iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dark Noise — apps.apple.com/us/app/dark-... Lastly, an app several of us use during work, travel, or sleep: Dark Noise’s iOS 27 release introduces subtle Liquid Glass styling, full screen widgets for easy selection, and integration with Siri AI.

Peak — apps.apple.com/us/app/peak-... As quoted from one of our engineers: “ @harshil.net is great and put a ton of work into this release,” and it’s plain to see: with added support for larger devices (iPhone Duo!) and incredibly robust widgets that can go full screen!

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Mercury Weather — apps.apple.com/us/app/mercu... @mercuryweather.app is already a great looking app on top of being feature-rich, so it’s no surprise its new widgets all look amazing. Its most recent update also allows you to leverage Siri to track weather for any upcoming trips.

SolarWatch — apps.apple.com/us/app/sunri... SolarWatch is already stuffed with amazing features, but its iOS 27 update gives it a matured Liquid Glass look and integrates with Spotlight and Siri AI. Or, to quote SolarWatch creator Engin Kurutepe: “Hey Siri, wake me up at sunrise.”

Obscura — apps.apple.com/us/app/obscu... We already love Obscura, but its power is on full display with iPhone 18’s new aperture control on its Fusion Main camera. For Update V, UI and controls have also been improved, and custom filters can be applied over live image previews!

We collected a list of some apps whose major iOS 27 updates really impressed us. These could be design changes, new features, integration of new iOS 27 behaviors, or a mix of everything! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Lickability @lickability.com · 17/09/2026

Reposted by Lickability

Software Sommelier is back during New York App Week! Join us Thursday, October 22nd for a cozy, caffeinated design lab where we’ll workshop your product over coffee & breakfast. RSVP at the link below for address and details! ☕ 😋 luma.com/43oort49

A graphic that looks like a stylized version of an upscale cafe, with a sign made from removeable letters that reads: "Lickability Software Sommelier. 10:00-12:30 Thursday October 22 NYC. RSVP for Address. Coffee and Breakfast.

Potted houseplants decorate the left half of the counter, a plate with bagels rests in the middle, and a pour over coffee is being prepared out of frame on the right.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 17/09/2026

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Lickability @lickability.com · 15/09/2026

This week, some thoughts from @mbbischoff.com on our recent retreat: What we accomplished, how we did it, and what we’re looking forward to! lickability.com/blog/retreat...

lickability.com

Retreat Report: 2026 – Lickability

A retrospective on our summer retreat for 2026.

Lickability @lickability.com · 09/09/2026

The iPhone Duo’s asymmetry in folded mode makes it surprisingly friend-shaped??

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Lickability @lickability.com · 03/09/2026

There’s no such thing as having too many camera toys: this is so cute and fun! We especially love the authentic UI. 😋

Lickability @lickability.com · 26/08/2026

So cool to see something we worked on being used out in the wild! It was a pleasure working on iOS, Android, and React Native SDKs with Stripe. (Bet you didn’t know we do React Native too!) phantom.com/learn/blog/u...

phantom.com

Meet your money app

Phantom is the best place to trade markets, and now one step closer to being the only money app you need.

Lickability @lickability.com · 24/08/2026

And some lovely candid moments captured on film by @mbbischoff.com, developed and scanned by the wonderful team at Full Spectrum Photo Lab in Brooklyn, NY.

3 members of the Lickability team walking side-by-side on a street in NYC.

2 of the Lickability founders, Twig and Brian, sitting next to each other and working on their laptops.

Amundsen and Liberatore, two of Lickability's engineers, working on MacBooks and iPhones.

Lickability engineers Ashli and Deepak captured having a conversation.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 19/08/2026

We’re back from another successful summer retreat! These are so valuable every year, and we’re excited to show you what came from a few days of close-quarters, collaborative fun. 👀 Oh, and it’s not a true iOS-centric dev sprint without the nest of MacBook charging cables… 😝

Lickability team members sitting at a conference table with their laptops looking at a presentation and discussing ideas among themselves with a painting in the background.

A conference table full of MacBook laptops with the center charging station occupied entirely by white charging bricks.

A Lickability team member shotgunning a tiny ceramic cup of espresso while other team members sit on either side focused on their laptops.

The entire Lickability team posed at a long restaurant table with menus and drinks in front of them, turned to look at the camera.

Lickability @lickability.com · 12/08/2026

• Well-designed • Solves a problem • Used every day (You can only pick 2) This week on our blog: a little love for what @mbbischoff.com coined “single-serving apps.” We canvassed ourselves, and a few friends of the team, for some of our favorite examples. lickability.com/blog/single-...

lickability.com

Single-Serving Apps – Lickability

Some love for software that just does what you want it to.

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Reposted by Lickability

And the other is www.dithergarden.com by Alicia Pérez, a shader-based webapp and the last word in digital dithering! 15 algorithms, 4 color modes, and completely free.

