We're closing out the year with a week packed with news that, curiously enough, shares a common thread: artificial intelligence. From a PhD in Applied Quantum Mechanics explaining how AI is transforming development, to tech giants sitting down to create open standards together, to Apple preparing in-person events to teach us their new AI frameworks. And in between, Swift 6.2.2, the App Store Awards 2025, and Real Madrid diving headfirst into spatial computing. A week to remember.
Swift 6.2.2: Small Tweaks, Big Details
Last December 9th, Swift 6.2.2 was officially announced—a maintenance update that, while not revolutionary, includes important fixes for those working outside Apple's ecosystem.
The improvements focus on three areas: a new fatal error handler in the Observation module, fixes in LLDB for Windows related to Python library discovery, and Swift Package Manager improvements to detect GNU ld scripts masquerading as system libraries.
If you're working on Linux or Windows, updating is as simple as:
swiftly install 6.2.2Or if you prefer to stay on the bleeding edge:
swiftly install latestFor everyone else, Xcode 26 already includes the necessary tooling. The important takeaway is that Swift continues maturing as a cross-platform language, and every maintenance release is another step in that direction.
Vision Pro: Hands Coming to Life
Apple has updated its collection of introductory visionOS samples with a new project worth your attention: "Animating hand models in visionOS". This sample demonstrates how to work with user hand models to create custom animations, leveraging the hand tracking that visionOS provides out of the box.
For those exploring spatial development, remember that visionOS 26 now supports 90 Hz hand tracking with no additional code, opening up interesting possibilities for games and apps requiring fast, precise movements.
Speaking of Vision Pro, while this news is from a few weeks ago, we couldn't skip mentioning it: Real Madrid and Apple announced a collaboration to create an immersive documentary in Apple Immersive format, set to premiere in 2026. The project, which Florentino Pérez has dubbed the "Infinite Bernabéu", is being filmed with over 30 Blackmagic cameras during this Champions League season.
Eddy Cue, Apple's VP of Services, visited the Santiago Bernabéu to close the deal. The vision is for fans worldwide to experience the stadium atmosphere as if they were there—180-degree video at 8K with spatial audio. A bold bet on premium content that could set the path for other clubs and sports organizations.
The AI Wave That's Coming
This week we had the privilege of kicking off a new season at Apple Coding with a very special interview. Tirso López Ausens, PhD in Applied Quantum Mechanics from UPV and currently Technical Project Manager at Multiverse Computing, joined us for over an hour to discuss the present and future of artificial intelligence in software development.
The conversation touched on fascinating topics: from how AI agents are forever changing the way we write code, to whether it still makes sense to study programming in a world where language models generate code effortlessly. Spoiler: it does make sense, but for reasons you might not expect. You can watch the full interview on YouTube or listen on your favorite podcast client.
And if you want to dive deeper into the latest AI developments, we've dedicated three consecutive episodes of Apple Coding Daily to unpacking what's happening:
- 8x04 - STARFlow-V: Apple has published research that changes the paradigm of diffusion models for video generation. A much more efficient way to create synthetic visual content that could end up integrated into devices.
- 8x05 - CLaRa: AI agents lose context during long programming sessions. Apple proposes CLaRa, a RAG-based solution (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) so AI actually understands your code—not just the last few lines you wrote.
- 8x06 - Agentic AI Foundation: The Linux Foundation has announced an initiative where AI's biggest rivals have decided to create open standards together. When fiercely competing companies sit down to collaborate, something big is happening.
You can follow Apple Coding Daily on Cuonda or YouTube.
Apple Comes to Madrid
Speaking of artificial intelligence, Apple has confirmed they'll bring their in-person "Meet with Apple" events to Madrid on February 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, 2026. Two distinct sessions are expected:
- One dedicated to Liquid Glass, the new design language defining iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and the rest of the operating systems. A unique opportunity to learn firsthand how to adapt your apps to the new visual paradigm.
