1 00:00:03,112 --> 00:00:08,172 Hey folks, it's been a while, but welcome to another episode of Empower Apps. 2 00:00:09,232 --> 00:00:14,572 I got back from my wonderful trip to England and speaking and doing a 3 00:00:14,612 --> 00:00:20,562 workshop at Swift Craft just recovered from a wonderful case of strep, but 4 00:00:20,952 --> 00:00:24,672 I am excited to be here to talk to you about what's new and what's been 5 00:00:24,792 --> 00:00:26,432 happening in the last 10 months. 6 00:00:27,932 --> 00:00:34,581 Obviously, the big thing in software development has been AI and AI dev 7 00:00:34,661 --> 00:00:39,821 tooling, agentic-assisted development. 8 00:00:40,461 --> 00:00:43,481 So we'll definitely be talking about that today. 9 00:00:43,501 --> 00:00:46,471 But I want to start off by talking about my conferences this year. 10 00:00:47,501 --> 00:00:52,931 So that's essentially my plan for the summer is I just finished up 11 00:00:53,091 --> 00:00:55,181 Swift Craft That was wonderful. 12 00:00:55,241 --> 00:00:58,261 That was in Folkestone back in May. 13 00:00:59,361 --> 00:01:03,101 I ran a three-hour workshop on Swift automation. 14 00:01:03,181 --> 00:01:07,121 I'm hoping to continue posting blog posts, videos about that. 15 00:01:07,681 --> 00:01:13,481 If you've seen my work on Tuist and Mise, I go into details about 16 00:01:13,541 --> 00:01:18,851 how to set up a project there, and hopefully that that will be a start 17 00:01:18,891 --> 00:01:20,371 of a blog series I'll be doing. 18 00:01:20,431 --> 00:01:25,831 I'm working on a thing on Fastlane and Swift packages and CI, so 19 00:01:25,851 --> 00:01:27,151 be on the lookout for those. 20 00:01:27,891 --> 00:01:32,051 And then, of course, I did my talk on CloudKit for the server, 21 00:01:32,071 --> 00:01:36,931 and specifically talking about MistKit which we'll get into later. 22 00:01:37,011 --> 00:01:39,111 And I just had a really great experience. 23 00:01:39,351 --> 00:01:42,611 Kevin put on a great conference, and it was great to see folks like 24 00:01:42,711 --> 00:01:49,371 Joannis talk about WendyOS and Daniel do his talk on Breathe. 25 00:01:49,811 --> 00:01:55,231 Which, you know, nowadays I find this myself, that, I feel 26 00:01:55,241 --> 00:01:57,051 like my work is more focused. 27 00:01:57,171 --> 00:02:02,091 I've … If I can find the article that I had read, but I find that my work 28 00:02:02,211 --> 00:02:06,591 is faster and more intense with AI. 29 00:02:06,971 --> 00:02:12,291 So, you know, I really appreciated pun intended, Daniel's f- breath of 30 00:02:12,321 --> 00:02:15,841 fresh air in regards to that, and just taking breaks and things like that. 31 00:02:15,981 --> 00:02:21,061 Really great talks from Oliver Binz on foundation models, which I've just started 32 00:02:21,071 --> 00:02:25,921 playing around with, and I'm excited to see what more gets done next week at WWDC. 33 00:02:26,741 --> 00:02:32,401 And then Jan from the Apple Developer Academy in Naples, which was really 34 00:02:32,461 --> 00:02:41,601 cool, and stuff from Lucy about the about enums, which I totally agree with. 35 00:02:41,981 --> 00:02:44,601 They'll hopefully share videos, 'cause there were some really good talks. 36 00:02:45,281 --> 00:02:46,821 I can't even go and list them all. 37 00:02:47,621 --> 00:02:55,001 But yeah, and then that was Swift Craft and then I'll be speaking in Grand Rapids 38 00:02:55,081 --> 00:02:57,661 this August fift- 14th through 15th. 39 00:02:58,501 --> 00:03:01,581 I'll be speaking the 15th at Beer City Code. 40 00:03:01,761 --> 00:03:08,101 I'll be doing my Swift automation workshop, but as a talk, and 41 00:03:08,181 --> 00:03:11,751 then I'll also be talking about vibe coding and agentic software 42 00:03:11,771 --> 00:03:14,471 development there as well. 43 00:03:14,551 --> 00:03:17,331 So be on the lookout for that as well. 44 00:03:18,091 --> 00:03:24,041 If you're interested in getting a preview of that, I did that at the Boston and New 45 00:03:24,071 --> 00:03:26,911 York developer groups earlier this year. 46 00:03:27,731 --> 00:03:31,881 So if you I'll put a link to the Boston talk specifically 47 00:03:32,501 --> 00:03:33,791 so you can check that out. 48 00:03:34,381 --> 00:03:41,201 And then I will be in Wales this September to speak at iOSDevUK 49 00:03:43,841 --> 00:03:48,481 and there I will be giving my talk on CloudKit as the backend. 