Verizon or T-Mobile won’t disconnect your iPhone if you can’t pay your bill because COVID-19 cost you your job. And Comcast won’t cut your Mac off from the internet either.
The companies committed on Monday to not terminate service or charge late fees through June 30.
The U.K. reportedly decided to go with a coronavirus contact-tracing application different from the system Apple and Google are creating jointly. The National Health Service built an app that creates a central database of people who have tested positive for COVID-19. The Apple and Google solution uses a decentralized system for privacy reasons.
Germany has reportedly changed its mind over whether or not to embrace the decentralized approach to contact-tracing technology supported by Apple and Google.
As recently as the end of last week, Germany was backing a centralized standard technology called PEPP-PT. This stands for called Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing. It has now seemingly switched its support to a “strongly decentralized” approach. This is the approach backed by Apple and Google.
It’s not just building new Apple devices that has slowed down with the coronavirus pandemic. According to a report published Monday, work on Apple’s new London HQ — located in the city’s iconic Battersea Power Station — has also been impacted by COVID-19 lockdown.
CNBC‘s article notes that work on both Apple and Google’s individual new London headquarters have ground to a halt, with both now “turned into ghost towns.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook sounds truly optimistic about how quickly the U.S. economy will recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. He reportedly told President Donald Trump on Friday that he expects the economy to undergo a V-shaped recovery.
Apple and Google said Friday they are building in stronger privacy protections to their planned contact-tracing system for COVID-19 and that an early version of the initiative will launch for developers next week.
Apple has told its working-from-home employees that family comes first when it comes to the current coronavirus pandemic. But many employees with kids are still struggling in Silicon Valley’s hectic work culture, claims a new report from CNet.
The article, published Thursday, describes some of the challenges in a tough Silicon Valley working culture, but where — at least in California — schools won’t reopen until fall. Apple is doing whatever it can to help, however.
Let’s face it: The novelty of video calls has kind of worn off by this point in lockdown. What once seemed like the “video phone” of sci-fi dreams is now a way-too-frequent reality. But Skype has taken efforts to freshen things up by allowing users to swap out backgrounds for their calls.
Want to pretend you’re being massively irresponsible by appearing to call from a crowded beach? Want to swap out your cluttered apartment for a picture of an upscale mansion that will make your boss wonder if they’re paying you too much? Now you can. Here’s how.
In May, Verizon Wireless customers get an additional 15GB of mobile data for free for a second month of the COVID-19 crisis.
Many people under stay-at-home orders during the pandemic depend on their iPhone, Android or mobile hotspot to connect to the internet, and hence the world.
A pandemic that kills thousands offers no silver linings.
But stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of COVID-19 shows us a window for what living with clean air is like.
An air quality tech company, whose global measurements can be monitored on an iOS app, says greenhouse gas emissions are so low right now, Los Angeles has the cleanest air of all metropolitans areas in the U.S.
Americans love Apple’s video chatting app FaceTime, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday. But they don’t use it for group chats. As a result, use of FaceTime hasn’t increased at all while millions of people around the world self quarantine.
Instead, rival Zoom has enormously increased in popularity in recent weeks.
Sen. Josh Hawley wants Apple and Google to have some skin in the game when it comes to keeping data private in their joint coronavirus contact-tracing project. Hawley’s idea? That the Apple and Google CEOs — Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, respectively — should take personal responsibility for ensuring the data is kept private.
“If you seek to assure the public, make your stake in this project personal,” the Republican senator from Missouri wrote Tuesday in a letter to Cook and Pichai. “Make a commitment that you and other executives will be personally liable if you stop protecting privacy, such as by granting advertising companies access to the interface once the pandemic is over.”
Apple is asking suppliers to “crank out” components for its upcoming 5G iPhone lineup, despite some fears that it could launch to weak demand as a result of COVID-19, a Tuesday report claims.
The company is said to have confirmed plans to make around 213 million iPhone units in the 12 months through March 2021 — an increase of 4% over the same period last year.
Some suppliers are concerned that initial orders could end up being “significantly lower.”
