内容来源：https://www.theverge.com/tech/921690/dualshot-recorder-iphone-camera-app-derrick-downey-jr

内容总结：

爆款APP诞生记：网红“松鼠爸爸”12小时登顶美国付费榜

近日，一款名为DualShot Recorder的相机应用在苹果应用商店引发轰动。上线仅12小时便登顶付费应用排行榜，并连续8天占据榜首，至今仍稳居前20名。这款售价6.99美元（现涨至9.99美元）的爆款应用，其开发者竟是一位拥有百万粉丝的野生松鼠视频博主——德里克·唐尼（Derrick Downey Jr.）。

从“松鼠爸爸”到应用开发者

唐尼的社交账号记录着他与洛杉矶阳台上常客——松鼠Maxine、Richard等人性化互动的日常，在Instagram和TikTok上分别拥有超百万粉丝。他因投喂坚果、搭建小屋甚至带松鼠看病而被网友称为“松鼠爸爸”。然而，最近他将这份善意转化为了一个技术解决方案。

痛点催生创意：竖屏横屏兼顾难题

唐尼计划制作YouTube系列视频，但拍摄时需同时获取竖屏和横屏素材。传统解决方案（如双手机支架或后期裁切）要么设备繁琐，要么牺牲画质——iPhone在拍摄视频时已对传感器进行裁切，若再从画面中心截取竖屏16:9内容，仅用到传感器极小部分，分辨率严重下降。

“氛围编程”：非程序员用AI造应用

非软件工程师出身的唐尼去年尝试用ChatGPT“氛围编程”（vibe-code）未果。今年初他重拾灵感，深入研究苹果相机API后发现，第三方应用可调用全传感器数据。经过三四个月的反复调试——主要借助Claude等AI工具——他成功开发出DualShot Recorder：从原始画面同时输出横竖两种比例，不损失分辨率。

“你可能会以为给机器下达指令就能获得准确代码，但事实并非如此。”唐尼表示，他需要反复检查、多次验证AI生成的代码，“我理解自己想创造的产品功能，所以能发现AI的错误并修正。”

爆红背后：无订阅、不收集数据

应用的成功令唐尼感到意外更充满动力。尽管已连续熬夜，他仍乐在其中：“当有东西给你注入能量时，你愿意失去睡眠。”这款应用采用一次性付费模式，不收集用户数据，视频完全保留在本地设备。这种简洁透明的设计获得了用户好评。不过，不收集数据也为bug排查带来困难，他正计划增加故障报告功能。

松鼠的治愈力量

在事业迎来新篇章的同时，唐尼始终保持坦诚。他曾在抑郁低谷期因与松鼠的互动重获力量，即便视频更新暂停，也会向粉丝说明状态。如今应用上线的“混乱”逐渐平息，他重新回到了照顾Richard、Maxine等小伙伴的日常中：“它们在我抑郁时遇见了我，这就是家人。就算没法像往常那样上线，我依然会照顾好它们。”

