Side Project Spotlight

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Oct 2026

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Side Project Spotlight is a podcast for app builders, documenting the process of producing real apps for the Apple App Store using Swift, SwiftUI, and other technologies.

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October 19, 2026Episode 12247 min

#122: No App Like Home...View

Apple has a new home screen, but where does that leave app developers? The Trio sizes up HomeView, the Apple Home Collection, and the cost of going all in on a smart home. Steve needs to replace a misbehaving HomePod mini, Kotaro makes the case for Apple TV as a gaming box, and Aaron weighs whether an upgrade is worth it. ## Chapters 00:00 HomeView and the Kitchen Island 09:36 The Apple Home Collection 16:26 What Can Developers Build? 29:06 HomePod mini and Phantom Touches 31:44 The $300 Apple TV 4K 35:00 Apple Arcade as a Console Alternative 42:23 Upgrade Decisions 45:40 Wrap-Up & One More Thing... 47:06 Tag ## Show Notes - Steve comes away from the HomeView launch video thinking about a hole drilled through an expensive kitchen island. - The Trio compares HomeView to an Apple Watch, an iMac G4, and a HomePod with a screen. - Cameras, locks, thermostats, and sensors make the Apple Home Collection shopping list add up fast. - Steve wants smart home convenience without devices reporting everything back to the internet. - The Trio questions what developers can build for HomeView while app support and documentation remain unclear to them. - A world clock makes the cut, but Kotaro has questions about the missing calculator. - Steve describes the phantom touches and reset loops that sidelined his HomePod mini. - Kotaro pitches Apple TV and Apple Arcade as a console alternative, while Steve questions the game library. - Steve anticipates spending $450 on an Apple TV and HomePod mini, while Aaron is in no rush and Kotaro can stick with his current Apple TV. - Kotaro gives AppJawn a shout-out and plugs PhillyCocoa's in-person event at Vanguard. ## Links **Apple Home** Apple HomeView: https://www.apple.com/apple-homeview HomePod mini 2: https://www.apple.com/homepod-mini/ Apple TV 4K: https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-4k/ Apple Home Collection: https://www.apple.com/shop/home/accessories/apple-home-collection **Gaming** Apple Arcade: https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/ **Side Project Shout-Out** AppJawn, makers of ClipDish, MioVino, and Minimalist Meditation Timer: https://appjawn.com/#apps **PhillyCocoa Events** Beyond the Simulator: Perspectives on Modern App Development (November 12): https://luma.com/3e80ogfl **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

October 5, 2026Episode 12157 min

#121: Finding the Fun with AI and Mohammad Azam

Mohammad Azam turned a childhood game into Block Bop with AI and three days of work. He joins The Trio to talk expressive blocks, playtesting, and paid level packs, with a detour through a 3,000-line ContentView.swift. Azam and Steve weigh the fun of fast prototypes against token limits and the need to understand your code, while Kotaro makes the case for watching people play. One More Thing: BarCamp Philly is back. ## Chapters 00:00 Introductions & Welcome Mohammad Azam! 03:05 From Childhood Game to Block Bop 07:27 Building with Codex 18:34 Playtesting and Level Design 25:05 App Review and Paid Packs 33:34 SpriteKit, Retro Games, and New Ideas 40:35 AI Dependence and Code Ownership 55:48 Wrap Up and One More Thing... 57:40 Tag ## Show Notes - Azam returns after episode 44 with Block Bop, inspired by a stone-stacking game he played in Pakistan. - Codex through Xcode handled the code and geometric graphics, while Azam used ChatGPT for background music. - Three days of prompting included a 3,000-line ContentView.swift that Codex later split into a few files. - Azam's cousin flagged unclear onboarding and punishing levels, prompting a longer timer for level 10. - Kotaro recommends watching people play to spot the joy and frustration that written feedback misses. - Azam chose one free ten-level pack and $1.99 themed packs over ads or consumable purchases. - Kotaro pitches holiday packs and iMessage stickers using Block Bop's expressive characters. - Azam can prototype games quickly, but running out of tokens leaves him stuck on code he hasn't learned. - Steve argues that cheap code generation doesn't remove the need for thoughtful design and human accountability. - One More Thing: Kotaro recommends BarCamp Philly on October 17, 2026, with talks chosen on the day and great T-shirts. ## Links **Mohammad Azam & Block Bop** Block Bop: https://azamsharp.com/block-bop.html Azam's website: https://azamsharp.com/ | AzamSharp School: https://azamsharp.school/ Azam on X: https://x.com/azamsharp | Azam on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@azamsharp Azam's App Store apps: https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/mohammad-azam/id392527683 Previous appearance, #44: WWDC23 with Mohammad Azam: https://podcast.phillycocoa.org/episodes/44-wwdc23-with-mohammad-azam **Events & Ideas Mentioned** SwiftCon 2026: https://www.nextappcon.com/swiftcon Shipaton 2026: https://www.shipaton.com/ Conway's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law **One More Thing** BarCamp Philly 2026: https://barcampphilly.org **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

