Apple and (RED) celebrate $160 million raised for AIDS awareness and treatment

Apple's been a staunch proponent of AIDS awareness with its involvement in the (RED) initiative. As one of the earliest partners of the program, Apple has released various (product) RED variants of products of which partial proceeds would go into AIDS awareness and treatment. The company also puts World AIDS Day front and centre by dressing up their stores with symbolic RED Apple logos and having their staff wear the colour. The company now celebrates a milestone.

Click to read more ...

Apple to offer free coding and fun challenges in stores for Hour of Code

Apple today opened registration for thousands of free Hour of Code sessions available at all Apple Stores from December 4 through 10. The company also introduced a new educational challenge in Swift Playgrounds and added new teacher resources to the Everyone Can Code curriculum to help teach Swift, Apple’s easy-to-learn programming language that anyone can use to create world-class apps.

For the fifth year, Apple Stores will participate in Hour of Code with daily coding sessions in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Young aspiring coders can learn coding basics during a Kids Hour session, while those age 12 and above can use Swift Playgrounds on iPad to learn coding concepts and even program robots. A new Teacher Tuesdays session helps educators learn how to teach code to students using new resources and discussion topics.

Click to read more ...

Apple buys AR startup for $30 Million to bolster its own AR headset

Apple has bought Vrvana for $30 million. The AR development company has likely caught Apple's eye for its work on AR headsets which can help the company in its own efforts to create their AR headset. Apple is famously pushing AR as a future interface and its ARKit framework has fueled various apps used on iPhones and iPads and which will likely translate to a headset provided the right components and input mechanisms are available.

Click to read more ...

Apple delaying HomePod release until 2018

Apple is postponing the release of its HomePod smart speaker until 2018. The company, which showcased the HomePod along with the iMac Pro during this year's WWDC (World Wide Developer's Conference) is the company's answer to Amazon's Echo and Google Home, speakers that integrate smart assistant technology.

“We can't wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple's breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it's ready for our customers,” an Apple spokesperson said. “We'll start shipping in the US, UK and Australia in early 2018.

Click to read more ...