In an unprecedented move, Apple said late Friday it will immediately close all its retail stores outside Greater China in an effort to battle the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The stores will remain closed through March 27.

CEO Tim Cook revealed Apple’s decision to close hundreds of stores late Friday in an open letter-style press release titled “Apple’s COVID-19 response.” He wrote, “This global effort — to protect the most vulnerable, to study this virus, and to care for the sick — requires all of our care, and all of our participation.”

Apple has shuttered its 11 retail stores in Spain in an abundance of caution as the coronavirus continues to spread through Europe.

Cult of Mac has confirmed the closings will take effect Saturday after all the stores were open for business Friday. Social media reports indicate a small number of stores closed early on Friday.

The second episode of the redesigned Amazing Stories finds its legs with a story of a track star caught between life and death.

If showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have anything even a fraction as good as this up their sleeves for the rest of the season, Amazing Stories might prove the strongest of Apple TV+ shows, considering its short episode order.

Apple has suspended all filming of Apple TV+ projects currently in production, according to a published report Friday.

The shows include the science fiction series For All Mankind, the Stephen King miniseries Lisey’s Story, the science fiction drama See, the TV drama The Morning Show, the psychological horror television series Servant, and the Isaac Asimov sci-fi series Foundation.

A fully functional and complete Apple-1 computer, hand-built by Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs back in 1976, was auctioned off yesterday for over $458 thousand.

There are only a handful of these left. This particular unit appeared recently on the TV show Pawn Stars.

President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency provided some much-needed relief to Apple’s stock price just before the market closed this afternoon.

Apple shares jumped up over $20 in value during the last 30 minutes of trading today, just after President Trump announced that the U.S. government will free up $50 billion in federal resources to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

In our new Pick Your Streaming Service & Device Giveaway, you’ve got a crack at winning a combo that will keep you binge-watching whatever you want for a year.

Enter now for a chance to win the streaming hardware of your choice, along with a year’s subscription to any streaming service. Total prize value: up to $1,000!

At some point, fairly recently, Safari started opening new tabs to the right of the currently open tab, instead of opening them at the end of the tab bar, as nature intended. This means that you have to search for the newly opened tab, instead of just knowing exactly where it is. I can see the point of opening tabs next to the current one, but I don’t like it.

Happily, there’s a way to revert Safari’s behavior to the good old way — the way my grandmother, and her grandmother before her, dealt with their tabs. It’s a simple option inside Safari’s debug menu. Wait? Debug menu?

An Apple Store employee, who went on leave earlier this month to care for a relative, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Apple and the employee from the Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica learned of the positive test late Thursday, according to reports. The employee has not been back to the store since taking leave on March 2.

Out of appeals, Apple cut a check to VirnetX for more than $454 million to end a lengthy patent infringement case.

VirnetX, which sued Apple over patents relating to FaceTime, iMessage and VPN technologies, announced the payment in a one-paragraph press release Friday.

Internet service providers AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Verizon and many more have pledged to not cut off service from customers who can’t pay their bills because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Internet access is important during the crisis to keep the public informed, but also to let people work from home, attend school remotely, and keep in touch despite social distancing.

Apple will deliver a refreshed MacBook Air next week, according to a Friday report citing an anonymous tipster.

It could be the second notebook to pick up Appe’s new and improved Magic Keyboard, first introduced with the 16-inch MacBook Pro last fall. They are also likely to offer faster Intel chips and other improvements.

Microsoft is keen to go ahead with this year’s Build conference, but the event will now be online-only, the company confirmed on Friday. Build was scheduled to take place in Seattle from May 19 to May 21. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced Microsoft to go completely digital instead.

Microsoft’s announcement came just before Apple announced that WWDC 2020 will also go ahead with “an all-new online format.”

Apple on Friday confirmed that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference will go ahead in June with “an all-new online format” and not take place at a conference center as has happened since the first WWDC in 1987.

The high-tech giant said the approach was essential amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but that it was determined to deliver a full program with an online keynote and developer sessions. Apple has also confirmed it will commit $1 million to local San Jose organizations to offset revenue loss as a result of WWDC going online-only.

Combine a role-playing game with a pinball machine and you have Roundguard, a new game added Friday to Apple Arcade. It’s a bit like Rogue, but with lots more bouncing. And a silly sense of humor, too.

Apple doesn’t just hold a lead over its competitors in the wearables market. It captured a 36.5 percent share of the market in the final quarter of 2019.

Second-place Xiaomi’s slice of the pie was under 11 percent.

YouTube’s latest change on mobile swaps the familiar “Trending” tab with a new “Explore” tab. As of Friday, it’s available to all users on iPhone and iPad (and Android) following a lengthy test. It hopes to make great content from popular categories easier to find.

Two more cases of coronavirus have been detected at Apple’s Ireland HQ in Hollyhill, County Cork, a report published Friday by Irish news outlet The Echo.

This brings the number of COVID-19 cases reported at the Irish Apple offices to three. The first case was confirmed by Apple on Tuesday.

A second Apple TV+ production has taken a COVID-19-related hiatus. Apple and Skydance Television closed the set of Foundation, an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction trilogy.

It’s so easy to lose track of where our money goes. If only keeping track of accounts and budgets were just as easy. With the an app like Wallet, it can be.

This week on The CultCast: iOS 14 leaks! We’ll run you through the best new features. Plus: Corona has hit the tech industry hard, and will mean delays for some of your most anticipated gadgets. Is Apple’s rumored March event canceled too? We’ll tell you what we know.

Sennheiser’s new Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds are ready to take on AirPods Pro with better battery life and active noise cancellation. They follow the highly rated True Wireless headphones that debuted in 2018, and despite some big improvements, they retain the same $299 price tag.

A new episode of Apple TV+ original series Amazing Stories landed Friday. This installment, titled “The Heat,” is the second of five in this first season of Steven Spielberg’s rebooted sci-fi anthology series.

Apple’s description reads as follows: “Tuka and Sterling are best friends whose bond transcends the physical world as they follow their dreams after tragedy strikes.”

France’s antitrust competition watchdog will fine Apple over its “distribution and sales network” early next week, a report published Thursday claims.

Based on two sources close to the situation, Reuters says that a decision will be announced Monday.