Apple on Friday cancelled its “Today at Apple” sessions across all stores in Italy amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Apple Oriocenter, a store in Italy’s Bergamo Province, is also closed temporarily as Apple makes efforts to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. It is currently out of action until March 8.
With plenty of scaremongering about the COVID-19 coronavirus, Apple is doing its part to stop the spread of misinformation related to the outbreak. According to a report published Thursday, Apple is cracking down on non-official apps relating to the novel coronavirus.
Those are apps not made by recognized institutions such as governments or hospitals. Independent apps providing functionality like tracking of the outbreak’s spread are being rejected by Apple, developers claim.
The pressure on Apple to cancel its yearly developers conference and possibly a planned March product keynote has gotten a little tougher.
The Public Health Department of Santa Clara County, where Apple’s headquarters is located, recommended Thursday the postponing or canceling of mass gatherings to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. That calls into question whether Apple will hold its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, as it traditionally does.
Apple has a long support page of links and tips, dedicated to keeping your devices clean and shiny. But what about keeping them germ-free? Even if you only ever use your iMac’s keyboard at home, you probably transferred plenty of unwanted organisms onto it before you started washing your hands properly.
As for your iPhone, it’s probably dirtier than a music-festival toilet. And your AirPods, which you keep touching with your dirty hands all day long? I feel nauseated just thinking about it.
So, how do you keep all this stuff sanitary? It’s easy, even if your local store has run out of disinfectant wipes due to panic buying induced by fears about the COVID-19 virus.
Apple became a trillion-dollar tech giant thanks to its deep and intricate ties to China for manufacturing and component supplies.
But a coronavirus that began in China has left that giant a little shaky on its feet and dizzy from renewed questions over why Apple hasn’t developed a more diverse strategy for building the world’s most popular personal computing devices.
It’s definitely not from a lack of trying as pointed out Thursday in an article by The Information, which took a deep-dive into Apple’s arduous path through India.
Apple retail stores in China are slowly getting back to business as 38 of the company’s 42 retail stores are now open in an attempt to normalize business despite coronavirus concerns.
A review of the company’s retail web pages by Cult of Mac reveals Apple will expand business hours at 19 locations over the next couple of days and at least 6 stores will return to normal hours of operation.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, he and his wife both ill while traveling home from Asia in January, said the Center for Disease Control turned down their request for coronavirus testing.
In an interview with a San Francisco radio station Wednesday, Wozniak appeared to better explain a puzzling Twitter post from Monday, where he described he and wife as “patient zero in the U.S.”
Apple Stores are running low on iPhone replacements and repair parts as COVID-19-related delays begin reaching consumers.
The tech giant informed technical support staff at its stores to expect delays of two to four weeks for replacement phones and individual parts.
As Italy fights to halt the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Apple is temporarily closing a single store location in Italy on orders of the Italian government.
The mall-based Apple Oriocenter store, located in the province of Bergamo, will be closed on March 7 and 8. This is the result of a decision by the President of the Council of Ministers that medium and large retail stores, as well as commercial outlets in shopping centers, must close this weekend.
Apple has added more travel restrictions for employees this week due to concerns of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Italy and South Korea have been added to Apple’s list of banned destinations, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company instituted a similar restriction on travel to China earlier this month to protect employees’ health.
Adobe canceled its annual Las Vegas gathering Monday over concerns about the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus. Instead, it will present Adobe Summit 2020 entirely online.
The software company, which attracts around 16,000 attendees to Adobe Summit each year, joins a growing list of tech companies scrapping live events this spring.
Apple’s newest iPad Pro lineup is becoming harder to obtain as supplies dwindle in stores around the world.
The constraints can be an indication that a big refresh is imminent — as recent rumors have suggested. This time around, however, they could have more to do with the production problems arising as a result of the COVID-19 virus t.
Apple manufacturer Foxconn hopes to resume regular production in China by the end of March.
Foxconn’s operations, which include iPhone production lines, have been severely impacted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. The world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer previously said it expects its full-year revenues to take a hit.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak suggested in a tweet Monday that he or his wife might be “patient zero” for the COVID-19 virus currently spreading in the United States. Wozniak said he and Janet Hill came home from China early this year, as the novel coronavirus began to wreak havoc in Wuhan.
Update: Wozniak’s wife says she has an ordinary sinus infection.
Coronavirus will cause mobile device shipments to plummet during the first quarter of 2020, according to a new report.
Production at major manufacturing plants throughout China is said to be at “way below normal levels” this week after workers returned to their posts last month. Smartphone shipments could slip below 1.3 billion units for the year.
iPhone camera module supplier LG Innotek closed one of its South Korean factories over the weekend after a worker tested positive for coronavirus.
LG Innotek has long been part of Apple’s supply chain, supplying camera components for iPhones. This year, it is also expected to manufacture 3D Time of Flight (ToF) modules for Apple’s next generation iPads and iPhones.
Apple reportedly is sending care packages to its employees who are stranded in China by the COVID-19 coronavirus. And among the face masks, hand sanitizer and cookies is a slightly more expensive item: an iPad.
CEO Tim Cook promises Apple is fundamentally strong and will weather the problems resulting from the coronavirus spreading around the world. He says his focus isn’t on short-term changes in Apple’s share price, despite a recent significant drop.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox Business recorded Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama, Cook also discussed whether his company will move more device production out of China, and his relationship with President Donald Trump.
Coronavirus has hit Apple shares hard. Despite initially shrugging off the disruption of the outbreak, Apple is currently trading down more than 20% from its record record high.
That makes it one of the hardest hit stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average thanks to coronavirus.
The coronavirus killed another major tech event today as Facebook revealed the in-person component of its annual F8 developers’ conference is canceled due to concerns around the coronavirus COVID-19.
Facebook’s move comes close to the time when Apple normally announces the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference. The iPhone-maker revealed WWDC 2019 dates on March 14 last year, but with more and more tech events getting shut down, it could change Apple’s plans for its biggest conference of the year.
Apple was forced to pull one of the world’s most popular games from the App Store in China by order of the country’s Cyberspace Administration.
The creators of Plague Inc. say it is unclear whether their pandemic-themed game was removed because of China’s ongoing battle to contain the coronavirus known as COVID-19.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said he is “optimistic” that China is starting to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Cook also said device production stalled by quarantines and travels restrictions are now in “ramp mode.”
Apple hosted shareholders for an annual meeting Wednesday, and it was seemingly business as usual. CEO Tim Cook said the company will open its first Apple Store in India this year. He explained why Apple’s streaming service passed on a Friends reunion. He defended Apple’s role in FBI investigations when asked to retrieve iPhone data.
But the tech giant finds itself at an unusual moment in its history with a deadly coronavirus in China that halted business travel, crippled manufacturing, closed all 42 Apple Stores in the country and forced Cupertino to pull back on its March-quarter revenue protections.
Apple manufacturer Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has hired a man dubbed the “SARS hero” by Chinese state media as part of its efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus.
83-year-old scientist Zhong Nanshan is credited with finding the right way to treat SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus, which spread between late 2002 and mid-2003. Foxconn says that he will act as a consultant for its coronavirus prevention and rehabilitation efforts.
Apple is asking attendees of its annual shareholder meeting, which takes place at the Steve Jobs Theater on Wednesday, February 26, to take extra precautions amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
The company is following official guidance in an effort to minimize the risk of COVID-19 being spread among visitors.
