Apple today announced that Swift Playgrounds, its educational coding app for iPad, will offer a new way to learn to code using robots, drones and musical instruments. Apple is working with leading device makers to make it easy to connect to Bluetooth-enabled robots within the Swift Playgrounds app, allowing kids to program and control popular devices, including LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3, the Sphero SPRK+, Parrot drones and more. The Swift Playgrounds 1.5 update will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning Monday, June 5.
With Swift Playgrounds, users can program and control these devices from within the app:
- LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3
- Sphero SPRK+ robotic ball rolls, turns, accelerates and changes colors.
- Parrot’s Mambo, Airborne and Rolling Spider drones can take off, land, turn and perform aerial figures
- UBTECH’s Jimu Robot MeeBot Kit lets kids program their buildable robot to walk, wave and dance
- Dash by Wonder Workshop is a hands-on learning robot for students
- Skoog is a tactile cube that enables children of all abilities to have fun exploring, creating and playing music with Swift code
Pricing & Availability
Swift Playgrounds 1.5 with support for third-party devices will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning Monday, June 5. Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air and iPad Pro models and iPad mini 2 and later running iOS 10 or later. For more information, visit: www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds.
