Swift Around the Web
Swift’s Set
"Though many run straight to the array or dictionary, it would be a mistake to forget about the set. As of swift 1.2, it has returned to active duty. This week, we’ll spend time getting to know the useful and performant set collection."
Swift 1.2: Some overlooked goodies
I didn't know about @noescape in Swift 1.2: "This attribute indicates that a closure will only live as long as the call so there is no possibility of retain cycles. Besides allowing some optimizations, it means custom syntax-like functions no longer break the illusion by requiring everything to be qualified with self. It may be minor but it just makes these functions feel much more natural".
Friday Q&A 2015-04-17: Let's Build Swift.Array
"Swift 1.2 is now available as part of Xcode 6.3, and one of the new APIs it includes allows us to build efficient data structures with value semantics, such as Swift's built-in Array type. Today, I'm going to reimplement the core functionality of Array."
Coding
Researching ResearchKit
@steipete takes a deep look into Apple's now open-sourced ResearchKit code and summarizes his takeaways. Very valuable to read. Of course, keep in mind that ResearchKit is 100% Objective-C. But all of you have the power to change that by submitting the next pull request in Swift ;)
Video
"When dealing with video, there are many aspects that need to be considered. Adriaan writes about capturing video on iOS, and shows us a couple of different pipelines for video capturing. Daniel and Chris write about applying Core Image effects to live video from the camera or a static file. Finally, Carola and Felix write about Video Toolbox, a low-level framework that’s very powerful, but relatively unknown."
Apple News
ResearchKit/ResearchKit
Apple has officially OPEN SOURCED ResearchKit on GITHUB!!!! That's pretty epic. And on top of that, they've merged a branch that adds support for CocoaPods. Hoping to see a lot more of this from Apple in the future (maybe with Swift eventually?).
WWDC
WWDC15!!!!!!!!!! June 8-12, San Francisco. The epicenter of change. Hope you were lucky to get the golden ticket. If not, I really hope you still make it to San Francisco to meet everyone, attend the parties, and enjoy AltConf.
Xcode 6.4 beta Now Available
In case you were getting comfortable with Xcode 6.3 (or not), the next beta is already out! And what are the new features?
"Xcode 6.4 includes support for building and debugging apps for iOS 8.4". Enjoy!
Design
6 Wearable Design Principles 
"Devices like the Apple Watch are, probably also because of the strategic choices of the company, designed as a second screen; just as the first smartphone was treated as the second screen of desktop products. This is the present, but this trend might change fast.
In both cases, we will need to produce pieces of comprehensive and coherent information, thought as wearable first."
New social networks for Apple Watch
Does the Apple Watch open up an opportunity for a new social network built specifically around it? That's definitely interesting to imagine.
Other Cool Stuff
My 13year old daughters home screen. OMG.
I love seeing someone use something I use every day in a completely different way. Good reminder to do your user research!
In Case You Missed It
Swift: Putting Your Generics in a Box
Discussing the Result enum and why we need to sometimes put Generics in a Box.
Videos
Adaptive Auto Layout
Incredibly detailed and well-done talk by @smileyborg on Adaptive Layout in iOS 8. Must watch for all iOS devs!
Functional Voodoo
TypeLift
TypeLift is attempting to build common functional libraries from other languages in Swift. These might be a bit extreme to actually use (depends on your team of course), but it's super useful for seeing code samples that will help you understand functional programming better. Thanks @cocoaphony for pointing this out in your Llama calculus talk.
WATCH
Create an Apple Watch Game with Xcode and Watchkit
FREE Apple Watch Course on Udemy: "In this course, you learn how to create the classic and fun Simon-like Color Memory Game for Apple Watch. During the course, you will receive all code and video instruction to build your own game in both Objective-C and Swift."
Share data between WatchKit and your app with Realm
Realm is a mobile database replacement for SQLite & Core Data. So if you're starting a new project and aren't tied to Core Data, it can make your life a lot easier, especially when it comes to sharing data between your WatchKit and iOS app. Take a look at this blog post for more details.
Swift Code
GuillotineMenu - Our Guillotine Menu Transitioning Animation implemented in Swift reminds a bit of a notorious killing machine.
Natalie - Storyboard Code Generator (for Swift)
Kingfisher - A lightweight and pure Swift implemented library for downloading and caching image from the web.
Gulps - Gulps is an open source app for iOS and Apple Watch that lets you keep track of your daily water consumption.
CloudKit-Demo.Swift - CloudKit, Apple’s remote data storage service, provides a possibility to store app data using users’ iCloud accounts as a back-end storage service.
Swift Thoughts
And the biggest news for this year's WWDC applies to the scholarship applicants:
"To be considered for a WWDC 2015 Scholarship, use your creativity and coding skills to build and submit an app that tells us about you. Your Mac app or iOS app must be written in Objective-C and Swift, or written entirely in Swift."
Looking forward to some exciting earth-shattering Swift announcements!