MacRumors

Apple today announced that it has overhauled its Everyone Can Code curriculum to bring it to more elementary and middle school students around the world.

The new curriculum includes more resources for teachers, a new guide for students, and updated Swift Coding Club materials. The refreshed materials build on existing interactive puzzles and activities to make coding more approachable and connected to students' every day lives.

Apple is adding Everyone Can Code Puzzles to the new student guide in Swift Playgrounds, and each chapter will let students build on core coding concepts and experiment with new techniques. The teacher guide will provide teachers with the tools necessary to bring coding into their classrooms.

The new curriculum includes the Everyone Can Create project guides, which Apple says will help students "express what they learn through drawing, music, videos and photos."

According to Apple, millions of students in more than 5,000 schools worldwide use the Everyone Can Code curriculum.

From December 1 to December 15, Apple is also offering free Today at Apple coding sessions that are set to be held at Apple Stores. The aim of the classes is to teach attendees to write their first lines of code in order to celebrate Computer Science Education Week.

Apple says that the sessions will provide opportunities for students of all skill levels. Those starting out will explore block-based coding with robots, while those with more experience will be able to use Swift Playgrounds to learn coding concepts or code an augmented reality experience.

Some Apple retail stores will also be offering special sessions designed for coders of all ages, including preschool-age kids, who will be able to learn pre-coding activities through the Coding Lab with "Helpsters," one of the Apple TV+ shows.

Apple is supporting Hour of Code this year with an Hour of Code Facilitator Guide that will help educators and parents host sessions using Swift Playgrounds and educational apps from the App Store.

Apple today launched new battery cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with the new cases available for $129.

This year's Smart Battery Cases are similar in style to the Battery Cases that were made available for the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, but with a square-shaped camera cutout to accommodate the dual and triple-lens camera setups.

The cases are made from silicone with a soft microfiber lining to protect the ‌iPhone‌ and a soft elastomer hinge design to make it easy to get the case on and to take it off. Apple is offering the cases in black, white, and pink sand, though the ‌iPhone‌ 11 version comes only in black or white.

New this year is a dedicated camera button on the case that is designed to launch the Camera app whether the ‌iPhone‌ is locked or unlocked. A press of the button takes a photo and a longer press captures QuickTake video. Apple says it also works with selfies.

As with last year's cases, the new Smart Battery Cases are compatible with Qi-based chargers so the case and the ‌iPhone‌ can be charged simultaneously. According to Apple, the cases are designed to provide up to 50 percent longer battery life to each ‌iPhone‌ when fully charged for longer talk time, internet use, and audio and video playback.

The Smart Battery Case is deeply integrated into iOS so you can see your battery status on the ‌iPhone‌ Lock screen and in the Notification Center, making it clear how much charge is left.

We've known that Smart Battery Cases were in the works since earlier this year, as we found signs of them in the iOS 13.2 update. This year's Smart Battery Cases are available ahead of the holiday season, while last year's didn't launch until January.

The cases are available to order now from the online Apple Store, with orders set to deliver on Monday, November 25.

Apple today seeded the third betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.3 updates to developers, one week after seeding second betas and three weeks after the release of iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2 with new emoji, Siri privacy controls, Deep Fusion, and more.

iOS and ‌‌iPadOS‌‌ 13.3 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper developer profile has been installed.

iOS 13.3 introduces Communication Limits for Screen Time, a feature that Apple promised would be coming in an iOS 13 update. Communication Limits allow parents to control who their children are able to contact both during downtime and during Screen Time.

Communication Limits include FaceTime, Phone, and Messages, along with iCloud contacts. Calls to emergency numbers are always allowed and will turn off communication limits for 24 hours when placed.

The update includes support for NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in Safari. That means physical security keys like the Lightning-equipped YubiKey can be used for more secure two-factor authentication in place of a software-based two-factor authentication option.

In the Keyboards section of the Settings app (under General), there's a new toggle that prevents Animoji and Memoji stickers from being displayed as an option on the Emoji Keyboard, and when editing a video, there's an option to save the edited version as a new clip rather than saving over the original.

Apple has also tweaked the Apple Watch app icon, changing the color of the Digital Crown from black to gray.

Apple today updated its website to introduce the 2019 holiday gift guide, something that the company debuts every year ahead of the winter holidays.

