What you need to know

• Apple has released a new version of Swift Playgrounds for iPad and Mac.
• Budding developers can download Swift Playgrounds for free from the App Store.

Apple has today released a new version of its Swift Playground development tool, an app that's designed to help people learn how to build their own apps in a fun way.

The new Swift Playgrounds 4.1 update is now available for download in the App Store and is free for all. There are a ton of new changes and features on the Mac side including the ability to build apps with SwiftUI for macOS Monterey 12.4 or later.

Swift Playgrounds 4.1 introduces new features, new content and bug fixes. New features include:

• Build Mac apps with SwiftUI (requires macOS 12.4 or later)
• Guided walkthroughs teach SwiftUI app building basics
• App Preview shows live updates as you make changes to your app
• Apps built with Swift Playgrounds run and install to the Applications folder
• App Store Connect integration lets you upload your finished app to the App Store (requires Apple Developer Program account)
• Smart, inline code suggestions help you write code quickly and accurately
• Project-wide search finds results across multiple files
• Snippets Library provides hundreds of SwiftUI controls, symbols, and colors
• Swift Package support lets you include publicly available code to enhance your apps
• App Projects make it easy to move projects to Xcode and back

The update is now available for download and can be found in the Mac App Store.

The release notes for the iPad version of Swift Playgrounds aren't quite so complete, but there are definitely some improvements of note for those looking to learn to create apps on their iPad.

Swift Playgrounds 4.1 includes bug fixes and the following new content:

• "Keep Going with Apps" helps you understand how data moves throughout SwiftUI apps
• "Animating Shapes" teaches you how to create, modify, and animate shapes
• "Capturing Photos" is an advanced look at creating your own camera

Again, the new update for iPad version of Siwft Playgrounds is ready to go and can be downloaded from the App Store now. This is one of the best iPad apps a budding developer can get their hands on right now, and it's absolutely free!

What you need to know

• Apple release Swift Playgrounds 4
• App Store Connect lets you upload your app directly to the App Store on your device.
• With iPadOS 15.2, you can build apps with SwiftUI right on your iPad

Swift Playgrounds is Apple's educational and development for apps that you can use right on your iPad, and it has just released Swift Playgrounds 4 with some significant upgrades!

According to the update log on the App Store, these are the major new features you can expect from Swift Playgrounds 4:

• Build iPhone and iPad apps with SwiftUI right on your iPad (requires iPadOS 15.2 or later)
• App Store Connect integration lets you upload your finished app to the App Store
• App Preview shows live updates as you make changes to your app
• Full-screen preview lets you see your app edge-to-edge
• Smart, inline code suggestions help you write code quickly and accurately
• App Projects make it easy to move projects to Xcode and back
• Project-wide search finds results across multiple files
• Snippets Library provides hundreds of SwiftUI controls, symbols, and colors
• Swift Package support lets you include publicly-available code to enhance your apps

Apple originally announced the fourth generation of Swift Playgrounds, its Swift programming app for beginners, at WWDC21 earlier this year with the promise to allow iPad users to create and publish apps all from the device itself.

You can download Swift Playgrounds 4 right now, but remember to download and install the newest iPadOS 15.2 software first. One thing's for sure, and there's never been a better time to try coding on your iPad than right now with Swift Playgrounds 4.

What you need to know

• Apple is highlighting the power of Swift when it comes to teaching students how to code.
• The company is showcasing the stories of schools, educators, and students in Australia.

Apple is showcasing the success of Swift in schools in its latest Newsroom feature.

In a post on the Newsroom website, Apple is showcasing a number of schools, educators, and students in Australia who have used Swift to learn how to code. Swift is Apple's open-source programming language that is now incorporated by developers in tons of apps on the App Store.

One of the stories Apple highlighted was TAFE Queensland, the state's largest training provider. According to the article, the company will soon offer iOS app development with Swift training to students starting in October. The course was co-created between TAFE Queensland, Apple engineers, and educators.

Apple says that there are now 160,00 app economy jobs in Australia and that new jobs continue to increase at a rate of ten percent every year.

You can check out the full feature from Apple on the Apple Newsroom.

What you need to know

• Ohio State University is making its Swift coding course available to the public.

Ohio State University has today announced that it's making its Swift Coding and App development certificate program available to the public.

From Ohio State News:

OSU says that in the year since it launched more than 3,000 students, faculty, staff, and alumni have enrolled in the program, completing its self-paced modules at a speed that suits them. OSU says the new course "expands the opportunity to anyone interested in learning how to code and build apps that are ready for the App Store." The course is supported by Columbus-based venture studio Horizon Two Labs, helping to launch and develop tech startups and supporting the enrollment of its own employees on the course.

About the course, OSU states:

The course is built around Apple's own coding curriculum and Xcode.

Director of learning programs and Digital Flagship Cory Tressler said:

What you need to know

• Swift has announced Swift Algorithms.
• The announcement was made in a blog post on the Swift.org website.
• The algorithms should help developers fix code and improve app performance faster.

Announced on Twitter on Wednesday night, Swift, Apple's open-source programming language, is bringing new algorithm packages to developers. The announcement was made through the Swift Language account:

In a blog post on the Swift website, Nate Cook, a member of the Swift standard library team at Apple, says that the team hopes developers will adopt the new algorithms to help assist in correcting their code.

Developers can check out Swift Algorithms on the Swift website.

What you need to know

• Stanford is making its 'Developing Apps for iOS' course available online.
• CS193p explores the fundamentals of building apps for iPhone and iPad and was taught at the university in the Spring of 2020.
• Lectures will be made available online, two per week, via YouTube.

Stanford University has announced that it will make its 'Developing Applications for iOS' course available online via YouTube.

In an announcement on its website the institute stated:

The first two lectures of the series, Course Logistics and Intro to SwiftUI and MVVM and the Swift Type System are now available on YouTube, complete with readings and assignments, which it says are "absolutely essential to learning the material in this course." Stanford says that the material has not been developed or vetted by Apple, so don't take it as gospel. However, they note that "we've done our best to understand this technology ourselves in the short time it has been out and then share what we've learned."

Apple announced SwiftUI along with ARKit 3 and new Xcode Tools in June of 2019 stating:

So if you've ever been curious about iOS app development, or would like to add a Stanford coding course to your resume, check it out!

What you need to know

• Swift Playgrounds is now available on your Mac.
• It's a Catalyst app.
• No previous coding knowledge is needed.

Apple's coding teaching app, Swift Playgrounds, is now available on the Mac for the first time. It's free and can be downloaded from the Mac App Store and you'll need macOS Catalina 10.15.3 to run it.

the app is a Catalyst-powered adaptation of the same app that has proven so popular on iPad, and bringing it to the Mac for the first time is a great look for Apple. Especially as people continue to accuse it of pushing the Mac into the shadows.

