Apple WWDC20 brings together the global Apple developer community of more than 23 million in a phenomenal and virtual way. Kicking off the 31st edition of their flagship WWDC conference as the biggest WWDC to date; Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said “Today we’re announcing our transition to Apple silicon, making this a historic day for the Mac”

Last year, at the WWDC event, Apple announced some fine machine learning and artificial intelligence updates and demonstrated how the developers can benefit from the customization. This year, on Day 1 of WWDC 2020, Apple made some landmark announcements unveiling a smorgasbord of updates for the iOS Developers community.

5 key takeaways from WWDC 2020 for iOS Developers

1. New Depth API in ARKit 4

ARKit 4 introduces new ways to capture information about the real world using a new Depth API. This API is designed to work with the LiDAR sensor in iPad Pro. It enables entirely new types of apps, such as on-site architecture, design, landscaping, and manufacturing.

2. Simplified Core ML

Machine learning development in Core ML is now easier and more extensive. With the introduction of additional tools for model deployment and encryption, new templates in Create ML, and more APIs for vision and natural language, Core ML is capable of fine-tuning models and making predictions on user’s devices.

Core Machine learning forms the fundamental building block of any domain-specific framework and functionality. With Create ML and API’s for vision and NLP, one can build models for sound activity and object detection; and transfer learning for text classifications.

With over 100 model layers now supported with Core ML, the ML, it is believed that models can be built that deliver experiences that deeply understand the vision, NLP and speech like never before.

3. Extended Touch Gesture Control in PencilKit

PencilKit now features Scribble, which makes it easy to create apps with text entry fields that users can write in with Apple Pencil, handwriting for any UITextField. Developers will also have access to stroke data using PencilKit as stroke API gives access to the strokes as the user draws. It seamlessly handles both Apple Pencil input and system touch gestures.

Also read: How does AI recognise your hand gestures and movements?

4. Extensions in SwiftUI

Apple added no breaking changes to SwiftUi but just extensions. Swift Package Manager adds support for resources to easily share Asset Catalog bundles and localizations.

New open-source packages have been introduced for Numerics, ArgumentParser, and System making Swift a great language for more use cases. SwiftUI now contains app-structure APIs for all Apple platforms, e.g. @main, @SceneBuilder, Settings etc. Now developers can write an entire app in Swift UI using the life cycle API and share it across all Apple platforms.

5. Wider Scope of Testing in TestFlight

TestFlight has been helping developers in testing beta versions of their apps. In the WWDC 2020 announcement, it will now support up to 100 team members for fast build distribution. Moreover, iOS Developers can Invite up to 10,000 external testers through email address or by sharing a public link.

Wrapping-up

During the WWDC 2020, many new APIs were announced that can enable iOS Developers to create amazing app-experiences. It also includes the AirPods Motion API that gives developers access to movement data in real-time. Also, Developers can now enable users to upgrade existing third-party app accounts to Sign in with Apple accounts.

Apart from Apple’s updates and releases, it is also creating an additional channel for developers to share feedback on developer’s forums. Developers are encouraged to share their feedback on the forum so that the team at Apple continues to update on the fixes and enhance the App Store experience for the entire developer’s community.

Check out – 1-on-1 Developer Labs

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Why Netflix Broke Itself: Was It Success Rewritten Through Platform Engineering?

By : Sampada

Published on Nov 13, 2024

App development Platform Engineering

Let’s take a trip back in time—2008. Netflix was nothing like the media juggernaut it is today. Back then, they were a DVD-rental-by-mail service trying to go digital. But here’s the kicker: they hit a major pitfall. The internet was booming, and people were binge-watching shows like never before, but Netflix’s infrastructure couldn’t handle the load. Their single, massive system—what techies call a “monolith”—was creaking under pressure. Slow load times and buffering wheels plagued the experience, a nightmare for any platform or app development company trying to scale

That’s when Netflix decided to do something wild—they broke their monolith into smaller pieces. It was microservices, the tech equivalent of turning one giant pizza into bite-sized slices. Instead of one colossal system doing everything from streaming to recommendations, each piece of Netflix’s architecture became a specialist—one service handled streaming, another handled recommendations, another managed user data, and so on.