September 21, 2026Episode 1201 hr 11 min

#120: Mike Zornek Fights For the Users

Mike Zornek wants your software to keep working even when the company behind it disappears. He joins The Trio to explain local-first software, Automerge, and CRDTs, then shares what he learned building LocalCents, an expense tracker that syncs offline edits. Steve digs into collaboration, Kotaro asks about changing data structures, and Mike explains why giving users more control is worth the extra work. ## Chapters 00:00 Introductions & Welcome Mike Zornek 04:22 From Mac Apps to Elixir 12:30 What Is Local-first Software? 22:32 Inside Automerge and CRDTs 36:29 Collaboration Between Equal Peers 42:49 Building LocalCents 48:33 Collisions and Schema Evolution 01:01:57 Fighting for the Users 01:04:37 Keyhive and Access Control 01:07:33 A Little Doom and Gloom 01:10:23 Outro & One More Thing... 01:11:33 Tag ## Show Notes - Mike Zornek returns to PhillyCocoa and jokingly takes full credit for the iOS gold rush. - App Store distribution rules helped push Mike from Apple development back to the web and Elixir. - Mike explains why local-first means more than offline support: collaboration, longevity, privacy, and user ownership matter too. - Automerge handles persistence and merging independently of the UI, with APIs for different language ecosystems. - Steve and Mike unpack how a cloud relay can help equal peers exchange changes without becoming the authoritative copy. - Mike's LocalCents proof of concept syncs expenses between a Mac app and a browser, including edits made offline. - Collision UI and schema evolution leave plenty of work for application developers even when merging is automatic. - Mike argues that harder technical problems are worth tackling to give users more power. - Keyhive's access-control diagrams get scary enough that Mike recommends brewing a pot of coffee first. - After a little internet doom and gloom, Kotaro shares that BarCamp Philly is back, and Mike plans to attend. ## Links **Mike Zornek** Website: https://mikezornek.com LocalCents: https://mikezornek.com/posts/2026/8/local-cents **Local-first Software** Previously on SPS (#117): https://podcast.phillycocoa.org/episodes/117-assumption-one-youre-a-hoarder Mike's local-first post: https://mikezornek.com/posts/2025/2/what-is-local-first-software/ Ink & Switch paper: https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/local-first **Tools and Further Reading** Automerge: https://automerge.org Martin Kleppmann: https://martin.kleppmann.com/ Conflict-free replicated data type (CRDT): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict-free_replicated_data_type Keyhive: https://www.inkandswitch.com/keyhive/notebook/ **One More Thing** BarCamp Philly: https://barcampphilly.org/ **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