50 00:03:49,201 --> 00:03:53,301 So, more stuff about MistKit so I'm excited for that as well. 51 00:03:54,001 --> 00:03:57,741 Just kind of want to give you, you know, my brief views on AI, 52 00:03:58,041 --> 00:04:01,341 'cause there's been a lot going on. 53 00:04:01,351 --> 00:04:07,311 I feel like we're current- sort of at a somewhat bubble phase with regards to it. 54 00:04:07,881 --> 00:04:09,541 I'm kind of hearing a lot more 55 00:04:12,452 --> 00:04:17,753 Companies are not really interested in getting you to spend as 56 00:04:17,813 --> 00:04:20,172 much on tokens as you used to. 57 00:04:21,032 --> 00:04:24,293 And I was pretty skeptical of it at first, just with being 58 00:04:24,373 --> 00:04:27,772 burnt on VR NFTs in crypto. 59 00:04:28,333 --> 00:04:31,013 It felt like the latest new thing. 60 00:04:31,213 --> 00:04:35,853 But then as I started using ChatGPT in '22, you know, I could see, yeah, this 61 00:04:35,913 --> 00:04:37,513 is actually really useful for things. 62 00:04:38,353 --> 00:04:41,433 And lately I've deep dived into it. 63 00:04:41,533 --> 00:04:46,192 A lot of my work over the last year has been all done through Claude Code. 64 00:04:46,953 --> 00:04:50,293 Starting to try to get more into Codex and other things I wanna learn, like 65 00:04:50,473 --> 00:04:53,733 skills and agents and that kind of stuff. 66 00:04:54,693 --> 00:05:00,846 And I think where it really excels is a lot of boilerplate and tests and docs. 67 00:05:01,006 --> 00:05:05,146 If it, if there's a pattern, existing pattern out there, it's pretty good 68 00:05:05,186 --> 00:05:06,836 at applying that to what you're doing. 69 00:05:08,236 --> 00:05:11,846 I think what's gonna end up being a problem in the next couple weeks is Apple 70 00:05:11,866 --> 00:05:16,246 is not gonna have a lot of… Well, Apple will have some example code, but the 71 00:05:16,286 --> 00:05:18,566 models at least won't be trained on it. 72 00:05:18,686 --> 00:05:22,346 So I think that's gonna be a problem next week. 73 00:05:22,386 --> 00:05:26,546 We'll see if new APIs and various things are gonna be available. 74 00:05:26,706 --> 00:05:32,946 I know it took me six months to teach it that macOS 26 and iOS 26 were actually 75 00:05:32,986 --> 00:05:36,626 real and released, but hopefully we don't run into that again with 27. 76 00:05:36,986 --> 00:05:38,246 We'll see. 77 00:05:38,346 --> 00:05:42,526 But yeah, in my talk I go over more stuff like power grabbing issues and 78 00:05:42,876 --> 00:05:45,876 misaligned testing and things like that. 79 00:05:46,036 --> 00:05:51,296 So we'll, yeah, we'll talk about that in a future video hopefully. 80 00:05:51,946 --> 00:05:55,526 And you can also check my talk as well at Beer City Code, or check 81 00:05:55,546 --> 00:05:57,606 out the video I did at Boston. 82 00:05:59,566 --> 00:06:04,236 So when it comes to s- the Swift automation stuff, what I talk about 83 00:06:04,296 --> 00:06:11,296 there is kind of how we have this great AI tool available to us, and what I'm 84 00:06:11,316 --> 00:06:20,136 trying to set up now is a way to like automate a lot of the process that takes 85 00:06:20,196 --> 00:06:24,836 away from the creativity, I guess, and the coding of developing a, an app. 86 00:06:25,176 --> 00:06:30,116 Things like setting up your Xcode project, setting up your App Store, Fastlane 87 00:06:30,276 --> 00:06:36,706 stuff so you can get a smooth delivery to the App Store CI, your developer 88 00:06:36,796 --> 00:06:42,516 tools, et cetera, and have it easily re- repli- replicatable, not only in CI, 89 00:06:42,616 --> 00:06:44,836 but for other developers on your team. 90 00:06:44,956 --> 00:06:48,626 One of the things I do is I've built and I just released a new version, 91 00:06:48,806 --> 00:06:52,866 1.5.5 I believe, of swift-build which allows you to easily build a 92 00:06:52,906 --> 00:06:57,246 Swift package for any platform or OS. 93 00:06:57,286 --> 00:06:58,296 And that means for visionOS, 94 00:07:00,436 --> 00:07:07,286 for Windows Server 2025, for Android, for WASM if you're doing web stuff. 