Swift Playgrounds

Apple’s annual Swift Student Challenge coding competition showcases young talent whose apps never cease to inspire. This year is no different, as Apple profiles four coders working to preserve cultural heritage, improve disaster preparedness, connect astronomy enthusiasts and expand educational access. Meet Swift Student Challenge winners and their inspiring coding projects below.

These four are part of a group of 50 winners who will attend WWDC25 in person at Apple Park in Cupertino for a three-day program.

“We’re always inspired by the talent and perspective young developers bring to the Swift Student Challenge,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “This year’s winners show exceptional skill in transforming meaningful ideas into app playgrounds that are innovative, impactful, and thoughtfully built — and we’re excited to support their journey as they continue building apps that will help shape the future.”

Apple showcased the family-inspired coding work of three Swift Student Challenge winners Wednesday. The iPhone giant changed up its annual coding competition this year by naming 50 students Distinguished Winners among 350 top coders overall. The 50 get to attend a special event at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC24).

“This year’s winning Swift Student Challenge submissions once again demonstrate the breadth and depth of what is possible when talented young people use coding to make their mark on the world,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.

“We’re also incredibly proud to welcome more outstanding student developers than ever before to Apple Park to connect with our teams and each other as they continue to build apps that will no doubt transform our future for the better,” she added.

Not only did Apple announce next year’s Swift Student Challenge early to give coders more time to prepare — it put the word out Wednesday for the February 2024 competition — it also added a new “Distinguished Winners” category and a raft of new coding resources in “Everyone Can Code Projects.”

As usual, when Apple invites developers to attend WWDC — June 5 to 9 this year — it also welcomes submissions for the annual Swift Student Challenge. Competitors create innovative coding projects with the help of Apple’s Swift Playgrounds app.

And some winners get to attend a special event at Apple Park on June 5, Apple said. That’s the first day of WWDC23.

Swift Playgrounds 4, the newest version of Apple’s official development app for iPad, is now available from the App Store. The update lets you build iOS and iPadOS apps using nothing but your iPad for the first time.

When you’ve finished building, you can upload directly to the App Store. And if you also use a Mac, it’s now easy to transfer projects back and forth between Swift Playgrounds and Xcode using App Projects.

This week on The CultCast: Apple is prepping iPhone SE 2, but trouble in China could mean massive production delays across the entire tech industry. Plus: macOS leaks hint at big CPU upgrades on the way; and a celebrity calls out the MacBook’s troubled keyboards.

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Apple’s educational coding app, Swift Playgrounds, has finally made its way to the Mac.

After landing on the iPad in 2016, Apple has created a Catalyst version of Swift Playgrounds for Mac, making it easier for anyone to dive into the interactive lessons, no matter which platform you prefer most.

You can now sign up to enjoy a series of art-based augmented reality experiences at your local Apple Store.

The new Today at Apple sessions, called [AR]T, will take place around the world. They will include an interactive walk featuring works by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists.

The first beta of Swift Playgrounds 3.0 was just introduced. This is good news for those who teach programming fundamentals through this kid-friendly tool.

The biggest improvement we know about so far is the move to teaching version 5 of the Swift programming language.

Next month, there will be thousands of free Hour of Code sessions at all Apple Stores around the world. These will help people at a variety of skill levels learn coding

In addition, the company also just introduced new materials to help teach coding inside and outside the classroom.

Attending Apple’s developer conference costs a whopping $1,599 but a fortunate few can win a WWDC scholarship by building a creative Swift playground. Apple began taking submissions today, and 350 winners will be announced in April.

Apple will take a field trip out of Silicon Valley to host its first major event of 2018 tomorrow. Instead of focusing on iPhones and Apple Watches, this Apple keynote will be all about education and creativity.

Rumors have been swirling for months that new MacBook Airs and an updated, inexpensive iPad could arrive this spring. We might see those, but Apple probably has a couple other surprises in store that you haven’t heard of.

Apple will not provide a livestream of the event, but Cult of Mac will be in attendance. Joins us Tuesday morning for our liveblog of everything that’s going down at the event. In the meantime, here’s our handy guide to what to expect.

