iOS Newsletter
Hi folks!
This week brings a dose of reality about where we stand with AI development. Andrej Karpathy’s talk reminds us we’re “summoning ghosts, not building animals” — a valuable perspective as the hype cycle continues. Meanwhile, concerns about software quality collapse across the industry make our focus on craftsmanship even more critical.
On the technical front, iOS 26.1 Beta 4 introduces the Liquid Glass transparency toggle and lock screen camera controls, while the Swift @Animatable macro gets broader platform support.
This issue explores architectural patterns (MVVM with SwiftData, singleton thread-safety), platform-specific features (visionOS 3D models, immersive web experiences), and developer practices that separate fast engineers from great ones. We also dive into server-side Swift with Valkey, debugging with dSYMs, and AI as a development partner.
Stay sharp, aim for excellence, and let’s build things that matter.
Development
The Fast Engineer Trap
Chasing speed in engineering breeds bad habits — but why does slowing down actually build trust, depth, and lasting growth? Aryaman Sharda reflects on a career lesson about moving fast versus moving smart.
With AI, I can just build things!
How is AI transforming your ability to code beyond your specialization? An Tran demonstrates using AI as a multilingual engineering partner.
Is SwiftData incompatible with MVVM?
Thinking MVVM and SwiftData don’t mix? Matteo Manferdini reveals how proper understanding of SwiftUI’s core principles makes them perfectly compatible.
Concurrency
Singletons with Swift Concurrency
Are your singletons causing concurrency headaches in Swift 6? Matt Massicotte breaks down the thread-safety challenges and shows practical patterns for making them work.
visionOS
Exploring the Different Ways to Load 3D Models in visionOS
Ready to bring spatial experiences to life? Anas Belkhadir explores different ways to load and integrate 3D models using RealityKit.
Adding Immersive Environments to a Web Page
Want to blow your users’ minds with immersive web experiences? Joseph Simpson walks through creating website environments using USDZ files in visionOS 26.
Framework
The Valkey Swift Package: from Local to Serverless
Need a lightning-fast in-memory store for your server-side Swift app? Natan Rolnik shows how to connect to Valkey from local Docker containers to serverless Lambda functions.
Tools
Adding dSYMs from a closed-source Swift SDK to an app
Getting cryptic stack traces from closed-source SDKs? Daniel Saidi explains how to add dSYMs to transform those useless crash reports into readable ones.