Apple today launched a new app development curriculum designed for students who want to pursue careers in the fast-growing app economy. The curriculum is available as a free download today from Apple’s iBooks Store.
App Development with Swift is a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach students elements of app design using Swift, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. Students will learn to code and design fully functional apps, gaining critical job skills in software development and information technology.
Category: Apple
A Trip to Barcelona with iOS 11
Federico has published his iOS 11 wishes and concept video and article. It’s a deep-dive into what Apple could do this summer to really push the iPad to the next level:
We haven’t seen something truly new, bold, and transformational happen on the iPad platform in nearly two years. It’s time for Apple to step up their game and continue pursuing the vision for the future of computing set forth in 2015. There’s so much more work to be done with iOS, multitasking, and the redefinition of computing for the multitouch era. The iPad Pro can be a computer for everything, but it needs another leap forward to become the computer for everyone. And that can’t happen without a serious reconsideration of its software.
The Outline’s Review of Apple’s ‘New’ Pizza Box⇢
This week, Wired dropped a glossy cover story on Apple’s massive new campus, which will be known as Apple Park.
The approximately 6,000-word story mentions a specially-designed pizza box that enables Apple employees to take a pizza from the company’s posh food court, Caffè Macs, back to their desk area, or pod, without the pie getting soggy.
The box isn’t new, and was actually patented seven years ago:
The box is just coming into the public consciousness now, however, so The Outline obtained one — sent by a source directly from one of Apple’s California campuses — in order to conduct a hands-on review. Here are our first impressions.
The ‘Holy Grail’ in Diabetes⇢
According to Christina Farr at CNBC, Tim Cook has been test-driving a glucose monitor somehow tied to an Apple Watch:
A source said that Cook was wearing a prototype glucose-tracker on the Apple Watch, which points to future applications that would make the device a “must have” for millions of people with diabetes – or at risk for the disease.
Farr goes on:
At the University of Glasgow, he reiterated Apple’s commitment to the health space and spoke about the struggles faced by people with diabetes.
On Apple Park, Steve Jobs’ Last Product⇢
Jason Snell, writing at Macworld, bouncing off of Steven Levy’s recent feature about Apple’s new campus:
As detailed by Levy, Apple Park is an Apple product through and through. The company took great care to make design decisions, and create custom hardware, at many key points—from the massive glass sheets that required the building of a gigantic furnace, to the toilets, to the handles on the doors, to the pizza boxes in the cafeteria. It’s a one-off product designed by Apple for itself, yes, but it seems to have received the same attention to detail as any other major product launch.
Review: 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
The 13-inch MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar is a weird computer.
In many ways, it’s the new MacBook Air. If Apple could have sold it for $999, perhaps it would be the new MacBook Air. If the 12-inch, single-port MacBook had earned the Air name, maybe this computer would have been the MacBook.
Naming stuff aside — including the need for ATP to dub this computer the “MacBook Escape” — it’s a pretty enjoyable notebook. It strikes a great balance, as I wrote in my review:
Steven Levy Visits Apple Park⇢
Veteran reporter Steven Levy has a great feature on Apple’s new campus. It’s full of details about the building and its environment. This part really jumped out at me:
“This might be a stupid question,” I say. “But why do you need a four-story glass door?”
Ive raises an eyebrow. “Well,” he says. “It depends how you define need, doesn’t it?”
A Little Less Innovation, Perhaps⇢
Dan Moren, writing at Macworld:
Apple was so concerned about transforming the 2013 edition of the Mac Pro into an elegant, radical piece of machinery that it lost sight of what made that product appeal to its users. In a rare moment, the company even admitted it had taken the wrong approach.
But what about Apple’s portable Macs? With this week’s announcement of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop—of which there is very little that’s radical—it seems as though Apple’s notebooks may have missed a beat by being too focused on pushing the envelope. Maybe what we’re looking for is a faster horse.
Thoughts on That Rumored Siri Voice Canister
Rumors have it that Apple may ship its Echo and Google Home competitor as early as WWDC.
The timing would be classic Apple: let the early players work out the kinks in the market, then come in with something you think is more nicely designed and works better than the devices that founded the category.
No doubt a Siri Voice Canister would look better than the $179 Amazon Echo. I love how the slightly cheaper Google Home looks, but I found its touch surface to be a little lacking.
Apple Touts Job Creation Numbers on New Site⇢
The numbers tell the story. Apple is one of the biggest job creators in the United States, responsible for two million jobs in all 50 states. Last year, we spent over $50 billion with more than 9,000 U.S. suppliers and manufacturers. Since we launched the App Store in 2008, U.S. developers have earned over $16 billion in App Store sales worldwide. And we’re just getting started.
No doubt the company feels like it has to play defense as Washington chants “Buy American; Hire American.”
Apple Posts Q2 2017 Results⇢
TL;DR: It’s a pretty normal Q2 for the company:
“We are proud to report a strong March quarter, with revenue growth accelerating from the December quarter and continued robust demand for iPhone 7 Plus,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve seen great customer response to both models of the new iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition and we’re thrilled with the strong momentum of our Services business, with our highest revenue ever for a 13-week quarter. Looking ahead, we are excited to welcome attendees from around the world to our annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month in San Jose.”
‘Apple Should Probably Just Build a Mac Tower’⇢
Andrew Cunningham has put together a great article looking at the history of Hackintoshing, and the reasons many decide to build their own macOS-running computers:
It’s 2017. The desktop computer market is a little boring. Apple needs to find the courage to let its desktops be a little boring. It would serve the company’s pro users better, and the non-pro users are unlikely to care. They’re mostly buying laptops anyway.