But microservices alone weren’t enough. What if one slice of pizza burns? Would the rest of the meal be ruined? Netflix wasn’t about to let a burnt crust take down the whole operation. That’s when they introduced the Circuit Breaker Pattern—just like a home electrical circuit that prevents a total blackout when one fuse blows. Their famous Hystrix tool allowed services to fail without taking down the entire platform.

Fast-forward to today: Netflix isn’t just serving you movie marathons, it’s a digital powerhouse, an icon in platform engineering; it’s deploying new code thousands of times per day without breaking a sweat. They handle 208 million subscribers streaming over 1 billion hours of content every week. Trends in Platform engineering transformed Netflix into an application dev platform with self-service capabilities, supporting app developers and fostering a culture of continuous deployment.

Did Netflix bring order to chaos?

Netflix didn’t just solve its own problem. They blazed the trail for a movement: platform engineering. Now, every company wants a piece of that action. What Netflix did was essentially build an internal platform that developers could innovate without dealing with infrastructure headaches, a dream scenario for any application developer or app development company seeking seamless workflows.

And it’s not just for the big players like Netflix anymore. Across industries, companies are using platform engineering to create Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)—one-stop shops for mobile application developers to create, test, and deploy apps without waiting on traditional IT. According to Gartner, 80% of organizations will adopt platform engineering by 2025 because it makes everything faster and more efficient, a game-changer for any mobile app developer or development software firm.

All anybody has to do is to make sure the tools are actually connected and working together. To make the most of it. That’s where modern trends like self-service platforms and composable architectures come in. You build, you scale, you innovate.achieving what mobile app dev and web-based development needs And all without breaking a sweat.

Is Mantra Labs Redefining Platform Engineering?

We didn’t just learn from Netflix’s playbook; we’re writing our own chapters in platform engineering. One example of this? Our work with one of India’s leading private-sector general insurance companies.

Their existing DevOps system was like Netflix’s old monolith: complex, clunky, and slowing them down. Multiple teams, diverse workflows, and a lack of standardization were crippling their ability to innovate. Worse yet, they were stuck in a ticket-driven approach, which led to reactive fixes rather than proactive growth. Observability gaps meant they were often solving the wrong problems, without any real insight into what was happening under the hood.

That’s where Mantra Labs stepped in. Mantra Labs brought in the pillars of platform engineering:

Standardization: We unified their workflows, creating a single source of truth for teams across the board.

Customization: Our tailored platform engineering approach addressed the unique demands of their various application development teams.

Traceability: With better observability tools, they could now track their workflows, giving them real-time insights into system health and potential bottlenecks—an essential feature for web and app development and agile software development.

We didn’t just slap a band-aid on the problem; we overhauled their entire infrastructure. By centralizing infrastructure management and removing the ticket-driven chaos, we gave them a self-service platform—where teams could deploy new code without waiting in line. The results? Faster workflows, better adoption of tools, and an infrastructure ready for future growth.

But we didn’t stop there. We solved the critical observability gaps—providing real-time data that helped the insurance giant avoid potential pitfalls before they happened. With our approach, they no longer had to “hope” that things would go right. They could see it happening in real-time which is a major advantage in cross-platform mobile application development and cloud-based web hosting.

The Future of Platform Engineering: What’s Next?

As we look forward, platform engineering will continue to drive innovation, enabling companies to build scalable, resilient systems that adapt to future challenges—whether it’s AI-driven automation or self-healing platforms.

If you’re ready to make the leap into platform engineering, Mantra Labs is here to guide you. Whether you’re aiming for smoother workflows, enhanced observability, or scalable infrastructure, we’ve got the tools and expertise to get you there.

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5 Key Takeaways for iOS Developers from WWDC20