Category: watchOS

Apple published another beta for iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS Sonoma 14.2, watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2. No new Xcode beta is available.

New beta brings configuration for notification sounds, removes Apple Music collaborative playlists and implements other updates.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

• iOS & iPadOS 17.2 Beta 4 Release Notes
• macOS Sonoma 14.2 Beta 4 Release Notes
• watchOS 10.2 Beta 4 Release Notes
• tvOS 17.2 Beta 4 Release Notes

References:

• Everything New in iOS 17.2 Beta 4
• iOS 17.2 beta 4 lets users change default notification sound; removes collaborative playlists

This week is quite short in US. So, good reads come early this time.

• How to migrate to a new schema with SwiftData in iOS by Natascha Fadeeva is a good start for those who want to adopt new persistence framework;
  
  
• Small development perspective on Assistive Access by Jordan Morgan – Checking Out Assistive Access;
  
  
• Optimizing paywall placement: The key to unlocking more app subscribers by Peter Meinertzhagen goes through monetization approach for mobile apps;
  
  
• Keith Harrison explores SwiftUI Split View implementations – SwiftUI SplitView Compact Column Control;
  
  
• Mark Szymczyk covers Core Data code generation issues and how to deal with some of those – Dealing with Core Data Duplicate Class Errors;
  
  
• Scoped animations in SwiftUI by Majid Jabrayilov covers animation techniques in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee goes through testing techniques for modern Swift concurrency – Unit testing async/await Swift code;
  
  
• How to Generate a Useful Xcode Gitignore to Avoid Noise in Git by Jon Reid will help to make better project handling with git;
  
  
• Using Observation framework outside of SwiftUI by Natalia Panferova explains use of new observation macros;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese goes through algorithms in Conquering the Climbing Stairs Challenge with Swift: A Dynamic Programming Approach.

And with this, we're wrapping up. See you next week for another pack of good reads!

It's Friday. Actually it is rainy Friday here in Bay Area, so it's a perfect weather to read through some of great reads for developers.

• Natascha Fadeeva guides on how to adopt new localization workflow – How to migrate from Localizable.strings to String Catalogs;
  
  
• If you like to try working in other text editors – The complete guide to iOS & macOS development in Neovim by Wojciech Kulik will be just for you;
  
  
• Another great take by Natascha Fadeeva, this time on subscriptions – How to implemet a free trial period for StoreKit 2 subscriptions in iOS;
  
  
• David Smith experiments with watchOS designs – Matching the Modular Ultra watch face with SF Font Alternatives;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee will help you debug your SwiftUI app – Debugging SwiftUI views: what caused that change?
  
  
• TDD in a SwiftUI World: Let’s Begin! by Jon Reid is a great start into TDD approach;
  
  
• Matteo Altobello continues series on accessibility – Preparing your App for Voice Over: Accessibility Value;
  
  
• Unit Test Expected Failures in Swift by Leonardo Maia Pugliese covers aspect of testing errors that are expected;
  
  
• Emanuele Agosta covers spatial computing concepts in Understanding spatial awareness: immersive experiences;
  
  
• Tiago Gomes Pereira guides through new transitions for numeric values in SwiftUI – Animating numeric text in SwiftUI with the Content Transition modifier.

And this is it for today. We'll be back with new articles next week (probably, a little bit earlier due to Thanksgiving).

New round of beta versions is available for developers. Beta 3 is published for iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS Sonoma 14.2, watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2. Xcode 15.1 beta 3 is also available with visionOS 1.0 beta 6 runtime and simulator.

Apple also readies RC for previous major releases – macOS Monterey 12.7.2 and macOS Ventura 13.6.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

• iOS & iPadOS 17.2 Beta 3 Release Notes
• macOS Sonoma 14.2 Beta 3 Release Notes
• watchOS 10.2 Beta 2 Release Notes (release notes are not yet updated)
• tvOS 17.2 Beta 2 Release Notes (release notes are not yet updated)
• Xcode 15.1 Beta 3 Release Notes

References:

• Older macOS versions got release candidate betas on Tuesday too

Apple announces finalists for annual App Store Awards. Finalists are references in several categories – iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV apps of the year, iPhone, iPad and Mac games of the year, Apple Arcade game of the year and cultural impact.

