Small apps. One job each. No nonsense.

Uberturnip is my little retirement project: a place for the apps I am building to keep my grey cells moving.

I am not a professional coder, a software company, a tech visionary, or anything remotely impressive like that. I am just learning as I go, having fun with it, and trying not to take myself too seriously — hence the propeller hat.

My first app started life while I was doing an online coding course. My adult daughter enjoys an Aperol Spritz and, with suitable cheek, calls herself the Aperol Queen. As the course went on, I began modifying the project into a little app that could record and rank her Aperols. It was just a bit of fun, but then I decided to give the Apple App Store a go.

I submitted it under what I thought was a very clever name: Apperol Queen.

Apple, unsurprisingly, did not share my enthusiasm for the name, so it had to be changed. I then ran into a few other issues and the project was quietly parked for about 18 months.

Last year I picked it up again, this time with the help of Codex and then AI and managed to improve the app enough to submit it properly. When it went back to the App Store, I was told that some of the wording could be seen as promoting excessive alcohol use. That meant another round of changes, including using the word “beverage” rather than making everything too drink-specific.

In the end, I think those changes actually made the app better. It became a little more flexible and probably more versatile. Best of all, my daughter now has the app and is happily using it to record her favourite drinks. Job done!

That first app also shaped the way I think about Uberturnip. Most of my apps are designed to do one useful thing without fuss. No accounts, no social feeds, no unnecessary complications. You open the app, use it for the thing it was made for, and get on with your day. Your information stays on your own device unless you choose to back it up or export it.

The main exception is Tasting Room (still in development) which is a more detailed wine journal. My wife and I used to be winemakers so that app comes from a different corner of our life. It is built around our experiences tasting, but also around the simple pleasure of enjoying wine and remembering what made a bottle interesting. It is still personal and private — just a little more grown-up than some of the others.

I started by charging a small amount for my first apps because I wanted to avoid ads, tracking, pop-ups, and other nonsense. A couple of dollars seemed fair for something useful, and a tiny bit of retirement pocket money would not go astray.

I have since discovered that many people are understandably reluctant to pay upfront for small apps, so some Uberturnip apps may now be free to download while I work out the best balance between keeping things affordable, avoiding annoying ads, and making the whole project feel worthwhile.

At this stage, Uberturnip apps are available for iOS only, partly because that is where I am learning first.

So that is Uberturnip: small, focused apps made by someone learning in public, trying to stay curious, and hoping the odd little tool might be useful to someone else too.