Apple offering Xcode 6 beta for free on new Swift blog

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Apple today launched a new blog on its developer portal for its Swift programming language. The company introduced the new language at WWDC last month, and it says this will be a way to keep devs up to date on its progress.

The news is interesting for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s not like Apple to talk publicly about projects it’s working on—particularly via a blog. It’s also worth noting that it has posted a free version of its Xcode 6 beta on the site…

For those unfamiliar with Xcode, it’s the suite of tools developers use to make apps for Mac and iOS. Apple has always offered older versions of the software for free, but usually reserves betas for developers who pay the $99/year.

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Not any more. If you’re interested in picking up the Xcode 6 beta, make sure you have at least a free Apple dev account, and click here. The software should work on any Mac running OS X Mavericks or Yosemite Developer Preview.

Now, back to the Swift blog. Here’s Apple’s first entry:

Welcome to Swift Blog

This new blog will bring you a behind-the-scenes look into the design of the Swift language by the engineers who created it, in addition to the latest news and hints to turn you into a productive Swift programmer.

Get started with Swift by downloading Xcode 6 beta, now available to all Registered Apple Developers for free. The Swift Resources tab has a ton of great links to videos, documentation, books, and sample code to help you become one of the world’s first Swift experts. There’s never been a better time to get coding!

– The Swift Team

For those interested in learning more about Swift, the programming language, Apple offers a free guide in iBooks.