September 7, 2026Episode 11958 min

#119: Hello, John Apple

John Ternus is Apple’s new CEO, and The Trio have a wish list ready. Kotaro, Steve, and Aaron size up his practical hardware legacy, imagine a stronger developer story for the age of bespoke AI-built apps, and ask whether Apple’s first foldable iPhone can justify its compromises and rumored $2,000-plus price. ## Chapters 00:00:00 Hello, John Apple 00:11:24 What Apple Should Fix 00:15:06 The Future of Apps 00:22:10 Vibe Coding a Better Jira 00:28:02 The Foldable iPhone 00:31:01 Touch ID and Camera Tradeoffs 00:34:30 A Prosumer Foldable 00:39:41 Foldable Apps and Multitasking 00:45:44 The Two-Thousand-Dollar iPhone 00:53:05 Eyes on the Outside 00:56:05 One More Thing: Mike Zornek ## Show Notes - The Trio know little about John Ternus’s leadership style, but Kotaro sees a practical streak in the ports, keyboards, and workhorse hardware that returned during his rise. - Kotaro wonders if the thin iPhone Air could eventually become Apple’s mainstream phone while Pro models stay chunky and purpose-built. - Aaron’s first request for the new CEO is simple: bring back a 27-inch 5K iMac worthy of the Studio Display. - Steve wants Apple to fix its developer back ends and explain how apps, flexible interfaces, and developer businesses fit into an AI-shaped future. - Kotaro imagines Apple making private, bespoke apps easy for ordinary users while giving professional developers better frameworks and services. - Jira becomes the proof that complicated professional software still needs expertise, even if software factories help smaller shops build and maintain more. - The rumored foldable trades Face ID and a telephoto lens for Touch ID, extreme thinness, and an iPad-like inner display. - Steve sees a strong prosumer pitch in a giant camera viewfinder, mobile photo and video editing, and true side-by-side app workflows. - A $2,000-plus first-generation phone has The Trio debating corporate plans, monthly payments, and whether the money is better spent on tokens. - Aaron proposes Vision Pro-style eyes for the outer display, which leads to games, heat, scratched screens, and features Apple might allow in three years. ## Links **Apple Leadership** John Ternus: https://www.apple.com/leadership/john-ternus/ **Previously on SPS** #110: So Long, Tim Apple, and Thanks for All the Fish!: https://podcast.phillycocoa.org/episodes/110-so-long-tim-apple-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish **Foldable iPhone** MacRumors iPhone Fold Roundup: https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/iphone-fold/ | New iPhone Ultra Details: https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/01/new-iphone-ultra-details-arrive-for-specs-multitasking-launch-timing-more/ | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8: https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold8/ **One More Thing** Three Years Coding with AI: https://mikezornek.com/posts/2026/7/three-years-coding-with-ai/ | Local Cents: https://mikezornek.com/posts/2026/8/local-cents/ **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