A screenshot of dither garden's home page, mission statement and instructions.

A creative commons photo of a hummingbird run through dither garden to give it a stippled, stylized, magenta-and-pink effect.

A photo of an atrium taken by Lickability team member Lily run through dither garden and reduced to 3 colors: pink, light blue, and dark grey.

Reposted by Lickability

First is tone, a freemium app for iOS and MacOS by Shikaka, Inc. apps.apple.com/us/app/tone-... There are a lot of great solutions for “solving” printed aesthetics using shaders, but this is a great, lightweight, standalone option with good accuracy!

Screenshot of the tone app's UI with a sample image loaded in.

A photo of water lilies in a pond taken by Lickability team member Lily.

The previous photo of water lilies run through the tone app, giving it the appearance of screen printing with some off-colors and chromatic abbaration.

Reposted by Lickability

👋 Hey! We’re having a busy summer, but we wanted to highlight 2 more apps we’ve been using since people seem to enjoy learning about things we’re finding useful and fun! One is iOS native/works on MacOS, the other is a web app, and both are art and design-centric.

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Oops, looks like Bluesky didn't want to embed. Here’s some screenshots of @ky.fyi’s process!

An extra-special footnote: this awesome print media project, using dither garden during the creation process, by a friend of the team: @ky.fyi bsky.app/profile/ky.f...

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And the other is www.dithergarden.com by Alicia Pérez, a shader-based webapp and the last word in digital dithering! 15 algorithms, 4 color modes, and completely free.

Lickability @lickability.com · 23/07/2026

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Thank *you* for the shout out Kyle! 😉

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Lickability @lickability.com · 20/07/2026

Details we love: The “15 Years Ago This Week” chart on the front page, the archived app reviews sourced from the Wayback Machine, and the unapologetically-low-resolution original app icons. 😭 Oh yeah, and it’s open-source: github.com/samhenrigold...

github.com

GitHub - samhenrigold/jangle: A little archive browser for legacy iOS apps

A little archive browser for legacy iOS apps. Contribute to samhenrigold/jangle development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 20/07/2026

Sam is awesome and so is this new project from him. ❤️ 😝 Archival work is important and often thankless. Equally important are the efforts people put into presenting archived content in a way that's easy for others to interact with and learn from! legacystore.app

legacystore.app

Legacy Store

Browse and install archived versions of classic iPhone and iPad apps, directly on your old iOS device.

Lickability @lickability.com · 16/07/2026

We canvassed the team for our own ideas which we’ll revisit soon, but we want to know from you: What’s the best example of a single-serving app you’ve used? One where you want to give the devs and designers extra kudos, or wish they were developing some of your “daily driver” apps? 🤔

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Lickability @lickability.com · 16/07/2026

“It peaks the charts every year and is hailed as being the ‘best app in all of sports.’ It supports live activities, widgets, and had a brand new Vision Pro experience this year. But once the Masters is over, people obviously aren’t talking about it much.”

Lickability @lickability.com · 16/07/2026

I was talking with Tom, our Client Partnerships Director and resident golf guru, and the subject of “single-serving apps” came up: ones you rely on heavily during certain events and then don’t open the rest of the year. He cited The Masters app as a perfect example.

Lickability @lickability.com · 10/07/2026

Next is Monocle, the aptly self-described “noise-cancelling for your screen.” It’s a perfect lightweight focusing tool for chronic multitaskers and is elegantly simple in its execution! www.heyiam.dk/monocle (One-time purchase @ $14.00)

heyiam.dk

Monocle for macOS • Noise-cancelling for your screen

Blur everything but your active window — just wiggle your cursor.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 10/07/2026

First up is Alcove, a MacOS app for fans of Apple’s Dynamic Island design. It integrates well with notifications and activities and is super lightweight. The interactive example on the website is a nice touch, too! 😉 tryalcove.com (One-time purchase @ $13.99)

tryalcove.com

Alcove

An entirely new way to experience Mac

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Lickability @lickability.com · 10/07/2026

Happy Friday! We wanted to shout out two satisfying MacOS projects we’ve had some fun using. Henrik Ruscon’s Alcove tryalcove.com and Dominik Kandravy’s Monocle heyiam.dk/monocle

An example of the MacOS Alcove where a dynamic dock at the top of the screen changes size to include notifications and mini apps. In this example, a small calendar with readouts on daily schedule items.

An example of the MacOS app Monocle. In this example, a moodboard page is prominently feature in the middle of the MacBook screen while the surrounding aspects of the OS are blurred, allowing the user to focus on the main window without distractions.

Lickability @lickability.com · 09/07/2026

If you’re building with AI and need a team that’s been shipping secure, performant, and maintainable software for nearly 2 decades, we’d love to help! 😜 lickability.com/contact/

lickability.com

Lickability

People who make apps people love.

