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Apple is going to war with Google for dominance in US classrooms

by Stone Marshall | Sep 14, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Google dominates US classrooms with its affordable laptops and free apps like Google Docs. Now Apple appears to be getting serious about recovering some share of the education market.

Apple executives announced their latest education products at a Chicago high-school auditorium today (March 27) to an audience of journalists, analysts, educators, and students. The hour-long event had little new hardware on show. “We believe iPad is best at engaging students,” a company representative said onstage. But it’s not clear that its latest offerings would put a serious damper on Google and its partners’ education sales.

Here’s a quick rundown of everything Apple announced.

A new iPad
Apple revamped its 9.7-inch iPad that supports Apple’s stylus, the Pencil. It features just about everything you’d expect on a tablet of its ilk, including a Retina HD display, an 8-megapixel camera, Apple’s A10 processor, which was first seen in the iPhone 7, a TouchID fingerprint scanner (no FaceID sensors like on the new iPhone X), and a front-facing camera for selfie-taking and Skyping.

QUARTZ/MIKE MURPHY
Everything the new iPad has on board.
Unlike the more expensive iPad Pro (which starts at $649), this iPad does not support Apple’s Smart Keyboard case. Apple also did not reduce the price of its Pencil stylus (which is still $99), but did announce that Logitech is making a stylus called the Crayon which will work with iPads, and starts at $49.

The new iPads start at $329 for a 32GB model. Apple said that teachers and schools will be able to get them for a discounted rate of $299. It comes in gold, silver, and grey. Sadly, no rose gold.

New software
iWork updates. Apple announced a new suit of iWork apps with tons of updates for schools. It focused mostly on the new version of Pages, where teachers can make textbooks for their students directly on an iPad, as well as mark up documents using an Apple Pencil. Students can collaborate on editing projects together in class over wifi, much like they’ve been able to on Google Docs for years.

QUARTZ/MIKE MURPHY
The new iPad, running Pages.
Minor apps get minor updates. GarageBand, Apple’s music-making app, got minor refreshes, including a royalty-free sound library for class presentations. Clips, Apple’s Snapchat-like video app, got new Apple-designed posters and animations that make it easier for students to make mini-presentations on the fly.

Schoolwork. Apple released a new app for teachers to keep track of their students, and basically make digital handouts for homework as easily as they can write an email. The app also lets teachers assign specific tasks to students within educational apps and see how well they’re progressing. Obliquely referencing issues in the news right now, Apple harped on the fact that the data in this app is private, seen only by the student and teachers involved. The app will launch in June.

More storage. Apple announced that all iCloud accounts associated with a school will now get 200GB free cloud storage, a massive boost over the 5GB it previously offered. It didn’t extend this offer to those who have graduated, and it’s worth noting that Microsoft Office 365 subscribers get 1TB of free data.

Everyone Can Create. Apple said that it will soon launch a new curriculum, focused on how the iPad is a powerful creative tool for the classroom. It builds on the Everyone Can Code curriculum it previously launched to encourage students to learn to code.

Nothing else
Apple did not announce any updates to its low-cost laptops, including the MacBook Air, which many had been hoping for. It didn’t announce availability for AirPower, the wireless-charging mat it previewed back in September. It didn’t even introduce a new version of its Pencil.

There were no surprise reveals at this event, and it was true to its invitation, which said we would “hear creative new ideas for teachers and students.”

Is it enough?
The pricing structure effectively rules out the new iPad from being a true competitor to most Chromebooks. Despite what Apple would like us to believe, it is not that easy to type out a term paper on a touchscreen. The new iPad software (more on that below) will definitely make doing project work and taking notes at school far easier. But doing essays, browsing the web, and chatting with friends is a lot easier to do when you have a proper keyboard to type on, and you can easily type on the device on your lap or a table. What’s more, if you’re buying Apple’s new iPad and a Pencil, even with the school discount, the starting price is $398. Many Chromebooks are the same price or cheaper, and have touchscreens as well as full keyboards.

Then there’s the issue of whether schools that have already invested in Google’s suite of offerings would be willing to switch back for the sake of Apple’s new software and stylus capabilities. Then again, at least iPads have all of Google’s apps on them.

