotion. Again requires a $1.99/month or $11.99/year subscription to use it.
As I mentioned in Pricing my apps fairly I don't believe in charging a monthly subscription unless it really warrants it. To be fair the above apps also have a one time payment option, but it costs $24.99 - $29.99.
What happened to apps that cost about as much as a cup of coffee?
HabitTed can be used for free for up to 6 habits. If you want unlimited habits, multiple reminders, archive and restore, import and export and to support me as a developer, than it's $3.99, about the price of a Venti Latte ☕️.
I am not expecting to make much money from this app, I built it for my wife as a side project. If I can cover the yearly Apple Developer Licence I will count it as a win.
If you would like to try it out and preferably give it a favourable review in the App Store I would be grateful! HabitTed - Habit Tracker
❤️ Picks of the Week #
👾 Game - Sandboxels - This is fun to play with. I am sure there are all sorts of combinations you can do with this.
📝 Article - A beginner's guide to split keyboards - I have always been intrigued by split keyboards. They look really cool. I am not sure how I would get on with them.
📝 Article - An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – The Operator Came Forward - Part 4 of the AI agent that posted a blog post bad-mouthing the project owner for not merging his PR.
📝 Article - I tried building my startup entirely on European infrastructure - There is definitely a lack of European options. I have tried to move as much as possible to European versions, but I still have quite a lot of US stuff.
📝 Article - I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs - This is a good one for cleaning up merged branches.
📝 Article - Be wary of Bluesky - Even though Bluesky is supposed to be decentralised as with all VC backed companies they are bound to go against there users at some point. Unlike ActivityPub it appears to be incredibly expensive to run your own.
📝 Article - How to fold the Blade Runner origami unicorn (1996) - If you like origami you might appreciate this.
📝 Article - The happiest I've ever been - I need to go through and work out what I really love doing. I am sure I am not the only one who is getting a bit burnt out with AI being used everywhere.
📝 Article - Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine) - I have always been fascinated with game development. One day I will get round to making a game.
📝 Article - Microsoft bans the word "Microslop" on its Discord, then locks the server - Microslop really hate us referring to LLMs as slop generators. If no one is using their AI how are they going to justify the billions they have spent on it.
📝 Article - OpenClaw surpasses React to become the most-starred software project on GitHub- I really don't get the hype around OpenClaw!
📝 Article - Build Awesome's Kickstarter is Cancelled - I use 11ty for my website, and it is great. I am not sure what this rebrand is going to mean for the future of 11ty. I will keep using it for now but if they succumb to enshitiffication then I will be looking elsewhere.
🎸 Tuner - Remotely use my guitar tuner - This is just fun. At the time of adding this link in my article it appears to be nighttime where the author is so you can't see the dial just a red dot.
📝 Article - The web is bearable with RSS - I wish more people would use RSS. This newsletter is available via RSS if you don't get round to reading my emails.
📝 Article - Why I Don’t Vibe Code - I never get the same satisfaction from vibe coding then building something myself. Your prize for vibe coding is often a spaghetti mess of code that you don't understand.
📝 Article - The Reviewer Isn't the Bottleneck - When reviewing code by a trusted developer you know they have tested the code themselves and are happy enough with it to put their name on it. With AI you don't have that ownership and the review takes a lot longer.
📝 Article - Cloudflare crawl endpoint - I am not sure what the plan here is with Cloudflare but if you don't want people scraping your site you might want to disallow CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler in your robots.txt.
📝 Article - Lego's 0.002mm specification and its implications for manufacturing (2025) - I loved building things with Lego as a kid, and it is crazy to think that Lego from the 1970s will still work seamlessly with Lego made today.
📝 Article - The dead Internet is not a theory anymore - Unfortunately now every comment, video, photo, and blog article you have to assume isn't real.
📝 Article - “This is not the computer for you” - I had originally dismissed the MacBook Neo. After all it is powered by the chip in an iPhone 16 Pro. However, I am not the target audience for this laptop. For a Chromebook alternative this is a good option and when I come to buy a laptop for my children it will definitely be an option.
📝 Article - What do coders do after AI? - I am definitely in the second group of developers. I have been coding since I was 8, and I will continue to do it even as a hobby if I change careers.
🛠️ Tool - Hammerspoon - I have been using iOS shortcuts but this looks good for automating things.
💬 Quote of the Week #
The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich.
From In Praise of Idleness.
Top comments (0)