The gift guide is designed to recommend Apple products for people to purchase for friends and family this holiday season. This year's version focuses on bright colors and eye-catching circular designs that resemble snowflakes or holiday ornaments.

The iPhone 11, the Apple Watch Series 5, the ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro, and the AirPods Pro are Apple's top gift recommendations for 2019. Apple also highlights the iPad Pro, seventh-generation iPad, and Apple Pencil, along with the HomePod and a selection of Macs like the MacBook Air and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro.

A small selection of accessories are included in the guide, like the Beats Solo Pro, Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Pad, PopSockets PopGrip, DJI Mavic Mini, the DJI Osmo 3 Gimbal, and an Xbox Wireless Controller.

Apple also suggests App Store gift cards, which can be put towards Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple TV+, or Apple Music.

Along with releasing the new gift guide, Apple today also confirmed that its annual holiday return period is active. Purchases made between November 15, 2019 and December 25, 2019 can be returned until January 8, 2020 in most countries.

Apple is offering two-day shipping on all purchases, and later in December the company is likely to offer faster shipping options for last minute shoppers.

As part of an antitrust probe, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Apple in September with questions about its policies for the App Store, product repairs, and more. Apple has since responded, and while many of the responses are predictable, the letter reveals a few noteworthy details.

For example, when asked to identify the total revenue that it has derived from repair services since 2009, Apple said "the costs of providing repair services has exceeded the revenue generated by repairs" in each year over that period.

Apple also said it has invested "billions of dollars" in Apple Maps since the app was released in 2012. Apple is currently in the process of revamping its Maps app with much more detailed mapping data, with the improvements now available in 27 states fully and another six states partially.

Apple defends many of its policies throughout the letter. For example, Apple says third-party web browsers on iOS devices must use its WebKit framework due to user privacy and security considerations. Apple gives a similar explanation for why third-party apps cannot be set as default on iOS devices.

The full letter can be read here.

Apple has been trialing a new version of Apple Music, dubbed ‌Apple Music‌ for Business, which will provide retail partners with access to streaming music for their stores. The company has been testing out ‌Apple Music‌ for Business for the last six months (via The Wall Street Journal).

Apple is partnering with PlayNetwork Inc. for the project, which specializes in providing music for commercial use by handling licensing and operating the service for Apple. In turn, Apple contributes by creating hundreds of unique playlists for each client.

Special business contracts must be made to use certain pieces of music in retail areas because of the high cost of licensing fees. PlayNetwork tackles these issues for clients such as Starbucks and Estée Lauder.

In these retail spaces, there are currently a few streaming services that offer business contracts for retailers, including Soundtrack Your Brand (formerly Spotify Business), Sirius XM Holdings, and more. These services cost between $25 to $35 a month per retail location.

‌Apple Music‌ for Business will now be a player in this space, but there is no indication yet as to how much Apple will charge for its service. In its six months of operation, Apple has landed 25 clients, which are estimated to deliver music to more than 10,000 store locations, including Apple's own retail stores.

One client includes Harrods in London, which had its own custom "Harrods Playlist" built by Apple. The retailer advertises this list of classical, ambient, and electronic music on screens in its stores, which users can search for and listen to in the consumer version of ‌Apple Music‌.

“We were captivated by their proposition that we could have our brand reflected in our own curated playlist,” said Guy Cheston, Harrods’s director of partnerships.

Apple Music for Business has so far focused on retail chains with 100 stores or more. But it plans on expanding into small and midsize businesses.

On the regular version of ‌Apple Music‌, the company just launched a "Replay" feature, which provides subscribers with a way to track the artists, albums, and songs they listen to the most every year. This has been a long-awaited feature on ‌Apple Music‌, and one that many of the service's rivals, like Spotify, have been doing for years.

‌Apple Music‌ still trails behind Spotify in terms of paid subscribers, with 60 million paid subscribers as of June 2019 compared to Spotify's 113 million Premium subscribers as of September 30, 2019.

In addition to breaking ground on a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, Apple today announced that its new Mac Pro is now in production at a nearby facility in the city. The computer is set to launch in December.

Notably, Apple says the Mac Pro units in production in Austin will soon ship to customers "across the Americas," suggesting that the Mac Pro units assembled in Texas will only be shipped to customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and other countries across North and South America.

