John Voorhees

5781 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
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voorhees@macstories.net

Apple Announces the Swift Student Challenge Will Begin in February 2024 and New Everyone Can Code Resources

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

It’s hard to believe that it has been over nine years since Apple announced the Swift programming language at WWDC. From the day it debuted, one of the pillars of Swift has been Apple’s education efforts, which have included Swift Playgrounds, materials for teachers and students, events, coding centers, and of course, the annual Swift Student Challenge at WWDC. So, with Swift’s 10th anniversary around the corner, it’s not surprising that Apple is updating its Swift Student Challenge program and releasing new resources for educators.

Today, the company announced that the next Swift Student Challenge will begin in February 2024, a break from the past WWDC schedule. The competition will name 350 winners in total, 50 of whom will be named Distinguished Winners whose projects stand out from the other submissions. Distinguished Winners will be invited to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino in the summer to meet with Apple engineers and other winners, and all winners will receive a one-year membership to the Apple Developer Program.

The Swift Student Challenge will run for three weeks in February 2024, and students can sign up to be notified of when the competition will begin here.

Apple is also expanding its Everyone Can Code program with four new projects providing additional resources for students to learn to build apps. The projects, which provide educators with resources to guide students, include the following:

  • Design a Simple App: Students can create an app prototype in Keynote to learn the fundamentals of app design, practice rapid prototyping, and collect feedback, following the same steps as professional developers. 
  • Build with Stacks and Shapes: Students can take the first steps of building an app in Swift Playgrounds and code a self-portrait or a work of art using SwiftUI to learn the fundamentals of user interface design.
  • Build Custom Shapes: Students can bring an app interface to the next level by designing a shape, learning how to plot the coordinates, and coding their custom shape using SwiftUI and the About Me sample app within Swift Playgrounds.
  • Design an App Icon: Students can learn and apply app design principles to create a unique and memorable app icon that communicates an idea; practice rapid prototyping; collect feedback; and upload the icon to Swift Playgrounds to become part of an app.

The projects can be accessed by educators from the Apple Education Community website.

The expansion of the Swift Student Challenge and other announcements today are great to see. It’s a fantastic way to get students excited about coding, as we’ve seen first-hand based on the growing number of apps we write about at MacStories that were built by former Challenge participants. I’m looking forward to seeing what students come up with this year.

AppStories, Episode 358 – The Trouble with Task Management→

This week on AppStories, we explore why there are so many good task managers, but none is a perfect fit with the way we work.

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On AppStories+, I explore screen maximalism while Federico heads the other direction into screen minimalism.

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Apple Updates Logic Pro for iPad and Mac

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced updates to Logic Pro for the iPad and Mac. Both platforms gain support for 32-bit float recording and Mastering Assistant, which the company says “can instantly analyze the audio and make expert refinements to the sound, adjusting elements such as the dynamics, frequency balance, timbre, and loudness.” Mastering Assistant’s processing can be manually tweaked by musicians, too.

The update to Logic Pro for Mac adds Sample Alchemy and Beat Breaker, two tools that debuted on Logic Pro for iPad when it was introduced earlier this year. Apple also added new sound packs to Logic Pro for Mac:

The Hybrid Textures sound pack includes a collection of 70 patches, as well as over 80 Apple Loops featuring Sample Alchemy, while the Vox Melodics sound pack contains a diverse collection of over 475 lyrical phrases, hooks, layered harmonies, FX, and one-shots.

On the iPad, Logic Pro now supports Split View and Stage Manager, allowing musicians to work in multiple apps at once and take advantage of drag and drop between them. The app also has a new Recorder mode for recording sounds with the iPad’s microphone and a Quick Sampler plugin to create instruments from sounds. Samples can be previewed with gestures in Logic Pro’s Browser, and new in-app Lessons are available to help users learn the app’s new features and more.

It’s great to see Apple continue to expand Logic Pro’s capabilities and bring the Mac and iPad’s feature set closer together. More than anything, though, I’d like to see iPadOS-level audio routing added to enable the iPad to handle multiple audio inputs and outputs so I could participate in a Zoom call and simultaneously record a separate microphone input.

AppStories - Ep. 358 - 30 minutes

The Trouble with Task Management

FedericoJohn
AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 358 - The Trouble with Task Management

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29:38

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

This week, Federico and John explore why there are so many good task managers, but none is a perfect fit with the way they work.

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MacStories Unwind: You Know I Have a Problem with Controllers

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps
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21:23

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

This week, John tries to convince Federico that Things’ Inbox should be at the heart of his universal capture system, a song 50 years in the making, and in a twist that will surprise no one, John bought another controller.

  • Kolide – It ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Watch the demo today!

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Interesting Links

John

Jennifer Pattison Touhy of The Verge has a fascinating look at Matic, an upcoming $1800 robot vacuum from ex-Google engineers. (Link) Engadget reports that Netflix will begin allowing users of its ad-supported tier to download videos and will encourage binge-watching by making every fourth episode of a show ad-free. (Link) Belkin introduced a nightstand-friendly...

App Debuts

John

ControlBar I’m constantly impressed by what can be done with Live Activities. ControlBar is a simple utility that adds additional music controls to your Lock Screen. The controls are customizable, too. Open the main app and pick among controls that include skipping forward and back by set amounts of time, volume controls, repeat modes,...

Obsidian Plugin Gems

Today, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite Obsidian plugins that deserve some attention. The trouble with Obsidian’s community plugin browser is that by default, it’s sorted to show the ‘Most Downloaded’ plugins first. You can sort by Recently Updated, Recently Released, and Alphabetical, but none of those are good ways to surface...

Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $89.5 Billion for Q4 2023

Apple’s last quarter marked a 1% decline in revenue compared to Q3 2023. Going into today’s call, expectations were for another roughly 1% revenue decline over the prior year’s fiscal fourth quarter, with consensus expectations of about $89.28 billion in revenue.

The iPhone 15 served up the revenue gains Apple needed to meet fourth quarter estimates. Source: Apple.

The iPhone 15 served up the revenue gains Apple needed to meet fourth quarter estimates. Source: Apple.

Today, Apple reported that its fourth quarter 2023 revenue came in at $89.5 billion, which was slightly more than expected. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook:

Today Apple is pleased to report a September quarter revenue record for iPhone and an all-time revenue record in Services. We now have our strongest lineup of products ever heading into the holiday season, including the iPhone 15 lineup and our first carbon neutral Apple Watch models, a major milestone in our efforts to make all Apple products carbon neutral by 2030.

The iPhone 15 wasn't Apple's only new product this quarter, but it's the one that makes or breaks the quarter. Source: Apple.

The iPhone 15 wasn’t Apple’s only new product this quarter, but it’s the one that makes or breaks the quarter. Source: Apple.

Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter is a prelude to the the first quarter of 2024, which includes the 2023 holiday season. The iPhone helped land Apple exactly where Wall Street expected it to be this quarter, but its the holiday season that will set the tone for the coming year, which will see the debut of Vision Pro and hopefully, new iPads.

Apple's quarterly revenue for the past 13 quarters.

Apple’s quarterly revenue for the past 13 quarters.

Revenue in China was slightly off, but not the miss some analysts feared.

Revenue in China was slightly off, but not the miss some analysts feared.

Gross margins continue to rise. Thanks Services revenue.

Gross margins continue to rise. Thanks Services revenue.