Apple Developer Weekly #231 WWDC Eve Rumors
Time to register for Group Labs.
From 13
Last week, the tech world was bustling with MS Build, Google I/O, Claude 4 announcement, and in Taiwan we had COMPUTEX and the Generative AI annual conference.
What about Apple's AI news? Wait a bit longer, WWDC is coming soon.
What you can do now is check out the WWDC website and register for any Group Labs that interest you.
13 on May 26, 2025
🌈WWDC Visual Update
Updated to a frosted glass style. Could the rumors about iOS 19 having a major visual overhaul be true?
🌏WWDC Community Events Go Live
Including iPlayground's WWDC Watch Together which is also listed there.
🔬WWDC Group Labs Open for Registration
Group labs are group Q&A sessions, possibly replacing the previous Lounges.
Registration via the Developer app is very convenient. I've already registered for Developer Tools, SwiftUI, watchOS, and other group labs.
The image below shows all the group labs displayed in Taipei timezone.
🤖Claude 4 Announcement
I played around with Claude 4 Sonnet in Cursor over the weekend and felt it has indeed improved, though not quite to the level of "strong colleague" yet. (You can completely ignore these subjective descriptions without data.)
What's clearly observable is that its Swift and SwiftUI knowledge is more up-to-date. The official announcement uses training data from March 2025.
✨GitHub Copilot for Xcode Supports Agent Mode and MCP
I have GitHub Copilot Pro access (due to having larger-scale open source projects) but use Cursor more often.
However, if you're not comfortable with IDEs other than Xcode, GitHub Copilot for Xcode is still a decent alternative.
You can try the free plan before considering an upgrade.
🔃Letting Agents Self-Correct Errors Through XcodeBuildMCP
This is the latest article in my iOS Developer+ column on iOS Development AI Assistant Tools.
It introduces a practical tool called XcodeBuildMCP that gives AI Agents the ability to "compile and find errors themselves." This brings AI closer to the daily workflow of human developers, improving accuracy and efficiency.
🎙️weak self podcast 109: Quitting Cures Everything, But Don't Rush
weak self podcast is back! Season 11 starts with discussions about workplace and mental health topics.
Also, the Podcast now has an official newsletter, so subscribe to stay updated on new episode releases!
🗒️notepad.exe Goes Live
A lightweight tool for writing Swift without needing to launch Xcode, perfect for playing around or teaching.
Whether you want to buy it is one thing, but you definitely need to check out this website. It's an enhanced version of the "Swift Playground" editor, and the website itself is impressive (you can guess the style from the name).
The developer Marcin Krzyżanowski is the author of the well-known package CryptoSwift. I was impressed by his Why? Because I can. back when I was using CryptoSwift.
Looking forward to his long-awaited Swift Studio going live as well.
🛰️pISSStream: Open Source SwiftUI App Showing ISS Urine Tank Capacity
pISSStream is a menu bar app that shows the International Space Station's urine tank's capacity in real-time. It is available for macOS, watchOS, iOS, and visionOS.
For such a unique project, the important part to read is the But Why? section.
🎓Things Cloud Swift Rewrite Success Story
Things is a well-known, established native Todo app for Apple platforms. I'm a long-time user.
Their sync mechanism and server are self-developed. They recently shared a success story of rewriting their entire server codebase in Swift.
Since Things apps are written in Swift, sharing some code with Things Cloud became a viable option.
This story also has technical details published on the official Swift Blog, and you can also watch last year's Server-Side Swift conference presentation.
⚡️Quick Mentions
🌐Google Translate can be set as default translation app in iOS 18.4+
🤝Jony Ive and Sam Altman collaborate to establish io company
💸Trump tweets about 25% tariff on iPhones if not made in America
🐣iOS Development Complete Guide Officially Launched
Are you new to iOS development? Want to know what pitfalls you'll encounter on the iOS development journey?
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The 0th article 🐣iOS Development Complete Guide #0 Business Concepts: What is Apple's Attitude Toward Developers and it also has a Podcast format
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➕iOS Developer+ Recent Content Updates
For advanced iOS developers, I continue to write the iOS Developer+ paid column. Below are recent articles, welcome to subscribe and support.
🪓Setting Goals, Breaking Down Tasks and Tracking Progress—iOS Development AI Assistant Tools #9 I shared how I use ChatGPT as a planning tool, not just for Q&A
↖️Last Issue Highlights
If you've been too busy to read last week's content, here are the highlights:
🗞️iPlayground Launches Official Newsletter and Physical WWDC Watch Party
🤯Apple's Widget Backdoor, The Secret to Making Widgets Animate
That's all for this week's Apple Developer Weekly. Feel free to like❤️, comment💬, or reply✉️ to share your thoughts.
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