Perhaps there’s hope. While sitting in the school’s cafeteria after the event, one teacher spoke with her colleagues about the new iPad. ”It’s not like, revolutionary, but it’s way more helpful,” she said. “The stuff we’re asking for, they’re listening.”

Microsoft is bringing Minecraft: Education Edition to the iPad

Just before students head back to school, Microsoft is releasing its Minecraft: Education Edition for the iPad. The educational version of the popular block-builder game launched in 2016, and will be available for the iPad starting next month.

In March, Apple announced a cheaper iPad geared specifically toward teachers and students, in an effort to catch up to Google’s dominance of the education market. (Google’s Chromebooks have nearly 60% market share for education hardware in the US.)

The iPad version of Minecraft: Education Edition will also help Microsoft ride on Apple’s coattails into the classroom. Though Microsoft offers other educational software products like Microsoft 365—its productivity suite that includes apps like Powerpoint and Microsoft Word—this new release will help make education software more accessible, especially to younger students for whom Minecraft is already incredibly popular. Microsoft bought Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014.

Microsoft says Minecraft: Education Edition already has 35 million users in 115 countries, and given the new iPad version, those numbers will likely grow.

‘Minecraft’ mod fosters a collaborative effort against climate change

by Stone Marshall | Sep 13, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

A Minecraft modder has added some fresh gameplay issues for players to deal with in the form of climate change. Nick Porillo's GlobalWarming mod alters the atmosphere based on certain actions like smelting ores. Temperatures will rise as carbon emissions increase, leading to violent storms, forest fires and a drop in snowfall levels as climate change takes hold.

You can combat the changes in the atmosphere by planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide. To combat the issue on a larger scale, you can purchase carbon offsets, which gives other players a tree-planting bounty to complete — that reflects one of the mod's themes of working together to fight climate change.

“If the majority of players don't agree to be near-carbon-neutral in how they play, then the carbon score will only continue to rise in-game. Once the damage negatively impacts the players, they will begin paying back that ‘debt' they accrued,” Porillo told Motherboard. “The idea is if the players put a little more effort in from the start to not emit a ton, then they can entirely avoid the price to be paid later.”

He plans to add more features, such as a scorecard that lets you see who the least carbon-neutral players are, finding out your own carbon footprint and adding methane as a second greenhouse gas. The mod works with Minecraft's Server Java Edition and you can download it from GitHub.

The ‘Minecraft’ Movie Suffers A Delay As It Loses Its Director

Director and co-writer Rob McElhenney is no longer working on Warner Bros.’s film adaptation of “Minecraft,” according to The Wrap.

The “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star was picked to direct the film in 2015, but now it’s not happening, he recently told The Wrap. Warner reportedly asked the writer/director duo of Adam and Aaron Nee to write a new script. “Wonder Woman” scribe Jason Fuchs wrote the previous draft with McElhenney. The Nee brothers are best known for “The Last Romantic” (2006) and “Band of Robbers” (2015). They’re also directing the upcoming “Masters of the Universe” film.

McElhenney is the second director to leave the project. Originally, “Night at the Museum” director Shawn Levy and writers Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney were brought in to work on the film, but they left in 2014 after reportedly presenting new ideas to the studio that didn’t mesh with what Mojang was looking for. Levy is now supposedly working on the upcoming “Uncharted” film starring Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake.

The “Minecraft” film’s release date will be pushed back because of the shakeup, The Wrap reports. It was originally scheduled to come out on May 24, 2019.

“Minecraft” is a sandbox building game created by Markus Persson and later developed by Swedish developer Mojang. It launched in 2011 and is now the second best-selling video game of all time behind “Tetris,” with over 144 million copies sold across multiple platforms. Persson sold Mojang and “Minecraft” to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion.

Steve Carell is expected to star in the movie. Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to the franchise from Mojang. Roy Lee is producing it through his Vertigo Entertainment production company with Jill Messick.

June 2018’s top 10 Minecraft Marketplace creations: Enter the Summer Sale (correction)

by Stone Marshall | Sep 12, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

The Minecraft Marketplace is about to get the followup on a serious 1-2 punch that could boost creator’s revenues and downloads through the end of July. The Minecraft Team at Microsoft launched the first Minecraft Summer Sale today. As part of this event, most of the content on the Marketplace is getting a steep discount.