Here's Apple's explanation of what makes Swift Playgrounds so awesome.

This may be a Catalyst app, but that doesn't mean it doesn't look and feel like a Mac app. There's Touch Bar support with quick access to commands, and because you're using macOS, the whole window is resizable to make it easier than ever to see what you're working on.

We can all agree that sounds amazing, right? Go download it now, you won't regret it for a single second!

What you need to know

• SwiftUI is Apple's way of making it easier for developers to create apps for multiple platforms.
• The SwiftUI team's engineering director has been speaking about how it came about.
• The discussion lasts almost an hour and is a must-listen for developers.

Josh Shaffer Is a name you might not be familiar with, but you probably should be. Over the years he's had his fingers in different iPhone and Apple Watch bits and pieces. The chances are you're using software he's worked on without even knowing it. Now he's heading the SwiftUI team at Apple and you can hear all about it in the latest Swift by Sundell podcast episode.

The podcast covers everything from the creation of SwiftUI to how it's changing the way apps are being created. Developers – or those interested in how development takes place in a SwiftUI world – should set aside an hour and take this in. It'll be time well spent.

When you've listened to this episode – episode 59 – do yourself a favor and subscribe. There's a whole back catalog of podcast episodes to enjoy, too!

Images via Apple

What you need to know

• Apple is celebrating the power of coding in classrooms.
• A press release has highlighted how Apple's coding is transforming education in Europe.
• Schools say programme has led to "more engaged, innovative learning with proven results".

A press release published by Apple today has highlighted how students across Europe are benefiting from Apple's Everyone Can Code and App Development with Swift curricula. The news comes as institutions across Europe are celebrating EU code week this October.

In a statement Apple sad:

Teachers from Layton Primary School in Blackpool, England spoke about how teaching their kids to code had not only given them an education in the art of coding itself, but had also transformed the way the kids approached all of their subjects. Clare Scott from the school stated:

The release also charted the story of Belinda Tagariello. She enrolled into a government-funded program and was taught Swift. Having learnt the ropes, she now teaches that same course at the Institute De Amicis in Milan. 41 students have completed the course, producing 14 apps between them. 16 of the graduates now have jobs in the tech industry, and a further 5 went on to enroll in university. 29 students will begin the course this October.

Apple concluded by saying:

It's incredible to see how Apple is transforming everyday lives not just through its products, but also through education. You can read the full press release here

What you need to know

• Apple has updated Swift Playgrounds for iPadOS 13.
• New features include Dark Mode and SwiftUI.
• There is also new Learn to Code experiences.

Apple has updated its Swift Playgrounds app, an iPad exclusive, for iPadOS 13. Reported by 9to5Mac, the new changes in Swift 5.1 include Dark Mode, the ability to build with SwiftUI, and new Learn to Code lessons. The app's page on the App Store details all of the new updates:

• Use the new dark coding theme when running Dark Mode in iPadOS 13
• In Learn to Code, help Byte and friends explore their world at night when using Dark Mode in iPadOS 13 • Build with the SwiftUI framework in new playgrounds you create • Includes Swift 5.1 and the iOS 13 SDK

If you've ever been interested in coding and own an iPad, Swift Playgrounds is a fantastic way to get started. The app is built by Apple and designed to teach you Swift code, Apple's own code language that continues to gain traction as the go-to language when coding apps for Apple's devices. In fact, use of swift code has reportedly doubled from iOS 12 to iOS 13. No matter how you are getting started, Apple has built Swift Playgrounds for you:

The new version of Swift Playgrounds is available today in the App Store.

Google gets a lot of attention and even affection for giving away free services in exchange for our personal, private data. Apple doesn't want any of that. When you buy something from Apple, just like stickers and cables come in the box, hundreds of millions of dollars of educational programing and probably billions in free apps and services, everything you need to start exploring code and photography and video and music and much, much, more also comes invisibly in that box.

If you think Apple products are too expensive, this is where some of that money goes, so you should absolutely go, get in on all the free classes and training, and take that money back. Even if you've never bought an Apple product you can still take all of it, all for free.

Hour of Code workshops is one of the most prominent examples. Apple's been participating in the event for a few years now, originally using web-based tools and techniques but, more recently focusing on its still newish, free Swift Playgrounds app for iPad, and all the free lessons its been releasing to go with it.

Apple's been doing Hour of Code for a few of years now. Last year, the company introduced its Swift Playgrounds to the mix. With new and improved lessons to go with it, and the ability to control robots — yes, robots! — it makes the same kinds of code used to create next-generation iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps not just accessible to everyone, but relatable.

For the last couple of years I've gone to my local Apple Store with my school-aged god kids to sit in on Hour of Code. This year, well… I'll get to that in a minute.

In stores with the new Forums, kids and their parents gather around the giant displays, on the geometric seating, and wait for the pre-prepped iPads to be handed out. In older school stores, tables and chairs serve the exact same purpose.

Way back in the first year, one of the hour-long workshop consisted of a series of code-based puzzles the kids needed to solve. The puzzles used characters and imagery from popular games like Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies. Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of coding and forcing kids to write brackets and if statements, however, the children were asked to build pre-created modules, much like an Automator or Workflow module. They simply dragged blocks of code from the Code.org sidebar to the main canvas — code that told their on-screen characters to move or turn, as well as how much or how often.

At some of the bigger stores, Apple also brings in local developers to work with and inspire the children. This year I went to Apple Laval and a couple of the developers from Budge Studios, famous for its kids games and the new Transformers: Bumblebee game, were there to answer questions before the hour began, and to work with the kids until well after it ended.

In previous years, my god kids have asked "Why couldn't it be two hours of code?!" This year, I saw several kids say the same thing. Including a large amount of young girls, which all sorts of programs from App Camp for Girls to Girls Can Code have been working for years to provide more exposure to and opportunities for coding experience.

And their teachers. Because Apple doesn't just do the yearly Hour of Code. It also has a program called Field Trips where entire classes can come in and learn. According to the staff of the local French elementary school I spoke to, it's a huge benefit to them because they didn't yet have a coding program in house.

I hadn't realized this but not all of the material had previously been available in languages other than English but, as Apple has become more and more involved, not just Swift Playgrounds but a ton of the supplemental course material has been made available in a much wider range of languages, with more coming every year.

Hour of Code happens for a couple of weeks once a year but Apple hosts free lessons and free training on coding for kids and adults all year long. In fact, it has a fairly new course on prototyping that's straight out of some of my favorite WWDC sessions past. I can't believe it's in the stores but I'm so delighted it is.

If you don't have an Apple Store near you, you can still download the free Swift Playgrounds app and go through all the free course material. If you work in a school, Apple also has free course material available for both of its initiatives, Everyone can Code and Everyone can create.

It's not just one of Apple's biggest products, it's one of the least know and least taken advantage of, especially when it comes to things like Field Trips for schools and Apple Camp for kids, so make sure you let your friends know, let your schools know, let everyone know. Pick some classes, get some people together, and go, go go.