95 00:07:07,886 --> 00:07:09,026 It does all that. 96 00:07:09,126 --> 00:07:13,526 And it makes it really easy for you to set up a Swift package CI for all those OSs. 97 00:07:14,986 --> 00:07:16,246 So yeah, I'm kind of working on that. 98 00:07:16,286 --> 00:07:23,066 That was basically the crux of my workshop and it is what what I'll be doing my 99 00:07:23,106 --> 00:07:27,606 blog series on and hopefully we'll get some videos out on that as well. 100 00:07:27,726 --> 00:07:31,686 So yeah, that would be the Swift automation side of things 101 00:07:31,746 --> 00:07:33,216 as far as AI is concerned. 102 00:07:34,901 --> 00:07:40,621 And then as far as projects that I've been working on, so we've got packages. 103 00:07:40,901 --> 00:07:44,441 I jumped back into MistKit I did a whole talk about how I jumped 104 00:07:44,481 --> 00:07:49,321 back into it, thanks to Cl- Claude Code and the OpenAPI generator. 105 00:07:49,841 --> 00:07:52,921 Hopefully that'll come out, and then you probably will see 106 00:07:53,001 --> 00:07:54,541 my blog post on that as well. 107 00:07:55,261 --> 00:07:59,561 But basically, the idea behind MistKit is I've run into situations … Previously 108 00:07:59,561 --> 00:08:05,062 with Heartwitch I had been doing some stuff where I was allowing you to link 109 00:08:05,121 --> 00:08:10,672 your Apple Watch to the website using CloudKit, and so I had to use MistKit 110 00:08:11,263 --> 00:08:17,022 for, of the Vapor app to pull your Apple Watch essentially from that. 111 00:08:17,062 --> 00:08:19,542 And then the, that way your Apple Watch can easily authenticate 112 00:08:19,603 --> 00:08:20,982 and send health stats. 113 00:08:21,882 --> 00:08:25,843 So, that was the private database, but then I've started more dabbling 114 00:08:25,884 --> 00:08:27,363 into the public database stuff. 115 00:08:27,983 --> 00:08:33,643 With Bushel, I wanna move over all the restore images and that, that database 116 00:08:33,703 --> 00:08:38,503 to a public CloudKit database, and then that way there's a central repo where 117 00:08:38,563 --> 00:08:45,055 you can pull up all the versions of macOS that you can run in a Bushel VM. 118 00:08:45,154 --> 00:08:46,275 So I'm working on that. 119 00:08:47,194 --> 00:08:51,014 And there's another app I'm working on, if you've heard about, where I was 120 00:08:51,055 --> 00:08:58,004 gonna u- have MistKit use that to pull RSS feeds and store that in CloudKit. 121 00:08:58,425 --> 00:09:01,944 So there were a lot of things where CloudKit on the server made 122 00:09:02,024 --> 00:09:04,925 sense, and that's where MistKit is. 123 00:09:05,044 --> 00:09:09,704 I'm, like, got … I wanna say there's a few things with Zones I 124 00:09:09,745 --> 00:09:14,145 gotta finish up and some stuff with sharing that I need to get into. 125 00:09:14,204 --> 00:09:17,724 I just added subscriptions and notifications, which is really sweet. 126 00:09:17,804 --> 00:09:23,465 So yeah, we talked about swift-build SyntaxKit I want to keep working on that. 127 00:09:23,515 --> 00:09:26,955 Building a DSL for creating Swift code. 128 00:09:27,215 --> 00:09:31,285 It'll be really helpful for folks who are doing anything with macros 'cause they 129 00:09:31,315 --> 00:09:35,735 can h- basically write Swift code using s- kind of like a SwiftUI-type syntax. 130 00:09:36,555 --> 00:09:40,075 I'm excited for that, and I'll be… It's a really great way to 131 00:09:40,115 --> 00:09:44,935 experiment with AI and agentic coding, so yeah, that's gonna be awesome. 132 00:09:45,555 --> 00:09:49,615 And then as far as apps, obviously I'll keep working on Bushel. 133 00:09:49,735 --> 00:09:53,195 I'm working on some really cool stuff with guest tools and the thing with 134 00:09:53,405 --> 00:09:55,445 CloudKit, so that'll be moving along. 135 00:09:56,165 --> 00:09:59,965 And then I've run into an issue where there's some tools, agentic tools, 136 00:10:00,035 --> 00:10:02,365 where the tokens reset every month. 137 00:10:03,305 --> 00:10:11,665 So I've begun a r- launch an app called MonthBar which allows you to see how much 138 00:10:11,705 --> 00:10:17,425 is left in the month, and that way you can kind of gauge whether what type of model 139 00:10:17,525 --> 00:10:23,805 you wanna use and whether you want to use a more high effort, expensive model, 140 00:10:24,105 --> 00:10:29,355 or you want to use a cheaper model until your time is up and then start switching. 