| Apple Updates Developer Tools |
| Written by Kay Ewbank |
| Monday, 16 June 2025 |
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Apple has announced a range of improvements to its developer tools at this year's WWDC (WorldWide Developers Conference), including a new foundation models framework and updates to Xcode, Apple's integrated development environment for macOS. Apple used the conference to highlight AI and design improvements for developers, but for many observers the news that the AI upgrade for Apple's Siri assistant still isn't ready overshadowed the plus points. The news also knocked around $75 billion off Apple's market value. On the more positive side, the first of the announcements at WWDC was the Foundation Models framework. This provides access to Apple’s on-device large language model (the same model that underpins Apple Intelligence) and lets developers use it to perform intelligent tasks. The text-based on-device model identifies patterns that can be used to generate new text that’s appropriate for the request you make, and it can make decisions to call code you write to perform specialized tasks. It can also generate entire Swift data structures with guided generation. Apple Intelligence processes the data without it leaving the device, resulting in better data privacy. The framework has native support for Swift, and includes guided generation and tool calling. A number of updates for Xcode were also announced. Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment for macOS, with support for languages including AppleScript, C, C++, Java, Objective-C, Python, Ruby and Swift. As with many of the announcements, the Xcode updates largely revolved around AI. Xcode 26 lets developers connect large language models directly to the software to write code, tests, and documentation; iterate on a design; and fix errors. Xcode has built-in support for ChatGPT, and developers can use API keys from other providers, or run local models on their Mac with Apple silicon. Another announcement, Coding Tools, is aimed at productivity. Coding Tools is accessible from within code, and provides suggested actions like generating a preview or a playground, or fixing an issue. A new Containerisation framework was also announced. This lets developers create, download, or run Linux container images directly on Mac. It’s built on an open-source framework optimised for Apple silicon and provides secure isolation between container images. A new Icon Composer app was also announced. This can be used to create visually appealing app icons. It annotates layers for multiple rendering modes, with advanced features that include blurring, adjusting translucency, testing specular highlights, and previewing icons in various tints.
More InformationRelated ArticlesApple Open Sources Swift Build Swift 6 Adds Concurrent Code Mode Apple Improves Developer Support Apple Introduces Developer Xcode Cloud To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. 
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