I guess I’ll toggle my title from “Retired” to “Semi-retired.” (I’ve been wanting to tinker with iOS apps for coming up on 20 years now.)
A while back, I acquired a small iOS app named “WiFi Analyzer: Network Master” because I wanted to learn my way around Apple’s App Store ecosystem. I chose this app because every time I connect to a new network (at a coffee shop, AirBnB, etc.) I always do a quick speedtest and network scan, so I knew I’d use the app almost daily, which to me is a must for a solo dev. This was just step 1 of many: I have a bunch of apps of dubious commercial value that I simply want to exist. With this app in the store, I can now start building those.
The acquisition completed just in time for us to plan and execute a cross-country move from North Carolina back to Arizona Rim Country, which took a lot longer (and was more all-encompassing) than I expected.
Anyway… I finally got around to shipping the ground-up rewrite of the app. I removed all the third-party trackers, reduced the insane pricing, and eliminating the sketchy dark pattern free trial.
I also added a bunch of “ground-truth” tests to compare the results from the network scanner to what typical UNIX tools find on the Mac, so the scanner is faster and more accurate.
Then I added initial iPad, MacOS, and VisionOS versions, we’ll iterate towards more native implementations on each platform.
The speed test was using public servers that were unreliable, so I added 4 private nodes just for my app that are much more reliable and have plenty of capacity. Then I added a service that looks at all the public servers from each of those vantages and filters to just servers that seem to be responding well.
I still have a ton of work to do, and I’m still waiting for App Store rejection approval but I’m pumped that it’s actually MY app there now instead of the vibe-coded monstrosity I acquired. (I was not planning to do a ground-up rewrite, I was planning to just remove the third-party trackers… but it was just so awful I just went file->new project.)
Next update will add localized versions in a few languages, then I’ll add right-to-left languages in a later release. Also, this is basically a clone of the old app with a modernized UI so now it’s time to actually add real features and functionality (I knew I couldn’t remove any features with paying users.)
A lot of interesting stuff in getting here from there, I plan to write up the network operations and testing stuff once the updated app is fully released.
(Don’t download 1.0 - seriously. Wait until 2.0 is approved.)