141 00:10:29,445 --> 00:10:31,505 So definitely check out MonthBar there. 142 00:10:32,505 --> 00:10:36,545 And then I am currently working on a watchOS app called At Least. 143 00:10:37,445 --> 00:10:42,595 I do s- stuff like exercises or meditations where it's not 144 00:10:42,625 --> 00:10:46,525 really a… Like I don't want to set a timer for when to stop. 145 00:10:47,325 --> 00:10:50,525 I want to set a timer for how long I want to do it for at 146 00:10:50,585 --> 00:10:51,885 least a certain amount of time. 147 00:10:53,225 --> 00:10:58,605 And so the idea would be is like I want to do like pushups for a 148 00:10:58,645 --> 00:11:03,665 minute, but I, if I do it more than a minute, like b- better for it, right? 149 00:11:03,745 --> 00:11:08,335 Or I'd want to do a meditation for 15 minutes, but at least 15 minutes. 150 00:11:08,345 --> 00:11:09,825 But if I go over, that's fine. 151 00:11:09,845 --> 00:11:11,285 If I go under, that's a problem. 152 00:11:11,705 --> 00:11:17,045 And so the idea behind At Least is it uses haptics to tap your wrist 153 00:11:17,325 --> 00:11:19,795 while you're active doing something. 154 00:11:20,675 --> 00:11:24,895 And you could set how strong you want those taps are, and 155 00:11:24,995 --> 00:11:28,935 then the taps will… It'll stop tapping you when the timer is up. 156 00:11:30,319 --> 00:11:35,459 And then you can tap it on your wrist to stop the timer, and it'll let you 157 00:11:35,479 --> 00:11:37,889 know if you're done or not, basically. 158 00:11:37,919 --> 00:11:41,079 So that is currently in TestFlight so you can check that out. 159 00:11:41,119 --> 00:11:42,239 I'll post a link to the website. 160 00:11:42,279 --> 00:11:45,219 It's atleast.app, and MonthBar is month.bar. 161 00:11:45,779 --> 00:11:48,649 Really memorable names for domains. 162 00:11:49,209 --> 00:11:50,409 So check that out. 163 00:11:50,529 --> 00:11:55,569 I'm looking forward to more testers and users of these apps and ideas, so 164 00:11:55,609 --> 00:12:01,309 let me know in the comments below or in the reviews or social media, whatever. 165 00:12:02,259 --> 00:12:05,649 So, as far as, like, work right now, I I am looking for new work. 166 00:12:05,949 --> 00:12:10,569 I am looking to help your team when it comes to Swift, agentic development. 167 00:12:10,599 --> 00:12:12,929 It could be freelance, contract, part-time, full-time 168 00:12:13,869 --> 00:12:15,499 dev relations, SDK work. 169 00:12:15,889 --> 00:12:16,389 Let me know. 170 00:12:16,429 --> 00:12:17,589 Reach out to me. 171 00:12:17,709 --> 00:12:20,189 I am available for that this summer. 172 00:12:20,229 --> 00:12:26,068 And then I'm gonna be offering my time for free to folks who need help with 173 00:12:26,098 --> 00:12:29,858 their software development career, need some guidance or coaching. 174 00:12:29,938 --> 00:12:34,218 Or if you want some help with AI-assisted development automation, 175 00:12:34,338 --> 00:12:39,178 CI automation, Swift-specific automation yeah, let's chat. 176 00:12:39,398 --> 00:12:41,078 I'm offering my time to you. 177 00:12:41,648 --> 00:12:43,108 It's 30-minute slots. 178 00:12:43,618 --> 00:12:48,507 I'll post a link to the consultation s- calendar through ZCal. 179 00:12:48,568 --> 00:12:52,388 It's zcal.co/leogdion/consultation. 180 00:12:53,168 --> 00:12:55,978 Or you can just email me leo@brightdigit.com or 181 00:12:56,028 --> 00:12:56,988 reach out to me on social. 182 00:12:57,088 --> 00:13:00,608 But if you wanna get a slot, get them quickly it… 'cause 183 00:13:00,628 --> 00:13:01,608 they're gonna be going fast. 184 00:13:01,708 --> 00:13:04,278 So free 30-minute consultation, zcal.co/leogdion/consultation 185 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,260 last but not least, as far as podcasts, I'll be recording 186 00:13:14,300 --> 00:13:15,620 episodes at least this summer. 187 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:21,100 With WWDC coming, I wanna get those in, and I wanna talk about what's new, 188 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:24,020 and I wanna talk about AI, I wanna talk about what the future of Swift. 