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Apple Shares Spooky 'Mac to School' Ads Highlighting AirDrop and More

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Apple today shared a trio of spooky "Mac to School" ads on its YouTube channels.

The videos highlight three useful Mac features for students, including AirDrop, iPhone Mirroring, and Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools.




AirDrop lets you quickly wirelessly transfer files between Apple devices, while iPhone Mirroring lets you control your iPhone from your Mac's desktop. Writing Tools can proofread and summarize your writing, and even generate text via ChatGPT.

Apple has also revamped the College Students page on its website in multiple countries.

"No matter what you study, ace it with Mac and iPad," the updated page says. "Count on superspeed, long battery life, and devices that work together easily — from your first class to graduation and beyond."

Article Link: Apple Shares Spooky 'Mac to School' Ads Highlighting AirDrop and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/05/12/apple-shares-mac-to-school-ads/
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WestonHarvey1 said:
I'm confused. It's not Halloween and school is ending, not starting.
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But Halloween isn't the only time for 'scary' content… 👻

And school isn't ending for at least another couple of months here in the UK, so I suppose this is getting ahead of customers shopping for new computers ready for the next academic year – as someone else posted. Also, school terms vary around the planet, so that can be a factor.
 
MacRumors said:


Apple today shared a trio of spooky "Mac to School" ads on its YouTube channel in the UK.

The videos highlight three useful Mac features for students, including AirDrop, iPhone Mirroring, and Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools.




AirDrop lets you quickly wirelessly transfer files between Apple devices, while iPhone Mirroring lets you control your iPhone from your Mac's desktop. Writing Tools can proofread and summarize your writing, and even generate text via ChatGPT.

Apple has also revamped the College Students page on its website in multiple countries.

"No matter what you study, ace it with Mac and iPad," the updated page says. "Count on superspeed, long battery life, and devices that work together easily — from your first class to graduation and beyond."

Article Link: Apple Shares Spooky 'Mac to School' Ads Highlighting AirDrop and More
Click to expand...
As a 54-year-old, I’m familiar with these features and can’t relate to the age gap shown in these videos. But I think the real audience for these videos are people my age. They’re likely to encourage older folks who are set in their ways with PCs to use Apple products and services more.
 
What a weird decision to release "spooky" ads right now. Did they forget to release these during the "scary fast" event, or are these courtesy of Apple Intelligence?
 
orbital~debris said:
But Halloween isn't the only time for 'scary' content… 👻

And school isn't ending for at least another couple of months here in the UK, so I suppose this is getting ahead of customers shopping for new computers ready for the next academic year – as someone else posted. Also, school terms vary around the planet, so that can be a factor.
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Former Apple EDU exec here, at one time I was intimately involved in these BTS discussions. This is exactly correct, the back-to-school purchasing season arrives with graduation, both at the high school and college levels. Graduating high school students often receive a college-appropriate Mac as a grad gift, while graduating college seniors often purchase a new system using the last of their EDU pricing eligibility.

As others have noted, the academic calendar varies widely across the globe, and even within single countries. As an example there are colleges in the US that have already held graduation for the spring term, and there are colleges that will not end classes until late June. Grad season and back to school are a season, not a single point in time. The purchasing mania ends abruptly just before class begins in each geography.
 
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G5isAlive said:
I wonder how much longer people will be able to write for themselves...
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Paddle1 said:
The ads are nice but using writing tools as shown in the last one is questionable.
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A.I. reminds me of math textbooks where answers to (odd numbered) problems were found at the back. For those people who just wanted the answer (A.I. users), they'd flip to the back of the textbook. For those who wanted to learn how to arrive at the answer, they read the chapter and did the work themselves, showing the steps used to solve the problem.


And I believe the first ad (Mac | Dropped In | Apple) was filmed at UCLA's Royce Hall.
 
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sw1tcher said:
A.I. reminds me of math textbooks where answers to (odd numbered) problems were found at the back. For those people who just wanted the answer (A.I. users), they'd flip to the back of the textbook. For those who wanted to learn how to arrive at the answer, they read the chapter and did the work themselves, showing the steps used to solve the problem.


And I believe the first ad (Mac | Dropped In | Apple) was filmed at UCLA's Royce Hall.
Click to expand...

