Empower Apps

Daniel Steinberg returns to chat about Apple's Foundation Models framework and what changed in OS 27. We get into using AI only where it's appropriate, experimenting with #Playground, falling back gracefully when the model isn't there, when Private Cloud Compute is worth the trip, sessions, instructions and @Generable, tools and dynamic profiles, testing with the new Evaluations framework, and why...

Graham Lee returns to chat about what it takes to become a software centaur: using AI to get better at the craft, not just faster. We get into why the job was never about typing code, meat proxies and Jevons paradox, his catalog of interaction patterns for AI-augmented development, why a model shouldn't mark its own homework, and Axminster, his UML-based macOS app that gives LLMs a design to follo...

Georg Tuparev stops by to chat about software that outlives its plans: projects scoped for a few months that are still in development 20 years later. We get into running a small team of physicists and astronomers, why WebObjects and EOF are still in production, where AI helps and where it falls short, server-side Swift with SwiftNIO, and storing exabytes of telescope data from observatories no cab...

Tim Condon stops by to chat about Vapor 5, the biggest Vapor release in six and a half years. We get into dropping futures and promises for Swift concurrency all the way down the stack, Span and strict memory safety, and the new shared Swift HTTP server. Guest Tim Condon Tim Condon (@0xTim@hachyderm.io) - Mastodon Tim Condon (@0xtim.bsky.social) - Bluesky 0xTim (Tim Condon) Vapor Related Links Vap...

Stewart Lynch stops by to chat about using AI to learn faster instead of just letting it write your code. We get into planning in stages before you build, why Markdown is the universal language of AI, and the tiny "donkey work" tools he vibe codes for himself. Guest Stewart Lynch Stewart Lynch 🇨🇦 (@StewartLynch@iosdev.space) - Mastodon Stewart Lynch (@stewartlynch.bsky.social) - Bluesky Stewart Ly...

Jared Sorge stops by to chat about Arborist, his native Mac command center for Git work trees. We get into running agents in parallel with work trees, when to drop from SwiftUI down to AppKit, and selling a Mac app outside the App Store with Sparkle, Stripe, and RevenueCat, and somehow end up talking about the iPhone Duo. Guest Jared Sorge Jared Sorge (@jsorge@mastodon.social) - Mastodon jsorge (J...

Saleem Abdulrasool joins us to chat about bringing Swift to Windows. We get into server-side Swift, SwiftWin32, Swift's C++ interop, and how to get started yourself. Guest Saleem Abdulrasool compnerd (Saleem Abdulrasool) Saleem Abdulrasool (@compnerd) - Fosstodon Saleem Abdulrasool (@compnerd) / X Related Links Porting by a 1000 Patches: Bringing Swift to Windows (2019 LLVM Developers' Meeting) -...

Donny Wals returns to talk through a year of agentic coding. We go through how it's changed his architecture decisions, reviewing PRs he didn't write himself, managing tasks and context across parallel agents, and the gym-workout crash he fixed from his phone mid-set — plus where he still doesn't trust the agent: SwiftData migrations. Guest Donny Wals Donny Wals 👾 (@donnywals.bsky.social) — Blues...

After almost 250 episodes, Leo gives an update on what he's working on and what he's interested in. From passive timer apps, static site generation, to sub repos and RSS feeds. Related Links WWDC 2026 & Celestra Celestra WWDC26: What's new in the Foundation Models framework WWDC26: Meet Core AI Bushel swift-build brightdigit/swift-build Introducing swift-build (blog post) Swift.org Nightly Too...

Software development has changed a lot. On today's episode, Joe Fabisevich talks about building with AI without falling into the trap of "work slop," why prompting is a communication skill, where Apple fits in, and Broadcast — his new Swift logging library for developers and AI agents. Guest Build.ms Joe Fabisevich :verified: (@mergesort@macaw.social) - Macaw-Social Joe Fabisevich (@mergesort.me)...

Cihat Gündüz returns to break down everything from WWDC 2026. We go through Swift 6.4's quality-of-life wins, Apple turning Foundation Models into a full agentic harness, Xcode 27's agent and built-in skills, Device Hub, and where we land on the iPhone Fold. Guest Cihat Gündüz (@Jeehut) / X Cihat Gündüz (@Jeehut@iosdev.space) - iOS Dev Space Cihat Gündüz (@jeehut) on Threads FlineDev Related Links...

Peter Witham joins us to talk about today's Platforms State of the Union. Is Apple Intelligence here? Is Liquid Glass here? Where's  John Ternus?  Guest Peter Witham - Developer, Podcaster, Streamer CompileSwift Podcast Peter Witham | LinkedIn Peter Witham - YouTube CompileDev - Twitch Peter Witham (@compileswift) • Instagram photos and videos CompileSwift | Facebook Peter Witham (@Compileswift@io...

Joannis Orlandos stops by to chat about WendyOS, an operating system for bringing Swift and AI to robots, drones, and edge devices. We get into running Swift on NVIDIA Jetson and Raspberry Pi hardware, the future of cross-platform Swift across Android, Windows, and Wasm, and somehow end up arguing about whether you should let LLMs format your code at all. Guest Joannis Orlandos Joannis Orlandos (@...

