Issue 611

26^th May 2023

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

Now that Apple is running the primarily online but one-day on-site version of WWDC that we’re about to enjoy for the second time, it finally feels like we can look at what a modern WWDC looks like.

As someone lucky enough to enjoy many on-site WWDCs in the past, that “one-day” event felt a little disappointing compared to what happened pre-COVID. All the people I met and friends I made over the years, those events were fun and hugely beneficial. I don’t regret a penny of the … well, let’s not think about how much I spent on them over eleven years of attending in person. 😬

But as I was gathering links to community-organised events for the newsletter, I found more and more in-person events stretching that “one day” into an entire week, if that’s what you’re looking for. There are additional official Apple events on the Sunday before and the Tuesday after the keynote, and so many community-run events. The wwdc.community team are organising several Cupertino-area events throughout the week, and there are also sponsored parties, meet-ups halfway up a climbing wall, and of course, what WWDC week is complete without a James Dempsey and the Breakpoints show?

So where are the rest of the links I mentioned I was gathering? It turns out that this year, Paul Hudson’s repository of WWDC events has an comprehensive list of Cupertino events, virtual events, and other in-person events worldwide. I’ll defer the task of trying to capture everything to the team of people managing that effort and thank everyone who is getting involved in making this week bigger and better. It’s also worth mentioning that Apple has a great list of worldwide community events, too.

I don’t think we’ll ever get back a five-day on-site conference, and that’s fine! There are plenty of reasons to attend in person if you want to and are able to.

Dave Verwer

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News

If, and it’s a HUGE if, Apple announces anything related to AI in Xcode, this is how they’ll do it. I’d also add to Daniel Jalkut’s thoughts that it will run entirely on-device and send none of your code to their, or anyone else’s, servers.

… and that’s the reason I’m going to say there will be no Xcode-based AI announcements this year. That’s my prediction.

I love reading through and downloading apps from this list every year. As always, good luck to all of the finalists! 🚀

Code

Want to read a real-world example of the Layout protocol? Here’s Matthaus Woolard with precisely that. It’s a good read, and their Exsto app, where this code comes from looks fascinating!

Even though WebP has been around for many years, support for the file format on macOS is still limited. So, what happens when you want to let your users open an image in that format? Lee Kah Seng takes us on a journey into opening files with PHPickerViewController.

Design

Talking about some “how to” design writing, here comes Marc Edwards!

Jobs

Swift Product Engineers @ The Browser Company – Fully remote, diverse team building an all-Swift web browser and bringing Swift to other operating systems. Series A, well-funded and a seasoned engineering team. We’re building a beloved product by thinking differently about how we work and the future of the internet. – Remote (within US or European timezones)

Mac & iOS Software Engineer @ Flexibits Inc. – We make Fantastical and Cardhop, award-winning calendar and contacts apps for Mac and iOS. We were honored to win Apple’s Mac App of the Year in 2020 and we’re looking to make our apps even better! Our team is a 25 person, fully-remote company spread across the US and Europe. – Remote (within US or European timezones)

Senior iOS Developer @ Shareup – Want to build something new? Join our small, design-led team at @shareupapp to build the fastest, easiest, and most secure way to share anything with anyone. We use Apple’s best tech, including Swift Concurrency, Combine, Catalyst, UIKit, and SwiftUI, and you’ll work closely with our talented team. – Remote (within European timezones)

Don’t forget that more jobs are available at iOS Dev Jobs. Sign up for the weekly jobs digest email, grab the iOS or macOS app, and never miss an opportunity again.

And finally...

The Swift Package Index lives on the island of Swiftoria. Just a short ferry ride across the sea from Discordia and Proxyland. Where do your projects live?