Tag: Machine Learning

First day of WWDC23 was packed with announcements. Here is a list of announcements captured by media.

Optic ID

Apple Vision Pro will have its own biometric authentication based on iris. iOS and iPadOS apps running on headset which use Face ID or Touch ID for authentication will automatically switch to Optic ID for seamless experience.

Siri

Siri now drops "Hey" part of activation phrase. Moreover, you can now do follow-up requests to speed up interaction.

Vision Pro

Apple to provide developers with Development Kit later this year.

Headset will have support for prescription lenses, not all prescriptions will be supported though.

Safari

Safari gains extensive support for web apps in macOS 14 Sonoma. Safari also brings support for spatial computing with <model> tag providing easy way of displaying 3D content alongside with web page.

Health

Follow up notifications to take medications are added. Mental health and vision control features are also built in. Device will now notify users if they're holding device too close to their face.

Various enhancements

• Autocorrect and predictive text were significantly improved in iOS/iPadOS 17.
• iPadOS 17 adds support to external webcams, not just those which are embedded into display.
• AirTags now could be shared between multiple users.
• Used SMS verification codes could be automatically removed.
• App Store Review Guidelines now target fake and "bad" apps.
• Optimized charging comes to more Apple Watch models.
• Developers without paid membership now could install developer betas.
• Stickers in Messages now could be created from photos.
• Video conferencing features with presenter overlay would be available to different applications.
• iOS Photos will recognize pets.

Apple Newsroom: Apple previews new features coming to Apple services this fall

References:

• Apple announces new Optic ID biometrics for user authentication on Apple Vision Pro headset
• Apple says it has fixed iPhone autocorrect with iOS 17
• Siri no longer requires ‘Hey’ command to activate, now has back-to-back requests
• iOS 17 Lets You Share AirTags With Others
• iOS 17 Can Automatically Clean Up Verification Codes That Clog Up Messages App
• Apple to Provide Developers With Vision Pro Development Kits
• Apple Vision Pro Headset Supports Prescription Inserts for Glasses Wearers
• News from WWDC23: WebKit Features in Safari 17 beta
• iOS 17 Introduces Follow-Up Reminders to Take Your Medications
• App Store Review Guideline updates go after fake apps, bad ads
• iOS 17 Tidbits: Enhanced Siri Suggestions, Multiple Timers, Recipe Visual Look Up, and More
• watchOS 10 Extends Optimized Charge Limit to More Apple Watch Models
• Apple Makes Developer Betas Free to Download and Install
• iPadOS 17 Adds Support for Studio Display Webcam and Other External USB Cameras
• You Can Turn Your Photos Into Animated Stickers With iOS 17
• WWDC 2023: New FaceTime Features Coming This Fall
• iOS 17 Photos App Recognizes Your Pets

Okay, I get it, it's weekend before the show. But why would you drop your routine? Let's go through some great technical and one fun article.

• Let's follow the hype with some ChatGPT related topics from Michal Tynior – Pitfalls of the ChatGPT and Fine-tuning OpenAI models;
  
  
• Natascha Fadeeva provides review of CI/CD concept – Continuous integration and delivery for iOS;
  
  
• Network Path Monitoring by Keith Harrison provides modern way to monitor network availability;
  
  
• Marco Eidinger shares interesting hints on debugger usage – Skip code during debugging in Xcode;
  
  
• Mastering Swift Foundation Formatter API. Basics by Majid Jabrayilov refreshes knowledge on data formatting in Swift;
  
  
• Point-Free Pointers provide guidance on navigation in Composable Architecture – Navigation tools come to the Composable Architecture;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee explores code sharing between server and client code in Swift – Share Swift Code between Swift On Server Vapor and Client App;
  
  
• SwiftUI: Trailing label TextField by Magnus Jensen is great example of making nice task-focused UI control;
  
  
• Natalia Panferova gives hints using compositing groups in SwiftUI – Using compositing group for unifying shapes within buttons in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Tiago Gomes Pereira gives great overview of accessibility in SwiftUI – Preparing your App for Voice Over: Labels, Values and Hints;
  
  
• Amazing post on sophisticated debugging techniques by Bruno Rocha – Performance Trace Profiles in iOS: Debugging performance issues you can't reproduce.

And, as promised, fun one – refresh your Apple history knowledge with WWDC 2023: The Pregame Quiz by Jordan Morgan.

Get ready for WWDC23 – next week will be definitely packed with new stuff we'll be learning the whole summer!

It is May already. In just a month WWDC23 will give us tons of things to watch, to read and to try. And today we'll go through something interesting too.