Lickability @lickability.com · 09/07/2026

techcrunch.com/2026/06/28/f... “Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence...that would produce a high-quality product.” Companies keep learning the same lesson: AI is an incredible accelerator, but is at its best when paired with experienced professionals.

techcrunch.com

Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short | TechCrunch

"Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence ... that would produce a high-quality product.”

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Lickability @lickability.com · 02/07/2026

They just released their big Mark III update that features a photo lab for granular editing, a more-streamlined and intuitive UI, and the ability to import and edit RAW files from other camera sources right from the app. Find it here: apps.apple.com/us/app/halid...

apps.apple.com

Halide Mark III - Pro Camera App - App Store

Download Halide Mark III - Pro Camera by Lux Optics Incorporated on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Halide…

Lickability @lickability.com · 02/07/2026

Happy Thursday! We wanted to shout out another quality app made by an independent studio that many of us on the team use: @halideapp.bsky.social! iPhones have great cameras, but Halide lets you take full control over your images in a sophisticated way. halide.cam (📷 @mbbischoff.com)

A top-down view of a tea pot, carafe filled with tea, and small white tea cup. A hand is seen in the top-right corner of the frame, and all objects are sitting on a small, taupe-coloured cloth.

A photo of light hitting the leaves of a willow tree at a body of water.

A photo of a sunrise or sunset viewed from the window of a commercial jet plane with its wing in view. The plane is on the ground.

A night time scene of a corner building that says "AMSTERDAM BILLIARDS & BAR" and "ENTRANCE ON 11TH ST." It is at night with wet, rain-soaked sidewalks and the entire scene is dominated by bright, red, neon lighting.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 30/06/2026

Honored to receive this praise from Jacob Eiting on the work we’ve done for the wonderful team at @RevenueCat.com! 😽

A quote from Jacob Eiting, CEO of RevenueCat that says "I really loved how much ownership Lickability took. They not only helped design and launch our app, but they monitored reviews, invented new UI paradigms, and shipped iterations independently when we were extremely resource-constrained."

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Lickability @lickability.com · 27/06/2026

One more shout-out for some summer Saturday listening! 😝 @mbbischoff.com was on Clockwise this week: relay.fm/clockwise/662 To preview a few topics: 🎮Valve’s Steam Machine Pricing, 📸Third-Party Camera Apps, and 🧑‍💻Being the “Tech Person.”

relay.fm

Clockwise #662: Nominally Fine - Relay

Our thoughts on Valve's Steam Machine pricing, the third-party camera apps we actually use, whether we wait for tech sales before buying, and if being the "tech person" inspires others or just makes t...

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Lickability @lickability.com · 24/06/2026

Our very own @mbbischoff.com will be live on the Clockwise podcast shortly! If you can’t catch it live, catch the recording 😉

Lickability @lickability.com · 23/06/2026

But the ensuing community aspect of WWDC is always our favorite: Mixers, talks, and opportunities to hang out with friends and colleagues in person. ❤️ We’re already looking forward to next year! 🤞 More photos here: www.instagram.com/p/DZ706VmG73L

Two people, Claire and mb, standing over an arcade machine and playing at the same time.

Three people standing in front of a wall with red flowers in the middle of a conversation.

Members of the Daring Fireball podcast Talk Show on stage.

Neon sign for the Paper Plane bar depicting a red paper plane design.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 23/06/2026

The keynote and everything else at Apple Park was engaging and fun. It’s always a treat to walk the campus and see the details everyone fettered over.

3 bowls of colored pins representing 0-1 Years, 2-9 Years, and 10+ Years as an Apple Developer.

A map depicting North, Central and some of South America with pins placed at various points to represent where people attending WWDC arrived from.

A news team cameraman filming on-screen talent before the WWDC26 event.

A photo of the rainbow motif backdrop feature used by Apple in the center of Apple Park.

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Lickability @lickability.com · 23/06/2026

We’re reflecting on WWDC and wanted to post some photos from the trip! 😝

mb, Brian and Tom from Lickability standing together in front of the RevenueCat Bashcade airstream trailer.

Lickability.com homepage on an Apple Park Apple Store display MacBook.

An Apple Park employee caught mid-dance on the Apple Park commons.

A panoramic photo of the inside of Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park.

Lickability @lickability.com · 19/06/2026

We’ll collect everything here into a blog post along with some more thoughts as we continue to play with all these new tools! What did you find the most value in from the WWDC sessions?

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Lickability @lickability.com · 19/06/2026

And a few more miscellaneous sessions with content we’re already 🤫 playing around with and integrating into 🤐 projects. developer.apple.com/videos/play/... developer.apple.com/videos/play/...

developer.apple.com

Dive into lazy stacks and scrolling with SwiftUI - WWDC26 - Videos - Apple Developer

Discover the inner workings of lazy stacks in SwiftUI. We'll explore how LazyVStack and LazyHStack estimate sizes, lazily load subviews,...