France is calling on Apple to loosen its Bluetooth restrictions on iPhone that are said to be holding back a government contact-tracing app designed to minimize the spread of COVID-19.
Apple currently prevents iOS apps from using Bluetooth connectivity in the background under certain circumstances. Its policy blocks France from moving forward with its app, a Tuesday report reveals.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ve probably become hyper-aware of how much you touch everything. Your face, your iPhone, the AirPods you never clean, the filthy handle on your apartment building’s front door, etc. And when you visit the store, using your iPhone’s Reminders app for your shopping list, you’re likely forever tapping the iPhone and using Face ID to wake it up again.
Clearly that’s useless if you’re being responsible and wearing a mask in the supermarket. Today we’ll see how to quickly toggle a “shopping mode” in the Drafts app, which will keep your iPhone awake while you dash down the aisles.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Friday it is cautiously encouraged by a commitment to privacy by Apple and Google as they develop Bluetooth-based contact-tracing technology to track the spread of COVID-19.
But the civil liberties group says the two tech giants must resolve “certain important privacy-related questions” key to winning trust from a public growing wary about who sees their data.
Apple and Google are reportedly in a “standoff” with the UK’s National Health Service over the development of the companies’ joint program to build contact tracing APIs.
According to a report from The Guardian, the two companies are taking a strong stand against the NHS’s insistence to break current Bluetooth privacy protocols. The NHS is hoping Apple and Google will lift their limits on how Bluetooth can be used, but Google says those limits are in place so that they can’t be abused for surveillance efforts.
In a virtual meeting with employees on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that COVID-19 makes for an “uncertain and stressful” time, but he’s optimistic about the future.
Cook hosted Apple-wide meeting that let workers pose questions to Apple’s CEO about the effects COVID-19 is having on the company.
Even people who never realized Apple Watch’s awesome motivational power are standing up and testifying: The device helps get your butt up off the couch during the coronavirus quarantine.
“It’s fantastic that a gadget was the thing I needed to get myself in shape again,” said Sune Holt, an Apple Watch wearer from Denmark. “In November, I feared I wasted my money. Now it’s the best investment in a lifetime.”
Apple’s shuttle bus drivers continue to be paid despite not working during the coronavirus pandemic as the company’s employees switch to telecommuting.
That’s great news that the drivers’ paychecks keep coming. However, a representative of the Teamsters union says Apple didn’t exactly jump at the opportunity to keep the money flowing.
Apple is reopening its retail store in South Korea, making it the first Apple Store outside Greater China to reopen following the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The store, Apple’s first and only in South Korea, opened in 2018. It is located in the upmarket Gangnam district, in the city of Seoul. Along with every Apple Store outside China, it closed on March 13 as part of Apple’s COVID-19 response. It will reopen its doors on April 18, a little over a month after closing.
Talk about good timing. Apple unleashed its new budget-priced iPhone SE successor Wednesday, smack in the middle of a worldwide health crisis that’s wreaking havoc on health care, economies and behavioral norms.
With flagship-level specs packed into a familiar design — and priced at just $399 — the 2020 iPhone SE is the perfect iPhone for the current pandemic. It delivers tons of features we can all use during this rotten time, with a price tag that’s totally appropriate.
The European Union might adopt Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API to help stop the spread of COVID-19, a Reuters report published Wednesday suggests.
The article cites Chris Boos of the Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing initiative. Paraphrasing Boos, it notes that adopting the Apple/Google tech “will make it quicker to get systems for tracing coronavirus infections up and running.”
Google has confirmed in an email to Nest customers on Tuesday that it is throttling camera quality to “conserve internet resources.”
The temporary measure, which will roll out to every Nest user over the coming days, is one of many Google and other tech giants have made in an effort to reduce network strain during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Oprah Winfrey is set to host a conversation about how COVID-19 has impacted black America during an Apple TV+ special that will be available for free.
The special, “Oprah Talks COVID-19 – The Deathly Impact on Black America”, will air Tuesday, April 14, at 11 p.m. and stream on AppleTV+ and OWN.
Check out the teaser:
