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Juan Arzola

@ancientbuho.bsky.social
684 followers 589 following 416 posts

Apple platforms dev, BG3 modding, my dog, photography etc. Working on @benkyobox.bsky.social, a simple but powerful memorization app: benkyobox.app Other: linktr.ee/juanarzola

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
If you are using SplitView - tweaking navigationSplitColumnWidth with +1/-1 width can drastically change how it behaves on #iPhoneDuo. I ended up customizing based on container size for ideal behavior in partially open, open, portrait-open modes.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Now the study view's bottom half is for study controls, and top half for study content in iPhone Duo's mini-laptop/seated mode (just assumed that "partially folded mode" splits the screen in half and added 1/2 height as bottom padding). Now to wait for a real device to see how it feels 🤞🏻
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I've surprisingly spent more time redesigning large UI to fit in small areas than small UI to utilize big areas in #iphoneduo (shorter heights, narrower lists, narrower toolbars, etc).
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I decided to change Benkyo Box's classic flashcard score control to a swipe-able button strip to make it easier to fit in iPhone Duo's reduced vertical space while folded. I left it in bar mode for all fold states to preserve visual continuity. #iphoneduo
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Reworked Benkyo Box's flashcard previews to a custom layout so that they re-layout on #iphoneduo super narrow split view content view. Similar layout they had on accessibility large size, but it animates now.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Seems like my brain typealiased onHingeChange to unhingedChange
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Renaming a type in programming: "bikeshedding" / "just pick a name and go with it" Renaming a type during FoundationModels prompt engineering: You fundamentally changed how everything works and it's fixed now.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I was struggling to get Foundation Models to refer to "variables" in prompts from Guide descriptions - seems like adding the variable itself to Generable struct that contains the description that refers to them does the trick.
FoundationModels code. It has a @Generable Cookie struct with a variable whose Guide refers to a variable in the prompt, userText:. It can actually refer to it because there’s another variable in the struct called userText, which the model fills out with the user’s input.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
iPhone 18 pro should come with a lens polishing cloth so all those f4 pictures don't show off your lens dirt
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My super analytical, data-driven criteria for deciding when paywalled features become free: "I ran out of feature block background colors"
A subscriptions view of Benkyo Box, listing all the 7 features that Advanced Learner unlocks, all of them sporting a different background gradient..
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Variable aperture ❤️ - now time to get a new iPhone and update Vloggie to use it / control it
autorelease.io
Vloggie
Vloggie helps you record better vlogs iPhone’s rear cameras: grip the screen freely while recording, start hands-free with face detection, and stay in frame with haptic guidance.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
a quick demo of Benkyo Box features coming up in the iOS 27 update
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Titan would like to report an important matter: there's a burger stuck on the fridge
A burger fridge magnet attached to a fridge, on the left side. To its right, a Pomeranian dog stares, confused by this anomaly.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
set theory is hallucinating, quick, add axioms to the prompt until it stops - Zermelo and Fraenkel at some point
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Trying iOS 27 multi-modal support in Foundation Models in Benkyo Box, to help suggest answers in image annotations depending on what you point to (there's some delays, probably due to lack of pre-warming / other reasons, but feels useful so far).
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Hmm, I wonder what's a standard order for File -> Import, Export and Share actions on Mac. *checks various apps* 😱
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
sometimes declarative APIs are // the system and environment defines what turbulence means. It can and will change in the future. If you see something weird, don't worry about it. MyButton() .turbulence(.severe)
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Tomorrow I'll be presenting at SF Swift (at the Lyft office) about my experiences / patterns working with SwiftUI on Mac www.meetup.com/swift-langua... see you there if you are in the area
meetup.com
Swift Language User Group (SLUG) x Cocoaheads | August | San Francisco Bay Area, Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Please join us for this month's session together learning about Swift with talks by local members of the Swift community. We are so excited to see you all again! 📍This ev
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Vloggie's out in the AppStore. It makes it easier to take video selfies with the rear camera 🤳🏻 apps.apple.com/us/app/vlogg...
