Apple’s March event
David Price reveals everything Apple announced
Apple recently held an education focused event at Lane Tech College Prep high school, Chicago, at which the firm introduced a new iPad, and made some education focused software announcements.
Tim Cook took to the stage to discuss Apple’s focus on education, saying: “At Apple we care deeply about education because we love kids and we love teachers”.
He said education has been a big part of who Apple is for 40 years. “We had a unique insight into how technology could inspire kids to unleash their creative genius. And we believed that technology could help teachers deliver a unique and personalized learning experience to all kids. We’ve never stopped believe this, and we’ve never stopped working on it.”
Cook added: “We know our products can help bring out the creative genius in every kid”.
In fact, ”Macs and iPads are used throughout schools by students for everything from music to language arts and even advanced robotics”.
He discussed some of the education projects Apple has been involved with. Such as a 10-year study called ‘Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow’ of which he said: “engagement increased exponentially for students and teachers who had access to our products.”
There are also classes for students and teachers at the Apple retail stores, including the Everyone Can Code initiative with Swift Playgrounds that makes it easy to teach coding.
“Today we’re going to take those experiences even further and to start it off we’re going to talk about iPad,” said Cook as Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod, iPhone, and iOS product marketing, Greg Joswiak, arrived on stage.
New iPad
Apple has introduced a new iPad – it’s got an A10 chip (The iPad Pro has an A10X chip) and a 10-
hour battery. It also has an 8Mp camera, 1080P HD video, up to 300Mb/s LTE, compass, GPS and weighs 469g.
It only has 32GB storage, though. We imagine Apple is justifying this small amount due to the fact that a lot of the content will be stored and accessed in iCloud. It’s probably a good thing that the 5GB iCloud storage will be bumped to 200GB for schools and iPad management, then.
Prices start at £319 for the 32GB with WiFi model and £449 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi + Cellular mode, although schools will get money off, thanks to Apple’s education discount. You can order it at fave.co/2GyRup4. The 128GB version costs £409, or £539 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. We are waiting for confirmation of the UK education discount.
Apple Pencil
The new iPad works with the Apple Pencil, which you can use in Pages, Keynote, Numbers. Use Smart annotation or illustrate a report.
It’s available for purchase separately for £89 at fave.co/2Gk8092. Again, schools can take advantage of a discounted price, though we are awaiting confirmation of the UK education price.
Digital Books
Apple is introducing an update to Pages on the iPad that will make it simple to create books. Videos can be added to Pages Books, and with the Apple Pencil teachers and students will be able to personalize your books with illustrations.
Other software updates
Pages: Digital book creation tools will be built right into Pages, more information above.
AR on the iPad: Thanks to AR we’ll see apps such as one where students can dissect a virtual frog (see overleaf) with their Apple Pencil. “There’s no doubt that AR is going to dramatically change the way this generation learns,” said Apple’s Greg Joswiak. There will also be an AR Kit module for Apple’s App Development with Swift program.
Clips: Apple’s app for making and sharing fun videos with text, special effects, and graphics, is getting new shapes and styles. It also has child-focused filters and posters.
GarageBand: Now gets a Kid sound pack with animal sounds.
Apple’s Classroom app: This will now be available on both Mac and iPad. It was first rolled out in March 2016. It will arrive in May.
Schoolwork: New app that will let teachers create and send assignments