中文翻译：

称DualShot Recorder为“一夜爆红”绝非夸张之词。
互联网最受欢迎的松鼠爸爸如何打造出2026年最热门的相机应用
野生生物视频创作者小德里克·唐尼凭借“氛围编程”在DualShot Recorder应用中成功打造出爆款产品。
仅用12小时，这款应用便登顶苹果应用商店付费应用排行榜榜首。这一成功令人意外——但更令人惊讶的是它的创作起源：一切都始于邻里间一群友好的松鼠和它们最爱的照料者。
小德里克·唐尼以拍摄短视频记录他与洛杉矶自家露台上松鼠们的互动为业。他的Instagram和TikTok账户各有超过百万粉丝（包括我在内），大家都熟悉那些常驻角色：玛克辛、理查德，以及虽不常出现但被亲切命名的访客如“混混雷蒙德”。唐尼为它们提供大量坚果、定制树屋，甚至在紧急医疗时带它们去看兽医。这画面令人愉悦，也堪称最治愈的内容。
他曾计划为YouTube推出一系列视频，但苦于无法同时录制竖屏和横屏画面。其他创作者要么使用双手机或双相机的专用支架同步拍摄，要么在后期剪辑中将片段裁剪为两种格式。“我试过购买各种设备、支架、云台和额外手机来应对……但太麻烦了，”他说，“剪辑……所有流程都太繁琐。”而后期裁剪同样有缺陷：iPhone录制视频时，本就已对全画幅传感器进行裁切。从这已裁剪的画面中再截取竖直的16：9区域，意味着仅使用了传感器极小部分，导致分辨率大幅下降并限制取景选择。
去年，他萌生了开发应用解决这一问题的想法。并非软件工程师的他尝试用ChatGPT搞“氛围编程”，但未能成功，于是搁置了项目。然而今年初，某种直觉让他再度尝试。
“我进入代码界面，相机功能被激活了。我当时想：好吧，我们可能真搞出点名堂了。”他深入研究了iPhone相机的性能，探索可能实现的功能。苹果的相机API允许第三方开发者获取全传感器画面，此前已有开发者利用这一特性。唐尼看到了用此功能解决多宽高比问题的机会。通过读取完整传感器数据，他的应用能直接保存原始视频的横竖裁剪版本——全程在相机内完成且不损失分辨率。经过三四个月和大量提示词工程后，他做出了能运行的应用。
“你可能会觉得，给机器输入提示词就会得到准确数据。但我发现事实并非如此……”
项目始于ChatGPT，唐尼也试过谷歌的Antigravity，但他表示真正让项目成真的是Claude。像所有与AI工具打交道的人一样，他学会了应对其古怪之处和不准确性。“我理解自己想创造的产品，也清楚所需的功能和效果，但有时候（Claude给出的）回复并不准确，”他说，“你可能会觉得，给机器输入提示词就会得到准确数据。但我发现并非如此，所以不得不纠正它。”基于这一认识，他称自己会对AI提出的每项要求进行双重、三重核查。
应用就绪后，他研究了上架苹果应用商店的流程。看起来可行。“我当时想：好吧，那就放上去分享吧。”他将应用定为一次性付费6.99美元。上线12小时内，DualShot Recorder便登顶商店付费应用榜首。唐尼回忆，应用连续八天保持第一，截至本文撰写时仍位列前20。
市场反响极为热烈。如今售价为9.99美元，但仍无订阅制、不收集用户数据，视频全程保留在设备本地。应用还提供精细的画质和分辨率控制，甚至支持同一设备双摄像头同时录制。其价值主张简洁得令人耳目一新。唐尼表示，拒绝自动收集用户数据至关重要，但这导致定位和修复Bug更加困难。他正着手添加故障排除功能，方便用户遇到问题时发送错误报告。
对唐尼而言，这既令人应接不暇又充满活力。“我睡眠严重不足，但其实不介意，”他告诉我，“我崇尚平衡，但当某件事让你充满动力时，难免会为此失眠。现在正是这种情况。”他将这次创业形容为令人振奋的经历，并赋予了他新的人生目标。但他也承认，维护成功应用可能需要某种转型。“大量新挑战接踵而至，我正坦然拥抱这一切。”
唐尼向粉丝坦诚自己的心理健康状况，并指出与松鼠朋友们的互动帮助他走出了低谷。当他的频道偶尔沉寂时，他会更新动态说明自己状态不佳不便创作。他的社群十分包容，他说：“他们总说‘别急，慢慢来。我们不会离开，会一直在这儿。’”
无论他所拥抱的变化将带他去向何方，唐尼表示有件事不会改变：陪伴松鼠们。随着应用上线后的“混乱”（他如此形容）逐渐平息，他已能重新抽出时间陪伴理查德、玛克辛和其他毛茸茸的访客。“当我陷入抑郁时，是它们陪伴着我。它们就是家人。所以即便我没能像往常一样在网上活跃，我依然会照顾它们。”

