Apple is unveiling new resources for elementary school students and educators, including a new activity guide, Everyone Can Code Early Learners, that extends its coding curriculum resources from kindergarten to college. Educators can also try Apple’s new one-hour Inclusive App Design activity to introduce students to the world of coding and app development. In addition, updates to the popular Schoolwork app include support for exit tickets and enable educators to use the app on their personal devices.
We are in a world where the fundamental understanding of coding is more important than ever. These new resources will help children have access and comprehend a talent that will help them as they continue to grow and mature.
Apple also added an important part:
During Europe Code Week, October 9-24, and through Computer Science Education Week, December 6-12, Apple is encouraging educators and their students to participate in an introductory Inclusive App Design activity. This new lesson from Apple helps educators guide students through a one-hour session to turn their ideas into apps with inclusion and accessibility in mind. The app design process helps students identify problems they care about, and then plan, prototype, and code creative solutions. It helps students think critically about how to build apps that are inclusive for all and prepares them to be the innovators of tomorrow.
Leadership like this is exactly what we expect from Apple.
Earlier today, we reported that new firmware versions are gradually rolling out for Apple’s wireless headphone products. This new software enables Find My support for AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, which Apple first teased back in June at WWDC.
This means that the compatible AirPods models gain new functionality inside of the Find My app, including precise location, a new Nearby Finding UI, Lost Mode, and the ability to get notifications when your earbuds are left behind.
For the AirPods Pro, the old firmware is 3E751, the new is 4A400. No advertised way to force a firmware update but, for me, a method that’s worked:
Connect your AirPods Pro to your iPhone
Listen to something for a few minutes
Put the AirPods back in their case
Plug the case into your charger
Reliable? Pure superstition? Who knows. But I just did this and it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.
Back to the update:
The new integration now means that AirPods Pro and AirPods Max participate in the Find My network, and send out a continuous Bluetooth beacon message. When other Apple devices are in the area, they can detect this signal and report it to the Find My network, placing its location on the owner’s map. This is just like how AirTags work at long range.
From there, with your AirPods Pro or Max in/on and connected, tap on Headphone Accommodations, then tap on the switch to turn Headphone Accommodations on.
Now tap on Custom Audio Setup. You’ll go through a sequence to test and customize your settings (this part got added with iOS 14). At the end of the process, you’ll see a switch (towards the bottom of the screen) to enable Conversation Boost.
As far as I know, this is new to the new firmware.
I know that when it comes to tech news, there can be somewhat of a bubble, with writers and readers thinking that certain things are more well-known to the general public than they are. But really, if you’ve walked into Best Buy’s laptop section at some point in the past decade, you probably would’ve seen some of the things the people in the ad are shell-shocked by: two-in-one laptops that fold to become a tablet have been popular since the early 2010s, Intel’s been pushing laptops with two screens since 2018, and PC gaming was a thing before the original IBM Personal Computer that popularized the term “PC.”
Exactly.
The ad has the potential to make a point about expandability and repairability. Fair issues to raise, if you indeed have a better solution. But it insults (badly) the very people it hopes to sway.
When Apple Pay launched, the tech giant got big banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp. and Bank of America Corp. to agree to pay fees that would allow their cardholders to pay by iPhone. But some banks have grown unhappy with the costs, especially after Apple Inc. introduced its own new credit card in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter.
A proposed change:
Currently, banks pay Apple a fee when their cardholders use Apple Pay. Under the planned new process, the fees wouldn’t apply on automatic recurring payments such as gym memberships and streaming services.
Sounds like this change is not yet set in concrete.
The article also digs into the specifics on fees:
Banks agreed to pay Apple 0.15% of each purchase made by their credit cardholders. (They pay a separate fee on debit-card transactions.) Those fees account for most of the revenue that Apple makes from its digital wallet, according to people familiar with the matter.
Interestingly, the fees are specific to Apple:
The terms had the potential to be uniquely lucrative for Apple. Banks don’t pay fees to Google for its wallet.
Feels like a significant amount of tension in the bank / Apple Pay model.
My memories of that brutal, heartbreaking day 10 years ago are scattered and random. I cannot remember driving down to his house. I do remember a hazy October sky and shoes that were too tight. I remember afterwards Tim and I sat quietly in the garden together for a long time.
And:
Steve’s last words to me were that he would miss talking together. I was sitting on the floor next to his bed, my back against the wall.
After he died, I walked out into the garden. I remember the sound of the latch on the wooden door as I gently pulled it closed.
It’s a beautifully written piece, worth reading in full.
A few more bits, embedded below. First, there’s the Think Different commercial with Steve narrating (as opposed to the Richard Dreyfus narration we’re more familiar with).
And, below that, there’s the dedication, back in 2014, of the new Steve Jobs Theater.