• Learn how to detect language of the text with How to detect the language of a text with the Natural Language framework in Swift by Natascha Fadeeva;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee explains how @MainActor works – MainActor usage in Swift explained to dispatch to the main thread;
  
  
• Developing Mixed-Source Swift Packages by Daniel Langh covers use of different languages in Swift Package Manager;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov explains multiple uses of overlay in SwiftUI – The power of overlays in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Tips and Tricks for Using ContainerRelativeShape in SwiftUI by Leonardo Maia Pugliese is a great guide on little less known shape in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Jordan Morgan explains how debug apps that use tabular data – Using TabularData to Dump Model Data;
  
  
• Sarun W. covers some aspects of Xcode Previews – Xcode Previews: What is it, and how to use it and Detecting if SwiftUI app is in Xcode Previews.

And that is it for today. Have a great weekend, have some time for self-education. And we'll be counting days til WWDC :) See you next week!

Setapp conducted Mac Developer Survey recently and now shares the results.

Notable findings are reported by 9To5Mac:

• 60% of the surveyed Mac developers are interested in distributing their iOS apps through third-party app stores, given the opportunity. Key motivations — growing the number of users and adding a revenue stream.
• Almost 1⁄3 of the surveyed Mac developers distribute their apps solely outside the Mac App Store.
• 39% of respondents have already implemented ChatGPT in their development flow, while another 41% are working on that.
• 44% of respondents have already implemented AI/ML models in their apps, and 28% are working on it.
• 87% of developers put effort into making their apps accessible, with visual impairments getting the most focus.
• 75% of the surveyed Mac developers have felt the impact of the economic downturn on their businesses.

Setapp: Mac Developer Survey 2023

Reference: Setapp Dev Survey results: Third-party iOS app store interest measured, ChatGPT adoption, more

It's middle of March, summer is closer and closer. We've got eleventh pack of great articles for this year.

• Developer guide on machine learning for iOS with Core ML by Natascha Fadeeva gives great start on how to add machine learning capabilities to your app;
  
  
• Interesting trick by Magnus Jensen – Blendmode trick: SwiftUI reverse mask;
  
  
• Keith Harrison continues his series of articles on various SwiftUI elements – Context Menus for Tables;
  
  
• Keep your CoreData store small by vacuuming by Marco Eidinger shows usually unseen side of keeping data in local database;
  
  
• Lee Kah Seng talks about making widgets interactive – How to Handle Tap Gestures on Widgets?;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov shows how to use XCTest framework to do performance testing – Performance testing in Swift using the XCTest framework;
  
  
• SwiftUI Toolbar: Everything You Need to Know by Leonardo Maia Pugliese is a great guide on toolbars from SwiftUI perspective;
  
  
• Peter Meinertzhagen discusses importance of localization in the apps – Why localization has been so important for kids app, Pok Pok;
  
  
• Donny Wals goes through structured concurrency in Swift – The basics of structured concurrency in Swift explained.

And that is it for today. Have a great spring weekend!

Apple requires BlueMail app developers to set its rating to 17+ due to use of generative AI models which potentially could provide responses not suitable for children.

This rule could be then extended to all apps working with generative models, especially GPT models which are getting traction recently.

References:

• Apple Seemingly Restricting Generative AI Apps to 17+ or Older App Store Rating
• Apple blocked ChatGPT-powered email app BlueMail; requires 17+ age restriction
• Apple Blocks Update of ChatGPT-Powered App, as Concerns Grow Over AI’s Potential Harm

Weekend is here, and so are good reads for Apple developers. Let's go!

• Keith Harrison shares great productivity tips on multi-cursor editing in Xcode – Xcode Multi-Cursor Editing;
  
  
• Article by Marco Eidinger explains some aspects of string case – Transforming the Case of Strings in Swift;
  
  
• Automate your CI/CD pipelines with fastlane – Quick guide on fastlane for iOS development by Natascha Fadeeva;
  
  
• Using User Defaults to store preferences in Swift by Antoine van der Lee goes into one of the persistence option in Swift;
  
  
• Okay, ChatGPT is everywhere, let's build an app for that – Creating a SwiftUI App to interact with the OpenAI ChatGPT API by Moritz Philip Recke;
  
  
• Lee Kah Seng covers widget configuration – How to Create Configurable Widgets With Static Options?;
  
  
• And Krzysztof Zabłocki continues his series on widgets too – Widget Architecture - Part 3;
  
  
• Swift Regex Tutorial: Getting Started by Ehab Yosry Amer goes through modern approach to regular expressions in Swift;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov continues his series on charts – Mastering charts in SwiftUI. Customizations.;
  
  
• DocC is getting more attention lately – How we migrated our SDK docs to DocC at RevenueCat by RevenueCat provides interesting insights on actual migration to it;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese covers animations in SwiftUI – The Art of Sequential Animations in SwiftUI: Tips, Tricks, and Examples;
  
  
• Styling in SwiftUI is covered in Composable Styles in SwiftUI by Kasper Lahti;
  
  
• One important hint by Christian Tietze if you're dealing with files in your apps – PSA: FileManager.trashItem (Maybe) Uses NSFileCoordinator Under the Hood Automatically, So You Shouldn't to Prevent Deadlocks;
  
  
• Reading keyboard modifiers on iPad in SwiftUI by Natalia Panferova helps to make your iPad app more keyboard-friendly.