It is possible that Apple plans to assemble the Mac Pro in China for orders placed outside of the Americas, but the company has not commented.

Apple and its manufacturing partners have invested over $200 million in the Mac Pro facility in Austin. The manufacturing plant is UL Zero Waste to Landfill Gold certified, and has been recognized by Austin Water for Excellence in Water Conservation and Excellence in Environmental Stewardship.

The new Mac Pro contains hundreds of components from suppliers in 19 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, and Washington.

In a press release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said "building the Mac Pro, Apple's most powerful device ever, in Austin is both a point of pride and a testament to the enduring power of American ingenuity."

The new Mac Pro will be the fastest Mac ever, with up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 1.5TB of ECC RAM, up to 8TB of SSD storage, and up to AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo graphics with 64GB of HBM2 memory. The computer also has eight PCIe expansion slots for maximum performance, expansion, and configurability.

Apple has yet to announce a specific release date for the new Mac Pro in December. Pricing will start at $5,999.

Apple today announced that it has started construction of its new $1 billion, 133-acre campus in Austin, Texas as part of a commitment it made last year.

Apple says the campus will initially house 5,000 employees, with the capacity to grow to 15,000, and is expected to open in 2022.

In partnership with Austin-based Bartlett Tree Experts, Apple said it will plant thousands of trees spanning over 20 varieties native to Texas on the campus. Apple says landscaping will cover over 60 percent of the property, including a 50-acre nature and wildlife preserve that will be open to the public.

The new campus in Austin, Texas is part of Apple's commitment to increase its investment in manufacturing, engineering, and other jobs across the United States. Apple says it is on track to contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy between 2018 and 2023 and hire an additional 20,000 employees over that time.

Apple says it has grown to approximately 7,000 employees in Austin, more than a 50 percent increase in the past five years.

Apple CEO Tim Cook:

With the construction of our new campus in Austin now underway, Apple is deepening our close bond with the city and the talented and diverse workforce that calls it home. Responsible for 2.4 million American jobs and counting, Apple is eager to write our next chapter here and to keep contributing to America's innovation story.

Cook is touring Apple's Austin operations with U.S. President Donald Trump today.

Apple is also continuing its expansion in Boulder, Culver City, New York, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Seattle.

Apple last week removed all vaping-related apps from the App Store and updated ‌App Store‌ guidelines to prohibit apps that facilitate or encourage the use of vape-related devices.

Apple never allowed apps that sold vape cartridges, but it did allow apps that offered up vape-related news or provided controls for vape devices. Some companies, such as PAX, relied heavily on Apple's ‌App Store‌ to add technology to vaporizer devices and those companies are unhappy with Apple's recent ban.

PAX today penned a missive calling on Apple to rethink its decision as PAX creates several vaporizers that are designed to be controlled and customized through iOS and Android apps. The now-banned PAX Mobile app, for example, let PAX vaporizer users do things like adjust the vaporizer temperature, set parental controls, verify the authenticity of cartridges, and change the colors of the lights on the devices.

PAX says that while it respects Apple's leadership, it is concerned with Apple's ban because it prevents consumers in legal stages from "having access to important information and the ability to better control their cannabis experience."

Apple decided to ban all vaping-related apps after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,172 lung injury cases linked to e-cigarette or vape products containing vitamin E acetate, found primarily in products "informally" sourced from friends, family, or in-person or online dealers.

In a statement, Apple said that it agrees with the CDC's opinion that the spread of vaping devices is a "public health crisis and youth epidemic," which is why the apps were pulled.

We take great care to curate the App Store as a trusted place for customers, particularly youth, to download apps. We're constantly evaluating apps, and consulting the latest evidence, to determine risks to users' health and well-being.

Recently, experts ranging from the CDC to the American Heart Association have attributed a variety of lung injuries and fatalities to e-cigarette and vaping products, going so far as to call the spread of these devices a public health crisis and a youth epidemic.

We agree, and we've updated our App Store Review Guidelines to reflect that apps encouraging or facilitating the use of these products are not permitted. As of today, these apps are no longer available to download.

According to PAX, it aims to deliver technology to allow adults to make "educated, informed choices." The company cites its new PodID feature, which is designed to offer consumers "unprecedented access" to the information about what is in vape pods, including strain information, cannabinoid and terpene profiles, and access to state regulated test results, which could ultimately help vaporizer users avoid illicit and dangerous cartridges.

