DEVELOPER STORIES

In the summer of 2022, the founding members of Flipping Hues were new friends learning Swift together at the Apple Developer Academy in Naples. Today, they’re Apple Design Award finalists with two luminous apps to their credit.

Sunlitt is a SwiftUI-built utility for identifying or predicting the sun’s location at all times — a brilliant resource for everyone from photographers to beachgoers to real estate agents. (More on that in a moment.) “We knew from those very early days that Sunlitt could be a universal tool,” says Nicolas Mariniello, founder and CEO of Flipping Hues.

We caught up with Mariniello and designers Fabio Pizzano and Raffaele Fulgente from their home base in Italy to talk about SwiftUI, 3D components, and beehives.

Team: Flipping Hues
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch
Team size: 6
Based in: Italy
Awards: Apple Design Award finalist (2024)

How did you all find each other at the Apple Developer Academy?

Mariniello: We needed to form a team for one of the challenges and just found each other. At first, it was like a professional profile: OK, he's a designer, he's a developer, let's make an app together. But we quickly became friends. And I still believe we’re friends first and then colleagues.

Where did you get the idea for a sun-tracking app?

Mariniello: It came from a real issue! Naples is a complicated city with narrow streets; it’s almost a labyrinth. We were looking for apartments close to the Academy, but wanted something that offered natural sunlight all year long. We couldn’t find an app for that, so we decided to make something that showed the sun’s position in an intuitive and beautiful way.

What were your first steps?

Pizzano: We had to transform a lot of complex data into something engaging, so we did a lot of iterating on the best way to show the sun’s position. Eventually, we decided to place a monolith on the screen and let it cast a shadow. And we chose colors that mimicked the sky, so when a user opens the app, they “feel” the sun on their screen.

Who is Sunlitt for?

Mariniello: We often focus on photographers, but we never forget about all the other cases. Users don’t have to be professional or doing technical stuff. They could just be looking for a place to park in the shade. Last year, a user from Lithuania told us how he used the app to check the best position for his beehives to get the right amount of natural light. That was pretty unexpected!

What benefits have you found from using SwiftUI?

Mariniello: I experimented with several programming languages before moving completely to Swift, and I can say that no other programming language is close. One of the best things is how you can share your code and architecture across multiple devices and platforms. Sunlitt has been available on iPhone and iPad since the summer of 2022, but last year we brought it to Mac and Apple Vision Pro. And it’s stunning to me that we managed to use almost 100% of the code base across all platforms. That meant we could focus on making the experience meaningful, instead of losing time writing chunks of code for each platform.

What other tools are involved?

Mariniello: We rely on SceneKit for our 3D technologies and 3D components. We communicate information to our users with visuals, haptics, and animations, so these 3D components give us the freedom and power to balance beauty and data. We also use ARKit for our augmented reality implementation. In Moonlitt, for example, you can trigger AR mode to see exactly where the moon will be at a specific time and date.

Last February, we added many more 3D components, including what we call the “shadow map,” which lets you check the position of the sun anywhere in the world. We’ve also added the ability to show building shadows dynamically, so if you locate yourself in New York, you can see the shadows on the buildings moving throughout the day.

Last question: Did you end up finding an apartment in Naples?

Mariniello: Oh yes. And it was very well lit.

Originally published June 9, 2025