August 24, 2026Episode 11845 min

#118: Even LLMs Hate Jira with Bill Atkins

Bill Atkins put a Mac mini in his spare room so local models can handle the coding chores he would rather skip, all without sending Stylebook's code to the cloud. Bill joins Kotaro, Steve, and Aaron to unpack his setup with OpenCode, Ollama, and Gemma, including SwiftUI migrations, crash-report utilities, RAM limits, and permission guardrails. Bill and The Trio also compare local models with their bigger cloud counterparts, explore Xcode's growing agentic toolkit, and confirm that even LLMs hate Jira. ## Chapters 00:00 Meet Bill Atkins 01:36 Why Keep AI Local 04:37 From Aider to OpenCode 09:17 Mac mini RAM and Model Choices 14:22 Permissions and Guardrails 17:17 Putting Local Models to Work 19:24 Coding Workflows and Xcode Agents 27:59 Smaller Models, Macros, and Planning 37:14 Cloud Brains and Local Tradeoffs 43:14 Bill Bot and What Comes Next 44:34 One More Thing: Stylebook 45:52 Tag ## Show Notes - Bill has developed Stylebook with his wife since 2009, and the app is entering its seventeenth year. - Keeping Stylebook's proprietary code away from third parties pushed Bill toward local models. - Aider and Devstral proved the idea, but running them meant closing Xcode and Safari on Bill's 32 GB MacBook. - Apple's WWDC26 MLX session inspired a smoother setup with OpenCode, Ollama, and Gemma on a 24 GB Mac mini. - Bill finds Gemma particularly helpful with UIKit and SwiftUI, while smaller models still need tighter prompts and context. - Bill locks down OpenCode so anything beyond safe directory listings and searches requires permission. - A local model built Bill a Mac utility that turns crash reports into symbolicated stack traces. - Aaron explains custom ACP agents in Xcode, while Steve praises its headless builds and improved SwiftUI preview tools. - Swift macros, tests, migrations, and small utilities are ideal jobs when the work is mechanical but worthwhile. - Aaron lands the final verdict after Steve describes Jira's API: even LLMs hate Jira. ## Links **Bill's Local AI Setup** Aider: https://aider.chat/ (terminal AI pair programming with local model support) Run local agentic AI on the Mac using MLX: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/232/ (WWDC26 session on MLX, OpenCode, Xcode, and multi-Mac scaling) OpenCode: https://opencode.ai/ (open source terminal, desktop, and IDE coding agent) Ollama: https://ollama.com/ (runs and serves open models) Gemma models: https://ai.google.dev/gemma/docs (Google's lightweight open models) **Coding Agents and Workflows** Writing code with intelligence in Xcode: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/writing-code-with-intelligence-in-xcode (Apple's agentic coding guide) Skills for Real Engineers: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills (Matt Pocock's skills for planning, testing, and debugging) SPS #105, How Alex Hillman Built an AI Assistant with Claude Code: https://podcast.phillycocoa.org/episodes/105-how-alex-hillman-built-an-ai-assistant-with-claude-code (a VPS assistant using Tailscale and safety guardrails) **Notes, Tasks, and Experiments** Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/ (local-first linked notes) Shadertoy: https://www.shadertoy.com/ (create, browse, and share real-time shaders) **Additional Resource** OmniFocus: https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus (task management for projects and next actions) **One More Thing** Stylebook: https://www.stylebookapp.com/ (Jess and Bill Atkins' closet app for outfits, value, and wear) **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

August 11, 2026Episode 11750 min

#117: Assumption One: You’re a Hoarder

The desktop has barely changed in decades, even as we’ve all become digital hoarders. Scott Jenson’s Local-First Conf talk, “How the Desktop UX Needs to Evolve to Keep Up With Local First,” gives The Trio a jumping-off point to explore spatial window management, document context, customizable dashboards, private workflows, and the surprising return of widgets. Kotaro then catches the game development bug and weighs rebuilding Retro Sparkle against the much more ambitious idea of a mobile-first pixel fighting game. ## Chapters 00:00 Introductions 01:15 Local-First Computing and the Future of Desktop UX 11:16 Widgets, Dashboards, and Personal Workflows 21:58 The Future of Software and AI Automation 38:35 Building Games in the AI Era 50:04 Closing and Community Updates 50:48 Tag ## Show Notes - The discussion begins with Scott Jenson’s Local-First Conf talk, shared by Mike Zornek, a former PhillyCocoa organizer and one of its OGs who now works in Elixir. - Overlapping windows made sense on tiny early displays, but modern screens and growing piles of context expose the metaphor’s limits. - Scott’s prototypes rethink window management, attach research context to documents, and turn desktop history into a navigable timeline. - Brett Terpstra’s TerminalWidget lets scripts power personal dashboards for network health, revenue, GitHub activity, and almost anything else. - Apple’s old Dashboard sparks nostalgia for web-built widgets, glorious skeuomorphism, and the GPU-powered ripple effect. - Kotaro and Steve imagine desktops that help people assemble private, local workflows without needing to become programmers. - Steve argues that safer abstractions, plug-ins, and focused local models make more sense than asking everyone to generate raw application code. - Kotaro wonders whether the app era is giving way to workflows that connect software, data, and automation at a higher level. - Kotaro weighs rebuilding [RetroSparkle](https://tomatoboy.co/retro) with a pixel-inspired look against making a mobile-first fighting game in Godot. - PhillyCocoa meets in person Thursday, August 13, from 5:45 to 8:00 PM at Vanguard, 2300 Chestnut Street, with talks by Bill Atkins, Kotaro Fujita, and Chris Hiester. ## Links **Desktop UX and Local First** How the Desktop UX Needs to Evolve to Keep Up With Local First: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IOLRcFC6OY | Mike Zornek: https://mikezornek.com **Widgets and Personal Workflows** Brett Terpstra’s TerminalWidget Dashboard: https://brettterpstra.com/2026/08/10/my-terminalwidget-dashboard/ **Kotaro’s Project Ideas** Retro Sparkle: https://tomatoboy.co/retro **PhillyCocoa IRL Meetup** Beyond the Simulator: Perspectives on Modern App Development: https://luma.com/mwcqd1cl **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