To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple has announced that it is partnering with schools in several states in the U.S. to bring its Everyone Can Code curricula, a set of courses designed around teaching Swift, to schools that support blind and deaf students, as well as those with other assistive needs. These partnerships follow the successful deployment of Everyone Can Code at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

From Apple:

The initial new partnerships will take place at schools in California, New York, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas. Schools will be able to custom tailor the Lessons for the needs of their individual students. Apple will help in this effort by providing additional resources as needed.

Everyone Can Code, which is focused on getting students of all ages started with coding, from kindergarten to beyond college. The courses center around teaching Swift using Apple's Swift Playgrounds app for iPad.

Learning how to code is no small undertaking, but Apple aims to make the process a little simpler with Everyone Can Code. This comprehensive curriculum features apps, teacher guides, and lessons for iPad and Mac that give teachers the tools they need to teach their students how to code using Swift. If you'd like to learn a little more about Everyone Can Code, this FAQ should be a good place to start!

What's new with Everyone Can Code?

Apple is always adding new lessons, features, integrations, and tools for its Everyone Can Code curriculum. Keep checking back here to see what's new!

At its Chicago event on Tuesday, Apple's Susan Prescott took some time to highlight the Everyone Can Code curriculum. Teachers in more than 2,000 schools around the world are using the Everyone Can Code curriculum to teach coding skills.

Swift Playgrounds, an app that teaches kids (and adults) how to code in Swift, has been localized in 15 different languages and is used in 155 different countries. The app already includes lessons that work with drones and robots — it will soon feature lessons that make use of Apple's augmented reality framework, ARKit. Apple also announced that Swift Playgrounds will work with its new Schoolwork app, giving teachers the ability to assign activities in Swift Playgrounds, collaborate with students, and track their progress.

What is Everyone Can Code?

Everyone Can Code is Apple's comprehensive curriculum aimed at proving the statement that's right there on the tin: Everyone Can Code. With apps, teacher guides, and lessons for iPad and Mac, the curriculum is built from the ground up to help educators teach students how to code.

The curriculum is based around learning the Swift programming language. Students begin on the iPad, using third-party apps and Apple's first-party Swift Playgrounds app. After completing the basic curriculum, students move on to using Xcode on the Mac.

Let's start with Swift — tell me more, will you?

Swift is a programming language created by Apple. Millions of developers use Swift to build apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. In fact, Swift Playgrounds (the app that teaches people how to code using Swift) is completely coded using Swift! Apple built Swift to be easy to learn and easy to teach. That makes it the perfect language to start with when you're learning to code.

OK, can you give me some more details about Swift Playgrounds?

Swift Playgrounds is an app for iPad that teaches Swift coding in an immersive, interactive environment. You can open Swift Playgrounds and start to learn to code without any coding knowledge.

It works like a level-based game: You start with simple challenges in "Fundamentals of Swift," learning how to use Swift to guide your character, Byte, through his environment. Over time — and through many, more challenging lessons — you begin to learn concepts necessary for understanding Swift (commands, functions, loops, operators, variables, etc.).

Apple regularly updates Swift Playgrounds, adding new lessons to help you improve your coding skills. You can also download and complete challenges created by third-parties. Did I mention you can also create code to control robots and drones? You can also create code to control robots and drones.

Swift Playgrounds is about to hit 1.5 — hold onto your bots!

Are there other ways to learn besides Swift Playgrounds?

Yep! That's where the teacher guides and lessons come into play. Apple has crafted a bunch of materials — quizzes, activities, puzzles, discussions, Keynote presentations, etc. — for teaching Swift. Lessons begin on iPad (some of them do use Swift Playgrounds to teach core concpets) before students graduate to the Mac. Here's the rundown of the available lessons:

• Get Started with Code 1: Students aged five to seven will use apps like codeSpark Academy and Tynker to learn how to think like a coder.
• Get Started with Code 2: Students aged eight to eleven will use apps like Tynker to learn how to think like a coder.
• Swift Playgrounds: Learn to Code 1 & 2: Students will use Swift Playgrounds to learn key coding concepts and draw comparisons between coding and other subjects in everyday life.
• Swift Playgrounds: Learn to Code 3: Students will use Swift Playgrounds to build creative tools and create new worlds by placing and manipulating images.

• Intro to App Development with Swift: This is a one-semester course built for high school and college students. The course introduces students to app development, Swift, and Xcode. At the end of the course, students will have used their skills to create an iOS app from scratch.
• App Development with Swift: This is a yearlong course built for high school and college students. It is meant to follow the Intro course. Students will learn more about coding with Swift, using Xcode, and understanding iOS development. The course tasks students with building projects and testing their code using playgrounds in Xcode (not to be confused with Swift Playgrounds on iPad). At the end of the course, students will have used their skills to create a full-featured app made completely by them.

Anything else I should know about Everyone Can Code?

Sure! You don't necessarily have to be a teacher (or a student learning from a teacher) to make use of the Everyone Can Code curriculum. The lessons, apps, and guides are available for anyone to download. If you'd like to learn how to code using Swift, consider downloading Swift Playgrounds and checking out the Everyone Can Code resources. Here are the links:

• Swift Playgrounds - Free - Download now
• Everyone Can Code

Thoughts? Questions?

Thinking about learning to code? Planning to use the Everyone Can Code resources to teach yourself Swift? Have some other questions I didn't answer in the FAQ? Gimme a shout in the comments!

What's new with Swift Playgrounds?

Apple announced that AR support (using ARKit) is coming to Swift Playgrounds! Not only will kids be able to see 3D models of Byte (the character that the code manipulates) but they will also be able to use the iPad camera to showcase Byte's virtual world within the real world.

ARKit for Swift Playground: Everything we know so far

Swift Playgrounds for iPad — although the words "one more thing" weren't said out loud before its introduction at WWDC 2016, that's exactly the importance it was given. And deservedly so.

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, announced it, and Cheryl Thomas, vice president of software engineering operations, showed it off: A technical marvel with a coding environment, made multitouch, directly manipulable, and fully accessible, melded with an educational miracle, teaching coding itself in a way that's engaging, empowering, and approachable to everyone.

It's not just the mainstreaming of technology — something Apple has proven themselves good at a ridiculous amount of times over the last few decades — but the mainstreaming of the tools used to drive the technology itself.

I had a chance to preview Swift Playgrounds on iPad, to attend the WWDC sessions and talk to developers at the labs. I also spoke with Cheryl Thomas; Tim Triemstra, who manages product marketing for developer tools; and Wiley Hodges, director of product marketing for tools and technologies.

Thanks to all of that, I now get to share some early thoughts on Swift Playgrounds with you. And, frankly, to gush. A lot.

