Stewart Lynch News
​2025-13

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​https://stewartlynch.kit.com​

This Week's Video

This week I launched a brand new series with one goal: to build a reusable SF Symbol Picker Swift Package that you can easily integrate into any project. In the first video, we focused on an essential skill for iOS and macOS development: decoding property lists (plists). You learned how to:

• Create and decode your own plists using PropertyListDecoder
• Work with both dictionary-based and array-based plist structures
• Write generic plist decoding functions
• Decode actual SF Symbols metadata from Apple’s tools
• Build Swift model structs for symbol categories, search terms, availability, and more
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We also took it a step further by combining multiple plist sources into a single, unified Symbol model. The second video in the series will be released in two weeks.

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No content video next week

Next week, instead of releasing a new content video, I’ll be sharing a short highlight reel featuring the videos I’ve created over the past 12 months. With WWDC 25 happening, I didn’t want my content to get buried under the flood of announcements and sessions from Apple. Be sure to set aside some time to watch the keynote and the State of the Union — more on that below.

If you’d like an early look at the highlight video, you can watch it now.

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WWDC is Coming!

WWDC stands for Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s Apple’s annual event where they unveil major software updates and introduce new technologies for developers across all their platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and now visionOS.

For those of us immersed in the Apple ecosystem, it feels a bit like Christmas.

At WWDC, Apple typically announces:

• The latest versions of iOS, macOS, and other operating systems
• New APIs and frameworks
• Developer tool enhancements (like updates to Xcode and Swift)
• Occasionally, new hardware

The event kicks off with a Keynote (aimed at a broad audience) and a Platforms State of the Union (focused on developers), followed by a full week of in-depth sessions, labs, and technical resources. It’s a must-watch event for anyone building apps for Apple platforms.

Attendance at the live keynote is granted through a lottery each year. I’ve applied many times, but unfortunately have never been selected. Thankfully, all content is available online, so we can all take part remotely.

What Happens After Day 1?

The rest of the week is packed with developer-focused content and learning opportunities:

1. Apple releases dozens of pre-recorded video sessions (sometimes over 100). These cover:All sessions are available to stream on demand via the Apple Developer app and website.
   • New APIs and frameworks (e.g., SwiftUI, SwiftData, WidgetKit)
   • Updates to tools like Xcode
   • Platform-specific deep dives
   • Best practices and implementation examples
2. Registered developers can book one-on-one virtual labs with Apple engineers to:.
   • Ask questions about new technologies
   • Troubleshoot issues
   • Get feedback on design or accessibility
     ​
     These labs are highly sought-after, especially early in the week
3. Apple hosts official Q&A threads in the Developer Forums, where developers and engineers discuss announcements and share insights.
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4. Throughout the week, you’ll also find:
   • WWDC watch parties
   • Live streams from developers and content creators
   • Slack and Discord meetups
   • Challenges like #WWDCPlayground

In short: Day 1 is for announcements. Days 2–5 are for learning, experimenting, and connecting.

Each year I have my own hopes for what’s coming — and sometimes, I’m completely surprised. I’ll never forget the moment in 2014 when Apple introduced Swift, or in 2019 when SwiftUI was unveiled. Those two moments changed the course of my development journey.

As always, I’ll be watching as many sessions as I can and will spend most of June and July learning the new APIs and frameworks. My goal is to synthesize what I learn and begin releasing instructional videos on my YouTube channel starting in August.

While many creators will be quick to release initial overviews (and I recommend checking those out), I prefer to take the time to really dig in before sharing my perspective.

In the meantime, my regular weekly videos will resume on June 15, continuing with existing APIs and frameworks until around the fourth or fifth beta of the new OS releases.
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Enjoy WWDC wherever you are — and happy learning!

My Other Stuff

Channel Listing App

A Searchable Mac app containing a list of all of my YouTube videos including the ability to watch them in the app and download starter and completed source code

Free on Gumroad

CustomGPT

A custom ChatGPT that has indexed the transcripts of my videos.
Add to your ChatGPT Sidebar​

Smile4Me Course

Learn how to build a multi-targeted app using a Jokes API.
Don't let the low cost of the course fool you into believing that low cost means low content. 6.5 hours of content and 56 videos.

​Enrol in the course

Affiliate Links

Affiliate Links

Below are a number of affiliate links for products that I not only endorse but use all the time. I will never endorse something that I do not believe in.

AppScreens

Simply the best way to create your Screenshots for your AppStore connect submissions
​https://appscreens.com/?via=92e164​

RocketSim - Build Apps Faster 

This is an invaluable tool when working with the simulator in Xcode.

   https://gumroad.com/a/122988499/ftvbh 

BigMountain Studio Books 

Mark Moeykens is a master at creating SwiftUI reference books. I have purchased every one of these books and refer to them all the time.

Use this link and we both will benefit

​https://www.bigmountainstudio.com/a/77jt8​