While the Summer Sale may get fans downloading more content this month, last month it was the Nintendo Switch that helped fuel sales. The Minecraft Marketplace had 396,511 downloads in June, which is up from 285,816 in April. With the Marketplace hitting Switch for the first time beginning June 26, it’s likely that Nintendo’s platform contributed significantly to that total. You can see past results by tracking the Minecraft Marketplace sales charts here.

But now that Switch is integrated into the Minecraft platform, developers can focus on making their content and the Summer Sale. Some, like Gamemode One founder Sean Davidson, thinks discounts are exactly what some players are waiting for before they spend their money on Minecraft microtransactions.

“We hope and expect that the Minecraft Summer Sale will increase player accessibility to content and potentially drive increased traffic over the remainder of the year,” said Davidson. “Access to products at a discounted rate is a great way to give players and buyers on the fence a chance to see what the Marketplace has to offer.”

Developer Imagiverse has even spent the last few weeks preparing its Lapis Lagoon waterpark map for the sale (it’s already out). This update will roll out to everyone who owns it, and Imagiverse wants positive word-of-mouth to help it perform well in the sale.

“We focused on making sure Lapis Lagoon was going to give the player the best possible waterpark experience they could have in-game,” a spokesperson for Imagiverse explained in a note to GamesBeat. “Old and new players alike will appreciate the work we put into the map getting it ready for the sale.”

Let’s do the charts. Here are the 10 most downloaded pieces of content from the Minecraft Marketplace for June 2018:

Click to view slideshow.
Here it is in list form:

City Life
Mineville Highschool
Dinosaur Park
Planes
Dinosaur Island
Monsters of the Deep
Wildlife: Savanna
Mutant Battle Arena
Prison Escape
Lucky Block Escape
And here are the 10 highest-grossing pieces of content for June 2018:

Click to view slideshow.
List:

City Life
Dinosaur Park
Planes
Dinosaur Island
Monsters of the Deep
Wildlife: Savanna
Mutant Battle Arena
Mineville Highschool
Super Racers
Lucky Block Escape
Next month, we’ll get to see how the Summer Sale affects the charts. This is a big chance for Marketplace partners, and it could turn into one of the biggest months for the Minecraft store so far.

Correction, 12:14 p.m.: Sean Davidson’s name was misspelled as Sean David in the original article. We have corrected the error, and we apologize.

July 2018’s top 10 Minecraft Marketplace creations: Prison Escape leads summer success

The Minecraft Team at Microsoft has landed a major combination with its first Summer Sale and the launch of the Minecraft Marketplace on the Nintendo Switch. Those big moves have led to a growth spurt for the block-building game’s content store, which served up a massive 669,795 downloads in July. That’s up from 396,511 downloads in June, which was already impressive on its own. The Minecraft Team doesn’t share how much money the Marketplace generates each month, but most creations sell for around $1-to-$5. At a hypothetical average of $2 per download, the store could have generated more than $1 million in sales last month.

Minecraft’s Marketplace Summer Sale began July 19 and through the end of the month. The game’s development team worked with its partners, many of whom are small third-party content creators, to discount their Marketplace products by as much as 50 percent. That fueled intense interest from fans who wanted to get the most bang for their buck.

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This reveals that many fans are aware of the Minecraft Marketplace and think about using it regularly, but they want to hold off for better prices. That’s something that Mojang, the studio responsible for Minecraft, and Marketplace creators can take advantage of.

But enough of all that, let’s get to the charts.

Top 10 most downloaded
4. City Life 4. City Life
Here it is in list form:

Kingdom Survival
Millionaire Mansions
Mineville High School
City Life
Castles & Dragons
Dinosaur Park
Isles of Aloha
Spring Mini-Games Festival
Dinosaur Island
Prison Escape
Top 10 highest grossing
4. Dinosaur Park 4. Dinosaur Park
Here it is in list form:

Millionaire Mansions
City Life
Castles & Dragons
Dinosaur Park
Mineville High School
Dinosaur Island
Wildlife: Savanna
Chroma Hills
Planes
Dwarven Mining Company
We’ll be back with more news from the Minecraft Marketplace next month.

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