- Another focused on the Foundation Models Framework, the framework that provides access to the ~3B parameter language model Apple includes natively on their devices. Local inference, free, private, and no connection required.
The exact venue is yet to be confirmed, but if you have the chance to attend, don't hesitate. These events typically have very limited spots, and the opportunity to speak directly with Apple engineers is priceless. Keep an eye on the Apple Developer events portal.
Apple's Best of the Year
On December 4th, Apple announced the App Store Awards 2025 winners. 17 apps and games recognized for their technical innovation and cultural impact. Some highlights:
Apps of the Year:
- iPhone: Tiimo, a planning app that transforms chaotic calendars into visual, calming timelines.
- iPad: Detail, AI-powered video editing tools democratizing audiovisual production.
- Mac: Essayist, for students and researchers who need to organize sources and format academic papers.
- Vision Pro: Explore POV, immersive experiences transporting you to beaches, forests, and cities worldwide.
- Apple Watch: Strava, connecting the global athlete community with real-time tracking.
Games of the Year:
- iPhone: Pokémon TCG Pocket, the evolution of the collectible card phenomenon.
- iPad: DREDGE, fishing and cosmic horror in a game defining the "cozy creepy" genre.
- Mac: Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition, proving Apple Silicon can handle anything.
- Vision Pro: Porta Nubi, atmospheric puzzles among the clouds.
Special mention for the Cultural Impact awards, where Be My Eyes stands out—combining AI and volunteers to help blind or low-vision individuals. Technology with purpose.
Community Tutorials
The Swift community doesn't rest even in December. Here are the week's most notable articles:
Antoine van der Lee at SwiftLee delivers two must-reads:
- Battery life on iOS and the myth of killing apps (Dec 9): Debunking the myth that closing apps saves battery. Spoiler: not only does it not save battery, it can actually make things worse.
- The 7 changes I do for every new Xcode project (Dec 1): Those tweaks every project should have from the start.
Majid Jabrayilov at Swift with Majid:
- Monitoring app performance with MetricKit (Dec 9): How to use MetricKit to build your own diagnostic dashboard and solve problems Xcode Organizer can't detect.
Natalia Panferova at Nil Coalescing with two practical tutorials:
- Add an inner shadow to a symbol image in SwiftUI (Dec 9): How to create that cutout icon effect with inner shadow using SF Symbols.
- Initializing @Observable classes within the SwiftUI hierarchy (Dec 2): The right (and wrong) ways to initialize @Observable classes in SwiftUI views.
Learn at Your Own Pace
If 2025 caught you without time to train, 2026 can be your year. At Be Native we now have the complete Swift Basic and Intermediate and SwiftUI Basic and Intermediate courses available, taught by María Soriano.
The best part about these courses is you can follow them either with Xcode on your Mac or with Swift Playgrounds on your iPad. Learning Swift while commuting on the subway or having coffee anywhere is no longer science fiction.
María is an exceptional trainer with over 123,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel and years of experience creating educational content about Swift and SwiftUI. You can learn more about her on her LinkedIn profile.
And if you're looking to make the definitive leap, the Swift Mastery Program 2026 opens registration. Intensive training where you won't just learn the tools—you'll understand the why behind every decision. Because in a world of AI agents generating code, those who understand the fundamentals will always be one step ahead.
And That's About It
We close with a regulatory note: starting December 10th, new Australian law requires social media platforms to prevent users under 16 from having accounts. Apple has made the Declared Age Range API available to help developers comply while maintaining privacy standards. If your app has users in Australia, it's time to review the documentation.
It's been an intense week, the kind that reminds you why this ecosystem never stops surprising. Swift maturing across all platforms, Vision Pro receiving premium content, AI redefining how we work, and Apple preparing to visit us in person. 2026 looks promising.
If you want to leave us a comment or tell us anything, we're on the usual channels.
See you soon, and until then: cheers and happy native coding.
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