iOS 10: Taking a Closer Look at Apple's 'Swift Playgrounds' for iPad

[mijail]

Am I the only one to think about Alan Kay (remember, he was an Apple employee!) and comparing this to his Squeak / eToys teaching environment?

But Squeak sounds much, MUCH more ambitious than this...

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Exactly - and the Playground app isn't just a teaching tool for Swift. Just as one shouldn't look at the Music app and decide that the iPhone is just a music player, so one shouldn't look at the 'Learning to Code' playground and decide that the Playground app is just for learning to code.

Well, you took the line you quoted from my last post completely out of context but whatever. You are hell bent on thinking Playground is more than a learning tool, even as Apple says it's just that, a learning tool, and nothing more. So no point in my continuing to toss facts at you when you are arguing opinion.

 

[SvenSvenson]

Well, you took the line you quoted from my last post completely out of context but whatever. You are hell bent on thinking Playground is more than a learning tool, even as Apple says it's just that, a learning tool, and nothing more. So no point in my continuing to toss facts at you when you are arguing opinion.

So what have you used it for so far? Just learning to program with Swift?

 

[Dave00]

They do offer lower-cost entries. Today's prices of Air 2 and Mini 4 are fantastically low. I remember the time, when I bought my Air 2 at full price.

Just had to check to make sure - the cheapest Air2 is $399, for a 16gb variety that would have a tough time holding much of anything. The $499 for the next tier up (64gb) is hardly fantastically affordable, especially if you need to get two. I guess you can get the old iPad Air original for ~$400 for 32gb, which barely meets the hardware requirements.

IMO, they're losing out big time by refusing to address the low-end market. If they put some effort into reducing the cost rather than making it thinner and faster, they'd have a much bigger market. As it is, those folks are going the route of refurb or switching ecosystems.