189 00:13:24,900 --> 00:13:28,550 So reach out to me if you're interested in coming on. 190 00:13:28,620 --> 00:13:29,600 I'd love to hear from you. 191 00:13:30,580 --> 00:13:34,100 The next episode will be the one with Joannis which I'm recording tomorrow. 192 00:13:34,820 --> 00:13:38,970 So I'm excited to talk to Joannis His stuff with WendyOS is really interesting. 193 00:13:39,050 --> 00:13:42,230 I enjoyed his show- his showcase, his what do you call it? 194 00:13:43,490 --> 00:13:44,050 Workshop. 195 00:13:44,890 --> 00:13:48,530 So I'm really excited to check that out and talk about that on 196 00:13:48,550 --> 00:13:50,610 the podcast about Swift Everywhere. 197 00:13:51,590 --> 00:13:55,600 So we did that episode with Mark on Android, so we'll be 198 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:56,920 kind of expanding on that. 199 00:13:57,900 --> 00:14:03,360 And then, I will be doing another episode with Peter next Monday June 8th. 200 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:09,060 The … We'll figure out a time, but basically another keynote and 201 00:14:09,219 --> 00:14:11,160 platform state of the union discussion. 202 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:17,080 If you're on Patreon, you can check out the live stream we'll be doing. 203 00:14:17,340 --> 00:14:19,420 We might even do it on YouTube for everybody else, 204 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:22,760 so check that out for sure. 205 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,740 And then I'm working on getting the newsletter back up, moving 206 00:14:26,780 --> 00:14:30,280 that from Mailchimp to Buttondown, which is gonna be so much nicer. 207 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,380 So if you're not a subscriber to the newsletter, I'll post a link 208 00:14:34,660 --> 00:14:36,980 in the notes, so check that out. 209 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:41,310 And then I just wanna thank everybody first of all, my Patreon supporters, 210 00:14:41,890 --> 00:14:47,280 like Steve Lipton, who've really helped me a lot with everything and 211 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:51,240 that's been fantastic, but the folks on social media as well who've been really 212 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,340 encouraging and loved some of the stuff I've been putting out this year already. 213 00:14:55,100 --> 00:14:57,900 If you're not a Patreon supporter, definitely consider it, because more and 214 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:03,040 more stuff is gonna be going there and early access to episodes, discussions, 215 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:05,180 you know, first access to stuff. 216 00:15:05,220 --> 00:15:06,340 So check that out. 217 00:15:08,055 --> 00:15:10,175 Subscribe to the newsletter https://buttondown.com/brightdigit 218 00:15:12,975 --> 00:15:14,515 Link again in the show notes. 219 00:15:14,815 --> 00:15:19,114 And then if you like my show, a review would be super helpful. 220 00:15:19,854 --> 00:15:23,633 Please leave a review in your podcast player or subscribe. 221 00:15:24,394 --> 00:15:27,235 Like and subscribe, I believe is what they say on YouTube, so that 222 00:15:27,274 --> 00:15:28,915 would be super helpful as well. 223 00:15:29,774 --> 00:15:30,554 Thank you again. 224 00:15:30,814 --> 00:15:34,774 I am glad to be back, and I'm looking forward to chatting with Joannis tomorrow 225 00:15:34,835 --> 00:15:36,194 and chatting with Peter next week. 226 00:15:36,734 --> 00:15:39,654 So subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the YouTube channel if you wanna 227 00:15:39,675 --> 00:15:40,994 make sure you don't miss those. 228 00:15:41,734 --> 00:15:49,154 And then, yeah, follow me on social media @leogdion, @leogdion@c.im. 229 00:15:49,195 --> 00:15:50,474 My company is BrightDigit. 230 00:15:51,434 --> 00:15:54,474 Again, if you wanna chat with me, I'm available. 231 00:15:54,794 --> 00:16:00,554 You can schedule a time at zcal.co/leogdion/consultation. 232 00:16:02,515 --> 00:16:05,374 Thank you everybody, and I look forward to talking again. 233 00:16:05,634 --> 00:16:05,874 Bye.