Type of Article: MacTech Web Site

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds for the iPad is now available in five new languages including Simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Latin American Spanish.

Playgrounds is designed to teach basic programming concepts like loops and conditionals using an animated character that the budding programmers direct by writing code. The app offers suggestions for code to be used, and Swift Playgrounds also has a special iOS coding keyboard to ease entry of all of those pesky brackets. 

Apple has debuted Clips, a new app that allows iPhone and iPad users to create “expressive videos.” It lets you combine video clips, photos and music into videos to share with friends through the Messages app, or on Instagram, Facebook and other social networks.

Clips also introduces Live Titles, a feature that lets users create animated captions and titles using just their voice. Effects including comic book filters, speech bubbles, shapes and full-screen animated posters.

Apple has updated the 9.7-inch iPad, adding a brighter Retina display and improved performance with prices starting at $329. It’s apparently designed to replace the iPad Air 2.

The tablet features a Retina display with over 3.1 million pixels and is enclosed in a thin aluminum unibody enclosure weighing one pound for great portability and durability. It packs an Apple-designed A9 chip with 64‑bit desktop-class architecture. The front- and back-facing cameras offer exceptional low-light performance and HD video recording. The iPad has support for LTE cellular bands.

Apple has announced an iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition in red aluminum finish, in recognition of more than 10 years of partnership between Apple and (RED). Buy one and you contribute to the organization that seeks a cure for AIDS. The special edition  (PRODUCT)RED iPhone will be available to order online worldwide and in stores beginning Friday, March 24.