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  

Find and Fix Vulnerabilities in your iOS apps

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.

guardsquare.com  

Xcode Cloud remaining free for 25 hours/month

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!

apple.com  

Marin's Side Project Tools from 2023

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!

trycombine.com  

How to customize the macOS About Panel in SwiftUI

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.

danielsaidi.com  

Exploring accessibility regulations and guidelines

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.

createwithswift.com  

AsyncStream in the real world

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.

damian.fyi  

The power of the 8-Point Grid Guide

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.

y4ng.fr  

Discover the Journaling Suggestions API

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.

apple.com  

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I got my Xcode wrapped! ⛄