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I think the challenge rating of recaptchas has been increasing... "so you think that class A RV is a bus? or that blurry fire truck in the distance is a bus? not allowed!
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
A simple app i've been working on to make video selfies better. I hope that you find it useful! Apple Log is enabled in Test Flight builds, and I would appreciate feedback on how it's working, since it'll be some time before I get a test device that supports it. #apps #iphone
autorelease.io
Vloggie
Vloggie helps you record better vlogs with the rear iPhone camera: grip the screen freely while recording, start hands-free with face detection, and stay in frame with haptic guidance.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I wish that #Xcode Cloud had a setting to build using the version of xcode that triggered the build. So that I don't forget to update the pinned Xcode version, and boom problems that didn't happen locally happen in the shipped builds.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
scariest thing of going to a World Cup game is being caught by the slow-mo lips camera
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Tom Rolfe @rolfebox.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
It's here! The first in my Indie Apps Showcase series features a handful of faves from the comment section of my callout post last week. Thanks to everyone who submitted an app – those I missed this time might turn up in the next one.
tapsmart.com
Indie Apps Showcase: 6 hidden App Store gems for July 2026
Apple gets more than 1,000 app submissions every hour, meaning it’s tougher than ever to find something that’s worth your time.
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Benkyo Box @benkyobox.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
🚀 1.12.0 is out - Now your flashcards can contain LaTeX equations (Advanced Learner). And many other things since we last posted here: 1. Annotate screenshots on Mac to study them 2. Hide or annotate irregular areas of images 3. Study maps and mind palace pics with emoji pins and arrows #studytips
A screenshot of Benkyo Box with an equation editor, with buttons to add LaTeX snippets.Arrows and irregularly shaped annotationsAn emoji annotation on a fantasy map.The emoji is a castle, pointing to a town, named “Wei Lin”
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
This NSContentProtocol to load images from anywhere is such great architecture. Basically a server that renders anything you want by URL… …except when you want accessibility labels for images. Because there's no way to make them survive jpeg/png serialization🤦🏻‍♂️
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
snapshot tests are so nice oh whoops i don't remember what device I originally used to generate these snapshots 😅 btw @pointfree.co 's snapshot test library is awesome
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Going through app stickers I got at wwdc and … no idea what half of them were because they don't have the app name anywhere
Photo of my journal with app stickers. There’s LookBack, community kit, a nondescript wind icon, verza, a circle icon, a book icon, photo catch, and omnigraffle
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
exif orientation tag: wouldn't it be great if images had incorrect data, and a tag tells you how to fix them
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Swift meetup tonight at Sentry: - - luma.com/pdrj5h10 7:00 – 9:00 PM Sentry HQ, 45 Fremont St, San Francisco tonight's topics are all about accessibility. See you there!
meetup.com
Swift Language User Group (SLUG) x Cocoaheads | June | San Francisco, Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 7:00 PM | Meetup
Please join us for this month's session together learning about Swift with talks by local members of the Swift community. We are so excited to see you all again! 📍This mo
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Just a regular day trying to make a custom SF Symbol
A macOS alert saying “The symbol could not be imported.” And “Errors: The provided variants are not interpolatable.”
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Ah WWDC, the "demo my app" week and find all of the bugs for features that I mainly use in conferences
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I like using Benkyo Box (www.autorelease.io/benkyobox/) for remembering new concepts at conferences, meetings, etc. Ready for this year's new #wwdc2026 session videos, you can now take a screenshot on Mac and quickly make annotations, which automatically turn into flashcards. Happy learning!
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
TipKit is a nice coordination framework with bad default views (popoverTip that don't show, quirky inline view behavior). Today's workaround for popoverTip: gist.github.com/juanarzola/0... feeling like treating it more as a TipKitCore at this point and just making a custom TipKitViews module
gist.github.com
popoverTip doesn't work on images in toolbars in iOS 26. This is a workaround.
popoverTip doesn't work on images in toolbars in iOS 26. This is a workaround. - PopoverTipWorkaround.swift
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Stephen Robles @stephenrobles.com · 21/04/2026
📺 John Ternus is officially Apple's new CEO, but he's led the development of many Apple products already. From the original iPad and AirPods, to the latest iPhones, here's what Ternus has already accomplished, and what the future may hold for Apple: youtu.be/Ej3SEJVg45w
youtu.be
The Engineer Taking Over Apple (and Why It Matters)
YouTube video by Stephen Robles
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
One thing I miss about react native development is snapshot testing. It would be nice if SwiftUI previews could be ran as snapshot tests.
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Benkyo Box @benkyobox.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
🆕 New Home Screen List Widget: view cards available to study in your favorite lists, start studies and create cards in them. They match your color theme choice of the app as well. Alongside the Today widget, they are great to create a little study dashboard in your Home Screen. #studytips #iosapps
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
developing macOS widgets is a special kind of torture: no SwiftUI previews, and to see updates: clean derived data, logout, re-login. The preview tool cannot preview widgets in reduced luminance mode.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
I wish NSContentProtocol was an extension that runs in a separate process, so that widgets, AppIntents etc could fetch data from it without the app running. #iosdev
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Next Thursday: SF Swift meetup luma.com/a08kwg0s?tk=... Speakers: - Phil Zakharchenko: Crafting Fluid Animations Across Apple Platforms - Zach Nagengast: Running Frontier AI Models with Swift I’ll be going - a great event to meet developers into Apple platforms #iosdev
luma.com
SF Swift Language User Group (SLUG) x CocoaHeads | April 2026 · Luma
Please join us for this month's session together learning about Swift with talks by local members of the Swift community. We are so excited to see you all…
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Dimension 20 @dimension20.dropout.tv · 03/04/2026
What does Dragon Master Katie Marovitch love about stories? Everything ✨ #d20onabus
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Theresa Arzola | LACC 10/30-11-1 @thispapercloud.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Our home Daggerheart game is getting deeper into lore… time to make my own map of the Sablewood. 🗺️ I used the descriptions from the official location guide, the QuickStart Adventure, & The Mauraders of Windfall adventure to create this map of the Sablewood.
Map of the Sablewood Forest, a location provided by the Daggerheart team that doesn’t include an official map yet. This map shows the locations of key points of interest, including the Open Vale, the Titan’s Step, Root’s Hollow, the Wandering Briar, the Ash Quarry, the Refuge, and the village of Hush.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
adding "appearsActive" to the list of UI appearance states to worry about #swiftui
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
ok I think that I have recovered from that Tony Tony Chopper One-Piece episode, let me watch something that doesn't make me cry *proceeds to watch #criticalrole C4E19 :'0*
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
I wish AsyncStream supported pausing #swiftlang
an AsyncStream API with a suggested onPauseChanged and isPaused API
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
For such a core app, Mail app is way behind in the Shortcuts front (thankfully Automator still exists)
A screenshot contrasting the Mail actions available in Shortcuts (to the right) vs Automator (to the left). Automator has a longer list of actions, whereas Shortcuts has 5.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
this was a pretty good request I got from TestFlight feedback - always look forward to new suggestions 🧡 benkyoboxapp.notion.site/29803e90dab1...
benkyoboxapp.notion.site
Benkyo Box - Public Board | Notion
We have more in the plans than what’s in this board. These are public tasks. Next release: 1.7.2 Request & vote for features: https://www.autorelease.io/benkyobox/support.php
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Reposted by Juan Arzola
Theresa Arzola | LACC 10/30-11-1 @thispapercloud.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
It’s the final day of the Kickstarter!! We’re $94 away from the 3rd stretch goal with just a few hours to go. 😍 If you’d like to get a copy of this graphic novel, be sure to back before midnight before time is up! www.kickstarter.com/projects/thi...
kickstarter.com
Beyond the Road – A Graphic Memoir | READY TO PRINT
A true story, 110-page full-color comic about rediscovering adventure with chronic illness through a 4-day campervan trip.
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
lemme ship code that I din't read and not notice that it requires an iCloud migration, deploying a new schema, etc or no devices will sync in production
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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
🇵🇷
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