It’s hard to keep up-to-date as an iOS and Swift developer.
Every day, new articles, tutorials, and open source libraries are released. How do you keep up with this flood of information?
One good way is to subscribe to iOS and Swift newsletters, so that every week you can receive an email with the week’s highlights.
In this article, we’ll share a list of what the tutorial team and I consider the top 5 iOS and Swift newsletters, that every serious developer should subscribe to.
Let’s dive in!
The Newsletters
iOS Dev Weekly
iOS Dev Weekly is the first newsletter that was created in the iOS community. The first issue was published Aug 5th 2011. That’s a long time ago in Internet years :]
iOS Dev Weekly is organized in different sections that include topics like code, design, tools and business. There’s also a nice one-more-thing kind of link at the end of each issue.
“I love the fact that each section of iOS Dev Weekly has color coding – e.g. ‘design’, ‘code’, ‘tools’ – this makes it super simple to scan if you’re in a hurry. Dave Verwer’s summary is always insightful.”
Gemma Barlow
“I look forward to iOS Dev Weekly every Friday. It’s tough to keep up with all the information that passes by through Slack and Twitter. I really like how iOS Dev Weekly allows the cream to rise to the top, and sends the best of the best news related to iOS development from the week to my inbox, at a reliable time each week on Friday.”
Andy Obusek
- Frequency: Weekly, every Friday
- Website: https://iosdevweekly.com
- Managed by: Dave Verwer
This Week in Swift
This week in Swift features content related to Swift and its evolution. It was started a few weeks after the announcement of Swift at WWDC 2014.
Every week Natasha publishes some thoughts and then lists relevant links that have been discussed. There are sections about the evolution of Swift, open source projects, design and business.
“I subscribed to the This Week in Swift newsletter, which I read each and every single Monday, because I like Natasha’s friendly tone, enthusiasm and way of explaining things. She is so excited about everything new she discovers in Swift, that I always feel the need to immediately open an Xcode playground and try out the new feature she is talking about right away.”
Cosmin Pupăză
“I like Natasha’s newsletter because it’s mostly focused on Swift, and every week I find what I need to stay up to date with the language, but not neglecting iOS, watchOS and tvOS. I also like her own articles/posts, because they are short and usually focusing on solving specific problems, showing creative ways of doing things, and often also explaining mistakes she made.”
Antonio Bello
- Frequency: Weekly, every Monday.
- Website: https://swiftnews.curated.co
- Managed by: Natasha Murashev
raywenderlich.com Weekly
If you want to keep up-to-speed on what’s going on here at raywenderlich.com, this is the newsletter for you!
Every week Ray puts together a summary of the new tutorials and articles released on this site, plus other relevant links that have been discussed in our Slack channels or on the web.
This is the largest newsletter on this list, with over 78K subscribers. It contains sections on Swift, iOS, OS X, Android, Mac OS X, books recently released or updated, and videos.
The last link is usually non technical and often fun, but still very relevant to the Cocoa community and the world of building software in general.
“I love Ray’s newsletters because it gives a bite sized summary of interesting articles to read for the week.”
Kelvin Lau
“I don’t subscribe to many newsletters. However, there is one that I enjoy. In fact, when I see the raywenderlich.com Weekly show up in my inbox, I usually stop what I’m doing to read it.”
Tammy Coron
- Frequency: Weekly, every Tuesday.
- Website: https://www.raywenderlich.com/newsletter
- Managed by: Ray Wenderlich
iOS Goodies
While most of the newsletters collect links that are hand picked by the curators, iOS Goodies is “made in the open”.
Anybody can suggest links to be included in the next issue by submitting a pull request on GitHub. If you are interested in contributing here are the guidelines.
Sections include links about technical articles, business and user experience. It’s a handy way to keep up with the bits that might be excluded by other newsletters but are still very relevant in the Cocoa community.
“I enjoy iOS Goodies because there’s usually several links that I hadn’t seen before that are quite interesting. It’s also the only newsletter I know of that’s open source – feel free to contribute links you like too!”
Ray Wenderlich
“I subscribed because it kept me informed with the latest iOS news and article. I did it some long time ago, before iOS newsletters were cool and there were not that many out there. I love the idea of an open source newsletter. I also contribute to it.”
Marius Constantinescu
- Frequency: Weekly, every Thursday
- Website: http://ios-goodies.com
- Managed by: Rui Peres and Tiago Almeida
Release Notes
Well written code built with effective tools is just a part of a successful project. All the rest includes devising a sustainable business model and spreading the word about the product.
The Release Notes newsletter features links that revolve around the business and marketing side of things. You’ll find articles about changing business model, effectively approaching the press, product-market fit and the like. “Anything but the code” :]
“I subscribe to quite a few iOS related newsletters. I love that the Release Notes monthly newsletter is different from the rest in that it addresses the non-technical sides of running an indie app business. Everything from marketing to inspiration to business tips from other devs. The articles and blog posts which Charles and Joe include are all high quality and I learn a *ton* from each edition. I highly recommend the newsletter (and the podcast) to anyone who has an indie app business or is looking to make the leap.”
Yono Mittlefehldt
“I subscribe to a few developer email newsletters, but Release Notes is the only one for a podcast. It’s a great way to get a quick summary of some of the recent episodes, just in case I’m behind listening to the show and don’t want to miss a particular topic. Joe and Charles also include a bunch of good blog post links, for recent developer- and business-focused posts from the community.”
Manton Reece
- Frequency: Monthly
- Website: https://releasenotes.tv
- Managed by: Joe Cieplinski and Charles Perry
Honorable mentions
There are so many valuable iOS and Swift newsletters out there, that picking the top 5 wasn’t an easy task. Some have been left out, but they deserve an honorable mention.
- iOS Cookies lists hand picked iOS libraries written in Swift. The list is nicely organized into categories so it’s easy to browse.
- Indie iOS is a weekly newsletter featuring links about iOS but with a slant towards indie developers.
- Swift Sandbox is a newsletter dedicated exclusively to Swift. It features articles about the core, foundation and evolution of Swift.
Where To Go From Here?
The iOS community is very vibrant and keeping up with all the news on your own can be complicated. But if you subscribe to all of these newsletters, it’s easy! :]
If you want to be even more involved, you can attend some iOS conferences in 2016.
What do you consider the top iOS and Swift newsletters? Please join our forum discussion below!
The post Top 5 iOS and Swift Newsletters appeared first on Ray Wenderlich.