July 27, 2026Episode 11656 min

#116: BentoFit in the Loop

Steve puts BentoFit in the loop, using agentic coding to add themes and straighten out the app's Swift package structure. The Trio digs into Mike Zornek's three-year AI-coding journey, the skills and harnesses shaping Steve's workflow, and why human judgment still matters when the robot says it is done. Even with better models in the driver's seat, Xcode always finds a way to keep things interesting. ## Chapters 00:00 Introductions 01:10 Side Projects & the AI Moment 07:38 Agentic Coding Tools & Harnesses 16:22 AI Workflows & Decision Fatigue 28:13 Software Factories & Loop Engineering 38:19 Building BentoFit with AI 48:15 Where AI Coding Breaks Down 55:01 IRL Meetup & Signoff 56:27 Tag ## Show Notes - Steve introduces BentoFit, a HealthKit dashboard getting a new round of AI-assisted development. - A good harness can matter as much as the model because it keeps tools, feedback, and code changes moving in a loop. - Steve prefers Codex and OpenCode outside Xcode, then reaches back into Xcode through its MCP tools for builds, tests, and Simulator. - Mike Zornek's three-year AI-coding notes spark a conversation about thoughtful adoption instead of blindly chasing every new workflow. - Matt Pocock's skills help turn fuzzy ideas into explicit decisions, shared terminology, specifications, and tickets. - Answering dozens of agent questions can sharpen a design, but it also trades coding flow for relentless decision fatigue. - Steve's practical loop has an agent implement the spec, review its own work, fix what it finds, run the tests, and stop for human verification. - The Trio remains skeptical of software factories when a project cannot be fully specified or automatically checked. - For BentoFit, agents built theme infrastructure and reorganized local Swift packages in a few hours instead of several evenings. - Widgets, watchOS targets, worktrees, and Xcode project files still invite expensive loops, crashes, and the occasional hard reset. ## Links **BentoFit** Website: https://bentofit.app **AI Coding** Mike Zornek, "Three Years Coding with AI": https://mikezornek.com/posts/2026/7/three-years-coding-with-ai/ Matt Pocock's Skills: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/tree/main **Upcoming PhillyCocoa Event** Beyond the Simulator: Perspectives on Modern App Development: https://luma.com/mwcqd1cl Thursday, August 13, 5:45 PM - 8:00 PM 2300 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

