Month: January 2019

 Apple announces new ‘Today at Apple’ Sessions

Apple Inc January 29, 2019 0

Cupertino, California — Apple today announced a new Today at Apple release with sessions in three new and expanded formats — Skills, Walks and Labs — which offer hands-on group sessions focused on photography, video, music, coding, app development, art and design and more. The new sessions are free at every Apple Store worldwide and allow visitors to find the right session for their interests and skill level in order to unlock their creativity, inspire learning and encourage connection.

Since the launch of Today at Apple in 2017, Apple has held over 18,000 free sessions a week attended by millions of participants around the world. This newest release expands on the most popular types of Today at Apple sessions, Walks and Labs, providing visitors even more opportunities to get more out of their products, find inspiration in their community and discover guidance from world-class creators.

“Since the beginning, Today at Apple has been about educating and inspiring the communities we serve. These new sessions are an opportunity to unlock the creative potential in all of our customers,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “There is a session for everyone at Today at Apple and we can’t wait to see what you will create.”

Three Today at Apple session formats facilitate learning and creativity:

Skills are meant for those interested in learning new creative techniques to go further with our products, such as making a quick video with the Clips app or editing photos on iPhone. New Skills sessions include Notes and Chords with GarageBand, Sketching Ideas in Notes, Photo Editing Techniques and more.

Walks invite customers to venture outside of the store with a Creative Pro, where they will explore their surroundings, connect with their community and put new skills to use across passions like photography, music or health. New Walks include Capturing Cinematic Shots, Creating Soundscapes with GarageBand and a Health and Fitness Walk, Staying Motivated co-created with fitness expert Jeanette Jenkins.

Labs help customers experiment with creative techniques and complete the session with the beginning of a project. Many Labs have been co-created with world-renowned artists and makers. Building on the success of Labs with Florence Welch and photographer Chase Jarvis, skilled customers can find inspiration in new Labs like Beat Making with Swizz Beatz, Small Screen Magic with Zach King and Drawing Treehouses with Foster + Partners.

Today at Apple is also a great resource for families and kids of all ages interested in photography, coding, art and design and more. Labs like Fun Family Portraits, the Sphero Robot Obstacle Challenge and Make Your Own Emoji are built specifically to educate and spark creativity in younger visitors.

Today at Apple includes sessions designed specifically for educators so teachers can learn new ways of bringing technology into their classroom, with Labs like App Design and Prototyping and Class Projects with Clips, based on the Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create curriculums.

To further enrich the Today at Apple experience in every store, Apple is upgrading the existing fleet of stores with design elements that greatly increase the store’s Today at Apple sessions and capacity. These upgrades include the addition of The Forum, an area of the store with a large video wall and seating, serving as a meeting place for the local community and home for Today at Apple. Some stores will add Avenues and, where possible, a grove of trees with integrated seating.

To find and register for a new session, visit www.apple.com/today or the Sessions tab in the Apple Store App.

Apple Patients “Swift”

CompuScoop Staff January 29, 2019 0

This may be a storm in a teacup, or it may be a typhoon massing off the port bow. Apple has applied for a patent that appears to cover the whole idea of the Swift language.

Apple is either an innovator that open source can trust or the worst exploiter of other people's ideas on the planet. After all, what was the Mac other than a Xerox Star reimplemented.

What I'm trying to convey is how you view the news that Apple has just been granted a patent on what seems to cover the whole idea of Swift depends on how you feel about Apple. Notice I say "how you feel" as there isn't too much hard fact to go on.

This all started about two weeks ago when the Swift forum started to worry about Swift's status as open source and patent free. Then a few days later a bigger fuss started when it was discovered that Apple had been granted a patent on what sounds like Swift:

Programming system and language for application development

Abstract

In one embodiment, an improved programming system and language for application development is provided that combines elements of the C and Objective-C languages without the constraints imposed by a requirement to maintain compatibility with the C language. The language provides the functionality of the C language compatibility in certain areas to improve the inherent safety of software written in the language. The new language includes default safety considerations such as bounds and overflow checking.

After reading the patent through, I have to admit that I cannot figure out exactly what it covers. It does seem very specific in many places:

Additionally, an embodiment of the new language introduces advanced types not found in Objective-C. These types include Tuples and Optionals. Tuples enable a developer to create and pass groupings of values.

and

In one embodiment, an optional type is provided that handles the absence of a value. Optionals are a way to say either “there is a value, and it equals x” or “there isn't a value at all.” Optionals do not exist in C or Objective-C.

They may not exist in C or Objective-C, but optional types certainly exist in other languages, C#, Kotlin, both before and after Swift. And so it goes on with specific descriptions of language features which are not part of C or Objective-C, but are certainly not novel in a wider context.

The patent was granted.

Should Swift users and contributors be worried? The forum discussion where all of this came to light seems to be partly worried and partly reassured by the fact that Swift is open sourced under an Apache license which has a patent clause. This basically says that if you contribute to Swift then you are granting any patents you hold that might be infringed by your code. This is reassuring some because it is interpreted to mean that Apple can only use its patents against patent trolls. That is, Apple has patented Swift to keep it safe and open.

However, there is still a dark and lurking fear that there might be other ways in which Apple holding a patent on the language might be used, should it ever be necessary. It is the lack of clarity that is causing the doubt, and also the recent experience with Oracle and Java patents.

Perhaps the solution is for the patent office to not grant patents on such broad claims and for it to take its obligation to find prior art more seriously.

Via: I-programmer.info

Apple Temporarily Disables Group FaceTime as a Security issue popped up

Dan Uff January 29, 2019 0

Apple has discovered a bug in its Group FaceTime that allows callers to listen in on a conversation on a recipient's device, even if that person doesn't pick up. The company has notified users that the option has been Temporarily disabled.

No word on when the feature will be back online.

You can now watch the premier of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 for a Limited Time for FREE!

Dan Uff January 28, 2019 0

Star Trek fans rejoice! For those who do not want to pay for CBS All Access, you can watch the season premier of Star Trek: Discovery right on YouTube for a limited time.

To view the episode (well worth it!) click here.