Issue 639

8^th December 2023

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

You’ll almost certainly have seen links to the new mlx repository during this week. It’s a new project from a machine learning research group inside Apple, so it makes sense that the repository description is “An array framework for Apple silicon”. That’s certainly a description written by a research group rather than a marketing department, especially when you look into what it does.

The examples repository shows more of what it’s capable of, with samples covering transformer language models, LLaMA, LoRA, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAI’s Whisper. There’s also a quick start guide and more documentation if you want to explore further.

Why is this significant? We have all those things already, right? We do, but think about how and where Apple likes to do most of its AI processing: On-device.

This library is optimised for Apple Silicon chips, and speeding up AI models on the devices we have in our pockets, on our wrists, in our ears, on our desks, and coming soon to our faces is essential if Apple wants to continue processing most data locally. It isn’t how other companies approach AI, but it makes perfect sense that it would be how Apple looks at it, given their history and marketing around privacy.

I know nothing about Apple’s plans, but it makes a lot of sense that whatever they do will be primarily (or entirely) on-device, and this repository is one clue that this remains important to them. 🕵️

Dave Verwer

Sponsored Link

AppSweep by Guardsquare helps developers automate the mobile app security testing process with fast, free scans. By using AppSweep’s actionable recommendations, developers can improve the security posture of their apps in accordance with security standards like OWASP. Get started now.

News

When Xcode Cloud first launched, Apple promised 25 hours per month of free usage until the end of 2023. It’s December, so you might have been expecting a bill or started making alternative arrangements, but there’s no need for either! What started as an introductory offer is now the free tier for Xcode Cloud. That’s good news by anyone’s standards!

Tools

Want to play with a new developer tool? Marin Todorov has a round-up of all the side projects he has worked on this year. Unfortunately, my favourite idea on the list, MarkPlayground, doesn’t seem to be available anywhere, which is a shame as it solves a problem I occasionally have. I also like the idea of Breadcrumbs, and that’s available, as are most of the others!

Code

It’s nice that Mac apps have a standard “About” box that automatically picks up the version, build number, app name, and icon. But if you want to do more (no, not this much), do you need to start from scratch? Daniel Saidi shows us how to customise rather than replace.

We can all agree it’s a good idea to make your apps accessible, but are you doing enough to meet the requirements of the countries you are selling your apps in? Domenico De Luca and Pasquale Vittoriosi look at some of the regulations around the world and how you can check your compliance with them.

I’ve said it many times, but I love a blog post that’s so clearly drawn from real-world experience as this one from Damian Mehers is. It’s a short post covering how he used Atomics and ManagedAtomic from swift-atomics to tame PhotoKit.

Design

Nested views that all have rounded corners can be tricky to get right, but is there an easy solution to determine how rounded the inner views should be? Of course there is! David Yang explains.

Videos

Apple’s new journalling app is almost in the hands of millions of people. Is your app going to suggest things they could write about? There’s an API for that, as René Aguirre Ramos from Apple explains in this new Tech Talk.

Jobs

iOS Developer @ Nos.social – Nos social is our attempt to build healthier social media by flipping the power dynamics of social media on their head. It’s part of an emerging social ecosystem built on the Nostr protocol. We’re a fully remote, iOS first, open source, small team working together to build something great. Join us! – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (United States)

Founder/CTO @ XLIO – An opportunity to lead the development of a greenfield project requiring deep macOS integration (this is not “just another” Swift app) which will be installed on hundreds of thousands of devices worldwide. – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (United States)

iOS Dev Jobs is finally posting open positions to Mastodon! Follow @[email protected] for updates on new available positions, and if your company is hiring, you can post jobs for free.

And finally...

I got my Xcode wrapped! ⛄