Apple’s self-service repair program, which is designed to let customers repair their own iPhones and MacBooks, is launching in Europe. The company announced today that genuine Apple parts, tools, and manuals will be available to customers in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK to perform their own repairs.
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Although DIY repairs will now be possible in several European countries, Apple’s press release still steers people towards using a professional service where possible. The company notes that the program is designed for “customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices” and adds that “visiting a professional repair provider with certified technicians who use genuine Apple parts is the safest and most reliable way to get a repair.”
The upgraded plan is the latest sign of how geopolitical concerns are causing companies and governments to modify longtime strategies, countering historical trends that led companies to shift most semiconductor manufacturing to Asia. It also underscores the widening recognition of the importance of chips and new technologies for producing them, which add calculating power to consumer gadgets, cars and military equipment such as missiles and drones.
India is exploring options to bring some of Apple's iPad production to the country from China, according to two sources close to the Indian government. The tech giant is said to be holding ongoing discussions with officials. No concrete plans have been made, but if successful, it would expand Apple's footprint in the country.
Thus, Apple seems to have made an expensive and difficult decision to relocate to places such as India and Vietnam. Each nation has its disadvantages; India’s federalist democracy makes planning harder, as does Vietnam’s relatively small size and high levels of poverty. But Apple is willing to take on these considerable risks to significantly decouple itself from the whims of an ambitious dictator.
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Apple won’t like the costs it incurs as it moves out of China. But staying undermines the very rules-based order it and others rely on. That’s a cost even the most bottom-line-focused companies can’t risk.
U.S. labor board prosecutors have determined that Apple violated federal law by interrogating and coercing employees in Atlanta, the latest legal salvo over the company’s response to organizing efforts.
The National Labor Relations Board’s Atlanta regional director also concluded that Apple held mandatory anti-union meetings during which management made coercive statements and will issue a complaint if the company doesn’t settle, the agency’s press secretary, Kayla Blado, said Monday.
Apple will either have to settle the case or face the NLRB filing a complaint against it. The regulator can’t levy financial penalties, but either path could result in Apple being forced to put up signage at the location and issue other communications that inform workers of their legal rights.
According to the petition set to be filed with the NLRB, the majority of store employees oppose union representation and said that any of previously signed union cards are “null and void.”
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According to the employees’ statement, workers said they didn’t feel “the union would provide anything complementary to Apple’s culture and existing benefits” and that some felt misled after initially giving support to the group, according to the statement. The union’s organizers at the store said the IAM ignored requests to delay the vote and rushed the process.
The HomePod mini will be available in Finland, Norway, and Sweden from Tuesday, December 13, Apple has announced via press releases.
Version 3 of Broadcasts, Steve Troughton-Smith’s Internet radio app and a Club MacStories Recommends pick, is out with an updated design, improved search, Shazam integration, and a URL scheme that makes sharing stations simple. Together, the changes look fantastic and make enjoying Internet radio with the app easier and better than ever.
Forget Zoom fatigue. The problem is tool fatigue. For instance, to answer a colleague's question, I'm forced to bounce from Slack to ClickUp to Salesforce to Gmail and then back to Slack again. With every toggle, I'm faced with different layouts, styles, font types and more that force my brain to reacclimate momentarily.
While we're off trying to fix productivity challenges with the newest collaboration or messaging tool, context-switching lurks in the background, compounding as we build more complex systems and networks.
Apple Pay is coming soon to South Korea, but unfortunately, users there will have to wait a bit longer than expected. This is because the local Financial Supervisory Service had to review the terms and conditions of Apple Pay before its official launch in the country, which would have made Apple put the launch in South Korea on hold.
The word “magic” comes up often enough in conjunction with Adobe that you might momentarily confuse it with Disney. But the fact is that its best work can feel like magic, especially when you see it for the first time. That was even true back in the 1980s with Adobe’s founding product, PostScript, a piece of software that initially did nothing more than produce crisp 300-dpi black-and-white typography on an Apple LaserWriter printer that cost a mere $6,995. Like numerous examples of Adobe magic to come, it went on to become a mundane part of everyday life, which is in itself a testament to the company’s impact on our world.
The makers of popular Twitter clients, including Aviary and Tweetbot, have recently set their sights on building similar clients for the growing Mastodon user base.
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“Our starting goal for the app is to replicate the Tweetbot experience for Mastodon,” said Haddad. “We want people who are familiar with Tweetbot on Twitter to feel like they are at home with Ivory. Once we have a solid 1.0 version we’ll start working on adding more Mastodon-specific features, as well as some features that we’ve wanted to add to Tweetbot but couldn’t because of technical limitations,” he noted.
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“I was motivated by wanting a ‘good’ Mastodon app out there, as all the existing ones lacked features or design paradigms in one way or another. They all fell short, and didn’t feel native to the iOS and Apple platforms either. So I set out to make my own that achieves all this,” Mehboob explains. He says the app differentiates itself with an iOS-focused design “that feels at home on your device,” and a comprehensive feature set.
A new reality is setting in for students and recent graduates who spent years honing themselves for careers at the largest tech companies.
I am getting weird bugs on my iPhone. So far, this past month, I've encountered the screen refusing to wake up, no matter how many times I tapped on the screen, and how many times I pressed on the sleep/wake button. The phone is still working, as I can 'click' on my AirPods to listen to music. Only upon plugging in the lightning cable would the screen finally woke up.
Then this morning, while typing in the Message app, the left-half of the on-screen keyboard was working fine, while the right-half of the keyboard was not responding. (I was trying to back-space.) I rebooted the iPhone, and so far, everything is back to normal.
I sure hope my iPhone 12 mini -- emphasis on the mini -- is not dying.
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Thanks for reading.