Incorporating NLP models into iOS development is refreshingly straightforward and a great way to explore machine learning — Today, we’re going to make a basic app that’ll be able to use natural language processing (NLP) to predict whether a statement is positive or negative. This sounds impressive, but creating machine learning models using Apple’s CreateML framework and integrating them into an app is enticingly straightforward. The app below…

A super simple look at how to work with APIs and SwiftUI — Full disclosure — I’m not the best iOS developer, or programmer in general. I’d scarcley got my head around UIKit and the delegate pattern for handling data received from APIs before *boom* I open up Xcode after a break and all of a sudden there’s a view struct staring back…

Python? JavaScript? Go? Nah…these are the languages you need to learn if you want to zig when everyone else zags. — Picture the scene. You’re on the cusp of your career, and — like everyone else you know — you want to break in to the illustrious world of tech. But what language should you learn to impress your prospective employers or build the next big thing? Python? JavaScript? Maybe you…

Apple’s pursuit of clean, simple design landed them with a big fee for a small app. — Let’s face it, you don’t end up being worth more than the FTSE 100 without occasionally running into a few legal issues. From their trademark battle with the Beatles’ record label, Apple Corps (a dispute which ran for nearly thirty years), to the endless back-and-forth patent war with Samsung, Apple’s…

Representing digital functions via their physical antecedents is heavily entrenched, but does it have to be? — I think it was a Facebook post a few years ago that led to me to think about skeuomorphism. The post went something along the lines of ‘isn’t it weird that kids today don’t even know what the ‘save’ button is supposed to be’. I had never noticed that the…

Advice for Ancient Greek farmers that will help fill your granary. — The internet is full of people telling you how to achieve certain goals: X things you must do to be Y, you must not do A if you want to be B, and so on and so forth. Well, that’s nothing new: one of the first poets in the Western…

At the height of the Cold War, two films brought the horror of nuclear war to British and American televisions — and we need a refresher. — It was one of those October afternoons that dispel any lingering doubt that winter is coming. The weight of the cold, damp grey skies dragged the light from the day and the leaves from the trees. …

How I ended up making an app, and why I still try. — I had never been more excited for a download to finish. I could almost hear my rural broadband creaking under the weight of the 5 GB behemoth. I was downloading Xcode — Apple’s integrated development environment, used to develop iOS and MacOS applications. It was August 2011, and I was…

Beyond the infamous Craven A ‘for your throat’s sake, smoke!’ adverts, the late 1930s had plenty of other products to keep us healthy. — Beyond the infamous Craven A ‘for your throat’s sake, smoke!’ adverts, the late 1930s had plenty of other products aimed at keeping the body in tip-top shape. I’m fortunate to have a huge collection of issues of the British photojournalistic magazine — Picture Post — which published some fascinating features…