Print("Hello Playgrounds")

BASIC, Logo, Hypercard, the web — in the early days of personal computing, it felt like everyone was learning to code and discovering something new and exciting all the time. But those days faded and, for a decade or so, there wasn't a great way for beginners, especially kids, to get into code.

Apple's new programming language, Swift, was deliberately crafted to fix that. It was crafted to fix other things as well, of course, but from the moment it hit the stage at WWDC 2014, it was immediately — spectacularly — obvious just how empowering it could be for education and for everyone.

And a large part of that was "Playgrounds".

Playgrounds isn't an entirely new concept, but it's radically new at mainstream scale. Playgrounds provides a live view of what your code is doing, up to, and including, animation and interactive 3D models.

On the Mac, it lives inside Xcode, Apple's traditional programming environment. This fall, along with iOS 10, it's coming to the iPad App Store as well.

It's not just as a developer environment either. Apple is also providing a ridiculously well-considered, ongoing educational environment to go along with it.

And that was the plan from the beginning, according to Thomas.

If a smile hasn't already burst across your face, consider: Soon, anyone with an iPad, even if they've never thought about programming before, will be able to very literally fingerpaint with code, and, more importantly, learn how to make art.

That's apparent from the moment you launch the Swift Playgrounds app. The first screen you land on is the Featured tab. It looks just like the App Store, showcasing both lessons and challenges you can download and get started on.

The second tab is My Playgrounds, which stores the lessons you've already downloaded, as well as custom projects you've built all on your own. It looks like Keynote or Pages, with templates to help bridge the gap between lessons and full-on flying solo.

All of that was intentional according to Triemstra. The team wanted Swift Playgrounds to be immediately familiar and instantly approachable to as many people as possible. Since pretty much everyone already knows how to use the App Store, and many know how to use the iWork apps, there's no barrier to using Swift Playgrounds. You dive right in.

Also, because you can edit and rename anything in My Playgrounds, you can make even a single iPad multi-user. Each child can have a copy of a Playground named just for them, with their own progress and at their own pace.

The tools inside Playgrounds are fiercely cool as well. There are QuickType predictive suggestions for code, so what you want is often exactly what you'll see. Developers can even control what's available for suggestion, so they can optimize for their Playgrounds.

There's a new keyboard that makes entering a number or symbol as easy as tapping and swiping it up. You can edit in place with context-sensitive popup menus and attribute pickers, so you can easily add options for values, complete statements, and even choose colors. You can also drag and drop code elements, which is incredibly intuitive behavior on iPad.

Swift Playgrounds works in Split View with other iPad apps, of course, but it also works as a split view, giving you a Swift coding window on the left and a Playgrounds window on the right. Using the same touch-and-hold mechanics as Split View, the operating system-level feature, you can drag the code or Playground window full screen.

In a delightfully clever departure from how the main Split View feature works, if you rotate to portrait, you don't get two skinny windows. You get two full-width windows with Playgrounds stacked on top of Swift coding.

Sharing == Caring

Sharing is profoundly human. Sometimes an experience doesn't feel real until we share it. It's why we have partners and families and teams and offices and classes. It's especially important for learning, where insight doesn't just come from the lessons we learn but from the lessons learned and shared by those around us. It would take an eternity, after all, to discover everything all on our own.

With Swift Playgrounds, you can share anything in My Playgrounds with anyone you like over email, iMessage, or AirDrop. That's great for sending your latest awesome creation to a sibling across the room, or your quick prototype to your fellow engineer across the country.

Since Swift Playground lessons take the form of "books," you can also create and share your own lessons, customized for your own kids, classroom, course, team, or the world at large.

Hodges explained the sharing is absolutely safe. Though Swift Playgrounds provides the full power of the iOS SDK, it's also fully sandboxed, and there are a few things that are off limits. That way, for example, no one can use Playgrounds as a way to try and steal any contacts or personal information, or to try and get any malware onto anyone's system.

In a world where privacy and security are continually devalued, it's great that Apple is not only alleviating even the potential for concern from anyone who still understands the critical importance of both, but protecting those who don't even think about it at all anymore.

There's another, even more exciting way to share Swift Playgrounds: ReplayKit. That's Apple's screen recording technology introduced last year for games. With it, you could record what you were playing and send it to your friends. Coming this fall, ReplayKit will let you stream what you're playing live to popular video platforms, and your Swift Playground sessions, too.

Anyone who's seen a child watch Minecraft videos while playing Minecraft, or sit endlessly in front of a Twitch or YouTube stream knows how powerfully engaging it can be.

Imagining that power and engagement for code? Chills.

/* Inclusivity */

Accessibility was baked into Swift Playgrounds from the start, according to Thomas. Part of making coding open to everyone is making coding open to everyone. That naturally extended to diversity as well, according to Triemstra.

When you start the first lesson you meet a character named Byte. Apple could have used something akin to a scrappy, mustached plumber or optional bright, pink-hatted princess, but those would reflect only a tiny sliver of the user base. Apple could have also defaulted to a simple geometric shape labeled "Object 1," but that would have been bland and uninspired. So, like with Siri, Apple went with personality, and they took it a step further.

Byte looks like a golden pear with a sea blue eye, yellow front pack, wide mouth, tiny legs, and floppy noodle arms. That's something any child, any person, can relate to regardless of who they are or what their background is. With a tap, though, pear-Byte leaps up to an island in the sky where you can choose from two other versions — a similarly cyclopean raindrop with a messenger bag, and a green, two-eyed, hammer-headed backpacker in what looks like a button-down cummerbund.

That leaves you free to identify with any of the Bytes, any way you like. That was an especially important design goal, according to Triemstra. There's little point in making a technically approachable environment if, the minute someone uses it, they can't see themselves reflected in it.

This way, Byte can be anything you want, including you. And when you add the code, Byte can do anything you want as well.

It makes the experience less like work and more like play. I found myself cheering when Byte collected the gem, flipped the switch, and went through the portal. Even finding and fixing bugs was like beating a level in a game, motivating me to keep trying, and to continue on to the next level — er, lesson — as soon as I finished the last.

And only occasionally, with incredible joy, would I realize it was me — me! — writing code.

//#-The-A-Team

Hodges made it clear in our conversation that Swift Playgrounds for iPad is the full, real Swift. It's not Swift Jr. or Swift Lite, or any extract or dilution. It's the full power of the iOS SDK at your fingertips.

The lessons and challenges, which, according to Thomas, were prepared alongside educational experts both inside and outside of Apple, and field tested by kids of all ages, are an ongoing effort. More of both are on the way, and will be updated and added to for a long time to come.

So there's no need to worry that Swift Playgrounds will be delivered with a lot of excitement but will eventually be abandoned as Apple turns its attention elsewhere. Like privacy, education is core to Apple's culture.