A game in which you stick to surfaces in order to capture slices of pizza, while avoiding enemies? Yep, it’s another oddball (but brilliant) iOS puzzle game.

That’s just one of the picks we’ve highlighted for this week’s “Awesome Apps” roundup. We’ve also got major upgrades of Logic Pro X and Apple’s educational Swift Playgrounds, and a Friday the 13th title which really shouldn’t work, but totally does. Check out our picks below.

Swift Playgrounds, Apple’s code-learning app aimed at youngsters, got a huge update today with the biggest new set of features sent the app came out in 2016.

With the Swift Playgrounds 2.0 update, coders get access to a host of new robots, as well as the ability to subscribe to third-party level creators so you can find and download new levels faster.

The WWDC 2017 Platforms State of the Union, during which Apple laid out what’s new for developers, brimmed with updates. The session at Apple’s annual developer conference focused on fundamentals of and refinements to iOS 11, Swift and Xcode, delivering vital details for coders.

Relive the session’s highlights with these sketchnotes, which should give Apple developers and Apple users alike much to be excited about.

Apple’s updated Swift Playgrounds app, giving would-be coders the chance to learn to program by controlling a robot, is just one of the great titles we’ve picked out for this week’s “Awesome Apps” roundup.

We’ve also got a fun space blaster, a big Wonder Woman-themed upgrade to a fun RPG battler, and a useful multi-person planning app. Check out our picks below.

All next week, student Kenny Batista will be writing a diary from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California. Kenny won a coveted scholarship, which includes food, lodging, keynote access and meeting Apple CEO Tim Cook. In his first entry, Kenny describes how he won the scholarship.

A few weeks ago, Apple selected me for a WWDC scholarship. I’ll be heading down to the conference this Saturday and staying there the whole week.

I’ll be writing a first-person perspective of the event from the dorms, the scholarship orientation (after which we meet Tim Cook, supposedly), the keynote, the sessions and more.

I got the scholarship by creating a demo in Apple’s Xcode version of Swift Playgrounds and writing a short essay about it. It took me six days — about 30 hours of work after school — but it was worth it!

Here’s how I did it.

Apple today teased a big Swift Playgrounds update that allows students to control real-world devices.

Using Swift, the company’s open-source coding language, users can take control of robots, drones and musical instruments — all via an iPad.

Kids wanting to learn how to build apps can game their way to coding skills with a new set of courses designed to making programming fun.

Tynker, one of the world’s most popular coding educators, is supporting Apple’s Everyone Can Code initiative with two new games — Space Cadet and Dragon Spells — that teach kids the fundamentals of coding before graduating to Swift.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently on another tour of China this week and is staying busy by visiting some of the hottest startups in the country.

This morning Cook paid a visit to bike-sharing startup Ofo which is already valued at $1 billion and counts Uber-rival/Apple-ally Didi Chuxing as one of its investors.

Apple’s latest iOS 10.3 betas feature a floating QuickType keyboard for iPad, but it’s hidden away and inaccessible for now. Here’s how you can try it out before it is officially unlocked using the free Swift Playgrounds app.

The rules for winning a coveted scholarship to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference are changing this year.

Apple revealed today that it will begin accepting applications for WWDC 2017 scholarships on March 27. Getting one of the spots means you don’t have to pay the $1,599 ticket price. And for the first time ever, Apple is going to hook up student winners with a free place to stay.

It’s been a banner year for iOS apps. From smart photo-editing tools to music-generating apps, Apple and third-party developers alike brought some serious heat to the App Store. We’ve combed through our home screens to pick out the best iOS apps of 2016.

Check out our picks below.

With new iPhones, Apple Watches and the official launch of iOS 10, this was quite the week for fans of Apple’s mobile devices. But which apps were we feeling in the time between putting our new iPhone 7 through its paces or reporting on Tim Cook’s Good Morning America interview?

Check out our picks below.

Apple introduced a powerful new way to teach kids how to learn to code today with a new app called Swift Playgrounds that makes learning Swift as easy as ABC.

The iPad app helps students learn to code by presenting a number of simple lessons aimed at kids, though simpleton non-coder adults can learn a great deal from it as well.