Posted on November 20, 2016 by Retail News Editor

Apple to host Hour of Code workshops in celebration of Computer Science Education Week from December 5 through 11

: Apple to host Hour of Code workshops in celebration of Computer Science Education Week from December 5 through 11

Swift Playgrounds Adds Hour of Code Challenge and New Lessons

Cupertino, California, 2016-Nov-20 — /EPR Retail News/ — Apple today (NOVEMBER 17, 2016) opened registration for Hour of Code workshops at all 487 Apple retail stores worldwide, from December 5 through 11 in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Among the most popular events at the Apple Store, Hour of Code workshops teach the basics of computer science with Code.org’s programming tutorials. Apple and Code.org share the goal of giving every student the opportunity to learn computer science.

“Hour of Code embodies our vision for Apple stores as a place for the community to gather, learn and be entertained,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “We’re proud to introduce the Swift Playgrounds app into the workshops and honored to again work side-by-side with Code.org on this incredibly important initiative. Hour of Code is one of the absolute highlights of the year for both our teams and the families that visit our stores.”

“Since we started Hour of Code in 2013, Apple has each year upped its participation and found ways to introduce more kids to computer science,” said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. “The global footprint Apple offers through its stores and talented staff has reached tens of thousands of kids, and with the introduction of Hour of Code in Swift Playgrounds we can introduce coding to even more.”

Swift Playgrounds

This year, Hour of Code programs at many Apple locations will include an introduction to Swift Playgrounds, the free new app for iPad that brings coding to life. The interactive interface of Swift Playgrounds encourages beginners to explore working with Swift, the easy-to-learn programming language from Apple, used by professional developers to create world-class apps.

“Coding is just like any language, the earlier you’re exposed the more successful you’ll be,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Whether at an Apple Store, in a classroom or at home with an iPad, Swift Playgrounds brings real coding concepts to life and empowers the next generation with the skills they need to express their creativity.”

A new Hour of Code challenge in Swift Playgrounds makes it easy for anyone to set up their own one-hour coding event, and for those continuing to build their coding skills on iPad, Swift Playgrounds adds a new Learn to Code 3 set of lessons and a companion Teacher Guide.

Hour of Code for Educators
In addition to in-store workshops, Apple has developed a series of tools to extend Hour of Code into schools and community centers, including a free facilitator guide offering lesson ideas, group activities and more. Apple Teacher, a free, professional self-paced learning program supporting and celebrating teachers in the US, has added resources, badging and recognition for learning and teaching coding with Swift Playgrounds on iPad. Continuing Apple’s $100 million commitment and ongoing partnership to provide 114 underserved schools with technology, services and support, Apple will provide materials and resources to assist ConnectED schools around the country to host their own Hour of Code workshops.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts:
Nick Leahy
Apple
nleahy@apple.com
(408) 862-5012

Starlayne Meza
Apple
starlayne_meza@apple.com
(408) 974-3391

Apple Media Helpline
media.help@apple.com
(408) 974-2042

Source: Apple Inc.

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Retail News Editor

Swift Playgrounds: New iPad app that makes learning to code easy and fun now available on the App Store

Cupertino, California, 2016-Sep-14 — /EPR Retail News/ — Swift Playgrounds, an innovative new iPad app from Apple that makes learning to code easy and fun for everyone, is now available on the App Store. With Swift Playgrounds, real coding concepts are brought to life with an interactive interface that allows students and beginners to explore working with Swift, the easy-to-learn programming language from Apple used by professional developers to create world-class apps.

The Swift Playgrounds app is approachable enough for students with no previous programming experience to begin exploring key coding concepts, but also powerful enough for skilled programmers to experiment and express their creativity using Swift.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to learn coding, and we are excited to bring Swift Playgrounds to the next generation of programmers looking for a fun and easy way to explore key coding concepts using real code,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “More than 100 schools around the world have already committed to adding Swift Playgrounds to their fall curriculum, and we can’t wait to see what students create with it.”

Swift Playgrounds includes Apple-developed programming lessons that guide students through a series of challenges and puzzles to guide three on-screen characters through an immersive graphical world as they learn core coding concepts, like issuing commands, creating functions, performing loops and using conditional code and variables. Apple will also regularly release new standalone challenges so users can continue learning new skills.

Swift Playgrounds also features built-in templates that users can modify and build on to create their own programs with graphics and touch interactions. They can then share their creations with friends using Mail or Messages or even by posting to the Web. And since Swift Playgrounds uses real Swift code, projects can be exported directly to Xcode and ultimately be turned into full-fledged iOS and Mac apps.