That extends to the team, Triemstra said. Swift Playgrounds wasn't farmed out. It wasn't a secondary or tertiary project. It was built by Apple's own, internal engineers. The ones that have built some of the most important features we use on a daily basis.

Rumor has it, in fact, that the teams behind Swift Playground included serious talent. Code and education matter to a lot of people at Apple, not just at the executive level but at every level. They went to Apple to dent universes, and things like Swift Playgrounds are top-of-the-list for many of the very best designers and engineers.

There's an optimism — almost a nobility of purpose — that radiates from the entire project. And it shows in every part of the app, from concept to design, content to coding, execution to delivery. It sings. It dances. It makes you giddy with potential.

It's the full stack.

End.bottomLine()

I have so much more to say about Swift Playgrounds for iPad that I'm going to stop now, or I fear I'll gush forever. No app has ever had me more excited or more hopeful for the future.

The potential seems limitless, which is something that came up in my conversation with Cheryl Thomas, and that's beyond exciting.

Needless to say, I'll be expanding on this preview and writing a lot more in the months to come.

For now, if you're interested in an early look and you have an extra iPad to spare, you can download the iOS 10 public beta — here's some help if you need it — and have at it. Playgrounds is built right in. Otherwise, Swift Playgrounds will be available separately, for free, on the App Store this fall following the final release of iOS 10.

It's one of the finest things Apple has ever done, and it's going to change the way coding is done for the next generation.

One of the best and most important announcements at WWDC 2016 was Swift Playgrounds, an iPad app that made coding not only accessible but fun for children of all ages. For a company that makes billions off iPhone sales, it was a singularly noble gift to education, especially since there'd been nothing like it for decades, not since the days of Hypercard and maybe Logo.

Now, on the eve of WWDC 2017, Apple is updating Swift Playgrounds to version 1.5 and making it compatible with a joyous array of third-party robotics sets.

Yeah, robotics.

Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering:

And here's what Swift Playgrounds 1.5 will support:

You'll be able to get the new version on June 5, perhaps not-so-coincidentally the same day WWDC 2016 kicks off in San Jose, California.

Thanks for doing this Apple, and thanks to the teams of engineers and educators who make it a reality.

Apple has just launched a new app development curriculum, available on the company's iBooks e-reader app, that aims to let anyone in high school or community college learn to code in Swift and create apps for iPhone and iPad.

Last year, Apple introduced Swift Playgrounds at WWDC 2016 as a way to get children, and children of all ages, familiar with the basic concepts of code. The app developer curriculum takes that not just a step further but a leap all the way to secondary and post-secondary education.

Several community colleges have simultaneously announced support for the new curriculum, including the Alabama Community College System, Columbus State Community College, Harrisburg Area Community College, Houston Community College, Mesa Community College, and San Mateo Community College District, with more colleges and high schools on the way.

The program was put together using the same approach as Swift Playgrounds, with everyone from educators to software engineers sharing ideas to create the best, most teachable, most learnable curriculum possible.

And since it's available on iBooks, it's available to anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, anywhere they want to open it.

Education has always been central to Apple, with iBooks and Apple Education (originally iTunes U) initially intended to help revolutionize the textbook industry by making curriculums easier to deploy and update.

Swift was also designed to be taught in schools starting at a young age, something that had been sorely missing from the previous generation of popular app development languages.

Having Swift in the classroom isn't just good for students, of course. It's good for Apple and iPhone and iPad customers eagerly awaiting the next great wave of apps.

Press release below.

Apple launches app development curriculum for high school and community college students

Students will be able to learn to code and develop apps at high schools and community colleges across the country.

Houston — 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.

Students who want to learn about app development can download the curriculum for free from the iBooks Store.

Starting this fall, six community college systems serving nearly 500,000 students across the country will be among the first to offer the innovative curriculum. At many campuses, local businesses will also offer students mentoring and internships.

"We've seen firsthand the impact that coding has on individuals and the US economy as a whole. The app economy and software development are among the fastest-growing job sectors in America and we're thrilled to be providing educators and students with the tools to learn coding," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Community colleges play a critical role in helping students achieve their dreams, and we hope these courses will open doors for people of all ages and backgrounds to pursue what they love."

The course uses Swift, Apple's popular and easy-to-use programming language. The curriculum will be offered by the Alabama Community College System, Columbus State Community College, Harrisburg Area Community College, Houston Community College, Mesa Community College and San Mateo Community College District, among others. Select high schools across the country will also be teaching the App Development with Swift curriculum starting this fall. Houston Community College is opening an iOS Coding and Design School that will teach Apple's new curriculum.

"The world calls Houston a knowledge capital because of the incredible concentration of ideas and innovation in our great city," said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Apple's investment in our community with the launch of the app development curriculum will tap into the creativity of our students, inspire new possibilities and foster our culture of technological transformation." "We are focused on preparing our students for life in a global and technological society, and in 2017 that means making sure our students have access to a state-of-the-art coding curriculum," said Houston Community College Chancellor Cesar Maldonado. "We are thrilled Apple is offering this incredible opportunity to advance student learning, which will especially help us bridge the gap in computer science training for minorities and women. We can't wait to see what these students will do and already have local businesses offering mentoring and internship opportunities."

Apple's curriculum includes a comprehensive student guide with playground exercises, mini projects and quizzes, as well as a teachers guide with grading rubrics, solutions code and Keynote presentations.

App Development with Swift is an extension of Apple's existing K-12 Everyone Can Code curricula which offer everyone the power to learn, write and teach coding. Swift is Apple's powerful and intuitive programming language that gives developers the freedom and capabilities they need to create the next generation of cutting-edge software. Popular apps including Airbnb, KAYAK, TripAdvisor, Venmo and Yelp are all created with Swift. In addition to over 1 million downloads of Swift Playgrounds, there have been over 430,000 downloads of the additional Everyone Can Code materials and over 1,000 schools across the US plan to teach with Everyone Can Code materials in the fall.

Earlier this month, Apple announced the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Fund focused on creating jobs in the US throughout our supply chain, with an initial investment of $1 billion. The new Swift coding curriculum is another example of Apple's commitment to economic development and will help create even more career opportunities for students across the country. Apple now supports 2 million jobs across all 50 states, including more than 1.5 million jobs attributable to Apple's app economy.

Chris Lattner, who spearheaded LLVM, CLANG, and the Swift programming language at Apple, recently left the company for Tesla. There was a lot of sound-and-fury following the departure, though not much of it informed by much more than the desire for a headline or social share.

Luckily, John Siracusa, Casey Liss, and Marco Arment got Lattner to join them on their podcast, ATP.

The whole interview is great and for reasons far beyond Lattner's career moves. On the creation of Swift:

I'll stop quoting. You start listening:

ATP 205: PEOPLE DON'T USE THE WEIRD PARTS

Until recently, Chris Lattner headed the Developer Tools Department at Apple, where he was responsible for the development of Xcode and led the creation of the Swift programming language that's spread across all of Apple's products. Now, he's the new Vice President of Autopilot Software at another Silicon Valley star firm: electric car maker Tesla.