And that is it for today. See you next week with another pack of great articles!

Apple to host in-person developer event for employees dedicated to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

While this event is targeted to Apple employees only, it might result in more announcements on AI future in Apple platforms, ChatGPT competition and possible future directions for Siri.

This event also gives some hints that in-person WWDC might be hosted in 2023.

References:

• Apple to hold in-person ‘AI summit’ event for employees at Steve Jobs Theater
• Apple to Hold In-Person Annual 'AI Summit' for Employees at Steve Jobs Theater

Hey there! This week we have many great reads for the developers, so – buckle up!

This week we'd like to pay our respects to Ray Wenderlich and his portal. Now it has new name – Kodeco. It is still great source of useful content for developers and we'll even share couple of articles today.

• But, we'll start with great article on secure memory management from Apple Security Engineering and Architecture team – Towards the next generation of XNU memory safety: kalloc_type;
  
  
• And another great read is Apple Developer article with great usages of Dynamic Island – Spotlight on: The Dynamic Island;
  
  
• Moritz Philip Recke explores video preparation for streaming – Converting video files for HLS streaming;
  
  
• Create a Card with an Image Outside its Bounds in SwiftUI by Leonardo Maia Pugliese is a great walkthrough on SwiftUI with out-of-bounds drawing;
  
  
• Magnus Jensen shows good example of placing button for different device types – Better placements of bottom buttons in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Natalia Panferova shares two articles on different aspects of development – Fill bar marks with gradient in Swift Charts to make your bar charts nicer and good hint on app localization review – Check localizable strings with the accented pseudolanguage in Xcode;
  
  
• Great review of recent Bluetooth audio vulnerability in iOS by Guilherme Rambo – SiriSpy - iOS bug allowed apps to eavesdrop on your conversations with Siri;
  
  
• Another great SwiftUI guide – Create Custom Cell with Placeholder UI Using UIHostingConfiguration by Lee Kah Seng;
  
  
• As promised – couple of great articles on Kodeco – State Restoration in SwiftUI by Tom Elliott will help make your app more magical for users, App Shortcuts: Getting Started by Andrej Vukelic guides on making app better integrated into iOS and Building a Recommendation App With Create ML in SwiftUI Saeed Taheri focused on machine learning practical usages;
  
  
• Jordan Morgan raises important question for those who use SwiftUI – Presenting Sheets: Item, or a Boolean Binding?;
  
  
• Refactoring Swift: Best Practices to succeed by Antoine van der Lee gives good tips on refactoring;
  
  
• Two articles from Marco Eidinger – How to handle popups and alerts in WKWebView on web content navigation cases in iOS apps and good unit conversion guide with new Swift Measurement API – Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit and back in Swift.

That's a lot for this week. Have time for rest and some time to read something interesting!

Last weekend before August. Hopefully, it would be sunny and still there will be some time to read great articles on development.

• WeatherKit: Build a Simple iOS Weather App by Makwan Barzan covers new addition to Apple's services for developers;
  
  
• Natascha Fadeeva shared Quick guide on associated domain files for iOS development to cover important topic for app vs website integration;
  
  
• ViewThatFits in SwiftUI by Majid Jabrayilov explores new layout approach in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Jordan Morgan explains accessibility in SwiftUI in Modifier Monday: .accessibilityActions();
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee explores integration of UIKit in SwiftUI in UIViewRepresentable explained to host UIView instances in SwiftUI;
  
  
• How to Use the SwiftUI PhotosPicker by Lee Kah Seng explains new native SwiftUI photo picker competent;
  
  
• Sarun W. writes great article on SF Symbols 4 – Variable Color in SF Symbols 4;
  
  
• Eager Grids with SwiftUI by Javier covers Grid view in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Natalia Panferova provides useful hints on Swift Charts – Using Measurements from Foundation for values in Swift Charts;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese shares Common Swift Task Continuation Problem to cover important topic on new Swift concurrency model;
  
  
• CreateML Tutorial for iOS: Creating a Customized Image Filter using Style Transfer by By Vijay Subrahmanian provides great usage example for CreateML.

And that's it for today! Have a great weekend!