PAX says that it is hoping to work in partnership with Apple to reconsider the decision and make the PAX Mobile app available once again "in the interest of public health and safety."

Those who have already downloaded the PAX Mobile app on iOS can continue to use it for the time being, and it's still available on Android devices. PAX says that all PAX devices can be used without the app and temperature can be changed on the device alone.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple is looking for software engineers to build "the next generation of media apps for Windows" according to a new Apple job listing shared earlier today by Microsoft-focused site Neowin.

In macOS Catalina, Apple eliminated the iTunes app and replaced it with new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps, but similar changes were not made to Apple's iTunes for Windows app. Windows 10 users currently need to access services like Apple TV+ and Apple Music on the web, which is not ideal.

Apple's existing iTunes and iCloud apps are quite old and could benefit from being overhauled. The job listing suggests Apple may be aiming to introduce Windows apps that are similar to what's offered on Mac.

The Media Apps team is looking for a creative Senior Software Engineer to work on the next generation of media apps for Windows. You will help build innovative features that will delight millions of customers around the world.

You possess strong skills in the areas of application design, solid API design principles and have a strong understanding of customer and workflow issues. You have a history of shipping large volume consumer product successfully. You are a well-rounded developer who is not afraid to question assumptions. You have an excellent written and oral skills. You love collaborating under tight deadlines.

If you love music and you are passionate about writing code, and want to work with world-class engineering teams that ship to millions of users, the Media Apps team is the place for you.

The job listing says that experience with UWP is a "big plus," with UWP standing for Universal Windows Platform. With UWP support, Apple could create apps that would work on Xbox One and various Windows 10 platforms.

An ‌Apple TV‌+ app built using the Universal Windows Platform would allow the service to be accessed on the Xbox One, expanding ‌Apple TV‌+ to platforms beyond smart TVs, Apple devices, and set-top boxes.

Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro came out last week, and the new machine features a larger display, more maximum RAM, and higher maximum storage, all features designed for Apple's pro user base.

The 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ is using the same 9th-generation Intel processors that were used in the 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models released in May, but there's a new thermal architecture that Apple says boosts performance. We went hands-on with the new 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ to test those claims, putting it through real world tests and benchmarks.

We tested the base 8-core model, which is the higher-end model priced at $2,799. It has a 2.3GHz Intel Core i9 processor (turbo boost up to 4.8GHz), an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M GPU with 4GB GDDR6 memory, a 1TB SSD, and 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM.

Starting off with Geekbench 5 testing, the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ outshined the similarly specced 15-inch model that was released earlier this year when it came to multi-core performance.

The 16-inch machine earned a single core score of 989 and a multi-core score of 6733, while the 15-inch machine scored 972 in the single-core test and 5781 in the multi-core test. That's an increase of 16.5 percent, which is a decent performance boost considering these machines have the same processor.

There are even more significant gains with the new 5500M GPU. In an OpenCL test, the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ scored 30608, compared to the 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌'s score of 17904, and in a Metal test, the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ scored a 29840 vs. the 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌'s score of 19065.

Combined, the updated GPU and the new thermal architecture of the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ have brought some notable performance improvements. Of course, benchmarks aren't reflective of real world usage, so we also did some testing of apps pro users might take advantage of.

In Final Cut Pro X, we exported a five minute 4K video while also running other apps at the same time to test export conditions under heavy RAM usage. The export took two minutes and 35 seconds, half the time of the video.

Conducting the same test in Premiere Pro (with apps like Safari and QuickTime running) the five minute video took three minutes and five seconds to export. These times are similar to what we see with a baseline 2017 iMac Pro.

We also tested Photoshop with multiple other apps open in the background, including Safari with a ton of tabs. The machine was using upwards of 70 percent of the 16GB RAM, but performance was solid with no issues. The fans kicked in of course, but that's to be expected.

It's worth noting that in these tests, the ‌MacBook Pro‌ got just as hot as other i9 MacBook Pros that experienced thermal issues in the past, but power and performance were not throttled per the Intel Power app.

All in all, the new 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ is performing well, and the updated thermal architecture has indeed had a significant positive effect on power management and thermal regulation. The 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ is speedy, stable, and a solid option for the pro user base these machines are designed for.

What do you think of the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌'s performance? Let us know in the comments.