It's an interesting but altogether unsurprising move for the 11-year Apple veteran: Tesla has been growing rapidly over the past few years, frequently poaching talent from Apple, Google, and others. And they've been hiring from Tesla, as have Tesla's more direct and upstart rivals in the EV space. For a while it looked as if Tesla and Apple would be in direct competition, but Apple's efforts in automotive have reportedly been dramatically scaled back in recent months to a more narrow focus on developing autonomous driving technology.

While Lattner's move to Tesla isn't a direct match to his previous role at Apple, it's not as different as it might seem. Leading the Developer Tools Department versus being Vice President of Autopilot Software isn't so much about his individual programming skills as it is skills in managing a team of software engineers. And as much as Tesla is a company that designs and builds electric cars, they're also a company that's having to develop some serious software — even if most of it's not user-facing.

This is a vital moment in Tesla's growth. The affordable Model 3 sedan is still a year away, but instrumental to that car's long-term success is the ongoing development of the self-driving software underway at Tesla. Every Tesla rolling off the production line today is equipped with the cameras, radar, and sensors to someday be fully self-driving capable, but before that can happen Tesla needs to collect a lot more data from the deployed fleet of vehicles as well finish development of the software suite to support those capabilities. That's the effort that Lattner will now lead.

More broadly, Lattner's move to Tesla represents the ongoing movement between Silicon Valley firms. Apple, it's worth remembering, is a big old company in comparison to its rivals. They might move fast and break things and be world leaders in the development of many types of technology, but they're not the only ones in Silicon Valley doing that.

Tesla is one such company, not a direct rival to Apple in the market, but certainly one when it comes to talent. And they're very publicly pushing boundaries in technology and hype — it wouldn't be unfair to compare the Tesla of today to the Apple of a decade ago. Granted, Tesla's been around for 13 years and has more than 30,000 employees and revenue in the billions of dollars per year, but they're far from as big, stable, or established as Apple is today. They can be fast and nimble and do dramatic things like sell cars today with the promise that someday down the line they'll be able to drive themselves.

It's worth noting that Tesla, too, is no spring chicken in the context of Silicon Valley. Their primary competition — the likes of BMW and Lincoln and Lexus — is far older, sure, but they have the same "upstarts siphoning away talent" problem with startups like Faraday Future and Lucid Motors poaching Tesla talent as Tesla is pulling hires from Apple.

Then, of course, there's the matter of impact. There's no doubt that Chris Lattner's job at Apple was impactful — he was in charge of making to tools that developers are going to use to make apps for years to come. But he was just one part of the enormous Apple machine. By moving to Tesla he's taking on a larger role at a smaller company, but a role in which he can effect enormous change that could more directly touch users. Maybe there's something in the water in Silicon Valley, but this won't be the first time we see somebody leave a big company like Apple to take a risk on something big at a company like Tesla.

I almost missed it.

I was so put off by the app's WWDC Keynote introduction and "Learn to Code" content — the hype, the marketing, and the sample content that favored gameification over pedagogy — I almost missed how good Swift Playgrounds is today and how great it can and will be in the near future.

Xcodesploration

I loved Xcode Playgrounds from the moment they were introduced two years ago: They're a perfect way to learn and experiment with Swift code.

Before Xcode Playgrounds existed, if I wanted to teach you to program, we'd have to open Xcode and create a new Single View project. We would look in the App Delegate and look for the method that was called after the app loaded. If you're new to iOS, this is where the questions start: "What's an App Delegate?", "How and when does this method get called?", et cetera, et cetera. It's a lot of cognitive overhead, and we haven't even started coding yet.

Sure, the first version of Playgrounds was flawed; over time, however, it's grown into a great platform for teaching experienced developers how to code in Swift. We can now more easily add documentation to Playgrounds, create multi-page documents, and add source files and resources to individual pages or to the entire Playground. We can even drag colors and images right into the window.

In short, Playgrounds are a great environment for experimenting with code, trying out algorithms, and learning new libraries. The problem is that this runs inside of Xcode. As such, it's difficult for programming newcomers to experiment with this platform without being exposed to more power than they need or can initially handle.

Immersing the learner

There were many developers asking for Xcode to be ported to the iPad; I was not among them. It makes perfect sense to me, however, to bring Playground support to the iPad. Swift Playgrounds gives us this — and does so in a much friendlier way than its Xcode counterpart for new coders.

In Swift Playgrounds, we can just jump in and zoom in on the part we want to explain first. When building playgrounds for my students, I can hide all the code I don't want you to think about yet, and include text, glossary items, and hints to help you through the code.

I can also mark some of the code that you do see as un-editable, so that you can't accidentally change code that might make the playground hard to work with. I can even use special commands so that when you tap on any editable code, you'll see a list of allowed elements you can use. You don't even have to type out the element by hand after seeing that pop-up — you can tap on any suggestion and it will automatically drop into the selected location for you.

If the selected field expects a color, a color picker will appear when you tap on it; if it expects an image, an image picker appears. And if you want to dive into more complicated coding expressions, you can also select and use the keyboard.

The key options for Swift Playgrounds are a little different than your standard iOS keyboard: For example, the "=" sign is on the same key as the "d". To select the "=", you hold the "d" down and slide it towards the bottom of the screen. At first this feels awkward, but it becomes second nature surprisingly quickly. You can also use an external keyboard, if you prefer.

Once you've entered the code you want, tap on a button to run the code and see the results. If the results aren't what you expect or want, you can just change the code and press the button again. The learner lives in a protected world that can be focused on the lesson.

Marketing and promise

That said, I'm a bit frustrated with Apple's marketing for this app. Things like "There's never been anything like this" and "Wouldn't this have been cool when we were all learning to code?" are insulting to the wonderful environments that have come before Swift Playgrounds: Turtle Logo and Squeak were available on systems before iOS was ever imagined. In fact, Squeak was originally released by Apple in the 1990s.

The fact that many of these great learning environments aren't available on the iPad is not due to technical reasons — John Macintosh had Squeak running on an iPhone in 2008. But he couldn't widely distribute it because of App Store restrictions. Likewise, Scratch runs on iOS, but because of App Store restrictions, the MIT site's release only runs on a jailbroken phone.

So I ask you ignore the hype from Apple executives, and Apple's messaging on Swift Playgrounds: It is not only for learning to code, and it is definitely not only for kids. It can also provide an environment where educators and authors can lead others through a curriculum that engages students while masking irrelevant complexities.

