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Tim Cook makes surprise appearance at Toronto Apple Store to tout ‘Everyone Can Code’

Update: Tim Cook continues his tour of Canada with a Maple Leafs game:

Tim Cook today made his first ever visit to Canada since becoming Apple CEO. As reported by The Globe and Mail, Cook visited a downtown Toronto Apple Store to talk with shoppers and students…

Cook’s visit came unannounced to the group of Grade 7 students from Scarborough, Ontario attending a session at the Apple Store. The students were learning how to program robots using Apple’s Swift curriculum as part of its Everyone Can Code initiative.

As you would expect, Cook took the opportunity to tout Apple’s efforts in making coding available to everyone.

“Swift came out of the fundamental recognition that coding languages were too geeky. Most students would look at them and say, ‘that’s not for me,” Cook said.

“That’s not our view. Our view is that coding is a horizontal skill like your native languages or mathematics, so we wanted to design a programming language that is as easy to learn as our products are to use.”

Cook also touted Apple’s investment in Canada, saying that iOS and the App Store have created 120,000 jobs in the country, including developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and more.

“Canada is an extremely important market for us. We have a great team in Canada,” Cook said.

“I want to do everything I can do to highlight their innovation, their companies and their work, because it is a critical part of the entire user experience. I wanted to come say thank you.”

Cook’s visit to Canada comes following Apple’s major tax reform announcements in the United States, which will see the company invest some $350 billion. Furthermore, Apple recently announced that it was expanding its Everyone Can Code program to 70 additional colleges and universities.


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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com