Tag: iCloud

Apple hosted its Wonderlust special event. As expected, Apple unveiled new iPhones and Apple Watch models.

Apple Watch Series 9

New Apple Watch Series 9 gets new S9 system-on-chip with updated CPU and GPU. New screen now has brightness up to 1,000 nits. And lowest brightness is now 1 nit. S9 allows on-device Siri recognition for many use cases.

New "double tap" hand gesture (similar to previously implemented accessibility features) allows one hand responses and actions to be performed on Apple Watch.

New UWB chip will improve Apple Watch spatial awareness, allowing, for example, precise iPhone lookup with directions and distance display.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Ultra 2 gets same S9 system-on-chip, screen is improved to have 3,000 nits maximum brightness.

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are powered by A16 chip introduced in iPhone 14 Pro models.

iPhone 15 models now gain Dynamic Island. Charging port is now changed to USB-C with USB 2.0 data transfer speeds.

Also, iPhone 15 main camera is now similar to iPhone 14 Pro with 48MP resolution.

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

iPhone 15 Pro is running on A17 PRO chip. iPhone 15 Pro has titanium frame to reduce weight. Mute switch is replaced by Action button. iPhone 15 Pro Max has 5x camera with pentaprism design. USCB-C connector in iPhone 15 Pro supports USB 3.0.

Also iPhone 15 Pro could record spatial videos that will provide depth when viewing in Apple Vision Pro.

iPhone 15 Pro Max now has base model with 256GB of storage.

iCloud Storage Tiers

Apple introduces new iCloud storage tiers – 6TB and 12TB available for purchase later priced $30 and $60 respectively.

FineWoven

Apple now replaces leather accessories with new FineWoven material. This includes Apple Watch bands as well as iPhone cases.

OS Updates

Release Candidates are now available for iOS/iPadOS 17, macOS 14 Sonoma, watchOS 10 and tvOS 17. As well as iOS and iPadOS 16.7. Xcode 15 is also available as Release Candidate.

iOS/iPadOS 17, watchOS 10 and tvOS 17 are to be released on September 18. macOS 14 Sonoma will be released on September 26.

You could watch event replay on YouTube.

Apple Newsroom:

• Apple advances supplier clean energy commitments
• Apple introduces the advanced new Apple Watch Series 9
• Apple announces new Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Apple unveils iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
• Apple unveils Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Apple unveils its first carbon neutral products
• Apple upgrades AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with USB‐C charging
• Apple debuts iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus

Release notes:

• iOS & iPadOS 17 RC Release Notes
• macOS Sonoma 14 RC Release Notes
• watchOS 10 RC Release Notes
• tvOS 17 RC Release Notes
• Xcode 15 RC Release Notes

References:

• Apple Watch Series 9 Unveiled With S9 Chip, 'Double Tap' Gesture, and More
• Apple Unveils Apple Watch Ultra 2 Featuring Faster S9 Chip, New Ultra Wideband Chip, and Apple's Brightest Ever Display
• Apple will no longer use leather accessories, instead opting for FineWoven
• Apple Announces 'FineWoven' Material, Will No Longer Make Leather Accessories
• Apple announces iPhone 15: USB-C port, 48-megapixel camera, Dynamic Island, new colors
• Apple Announces iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus With USB-C Port, Dynamic Island, and More
• iPhone 15 replaces Lightning port with USB-C
• AirPods Pro 2 now available with new USB-C charging case
• Apple Introduces New AirPods Pro Charging Case and EarPods With USB-C
• Apple announces iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max with titanium case, USB-C, Action button, A17
• Apple Announces iPhone 15 Pro With Titanium Design, Action Button, A17 Pro Chip, and More
• iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 to be released for iPhone and iPad on September 18
• Apple’s September 2023 Wonderlust Event: Replay Today’s Keynote and Product Videos
• Apple Announces Availability Dates for New iPhones and Apple Watches

While we wait for next beta of visionOS SDK there are still a lot of interesting topics to get familiar with.

• Jordan Morgan covers WidgetKit and AppIntents – Create an Interactive Widget Using App Intents;
  
  
• How to create a custom reusable toolbar in SwiftUI by Natascha Fadeeva goes through some hints to build reusable views in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Marco Eidinger explains complicated uses of Xcode Cloud – Using Swift packages with authentication in Xcode Cloud;
  
  
• Sarah Reichelt goes through modern SwiftUI data flow – SwiftUI Data Flow 2023;
  
  
• And following with Migrating to Observable by Keith Harrison on migration to @Observable macro;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov covers formatting in Mastering Swift Foundation Formatter API. Custom Format Styles;
  
  
• Inspect Web Content on iOS 16.4+ by Marco Eidinger helps making web content inspectable;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese explains animations in SwiftUI – Difference Between Implicit and Explicit Animations in SwiftUI;
  
  
• App Intents Spotlight integration using Shortcuts by Antoine van der Lee explains use of App Intents with Shortcuts;
  
  
• Embracing CloudKit by Stuart Wheelwrigh is a cycle of articles covering CloudKit integration.

And that a wrap for this week. Come back next Friday for another big pack of interesting reads.

