The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #38
App Store Awards, Liquid Glass updates, enum architecture tricks, design ethics, retain-cycle pitfalls, battery myths, and a neat SwiftUI shadow effect
🆕 What’s New
Hello Developer: December 2025
Apple’s December Hello Developer roundup highlights the 2025 App Store Award winners, new Liquid Glass design activities, fresh videos, and updates to the HIG and documentation. A quick, clean snapshot of what’s new across the developer ecosystem.
📚 Must Read
Swift Enum Hidden Magic Tricks
A sharp breakdown of why senior iOS engineers treat enums as architecture, not syntax. The article demonstrates how enums eliminate impossible states, eliminate boolean soup, and transform messy flows into compiler-verified state machines. If your app logic still relies on scattered flags and optionals, this piece serves as a reminder that enums are often the cleaner, safer model you should strive for.
The power of ethics in mobile design
This article explains why ethics is now a key part of mobile design. It shows how clear communication, privacy, inclusion, and careful use of AI help build trust and create better apps. A good reminder that modern design is not only about visuals, but about the intentions behind every feature we ship.
How to avoid retain cycles when working with tasks in Swift
A practical guide to how tasks capture values in Swift and when retain cycles can appear. It explains when strong captures are safe and when you should use weak self to avoid leaks in long-running tasks.
🛠️ Toolbox
Battery life on iOS and the myth of killing apps
Killing apps on iOS doesn’t improve battery life because the system already manages suspended apps efficiently. When users force-quit everything, iOS has to relaunch those apps from scratch, which uses more energy. A good overview of how the app lifecycle works and why letting the system handle it is usually best.
🍬 One More Thing…
Add an inner shadow to a symbol image in SwiftUI
With just a few modifiers, you can make circular or rounded icons feel inset into the surface instead of sitting on top. A small visual trick that can make your app’s icons look more polished with almost no extra code.
🗳️ Weekly Poll
📊 Last Week’s Poll Results
Would you buy Apple Glasses if they launched at the same price as Meta Glasses ($800)?
Top Answer: Yes, instantly
🗓 Upcoming Conferences
December
9-26 — Meet with Apple (Global 🌎)
13–15 — Mobile Developers Week Abu Dhabi 2025 (Abu Dhabi 🇦🇪)
January
21–23 — iOS Conf SG (Singapore 🇸🇬)
February
10–12 — Arctic Conference (Oulu 🇫🇮)
March
April
12–14 — Try! Swift Tokyo 2026 (Tokyo 🇯🇵)
12–14 — Deep Dish Swift (Chicago 🇺🇸)
May
19–21 — MAU Vegas 2026 (Las Vegas 🇺🇸)
June
3–4 — MDevCamp 2026 (Prague 🇨🇿)
October
7–9 — Next.App DevCon 2026 (Berlin 🇩🇪)
👋 That’s it for this week
If you enjoyed this issue of The iOS Weekly Brief, consider forwarding it to a colleague!
Until next Friday — keep shipping 🍏