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英文来源：

It’s not hyperbole to call DualShot Recorder an overnight sensation.
How the internet’s favorite squirrel dad made the hottest camera app of 2026
Viral wildlife creator Derrick Downey Jr. vibe-coded his way to a hit app in DualShot Recorder.
How the internet’s favorite squirrel dad made the hottest camera app of 2026
Viral wildlife creator Derrick Downey Jr. vibe-coded his way to a hit app in DualShot Recorder.
It took only 12 hours from the time it was released to hit number one on the App Store’s list of top paid apps. It was a surprise success — but what’s even more surprising is the app’s origin story: it all started with a cadre of friendly neighborhood squirrels and their favorite caretaker.
Derrick Downey Jr. built a career on short-form videos documenting his interactions with the squirrels that visit his patio in LA. His Instagram and TikTok accounts each have well over a million followers (myself included) who know well the regular cast of characters: Maxine, Richard, and less frequent but affectionately named visitors like Hoodrat Raymond. Downey treats them to plenty of nuts, custom-built shelters, and trips to the local vet when emergency medical care is needed. It’s delightful and about as wholesome as it gets.
He was looking to spin up a series for YouTube, but he struggled to find a way to capture vertical and horizontal footage simultaneously. Other creators solve for this by using a special rig with two phones or cameras shooting at once, or by cropping the clip to both formats in post-processing. “I tried going out and buying different devices and rigs and gimbals, and additional phones to set up to accommodate for that… but it became too taxing,” he says. “The editing… all of that was too much.” And cropping in post has drawbacks, too: the iPhone camera uses a crop of the full sensor when you record video. Taking a vertical 16:9 crop from the middle of that already-cropped frame means you’re only using a small portion of the total sensor, losing a lot of resolution and limiting your framing options.
Last year, he got the idea to try creating an app to solve the problem. He’s not a software developer, and experimented with ChatGPT to try and vibe-code something. This was unsuccessful, so he put the project to the side. But earlier this year, something told him to try again, he says.
“I went into the code and the camera activated. And I said okay, we possibly got something here.” He did some digging into the iPhone camera’s capabilities to find out what might be possible. Apple’s camera API allows third-party developers to access footage from the entire sensor, which other app developers have taken advantage of in the past. Downey saw an opportunity to use this capability to solve the multiple aspect ratio problem. With this full sensor readout, his app could save horizontal and vertical crops from that original video — all in-camera without losing resolution. Three or four months and a lot of prompt engineering later, he had a working app.
“You would think that because you’re giving the prompts to this machine that it would give you accurate data. But I found that not to be the case…”
The project started with ChatGPT, and Downey tried using Google’s Antigravity as well, but he says that Claude was the tool that really made it possible. And like anyone who has worked with AI tools, he learned to deal with its quirks and inaccuracies. “I understand the product that I’m trying to create, I understand the functionality and what I’m looking for, and there have been moments when the response [Claude gave] wasn’t accurate,” he says. “You would think that because you’re giving the prompts to this machine that it would give you accurate data. But I found that not to be the case, so I would then have to correct it.” Recognizing that, he says he double checks and triple audits everything he asks it to do.
With the app ready, he says he looked into the process of putting it on Apple’s App Store. It seemed doable. “I was like, alright, well let’s just put it on there and share it.” He priced it at a one-time cost of $6.99, and within its first 12 hours, DualShot Recorder became the number-one paid app in the store. It remained in that top spot for eight days, Downey recounts, and is still in the top 20 at the time of this writing.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. The price is $9.99 now, but there’s still no subscription and no user data collected, and videos stay entirely on your device. The app also includes plenty of granular controls over quality and resolution, and it also lets you record from two different cameras on the same device at once. It’s a refreshingly simple value proposition. Downey says that it was important to refrain from automatic user data collection, but that has made it harder to pin down and fix bugs. He’s working on adding a troubleshooting feature so users can send an error report when they encounter problems.
It’s been an overwhelming but invigorating change for Downey. “I’ve been losing a lot of sleep, which I don’t mind, really,” he tells me. “I’m all about balance, but when something is fueling you, sometimes you lose sleep over it. And that’s what’s been going on.” He describes the venture as exciting, and giving him a new sense of purpose. But he acknowledges that maintaining a successful app might call for a pivot of some kind. “It’s a lot of new things coming up, and I’m embracing that.”
Downey is open about his mental health with his followers, and he credits his interactions with his squirrel friends as something that helped lift him out of a dark time. At times when his channel has gone quiet, he’ll share an update that he’s not in the right space to create videos. His community is supportive, he says. “They’re like oh, take your time. We’re not going anywhere. We’ll be here.”
Wherever the change that he’s embracing takes him, Downey says that one thing isn’t changing: spending time with the squirrels. With the initial “chaos” as he calls it dying down from the app launch, he’s been able to get back to dedicating time to Richard, Maxine, and his other furry visitors. “They met me in a space when I was going through depression. And that’s family. So even if I really haven’t been able to show up online like I usually do, I’m still taking care of them.”
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