App Store Award winners will be selected from this year’s outstanding group of finalists and will be announced in the coming weeks.

Apple Newsroom

Apple Newsroom: Meet the 2023 App Store Award finalists

Apple Developer: App Store Award finalists announced

Weekend good reads is here with another pack of interesting articles to go over this weekend.

• Natalia Panferova covers SwiftUI hierarchical colors support for backgrounds in iOS 17 – Hierarchical background styles in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Structural type system in Swift is explored by Alex Ozun – Greater type safety with Structural Typing in Swift;
  
  
• Custom Traits and SwiftUI by Keith Harrison is about updates to traits system in iOS 17 and its use in SwiftUI and UIKit;
  
  
• David Smith shares nice approach to make smooth animations for analog clocks – Calculating a Smooth Clock Hands Animation;
  
  
• Visual effects in SwiftUI by Majid Jabrayilov is all about applying transformations to views in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Pasquale Vittorosi provides hints on how to better support VoiceOver in your app – Preparing your App for VoiceOver: customizing the Sort Priority;
  
  
• Domenico De Luca continues topic of accessibility focusing on visual elements – Ensure Visual Accessibility: Glyphs, Icons and Shapes;
  
  
• Adding custom gestures to an AR application with SwiftUI by Matteo Altobello covers augmented reality gestures in SwiftUI.

And that is it for this week. See you next time!

Apple introduced HomeKey several years ago, and now The Connectivity Standards Alliance (Apple is a part of it) introduced Aliro – new open standard for electronic keys. CSA is also responsible for Matter standard.

The standard will include definitions for Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth^® Low-Energy (LE), and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) experiences, as well as asymmetric cryptography and credential data.

CSA

CSA:

• The Connectivity Standards Alliance Announces Aliro, A New Effort to Make Mobile Devices & Wearables Central To A Digital Access Future
• Aliro

Reference: New 'Aliro' Standard Aims to Simplify Unlocking Doors With Smartphones

New crash debugging and backtrace is now available for binaries built with Swift 5.9. Debugger support Structured Concurrency features and properly reconstructs call stack for async functions.

Developers could use interactive interface to navigate through backtrace.

Swift Blog: On-Crash Backtraces in Swift

Over 30 new developer activities are announced by Apple. These include Apple Vision Pro developer labs, App Store sessions, new Apple Vision Pro sessions and 1-on-1 design and technology consultations.

Developers should check schedule for appropriate sessions.

Apple Developer: Over 30 new developer activities now available

Beta 2 is now available for iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS Sonoma 14.2, watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2. Xcode did not get any new beta versions.

This beta enables Spatial Video recording on iPhone 15 Pro.

Record spatial video with remarkable depth for viewing in the Photos app on Apple Vision Pro. For best results, keep iPhone in landscape orientation and stable while recording. Video is recorded at 30 fps at 1080p. A minute of spatial video is approximately 130 MB.

Apple

iOS 17.2 beta 2 also brings new sensitive content warnings across the system – contact posters, FaceTime video messages.

macOS Sonoma 14.2 beta 2 also includes Shazam accessible from menu bar.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

• iOS & iPadOS 17.2 Beta 2 Release Notes
• macOS Sonoma 14.2 Beta 2 Release Notes
• watchOS 10.2 Beta 2 Release Notes
• tvOS 17.2 Beta 2 Release Notes

References:

• iOS 17.2 beta 2 enables Vision Pro spatial video capture on iPhone 15 Pro
• iOS 17.2 Beta 2 Includes Feature for Recording Spatial Video on iPhone 15 Pro
• iOS 17.2 expands ‘Sensitive Content Warning’ for detecting unwanted nudes
• iOS 17.2 to Expand Sensitive Content Warnings on iPhone
• iOS 17.2 Beta 2 Enables Capturing Spatial Video on iPhones 15 Pro
• Shazam comes to your Mac’s menu bar and Control Center in latest beta
• iOS 17.2 beta 2: Here are all of the features and changes