Apple raised prices for various iCloud+ subscription tiers in several countries including UK.

‌iCloud‌+ Subscription	Previous UK Price	New UK Price
50GB	£0.79/month	£0.99/month
200GB	£2.49/month	£2.99/month
2TB	£6.99/month	£8.99/month

Price increases are also reported in Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Notably, Apple One subscription prices remain unchanged in these countries.

References:

• Apple increases iCloud storage prices in the UK and other markets
• Apple Hikes iCloud+ Subscription Prices in Many Countries Around the World

WWDC23 week is over, all announcements are already made, Apple and developers are going through highlights of the conference.

Apple lists important sessions on spatial computing, developer tools, Swift, UI frameworks, design, graphics and games, ML, privacy and security, and other topics.

Apple also asks developers to take part in survey that could shape the future of conference.

macOS 14 Sonoma

Developers highlight FaceTime reactions, presenter mode for screen sharing and various of other features.

Widgets availability for macOS should help bringing more apps to Mac from iPhone and iPad.

Another area of interest is support for web apps.

tvOS 17

Apple TV is to support VPN apps with tvOS 17. This will put tvOS on par with other Apple platforms.

Also, tvOS will improve sound for dialogs to make voice more audible. This feature requires second generation HomePod (original HomePod and HomePod mini are not supported) and Apple TV 4K.

iOS/iPadOS 17

DockKit SDK and Standby mode bring interesting capabilities for apps and also could hint on more standalone home devices.

Autocorrect in standard keyboard is expected to become much better with iOS 17.

iCloud

iCloud Drive now could be switched off and third-party apps will still be able to sync via iCloud.

Vision Pro

Analysts expect that more affordable version of Vision Pro will be released in 2025.

M2 Ultra

Benchmarks for M2 Ultra show significant improvements over M1 Ultra chips. New chip is 20% faster than previous generation.

Apple Developer:

• WWDC23 highlights
• WWDC23 resources and survey

References:

• macOS Sonoma Tidbits: New FaceTime UI, Safari Profiles, Screen Sharing Improvements, and More
• macOS 14 feature roundup: Presenter Overlay, Reactions, widgets, more
• Apple TV to Support VPN Apps on tvOS 17
• WWDC 2023: Here’s everything Apple announced this week
• iOS 17 has new DockKit API to integrate camera apps with motorized iPhone stands
• Top Five iOS 17 Features
• tvOS 17 helps you hear what people are saying in shows, when using HomePods as speakers
• CloudKit and the iCloud Drive Switch
• Apple still aiming to release a more affordable version of Vision Pro by the end of 2025
• M2 Ultra Chip Benchmark Results Reveal Impressive Performance Gains

Sun is back here in Bay Area, weekend is probably going to be quite hot. And we've a lot to read – even couple of not-so-technical articles. Let's dive in.

• How to implement a UIViewController delegate when working with SwiftUI by Natascha Fadeeva covers Coordinator use in SwiftUI UIViewControllerRepresentable;
  
  
• Keith Harrison explains technical aspects of file access in Accessing Security Scoped Files;
  
  
• Christian Tietze shares a hint on how to open Safari on Mac regardless of default browser settings – Safari (for Mac) URL Scheme;
  
  
• How to Define Custom URL Actions for SwiftUI Text Views by Lee Kah Seng covers customization of URL opening handlers in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee explains Universal Links in iOS – Universal Links implementation on iOS;
  
  
• David Smith shares his design findings in Changing Corners and Designing a Step Goal Live Activity;
  
  
• Exploring Circular Paths: How to Create a Circular Text View in SwiftUI by Leonardo Maia Pugliese covers interesting use of Path with Text in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Jordan Morgan provides a beginner's guide to SwiftPM – Creating a Swift Package: Quick Start Gotchas;
  
  
• How to use AttributedString in UIKit by Sarun W. helps to simplify use of attributed strings in SwiftUI and UIKit;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov explains how to easily export and import data via files in SwiftUI – File importing and exporting in SwiftUI;
  
  
• And finishing up with couple of general engineering articles: Dive into People-First Leadership: A Key to Successful Dev Teams, The Hidden Costs of Not Upskilling: Why Developer Training Matters and Going Indie: building a foundation, finding clients, and negotiating rates.

Hope you have time to read these great articles and we'll meet again next Friday!

Just recently we announced Canopy, and now there is another library to sync data over CloudKit.

CloudSyncSession is a Swift library that builds on top of the CloudKit framework to make it easier to write sync-enabled, offline-capable apps.

CloudKitSession

In case of CloudSyncSession data is not persisted locally by the library. Overall, design principles are described in documentation:

1. Persistence-free. Data is not persisted to disk.
2. Testable. Code is structured in a way to maximize how much behavior can be tested.
3. Modular. To the extent that it makes sense, different behaviors are handled separately by different components.
4. Event-based. State is predictable, as it is updated based on the series of events that have previously occurred.
5. Resilient. Recoverable errors are gracefully handled using retries and backoffs. Non-recoverable errors halt further execution until the app signals that work should be resumed.
6. Inspectable. The current state of the session can be evaluated for troubleshooting and diagnostics.
7. Focused. This project aims to solve a particular use case and do it well.