July 13, 2026Episode 11548 min

#115: Jelly Pilled

Steve drops serious cash on an M5 Max MacBook Pro right as Apple's Rampocalypse price hikes hit, then immediately bricks his iPhone 14 Pro Max installing iOS 27 Beta 3. The Trio unpacks Apple pulling the liquid glass opt-out after its promised one year, and spins out increasingly unhinged ideas for what a foldable iPhone's split screen could actually be good for. They close out with post-WWDC side project pitches: Kotaro weighing a Retro Sparkle or Fav 10 revival, Aaron dreaming up the ultimate foldable app, and Steve making BentoFit updates with a photography app on his mind. ## Chapters 00:00 Introductions & Token Economics 10:11 Hardware Upgrades and the RAM Apocalypse 17:47 Bricking an iPhone Installing iOS 27 Beta 3 21:34 UIKit Updates & Reading the Folding Phone Tea Leaves 35:26 Exploring New App Ideas Post-WWDC 47:20 Wrap-Up & Dad Jokes 48:19 Tag ## Show Notes * Steve bit the bullet on a mid-tier, on sale M5 Max MacBook Pro (the best config Amazon had discounted) after Apple's Rampocalypse price hikes made waiting for the redesigned model a bad bet. * The Amazon Prime Day deal saved him around $850 versus buying the same config direct from Apple. * He's already seeing real speed gains in Lightroom, with AI denoise dropping from about ten seconds a photo to three to five. * Steve bricked his iPhone 14 Pro Max installing iOS 27 Beta 3 and had to DFU restore it from an iCloud backup. * iOS 27 removes the liquid glass opt-out entirely, exactly one year after Apple said it would, and it's ugly on unmigrated UIKit apps. * The Trio speculates Apple's foldable iPhone, rumored to run two screens with unusual aspect ratios, is driving the push to force UIKit and scene delegate updates. * They riff on absurd split screen app concepts for the foldable, from a permanent AI chat pane to a Tetris style game that dumps everything onto the bigger screen on unfold. * Kotaro is weighing a Retro Sparkle revival (his three second match three game) or a long overdue Fav 10 rebuild for the next side project. * Aaron wonders who could possibly afford a foldable iPhone that will probably cost as much as a MacBook. * Steve is making BentoFit theme manager updates and floats a photography app as a future project. ## Links **Side Project Apps** Retro Sparkle: https://tomatoboy.co/retro | Fav 10: https://tomatoboy.co/fav10 **Tools & Services Mentioned** Gas Town (Steve Yegge): https://steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-gas-town-4f25ee16dd04 | GLM 5.2: https://z.ai/blog/glm-5.2 **Bento Fit** Website: https://bentofit.app **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

June 29, 2026Episode 11454 min

#114: WWDC26 — Emails Deleted

Steve is back from a Royal Caribbean cruise to Bermuda just in time for the WWDC26 wrap-up, and Kotaro wastes no time YOLOing onto the macOS beta to demo Siri AI live. Things go sideways fast when Siri deletes Kotaro's Redfin emails instead of listing their subjects, sparking a wide-ranging conversation about what it actually means to ship AI features to everyday users. The Trio also maps out their WWDC-inspired side project plans for the year ahead. ## Chapters 00:08 Introductions 00:56 Side Quest: Steve's Cruise Adventures 13:23 Transitioning to AI and WWDC Discussions 17:23 WWDC26 Highlights 22:04 Kotaro Beta Tests macOS & Siri AI 24:17 Xcode & macOS UI Changes 27:10 Kotaro Tries Out Siri AI Live 31:26 Siri Deletes Kotaro's Emails! 41:04 Exploring Siri AI and User Experience 43:25 WWDC26 Insights and Future Projects 52:25 Wrap-Up & One More Thing... 52:46 Tag ## Show Notes - Steve returns from a 5-night Royal Caribbean cruise to Bermuda: escape rooms, cliff climbing, 17k daily steps, and the best lasagna of his life. - The Trio catches up on WWDC26 after Steve's cruise delay, covering Siri AI, SwiftUI improvements, and Swift Data's new results observer. - Kotaro has already YOLOd the macOS beta onto his laptop and shares first impressions of the more refined, less opinionated UI. - New Xcode hides your current branch but gains liquid glass segment controls and an AI assistant for identifying dead code. - Kotaro demos Siri AI live: it correctly locates the Rocky statue and renders a map widget, building some initial optimism about Apple's AI integration story. - Siri AI then accidentally deletes Kotaro's Redfin emails when he only asked it to list their subject lines. - Siri also fails the classic "how many Rs in Raspberry?" test on the local on-device model. - Steve worries that mainstream Siri AI shipping on devices like his dad's new MacBook Neo will create a new wave of family tech support nightmares. - Steve plans to add conversational health assistant features to BentoFit; Kotaro wants to vibe-code Fave10 using only Xcode AI tools and port Retro Sparkle to Godot. ## Links **WWDC26** Videos: https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc2026/ **One More Thing** AppJawn LLC: https://appjawn.com/ Apps: Clipdish, Mio Vino, Minimalist Meditation Timer **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: RLF9P8ZZ6MPKNOGX

