MacStadium Notes: Apple Tech Talks, Monterey, Airbnb, and more
The Mac community is always exciting. Welcome back to MacStadium Notes, our blog series where we’ll take a look at what’s happening in the Mac community and share interesting stories and information.
Welcome to the return of our “MacStadium Notes” blog series, where we’ll explore all things Mac and iOS related and share with you the exciting news, information, and stories that we cannot stop thinking about.
And on the subject of something returning…
They’re Back: Apple Tech Talks 2021
After a six-year hiatus, last week Apple revealed that they will be hosting a series of virtual Tech Talks.
According to Apple, this session of Tech Talks will include over 100 live online sessions and over 1,500 available office hour appointments with Apple experts. Attendees will be learning more about the latest updates to Apple’s APIs and other technologies.
Tech Talks 2021 began on Monday, October 25, and will run through Friday, December 17, 2021. Please note that to participate in Tech Talks, you must be a current member of the Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program. Learn more and sign up on the Apple developer site.
If you’re been around the Mac community long enough, you might recall that Apple used to host its Tech Talks in person, so it’s nice to see this event coming back to life in our increasingly virtual world.
macOS Monterey is Now Available
Following their October 18 event, Apple has publicly released macOS 12. Monterey is available as a free software update for both M1 and Intel Macs and can be downloaded from Apple’s website. Highlights include new audio and video features in FaceTime, new Continuity tools like AirPlay to Mac, intelligence features like Live Text and Visual Lookup, Tab Groups in Safari, and easier automation with Shortcuts.
Airbnb: Designing for Productivity in a Large-Scale iOS Application
Recently, Airbnb shared with readers their journey from the first commit of its iOS application back in 2010 to today as it has evolved into a codebase with 1.5 million lines of first-party code, with about 75 iOS engineers working on the app that ships weekly in 62 languages.
As you’d imagine, at Airbnb’s scale, code organization can become a challenge. Check out their blog post to learn how the team has made investments in technology, ownership, and processes to effectively manage their large codebase while lightening the load on their development team. They dig deep into three innovations that have had the biggest impact: adopting a modern build system with Buck, organizing modules into groups called module types, and creating on-demand, ephemeral Xcode workspaces called “Dev Apps.”
On the Air: Our Favorite Podcasts
At MacStadium, we’re huge fans of several podcasts produced by members of the Apple and Mac community. Here are a few of our favorite recent episodes that you might enjoy, especially if you’re looking to upgrade your iPad or if you’re working with Swift.
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