Interesting analogy, but I am not sure I agree it applies. I remember those text books, flipping to the back before doing the work was black and white cheating. I remember feeling guilty. ChatGP seems taken for granted as a tool to use, where at a minimum you do input some text to make you think you are doing something, and it spits out 'your text.' As such I do think the ability for most people to actually write for themselves will be eroded over the years. The same way cursive handwriting is become a lost art and not even taught in many schools with the focus being on digital skills now. Maybe its all for better communication but I do worry about the soul being lost from writing.
 
sw1tcher said:
A.I. reminds me of math textbooks where answers to (odd numbered) problems were found at the back. For those people who just wanted the answer (A.I. users), they'd flip to the back of the textbook. For those who wanted to learn how to arrive at the answer, they read the chapter and did the work themselves, showing the steps used to solve the problem.


And I believe the first ad (Mac | Dropped In | Apple) was filmed at UCLA's Royce Hall.
Click to expand...
I don't think it's quite the same thing. Teachers would just assign even problems. Having answers to some let you see if you knew what you were doing when you attempted the odd problems.

I still have a college physics textbook from the eighties where I wrote about a dozen times "this can't be right" next to an answer in the back. Turns out it was a mistake in book. I ended up with my PhD in physics, so I don't mind having some answers.

Having AI write entire reports for you...that's a different bag of worms (is that a saying?).

Note: this is not written by AI 🤣
 
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Nice ads. All the mentioned features are very useful, especially AirDrop. Expecting Apple to announce the back to school discounts shortly after WWDC.
 
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DocMultimedia said:
I don't think it's quite the same thing. Teachers would just assign even problems. Having answers to some let you see if you knew what you were doing when you attempted the odd problems.

I still have a college physics textbook from the eighties where I wrote about a dozen times "this can't be right" next to an answer in the back. Turns out it was a mistake in book. I ended up with my PhD in physics, so I don't mind having some answers.

Having AI write entire reports for you...that's a different bag of worms (is that a saying?).

Note: this is not written by AI 🤣
Click to expand...

Yeah. Even if you're writing the paper yourself, if you're using AI to take and summarize your notes, you have to be missing out on at least half of the critical thinking and analytical skills in any subject matter. What else is the point of an Under-Grad degree? Specialization? Networking? You can get all of that from a trade school or an apprenticeship.
 
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svish said:
Expecting Apple to announce the back to school discounts shortly after WWDC.
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Nope, before. WWDC is too late.

Edit: IIRC, the sweet spot is around May 15-20. It is worth noting that there are tens of thousands of graduating HS seniors in the US who will begin college classes in late May and early June.
 
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TexStones said:
Nope, before. WWDC is too late.
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Some past U.S. Back-to-School start dates occurred before WWDC (year highlighted in Blue), some occurred after WWDC (year highlighted in Red), and a couple started on the same day as WWDC (year in plain Black). In most instances (10 out of 15) though, the U.S. Back-to-School sale start date happened after WWDC, while 3 of the last 15 started before WWDC, and 2 of them started on the same day as WWDC.

This year's WWDC will be from June 9 to June 13.

Looking at prior years...

2024 = June 20 / WWDC: Jun 10, 2024 - Jun 14, 2024
2023 = June 5 / WWDC: Jun 5, 2023 – Jun 9, 2023
2022 = June 24 / WWDC: Jun 6, 2022 – Jun 10, 2022
2021 = June 17 / WWDC: Jun 7, 2021 – Jun 11, 2021
2020 = June 15 / WWDC: Jun 22, 2020 – Jun 26, 2020
2019 = July 9 / WWDC: Jun 3, 2019 – Jun 7, 2019
2018 = July 12 / WWDC: Jun 4, 2018 – Jun 8, 2018
2017 = July 12 / WWDC: Jun 5, 2017 - Jun 9, 2017
2016 = June 2 / WWD: Jun 13, 2016 - Jun 17, 2016
2015 = July 23 / WWDC: Jun 8, 2015 - Jun 12, 2015
2014 = July 1 / WWDC: Jun 2, 2014 – Jun 6, 2014
2013 = July 2 / WWDC: Jun 10, 2013 - Jun 14, 2013
2012 = June 11 / WWDC: Jun 11, 2012 - Jun 15, 2012
2011 = June 16 / WWDC: Jun 6, 2021 - Jun 10, 2011
2010 = May 25 / WWDC: June 7 to 11, 2010
 
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