Visiting WWDC is always a special experience, but attending is harder than with many other conferences. You have to win the ticket lottery due to the demand, almost everyone will need a flight of some duration, and let’s not even talk about the hotel prices! 😱

That’s a challenge even if you have a company willing to fund you, but it must feel completely out of reach for almost all students, which is why I love that Apple organises the Swift Student Challenge every year. Apple announced the winners this week, and from the 350 winners, Apple picked 50 to attend a three-day event around this year’s conference. 🎉

I got a chance to talk with a couple of the winners this week: AJ Nettles and Dezmond Blair. In previous years, the students have organised to keep track of everyone’s submissions, and I always loved browsing and linking to those repositories each year. There is no 2024 repository, unfortunately, but getting to meet AJ and Dezmond was a treat.

Their apps are impressive, too, with AJ creating a password manager using CryptoKit and Dezmond making a mountain biking companion app using ARKit.

Congratulations to all the winners this year, and I hope those who are attending the conference will make them feel welcome and part of the community.

I’ll finish with some words from AJ, who had this to say when I asked if he had any advice for next year’s students:

“Don’t be afraid to fail. If your code doesn’t compile then try again with a different approach. It will error. It will have bugs. But if you keep trying to improve it, you’ll get there.”

That’s good advice for everyone, not just next year’s students! 👍

Dave Verwer  

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revenuecat.com  

Developer activities

It’s becoming clear that these virtual one-to-one sessions with Apple or “developer activities” are a permanent fixture of what the developer programme offers. Some sessions are specific, covering topics like optimising in-app subscriptions, and some are super broad like a “one-on-one technology consultation” to receive “advice on your app or game”. I’d be fascinated to hear from anyone who has taken advantage of these general technology consultations. Just reply to this email if that’s you!

apple.com  

The Engineering Challenges of Scaling ChatGPT

Let’s start this week’s Code section with a double-hit of ChatGPT. Of course, it’s not directly related to Apple platform development, but I’d guess most of us want to learn more about how LLMs work. In this post, we have Gergely Orosz interviewing Evan Morikawa from OpenAI discussing how ChatGPT works and how hard it is to scale systems like this.

pragmaticengineer.com  

WHY AI Works

Some (most? 😬) of this explanation of why AI works went over my head, but I still learned several things from Bertrand Serlet. I still can’t say I understand why (or how) LLMs work, but this moved me a step closer!

youtube.com  

How to use SwiftData outside SwiftUI

Is it even possible? Of course it is, and Jacob Bartlett is here with a detailed explanation of how to get everything up and running without all the “magic” of SwiftUI.

substack.com  

Swift Server Side Meetup #1

If you missed Wednesday’s inaugural Swift Server Side Meetup, the good news is that YouTube has archived it! Join members of the Swift Server Workgroup for two presentations and plenty of Q&A. I wasn’t able to attend the live session, but from the look of the live chat replay it was a huge success, with lots of discussion and questions throughout!

youtube.com  

Framework Developer @ PSPDFKit – Design API that will affect hundreds of apps, and create UI used by millions of users. Collaborate globally in a small team working on the leading document SDK for iOS, macOS and visionOS. Make the most of a flexible schedule, and attend annual retreats at exciting places around the world. – Remote (Anywhere)

Senior iOS Engineer - Voloco @ Resonant Cavity – Voloco is the best mobile recording studio in the world! Small profitable company with an Engineering driven culture. We ship with minimal process and meetings. You’ll work closely with the founders, who still regularly commit code. – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (United States in CA or MN)

Please do post all your open Swift roles to iOS Dev Jobs. It’s free for standard listings, or upgrade to also have your job featured in the newsletter.

Talking of GPT and friends, join me for our live demonstration of the remarkable productivity gains that CoPilot makes possible… 🫣