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New iPad App Makes Learning to Code Easy & Fun for Everyone

CUPERTINO — September 13, 2016 — Swift Playgrounds™, an innovative new iPad® app from Apple® that makes learning to code easy and fun for everyone, is now available on the App Store®. With Swift Playgrounds, real coding concepts are brought to life with an interactive interface that allows students and beginners to explore working with Swift™, the easy-to-learn programming language from Apple used by professional developers to create world-class apps.

The Swift Playgrounds app is approachable enough for students with no previous programming experience to begin exploring key coding concepts, but also powerful enough for skilled programmers to experiment and express their creativity using Swift.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to learn coding, and we are excited to bring Swift Playgrounds to the next generation of programmers looking for a fun and easy way to explore key coding concepts using real code,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “More than 100 schools around the world have already committed to adding Swift Playgrounds to their fall curriculum, and we can’t wait to see what students create with it.”

Swift Playgrounds includes Apple-developed programming lessons that guide students through a series of challenges and puzzles to guide three on-screen characters through an immersive graphical world as they learn core coding concepts, like issuing commands, creating functions, performing loops and using conditional code and variables. Apple will also regularly release new standalone challenges so users can continue learning new skills.

Swift Playgrounds also features built-in templates that users can modify and build on to create their own programs with graphics and touch interactions. They can then share their creations with friends using Mail or Messages or even by posting to the Web. And since Swift Playgrounds uses real Swift code, projects can be exported directly to Xcode® and ultimately be turned into full-fledged iOS and Mac® apps.

Availability
Swift Playgrounds is available today on the App Store for free. Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air® and iPad Pro™ models and iPad mini™ 2 and later running iOS 10. For more information including videos, images and demos, visit: www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts:
Bill Evans
Apple
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Starlayne Meza
Apple
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(408) 974-3391

Apple, the Apple logo, Swift Playgrounds, iPad, App Store, Swift, Xcode, Mac, iPad Air, iPad Pro and iPad mini are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.