Apple widens 'Today at Apple' in-store classes with 60 new programs

The new video, music and design sessions launch next year.

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Shara Tibken was a managing editor at CNET News, overseeing a team covering tech policy, EU tech, mobile and the digital divide. She previously covered mobile as a senior reporter at CNET and also wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Shara is a native Midwesterner who still prefers "pop" over "soda."

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Joan E. Solsman

Shara Tibken

Oct. 30, 2018 7:56 a.m. PT

2 min read

Apple said Tuesday it was expanding its "Today at Apple" in-store tutorial program, adding 60 newly designed video, music and design sessions. The new sessions will include walks and labs when they launch next year.

Angela Ahrendts, Apple's head of retail, said new sessions include Small Screen Magic for shooting and editing video with the Clips app, a Music Lab called Advanced Beat Making with Logic Pro, and Photo Labs for Kids and Fun Family Portraits, which teach photography skills. Apple will also introduce a Design Lab called Drawing Treehouse that was created with Foster + Partners, the architectural firm that redesigned Apple Stores.

The Apple Store app has also gotten a new section that will make suggestions based on the products you own and show sessions in your city.

Apple launched the Today at Apple educational seminars, which are free and open to the public, at all of its stores last year. The company has held more than 18,000 sessions a week since the program launched, Ahrendts said.

Apple October event: Complete coverage

The announcement came during a Brooklyn, New York event at which Apple unveiled new iPads and Macs.

The event -- Apple's fourth of the year and the second to take place outside California -- is a departure from the company's usual choice of Bay Area venues. It marks just the second time Apple has hosted an event in New York. The first, in 2012 at the Guggenheim Museum, was to launch its iPad digital textbook software.

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Apple, which started out in 1976 as Apple Computer, hasn't done much lately when it comes to its laptops and tablets. In 2016, it redesigned its MacBooks for the first time in four years, adding a new Touch Bar and a butterfly keyboard -- features that have caused complaints and even lawsuits. Apple's laptops haven't seen many changes since then, and the company has delayed major updates to products like its Mac Pro.

Then there are Apple's iPad Pro tablets. Apple has added new screen sizes, but it hasn't introduced major new capabilities or design changes since the first iPad Pro hit the market in late 2015. Compared to the iPhone, Apple's Macs and iPads have appeared stuck in the past.

But iPads and Macs remain a critical part in forming the universe of Apple products that hook a customer into its ecosystem. If you've got an iPhone and Mac, you're less likely to switch phones or computers

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