After ten months away, Leo's back. He covers Swift Craft 2026, the rest of his speaking year (Beer City Code, iOSDevUK), and his honest take on AI dev tooling. Plus updates on MistKit, SyntaxKit, swift-build, MonthBar, and a new watchOS app called AtLeast (in TestFlight now). He's open to work, offering free 30-minute consultations, and a live WWDC 2026 episode is coming. Subscribe so you don't mi...

Kaya Thomas ( kayathomas.is ) comes back after half a decade to tell us about how motherhood inspired her new app Milk Diary ( milkdiary.com ). She talks about using new APIs like Foundation Models, SpeechAnalyzer, and AlarmKit to handle the complex stuff other  feeding apps miss: intelligent scheduling and reminders, combo feeding that's actually easy to track, hassle-free tracking for twins and...

Rachel Brindle, maintainer of Nimble and Quick, comes on to talk about what's new in Swift Testing and what the future of Swift Testing may hold. Guest Rachel Brindle Rachel Brindle (@younata@hachyderm.io) - Hachyderm.io younata (Rachel Brindle) Rachel Brindle (@rachelbrindle) • Instagram photos and videos Related Links What's new in Testing, 2025 Edition nalexn/ViewInspector: Runtime introspectio...

Kabir Oberai joins us to talk about xTool, Cross-platform Xcode replacement and how Xcode works under the hood to build apps. Guest Kabir Oberai Kabir Oberai (@kabiroberai@mastodon.social) - Mastodon https://x.com/kabiroberai Announcements macOS Virtual Machine App for Developers - Bushel SyntaxKit - More Friendly SwiftSyntax API Post Show Discussion with Kabir on Patreon BrightDigit Newsletter Re...

Live from CommunityKit, Leo is joined by Matt Massicotte to discuss everything announced today at WWDC 2025. Guest Matt Massicotte - @mattiem@mastodon.social massicotte.org | I write stuff here. Matt Massicotte (@massicotte.org) — Bluesky mattmassicotte (Matt Massicotte) Matt Massicotte | LinkedIn Matt Massicotte (@mattie) / X Announcements BrightDigit #110 - WWDC 2025 = EmpowerApps 200th Episode...

Before Leo heads to California, Peter joins to discuss Apple's crazy year and what we expect from WWDC 2025. Guest Peter Witham - Developer, Podcaster, Streamer CompileSwift Podcast Peter Witham | LinkedIn Peter Witham - YouTube CompileDev - Twitch Peter Witham (@compileswift) • Instagram photos and videos CompileSwift | Facebook GrfxGuru - Github (Peter Witham) Peter Witham (@Compileswift@iosdev....

Werner Jainek and Vojtěch Rylko from Cultured Code talk about their migration of Things Cloud to Server Side with Swift and what they learned along the way. Guest Things - To-Do List for Mac & iOS Things (@things.app) — Bluesky Things (@culturedcode) Things (@things@mastodon.online) Werner Jainek (@jainek@mastodon.social) Vojtěch Rylko Vojtech Rylko (@vry@mastodon.social) Vojtěch Rylko | Linke...

Natalia Panferova former Apple engineer of Nil Coalescing comes on to talk her new book SwiftUI Fundamentals. Guest Nil Coalescing Natalia Panferova (@natpanferova) / X Natalia Panferova (@natpanferova@mastodon.social) - Mastodon Natalia Panferova (@natpanferova.bsky.social) — Bluesky Natalia Panferova | LinkedIn Announcements Join Bushel Beta Join our Patreon! Newsletters | BrightDigit Links Swif...

Marc Prud'hommeaux explains how you can get started building Android apps in Swift, what's the future of the Swift on Android working group, and what's FOSDEM. Guest Marc Prud'hommeaux (@marcprux@mastodon.social) - Mastodon Marc Prud'hommeaux | LinkedIn @marcprux.bsky.social — Bluesky marcprux (Marc Prud'hommeaux) | GitHub   Announcements Join Bushel Beta Join our Patreon! Newsletters | BrightDigi...

What a wild ride 2024 was - from big life changes to surprising shifts in Apple development, I'm sharing the story of what went down this year. After navigating job hunts, tech trends, and some unexpected wins (and losses), I've got some insights about where we're headed in 2025, plus some exciting opportunities for you Swift folks! Announcements Join Bushel Beta Join our Patreon! Newsletters | Br...

Matt Masicotte comes on the show to clear up all our misconceptions about concurrency in Swift 6. 😑 Guest Matt Massicotte - @mattiem@mastodon.social massicotte.org | I write stuff here. Matt Massicotte (@massicotte.org) — Bluesky mattmassicotte (Matt Massicotte) Matt Massicotte | LinkedIn Matt Massicotte (@mattie) / X Announcements BrightDigit 103 - 🎁 Early Black Friday Deals 50% off first year...

Part 2 of our chat with Donny - we discuss the job market, AI, Vision Pro, and of course Swift UI. Guest Donny Wals Donny Wals 👾 (@donnywals.bsky.social) — Bluesky Donny Wals 👾 (@DonnyWals) / X donny wals - YouTube Donny Wals (@donnywals@chaos.social) - chaos.social Donny Wals | LinkedIn Announcements BrightDigit 103 - 🎁 Early Black Friday Deals 50% off first year of Bushel Pro 25% off Patreon...