GitHub: CloudSyncSession

Reference: CloudSyncSession

Tact developers released library to work with CloudKit as open source – Canopy.

Canopy helps you write better, more testable CloudKit apps. It isolates the CloudKit dependency so you can write fast and reliable tests for your CloudKit-related features, and implements standard CloudKit-related behaviors.

GitHub: Canopy (documentation)

Reference: CloudKit code from Tact is now available as Canopy open-source library

Apple plans to shut down iCloud and other Apple services for older OS releases according to @StellaFudge.

https://twitter.com/StellaFudge/status/1643410897635799042

iOS 11 – 11.2.6, macOS 10.13 – 10.13.3, watchOS 4 – 4.2.3 and tvOS 11 – 11.2.6 are expected to loose access to iCloud services later this year. No formal confirmation from Apple is yet issued though.

References:

• Apple Services Except iCloud to Stop Working on Some Older Software Versions
• Apple to shut down its online services for devices running older software

Weekend is coming with several great reads this time. Let's dive in!

• Point-Free Pointers finish their SwiftUI cycle – Modern SwiftUI: Parent-child communication, Modern SwiftUI: Identified arrays, Modern SwiftUI: State-driven navigation, Modern SwiftUI: Dependencies, Modern SwiftUI: Testing;
  
  
• Jaanus Kase covers aspects of iCloud encryption in CloudKit – What Advanced Data Protection for iCloud means for Tact and other apps that use CloudKit;
  
  
• David Smith is continuing his design series – DND 18: Creating Custom SF Symbols and DND 19: Designing for Smaller Dynamic Type Sizes;
  
  
• SwiftUI View's internals covered by Chris Eidhof – Variadic Views;
  
  
• Natalia Panferova covers ShareLink customizations in SwiftUI – Customize ShareLink appearance with view modifiers;
  
  
• Krzysztof Zabłocki continues his article on widget architecture – Widget Architecture - Part 2;
  
  
• A Less Evil NotificationCenter? by Jordan Morgan proposes an approach on better usage of NotificationCenter in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Natascha Fadeeva provides good guide on keychain – Developer guide on keychain for iOS;
  
  
• How To Speed Up Swift By Ordering Conformances by Noah Martin explains how Swift protocol conformances impact app launch time;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov continues his series on charts – Mastering charts in SwiftUI. Custom Marks.;
  
  
• Swift Package String Localization by Keith Harrison guides through details of providing localized resources in Swift packages;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese explains how to deal with nested ObservableObject's in SwiftUI – The Nested Observables Problem in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Iterating over web socket messages with async / await in Swift by Donny Wals guides through structured concurrency usage with sockets;
  
  
• Two great articles by Marco Eidinger: minimizing device backup size – Prevent your app's files from being included in iCloud Backup and money-saving advice for GitHub Actions – Save money when using GitHub Actions for iOS CI/CD;
  
  
• New Scanning and Text Capabilities with VisionKit by Warren Burton covers on-device image recognition tools in VisionKit framework;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee advices on how to simplify testing of push notifications – Testing push notifications on the iOS simulator;
  
  
• And finishing with two articles by Douglas Hill – NSPredicate: an old API with new surprises and Using JavaScript in a Swift app.

This is a lot for a weekend, so choose wisely. :)

Apple publishes updates to some of its operating systems. iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and macOS 13.2 get updates. tvOS and HomePod software are not yet updated. Also, no new Xcode is released.

This update also brings iCloud Advanced Data Protection to all users worldwide.

iOS 16.3

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

• New Unity wallpaper honors Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month
• Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices
• Support for HomePod (2nd generation)
• Emergency SOS calls now require holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent inadvertent emergency calls
• Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
• Addresses an issue where the wallpaper may appear black on the Lock Screen
• Fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max
• Fixes an issue where the Home Lock Screen widget does not accurately display Home app status
• Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests
• Resolves issues where Siri requests in CarPlay may not be understood correctly

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

iPadOS 16.3

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

• Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices
• Support for HomePod (2nd generation)
• Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
• Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

watchOS 9.3

watchOS 9.3 includes new features, improvements and bug fixes, including new Unity Mosaic watch face to honor Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month.

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

macOS Ventura 13.2

This update introduces Security Keys for Apple ID, and includes other enhancements and bug fixes for your Mac.

• Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key to sign in
• Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
• Fixes an issue where VoiceOver may stop offering audio feedback while you are typing

Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices. For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

Updates to previous platforms

Apple also updates OS releases for devices which could be be updated to latest software. These updates were releases with security fixes:

• iOS 12.5.7
• iOS 15.7.3
• iPadOS 15.7.3
• macOS Big Sur 11.7.3
• macOS Monterey 12.6.3

References:

• Apple Releases watchOS 9.3 With New Watch Face, Bug Fixes
• Apple releases macOS 13.2 with support for Security Keys, 20 security fixes, and more
• Apple gives some older iPhones OS updates, going back to iPhone 5s
• iOS 16.3 Features: Everything New in iOS 16.3