Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed this week that Apple has been making substantial donations at home and abroad to help combat the global coronavirus epidemic.
In a tweet this morning, Cook said Apple has been helping Protezione Civile — the national body that deals with the prediction, prevention and management of emergency events in Italy. Not only is Apple opening its wallet but it’s also helping Italians get crucial medical supplies.
Six counties in the San Francisco Bay Area initiated a shelter-in-place mandate Monday that will force businesses, including Apple stores, in the area to temporarily shut down for three weeks. The goal is to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Nearly 7 million people will be forced to stay inside except to visit grocery stores, pharmacies or doctor’s offices. The new mandate means Apple stores in the area will remain closed longer than Apple’s originally intended time frame. The company initially intended to reopen its stores on March 27.
Apple employees at the company’s Culver City offices may have been exposed to COVID-19 after an employee tested positive for the virus. Culver City is Apple’s entertainment hub where much of the work on Apple TV+ and Apple Music is done.
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.”
CEO Tim Cook told Apple employees at company headquarters and other locations around the world to “please feel free to work remotely if your job allows” this week.
This guidance came in response to the COVID-19 disease that’s spreading across the United States.
The first wave of Apple-funded affordable housing projects is about to get underway in Silicon Valley.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley revealed this week that Apple has given it a $150 million grant to help projects in the Bay Area. The non-profit organization is using money from Apple’s $2.5 billion commitment to help the affordable housing crisis in Silicon Valley and they’re ready to hand out some big checks.
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 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.
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.
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.
In Birmingham today, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Ed Farm, which will help teach students to program with Apple’s “Everyone Can Code” curriculum.
In addition, Cook reportedly spoke about employing his company’s augmented reality tools in Birmingham’s civil rights historical sites.
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.”
Were you hoping for Friends on Apple TV+? According to Tim Cook, you’re out of luck.
During Wednesday’s shareholder meeting, an investor asked Cook why Apple hadn’t bought the streaming rights to the popular sitcom and its forthcoming special. Cook’s answer not only squashed hope of this happening in the immediate future, it also underlined his vision for Apple TV+.
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 triggered a “hot war” that compounded ongoing tensions with Facebook when it pulled the social media giant’s enterprise certificate last year. The decision, which temporarily broke all of Facebook’s internal apps, coincided almost exactly with Facebook’s earnings call.
“As [Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg] spoke [on the call], people on Facebook’s campus could not test new products and were canceling meetings because they could not get the shuttle,” writes author Steven Levy in his new book, Facebook: The Inside Story, which is published in hardcover today.
A San Francisco man accused of stalking Tim Cook allegedly trespassed at the Apple CEO’s home twice in the last three months and threatened various Apple employees, according to court documents obtained by Cult of Mac.
Rakesh “Rocky” Sharma, 42, also purportedly posted sexual imagery to his Twitter account, tagging Cook, and engaged in other inappropriate acts.
As a result, Apple received a temporary restraining order earlier this month mandating that Sharma stay at least 200 yards away from Cook as well as Apple security officer William Burns and other Apple employees.
Production of some AirPods components has managed to stay at normal levels despite the COVID-19 virus causing problems with Apple’s supply chain and stores in China.
AirPods Pro supplies were constrained months before the coronavirus outbreak in China. Tim Cook told investors that he couldn’t predict when production would finally catch up, but a new report gives some encouraging signs that things could get back to normal soon.
Tim Cook has posted on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, saying that Apple is happy to “welcome back employees and customers” to its Apple Stores as they continue to reopen across China.
Cook also reiterated that Apple has doubled its donation to battle the coronavirus outbreak. The virus has so far resulted in the deaths of at least 2,126 people. The vast majority of these have been in mainland China.
Apple retail stores in Beijing are taking customers’ temperatures and requiring them to wear surgical masks as the area tries to normalize amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Five Apple stores in Beijing reopened their doors with limited hours today after being closed since last month. CNBC senior correspondent Eunice Yoon posted a video from one of the newly reopened stores and the inside is shockingly empty.
Take a look at the entrance process:
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted a photo of himself at one of the most iconic civil rights movement monuments in his home state of Alabama this morning to show his support for Black History Month.
Cook, who grew up in Alabama during the ’60s and saw the impacts of discrimination and burning KKK crosses first hand, paid respects to the men and women who marched in Birmingham in 1963 to demand equality.
This is what Tim had to say:
Banned email app BlueMail is back in the Mac App Store, just one week after its developers tried to publicly rally other small companies to speak out against Apple’s App Store practices.
Ben and Dan Volach’s eight-month appeal of Apple’s ban ended Tuesday when the App Store relisted BlueMail. But the brothers say they will continue to fight Apple in court on claims the tech giant stole patented features of the app before booting it from the App Store.
Apple’s current AirPods Pro supply woes could soon get much worse, thanks to the new coronavirus spreading throughout China.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, Apple ordered suppliers to produce 45 million AirPods units to catch up with the huge demand. Then, manufacturers shut down production lines through February 10 due to the fast-spreading virus. Now a new report cautions that suppliers might not have enough components to fulfill Apple’s order when production resumes.
When Apple reported an all-time record for quarterly revenue Tuesday, it got a big boost from one of its smallest products: the AirPods Pro.
Despite severe supply constraints, the new wireless earbuds helped Apple sell $10 billion worth of wearables and accessories in the holiday quarter, a 37% jump from a year ago, the company reported. Revenue for the wearables sector grew 17% to a new all-time record of $12.7 billion.
Apple just can’t stop touting its surging revenue from subscription services. But when it comes to Apple TV+ subscriber numbers, Cupertino is keeping suspiciously quiet.
“2019 was a historic year” for Apple’s services business, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday during the company’s latest record-smashing earnings call. He then went on to drop specific numbers about services like the App Store and Apple Pay. But when it came to new services like Apple TV+, Cook kept things decidedly vague.
Cook loves to reiterate that Apple TV+ serves as a creative place for the world’s best storytellers. And the story he’s masterfully spinning about the streaming video service is a great big mystery.
The first Apple earnings report of 2020 was a smashing success that shattered most of Apple’s previous records. Thanks to shockingly strong iPhone sales and a surging wearables business that is bigger than the Mac and the iPad, Apple managed to surpass even the most optimistic expectations.
Apple CEO Tim Cook held a call with investors after the numbers came out to dive deeper into the impressive quarterly results. Cook dished on everything from the success of Apple TV+ and problems with AirPods Pro supplies to the Wuhan coronavirus affecting China. If you didn’t get a chance to join the call, don’t worry, Cult of Mac has you covered with all the need-to-know info.