The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #44
New Apple hardware, MVVM-C scalability, designing empty states in SwiftUI, Universal Links at scale, real-world StoreKit 2 subscriptions, AI-powered dev tools, and why Identifiable matters
🆕 What’s New
Apple Expected to Unveil Five All-New Products This Year
Apple's looking pretty busy this year! They're finally dropping that foldable iPhone everyone's been waiting for, plus some interesting smart home stuff like a Face ID doorbell and a home hub. It's unusual for Apple to launch this many brand-new products at once, but as an Apple fan, this would be like Christmas for me!
I want to hear about the times you messed up, when your code crashed prod, when your “quick fix” became a three-day nightmare, when you made the wrong call and had to own it.
After 60+ conversations with people in tech, I’m sharing three real failures every week.
📚 Must Read
Why MVVM-C with Coordinators Does Scale: A real-world SwiftUI perspective
This experience-driven take on MVVM-C explains why it can scale in SwiftUI when applied with real feature boundaries. I like the SwiftUI angle here: coordinators as explicit, observable flows that model intent instead of fighting navigation APIs. If you’re debating MVVM-C vs TCA or feeling growing fear around refactors and team ownership, this is a great read.
Danny Bolella wrote a really thoughtful piece about handling empty states in SwiftUI. It breaks down three distinct types of emptiness: EmptyView for layout structure, EmptyModifier for type system requirements, and ContentUnavailableView for actual user-facing scenarios. It's one of those reads that'll change how you think about every blank state and conditional you write in SwiftUI.
Universal Links At Scale: The Challenges Nobody Talks About
Universal Links sound simple until you ship them at scale. This article cuts through the usual setup guides to expose the real pain points: CDN caching issues, pattern matching quirks, and the complete lack of decent tooling. Worth reading if you're running these in production and want to avoid nasty surprises.
Providing access to premium features with StoreKit 2
A very practical guide to StoreKit 2 that skips theory and goes straight to real subscription mechanics. It clearly shows how to model tiers, handle upgrades correctly, and keep SwiftUI in sync with StoreKit state without hacks or global singletons everywhere.
🛠️ Toolbox
Jumping between your editor, terminal, git client, and AI chat kills momentum fast. Commander wraps it all into one native Mac app with Codex integration and built-in git handling. Solid option if you want AI coding assistance that doesn't fragment your workflow.
11 Things I learned after using AI Agents full-time
A checklist from someone who's actually running agents in production, not just tinkering. The focus is on discipline: plan first, keep changes small, set clear boundaries, and treat agents like juniors who need structure.
🍬 One More Thing…
The Identifiable Protocol in Swift
A deep dive into Identifiable that explains why identity matters beyond just satisfying the compiler. Read this if you’ve debugged strange List updates or navigation glitches and want to understand the root cause.
🗳️ Weekly Poll
📊 Last Week’s Poll Results
How do you feel about Siri potentially powered by Google’s Gemini?
Top Answer: Cautiously optimistic
🗓 Upcoming Conferences
February
10–12 — Arctic Conference (Oulu 🇫🇮)
March
April
12–14 — Try! Swift Tokyo 2026 (Tokyo 🇯🇵)
12–14 — Deep Dish Swift (Chicago 🇺🇸)
May
18–20 — Swift Craft 2026 (Folkestone 🇬🇧)
19–21 — MAU Vegas 2026 (Las Vegas 🇺🇸)
June
3–4 — MDevCamp 2026 (Prague 🇨🇿)
July
7–10 — MacAdmins Conference (State College 🇺🇸)
22–23 — Swift Rockies 2026 (Calgary 🇨🇦)
September
7–11 — Swift Island 2026 (Texel 🇳🇱)
October
7–9 — Next.App DevCon 2026 (Berlin 🇩🇪)
November
20–22 — SwiftSonic 26 (Nashville 🇺🇸)
👋 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 🍏