June 9, 2026Episode 11345 min

#113: WWDC26 — No, Seriously, Siri Works Now

Recorded thirty minutes after the WWDC26 State of the Union keynote ended, The Trio delivers a hot-take reaction to everything Apple just announced. Steve makes his boldest claim yet: 2026 is the year the "Universal UI" era begins, anchored by a Siri demo that appeared to actually work in real time. Xcode quietly Sherlocked the Codex app, SwiftUI got reorderable containers and (finally) AsyncImage caching, and Aaron spotted some very suspicious folding phone tea leaves in the new Simulator replacement. ## Chapters 00:08 Introductions 01:31 Reviewing The Trio's "Universal UI" Concept 02:39 Comparison of "AI" Apps: Siri, Claude, Codex, ChatGPT 05:43 Multimodal Prompts & Private Cloud Compute 07:26 Foundation Model Device Requirements 09:50 Dynamic Profiles and Custom Model Configurations 13:41 Xcode 27 Sherlocked the Codex App 15:42 Xcode and Developer Tool Evolution 21:47 SwiftUI Updates: Reordering and AsyncImage Cache 26:14 A Grab Bag of Random Stuff 28:23 App Actions and Siri Integration 35:04 No Apple Claw? 39:09 Swift Compiler Unable to Type Check Error 40:37 Final Impressions 42:02 Folding Phone Tea Leaves 43:07 Snow Leopard Speed Improvements 43:53 Wrap Up & One More Thing... 45:50 Tag ## Show Notes - Steve declares 2026 the start of the "Universal UI era," with a live Siri demo that actually worked as his primary evidence. - Aaron clocked the demo as mostly staring at a loading spinner; Steve argues Apple had to prove the on-device inference wasn't faked this time. - The Foundation Models framework supports dynamic profiles: configurable system prompts, temperatures, and thinking budgets per scenario within a single app. - Xcode 27 ships an agentic coding UI seemingly inspired by the Codex app, prompting Kotaro to ask point-blank: "Are you saying they Sherlocked Codex?" - SwiftUI finally has a reorderable container, which The Trio immediately wants in Bento Fit after a previous attempt even an "AI" agent couldn't pull off. - AsyncImage gets a built-in cache after years of third-party workarounds; Steve suspects some intern with an unlimited Claude Code budget finally got it done. - App Actions now supports natural language invocation without requiring specific phrases or app name mentions, though exact limits remain fuzzy. - Aaron flags resizable iOS windows (previously iPad-only) and an arbitrary-aspect-ratio Simulator replacement as very suspicious folding phone tea leaves. - Kotaro closes on Snow Leopard-style speed wins across the board, including 80% faster AirDrop, because speed is still a feature worth shipping. ## Links **One More Thing** Cleo Family: https://www.cleofamily.app/track **PhillyCocoa:** https://phillycocoa.org Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.