• In science, there could be Swift Playgrounds that model physics, chemistry, or life sciences and allow students to work through problems and see results in real time.
• A music class could feature Swift Playgrounds that allow students to learn music theory, train their ear for intervals or harmonies, or play software instruments to complete a challenge. Given the first twelve bars of this piece, compose the next four bars that might logically follow.
• A math class could feature Swift Playgrounds that let students touch functions and data and interact with math in a way that is immersive and personal.
• Can you teach people to code with Swift Playgrounds? Absolutely. I just really dislike the "Learn to Code" example. Swift Playgrounds can be used to teach experienced programmers to program and think in Swift and can introduce programming concepts to those new to programming.

The possibilities are endless, and I look forward to seeing what the community comes up with.

Hurdles and challenges

The app has a lot going for it, but I do have a few concerns and quibbles.

First of all, the name "Swift Playgrounds" is unfortunate; I fear many people will confuse Swift Playgrounds with Xcode Playgrounds. On iOS, the app is called Swift Playgrounds, and each document is a playground — or maybe a lesson? It's unclear. The Apple website refers to one of them as a "Lesson" but most often uses the word "Creation." On the Mac, the app is called Xcode, and the document is called a "Playground."

Whatever their name, the documents Swift Playgrounds creates are essentially interactive books with chapters and pages. Apple could have reused the name "PowerBook" to refer to this new kind of content; the file formats for each type of Playground are distinct, the intent is clearly different, and audiences are vastly different. (radar: 27062404)

The Swift Playgrounds app is so good and so different from Xcode Playgrounds that I would love to see a version of Swift Playgrounds that runs on macOS. This way, non-programmers who own a Mac would be able to use the same "Creations" on both platforms without having to dive into Xcode. (radar: 27064067)

When it comes to creating new documents inside Swift Playgrounds as an educator, there is currently no documentation on formatting pages. If you're trying to build a new document in Swift Playgrounds and want to figure out how to hide elements, specify code completion, and make code editable, your only resource currently is WWDC Session 408 "Introducing Swift Playgrounds". You can also AirDrop your Swift Playgrounds content on your Mac and open files with a text editor or Xcode, but that's even less helpful. (radar 27080284)

Unfortunately, educators and content creators can't currently be rewarded for their hard work: There is no way to sell content in Swift Playgrounds, though I hope this changes with the final release of iOS 10.

Imagine the App Store if no one was allowed to charge for apps, have in-app purchases, or support subscriptions — we would not have iOS's rich array of programs and content. There will absolutely be an initial rush to experiment with this new format, but if Apple wants sustained, high-quality contributions from the educational community, they need to let us choose whether or not to charge for these contributions. (radar 27080103)

If Apple follows the path of Xcode Playgrounds, Swift Playgrounds will improve quickly as the team implements features they already have in mind that just didn't make it into the WWDC release. Swift Playgrounds will get even better as the development team responds to radars from the community as we request support for use cases they may not have considered.

A Swift Future

Remember, it's early days. Swift Playgrounds is a beta product that is only just being played with by people outside of Apple. Once you discard the messaging and the hype, you are still left with a plenty of potential. Also, remember how much Xcode Playgrounds has changed in the short time since its official release: Swift Playgrounds will certainly grow and evolve. And I love the promise of what it will become.

Swift Playgrounds currently only works on the iOS 10 developer and public beta, and only on the iPad. Once you have Swift Playgrounds installed, you can choose to install the currently-featured content, or you can create your own and AirDrop it from your Mac to your iPad.

In an effort to help everyone learn how to code with Swift, Apple introduced a brand-new iPad app called Swift Playgrounds at WWDC 2016. According to CEO Tim Cook, Swift Playgrounds "will revolutionize the way people learn to code."

The app is meant to make diving into coding easy, even for kids. The first lesson, for example, starts with the introduction of a coding concept along with an interactive world. Users will then be able to interact with the world using the code they're learning. The app also features step-by-step instructions and QuickType suggestions for code. Students are encouraged then to enter their code, tap run and explore what happens in the library of playgrounds.

The app also features a new coding keyboard that will allow users to press and drag down on letters and numbers to access symbols. The free app will be available to developers today, with a public beta available in July. The final release will be available in the App Store right alongside iOS 10. While the app will be great for learning, it is important to note that this isn't Xcode; you won't be able to build and export full apps.

In addition to the new app, Apple revealed that Swift has become the number one language project on Github since it was made open source earlier this year. In addition, more than 100,000 apps are now using Swift, including big names like Twitter, Strava and more.

Eighteen months ago at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) Apple announced Swift, a modern programming language intended to power the next generation of OS X and iOS software. Six months ago, at WWDC 2015, Apple announced Swift 2.0 would go open source. Today, Apple makes good on that promise with Swift.org and GitHub/Apple.

Swift, the fastest-growing programming language in the history according to RedMonk, seeks not only to make existing programmers more efficient, but thanks to technologies like playgrounds and REPL, to make programming itself more accessible.

By open-sourcing Swift under the Apache 2.0 license, Apple hopes to make it even more available, to more people, on more platforms. Conversely, the open source community will be able to contribute back to Swift, creating a better, more robust language for everyone.

Existing OS X, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS developers, programmers who've always wanted to work on Apple's platforms, programmers who've always wanted to use their knowledge of Swift on other platforms, people new to programming in general, and kids in classrooms in specific, can all benefit.

At swift.org, developers will find:

• Bug reporting and tracking
• Documentation
• API design guidelines
• Community guidelines, instructions, and tutorials
• Mailing lists
• The Swift blog

In addition, Apple is offering:

• A public source code repository at github.com/apple
• A new Swift package manager project to more easily share and build code
• A native Swift core libraries project for higher level functionality.
• Support for OS X, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux.

GitHub will house:

• The Swift compiler
• LLDB debugger
• REPL
• Standard and core libraries
• The Package manager
• Supporting projects

Apple has achieved enormous success with past open source projects including the Darwin kernel and the WebKit rendering engine. They're examples of using open source where it makes the most sense and can be of the greatest benefit to everyone. Swift shows every indication of being the similar—a foundation upon which Apple and developers can grow.

And now everyone can invest in making it so.

Developer Contributions Will Help Make Swift Even Better and Available on More Platforms

CUPERTINO, California — December 3, 2015 — Apple® today announced that its Swift™ programming language is now open source. As an open source language, the broad community of talented developers — from app developers to educational institutions to enterprises — can contribute to new Swift features and optimizations and help bring Swift to new computing platforms. Introduced in 2014, Swift is the fastest growing programming language in history and combines the performance and efficiency of compiled languages with the simplicity and interactivity of popular scripting languages.* Apple today also launched the Swift.org website with detailed information about Swift open source, including technical documentation, community resources and links to download the Swift source code.

"By making Swift open source the entire developer community can contribute to the programming language and help bring it to even more platforms," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "Swift's power and ease of use will inspire a new generation to get into coding, and with today's announcement they'll be able to take their ideas anywhere, from mobile devices to the cloud."

Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language that gives developers the freedom and capabilities they need to create the next generation of cutting-edge software. Swift is easy to learn and use, even if you've never coded before, and it's the first systems programming language that is as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language. Designed for safety, Swift also eliminates entire categories of common programming errors.

The Swift open source code is available via GitHub and includes support for all Apple software platforms — iOS, OS X®, watchOS and tvOS™ — as well as for Linux. Components available include the Swift compiler, debugger, standard library, foundation libraries, package manager and REPL. Swift is licensed under the popular Apache 2.0 open source license with a runtime library exception, enabling users to easily incorporate Swift into their own software and port the language to new platforms. For more information about Swift, and access to community resources visit the new Swift.org.

*Based on RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, June 2015.

Apple has just announced that its Swift programming language, which it first introduced at WWDC 2014 in June, has now reached GM status for iOS. This means that third party developers can now submit apps that use Swift to the iTunes App Store.

Apple added, "Whether your app uses Swift for a small feature or a complete application, now is the time to share your app with the world. It's your turn to excite everyone with your new creations." Swift will reach GM status for Mac when the final version of OS X Yosemite ships sometime later this fall.

Apple also said, "You'll notice we're using the word 'GM', not 'final'. That's because Swift will continue to advance with new features, improved performance, and refined syntax. In fact, you can expect a few improvements to come in Xcode 6.1 in time for the Yosemite launch. Because your apps today embed a version of the Swift GM runtime, they will continue to run well into the future."

Are you excited about the prospect of iOS apps made with the Swift language?

Source: Apple

Every week Apple adds tons of new media content on iTunes — music, books, movies and more. It's impossible to keep up with all of it, but it's not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! This week we've got folk/soul

x (Deluxe Edition) - Ed Sheeran

x — pronounced multiply — is Ed Sheeran's new album. You might remember Sheeran from his electric performances on Saturday Night Live this past season, when he debuted the hip hop-inflected Don't and his foot-tapping single Sing. Sheeran's combination of folk, soul and pop is something special.

• $12.99 - Download now

while(1<2) - deadmau5

If you like electronic or dance music, deadmau5 never disappoints. Right now you can grab his brand spanking new album on iTunes as an exclusive early release. From one of the most amazing DJs in the world, while(1<2) stays true to the deadmau5 sound. Anyone who's a fan will love the new album just as much as his old ones.

• $12.99 - Download Now

Crossbones, Season 1

John Malkovich takes a turn as Blackbeard, the dread pirate, who reins over a rogue island nation of criminals in the 18th century Caribbean. It's fun to watch Malkovich ham it up in such a legendary role. There's a free sneak peek to get you started, if you haven't seen it yet.

• $19.99 - Download now

I Am Divine

Divine, born Harris Glenn Milstead: Often the muse of filmmaker John Waters, the outrageous drag queen Divine shocked and amazed audiences in the early 70s then shot to international fame with movies like Hairspray. The story of Divine's life, from childhood through to his death, and his cultural impact since then.

Rent it for a buck, or buy it for $9.99

• $0.99 - Download now

Console Wars

If you lived through the 90s, you were probably aware of the fierce rivalry that existed between Nintendo and Sega. Between Nintendo's Super Nintendo console and Sega's Genesis, both companies vied for control of the 16-bit video game market. Now read the story behind Sega's rise as a gaming superpower.

• $14.99 - Download now

The Swift Programming Language

Apple's tour of its new programming language, which it's encouraging iOS and OS X developers alike to begin to use once both operating systems ship later this year. Apple wants developers to think of this as a clean slate for best programming practices going forward. This reference guide is squarely aimed at programmers, but that doesn't mean you can't look it over yourself. After all, it's free.

• Free - Download now

Your movie, TV and music picks?

There are my media picks for this week. What have you found in iTunes that you love? Let me know in the comments.

As part of its WWDC 2014 keynote address, Apple introduced Swift, their new programming language. Now one of the company's own programmers has created a clone of the popular mobile game Flappy Bird with Swift to show how easy it is to make a game with the language.

The programmer, Nate Murray, claims he had no prior experience in using Swift before Apple officially announced the language on Monday. He then starting working on the Flappy Bird clone, which he naturally calls FlappySwift, and said he was able to create a working version of the game in just four hours. He's released the source code for the game on the GitHub site.

Apple plans to release the final version of Swift sometime this fall, alongside the launch of OS X 10.10 and iOS 8. Murrary plans to offer an online Swift development course in the near future.

If you are a programmer, are you excited about the prospect of making applications via Swift for Apple's platforms?

Source: Hacker News via TechHive

Swift, Apple's new programming language billed as taking the C out of Objective-C, was one of the biggest surprises at WWDC 2014. The Swift project started at Apple roughly 4 years ago as one of several explorations into what would replace the NeXT-era Objective-C language. It was spearheaded by Chris Lattner, head of Apple's developer tools department, who also spearheaded LLVM (lower level virtual machine) and Clang, Apple's compiler technologies. Lattner shared some insight into Swift on his site, nondot:

That Swift won out over existing higher level and scripting language projects is provocative, but it's also early days. Lattner is the only one who has been using Swift since its inception and few even inside Apple, until Monday morning, even knew of its existence.

There's no word on how much, if any, of Swift will be open sourced, for example. Right now Lattner and team are focused exclusively on getting the final release ready for the fall. Swift has also only just been introduced and thousands if not millions of people will soon be hitting it full speed and full force. They'll find edge cases and do things no internal planning or QA (quality assurance) could ever prepare for or expect. Apple will watch, learn, and Swift will change and evolve.

So will the rest of Apple's platforms. Objective-C was the result of Apple buying NeXT. Swift is the result of steady, continuous evolution. It's the result of smart management and responsible stewardship, that, in the fullness of time, will likely result in just as much of a leap forward as a NeXT-style purchase. It's also something more.

In his brief write up Lattner also discusses Playgrounds, the interactive development environment in Xcode. The Web inspector provides immediate feedback for HTML5 and has been a huge boon for web developers. Lattner hopes that, with Playgrounds in Swift, Apple won't just be making programming better but will be making it more fun and accessible to the next generation of programmers. That's an incredibly important and laudable goal.

If there's one thing I've heard repeatedly from developers since Swift's unveiling it's exactly that hope. My generation grew up with Basic and Logo and other languages that made it relatively easy to get programming into elementary schools and kids into programming even at a very young age.

Objective-C was unlikely to be in any grade school curriculum, unlikely to be any child's first programming language. We'll have to wait and see how Swift and Playgrounds fare, but if they really do make it easier to engage new programmers at a younger age the value to Apple, the industry, and the future will be incalculable.

Poetically, the WWDC 2014 app crafted by the evangelism team is the first public Swift app to be released. Millions more will follow.

Apple has made the Swift Programming Language Guide available in the iBook Store. Anyone not already a seasoned Objective C programmer thinking of giving it a shot?

• Free - Download now