Availability
Swift Playgrounds is available today on the App Store for free. Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air and iPad Pro models and iPad mini 2 and later running iOS 10. For more information including videos, images and demos, visit: apple.com/swift/playgrounds.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts:

Bill Evans
Apple
bevans@apple.com
(408) 974-0610

Starlayne Meza
Apple
starlayne_meza@apple.com
(408) 974-3391

Apple Media Helpline
media.help@apple.com
(408) 974-2042

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: Swift Playgrounds: New iPad app that makes learning to code easy and fun now available on the App Store

Source: Apple

Posted on September 29, 2015 by EPR Retail News Editors

Apple OS X® El Capitan will be available on Sep 30 as a free update for Mac users

Refined Experience and Improved Performance Make Your Mac Better than Ever

CUPERTINO, California, 2015-9-29 — /EPR Retail News/ — Apple® today announced that OS X® El Capitan, the latest major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, will be available on Wednesday, September 30 as a free update for Mac® users. El Capitan builds on the groundbreaking features and beautiful design of OS X Yosemite, refining the Mac experience with updates to window management, built-in apps and Spotlight® search, and performance improvements to make everyday activities — like launching and switching apps, opening PDFs and accessing email — faster and more responsive.

“People love using their Macs, and one of the biggest reasons is the power and ease-of-use of OS X,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “El Capitan refines the Mac experience and improves performance in a lot of little ways that make a very big difference. Feedback from our OS X beta program has been incredibly positive and we think customers are going to love their Macs even more with El Capitan.”

Refinements to the Mac Experience
El Capitan gives you simpler and smarter ways to do the things you do most with your Mac. A streamlined Mission Control® makes it easier to see and organize everything you have open on your Mac. With a single swipe, Mission Control arranges all your windows in a single layer so you can find the window you need even faster. When your desktop gets crowded, simply drag a window to the top of your screen to create a new Space and spread out your work. And the new Split View feature automatically positions two app windows side-by-side in full screen so you can work with both apps without distraction.

Spotlight gets even smarter in El Capitan. You can now use Spotlight to check stock prices, weather conditions and forecasts, sports scores, schedules and standings, and even athlete information. You can also search with Spotlight to find a file using natural language. Simply type “email from Harrison in April” or “presentation I worked on yesterday” and Spotlight will help you find exactly what you are looking for. You can resize the Spotlight window to display more results or move it anywhere on your desktop.

OS X built-in apps are even better in El Capitan. Safari® now features Pinned Sites to keep your favorite websites open and active and a new mute button to quickly silence browser audio from any tab. Mail introduces Smart Suggestions, which recognizes names or events in a Mail message and prompts you to add them to your contacts or calendar with a single click. You can also swipe to delete messages, just like in iOS, and juggle multiple emails while Mail is in full screen. In Photos, you can now edit locations, batch change descriptions, sort albums by date or title, and take editing to the next level with third-party editing extensions from your favorite developers.

El Capitan features an all-new Notes app that lets you drag and drop photos, PDFs, videos and other files into a note, and add content directly from other apps, such as Safari web links or Maps locations, using the Share menu. Easy-to-create checklists help you keep track of important to-do items, and the new Attachments Browser organizes your attachments in one simple view, making it easy to find what you’re looking for. With iCloud®, your notes stay in sync so you can create notes on one device and edit them or check off items on your other devices.

Improvements to System Performance
OS X El Capitan improves system performance across your Mac, making many of the things you do everyday faster and more responsive. Metal™, Apple’s groundbreaking graphics technology, accelerates Core Animation and Core Graphics to boost system-level rendering by up to 50 percent, and efficiency by up to 40 percent, resulting in faster graphics performance for everyday apps.* Metal also takes full advantage of your CPU and GPU, delivering up to 10 times faster draw call performance for a richer, more fluid experience in games and pro apps.*

El Capitan also features enhanced international language support, including a new Chinese system font for both Traditional and Simplified, with 50,000 beautifully designed characters for crisp on-screen readability. Chinese keyboard input methods now offer regularly updated vocabulary lists and a smarter candidate window. El Capitan makes entering Japanese text faster by automatically transforming Hiragana into written Japanese and reducing the need to individually select and confirm word conversions. You can now also select the perfect font for your documents using four new Japanese typefaces.

Pricing & Availability
OS X El Capitan is available as a free update starting Wednesday, September 30 from the Mac App Store℠. El Capitan supports all Macs introduced in 2009 and later, and some models introduced in 2007 and 2008.

*Testing conducted by Apple in August 2015 using 2.7GHz Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with 128GB of flash storage and 8GB of RAM. Tested with prerelease OS X v10.11. Not all features are available on all devices. Performance will vary based on system configuration, application workload, and other factors.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, the Mac and Apple Watch. Apple’s three software platforms — iOS, OS X and watchOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts:
Colin Smith
Apple
colins@apple.com
(408) 862-1171

Starlayne Meza
Apple
starlayne@apple.com
(408) 974-3391

Apple, the Apple logo, OS X, Mac, Spotlight, Mission Control, Safari, iCloud, Metal, Mac App Store and MacBook Pro are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Apple Media Helpline (408) 974-2042 media.help@apple.com

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Apple OS X® El Capitan will be available on Sep 30 as a free update for Mac users