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Thursday, 12 March 2020

Apple Signs Open Letter Opposing 'Anti-LGBTQ' State Legislation

Apple and over 40 U.S. companies have signed a letter opposing several "anti-LGBTQ" legislation bills currently being considered in courts across the country (via AL.com).

The open letter, drafted by the Human Rights Campaign and published Wednesday, argues that measures proposed in the bills would harm LGBT staff and negatively impact the companies that employ them.

"These bills would harm our team members and their families, stripping them of opportunities and making them feel unwelcome and at risk in their own communities," the letter states. "As such, it can be exceedingly difficult for us to recruit the most qualified candidates for jobs in states that pursue such laws, and these measures can place substantial burdens on the families of our employees who already reside in these states."

[...]

"America's business community has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws have a negative effect on our employees, our customers, our competitiveness, and state and national economies."

The letter is signed by tech giants Apple, Amazon, AT&T, Dropbox, Google, IBM, Lyft, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce and Uber, along with many other major corporations including Capital One, Ikea, Levi Strauss, Marriott International, Nike, Danone North America, Mars, Nestle USA and Unilever.

Apple has taken a strong position on inclusion and equality under CEO Tim Cook's watch. In 2015, Apple joined 378 other companies urging the Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage equality. More recently, Apple argued for LGBT worker protections in a 2019 joint amicus filing with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cook has consistently pushed for inclusion and diversity, which Apple refers to as its "greatest strength" on its website. "To create products that serve everyone, we believe in including everyone."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation) is 50% Off at Woot

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation) | $25 | Woot

Shadow Launches Closed Beta for VR Gaming Without a High-End PC

You don’t need a high-end PC to play virtual reality games anymore. Shadow, a 5-year-old cloud gaming platform, is launching what it calls a “VR Exploration Program”—a fancy way of saying a closed beta for people who want to play VR without splurging on a gaming PC.

iPhone Production Resumption in China Exceeds Foxconn's Expectations, But US Sales Concerns Remain

The founder of iPhone assembler Foxconn said on Thursday that the resumption of production at its factories in China had "exceeded expectations," following the coronavirus-related disruption of supply chains (via South China Morning Post).

[Terry Gou Tai-ming] told reporters that the return to work effort at Foxconn's factories in China had "exceeded our expectations and imagination," and that supplies to its plants there and in Vietnam had returned to normal.

Foxconn slashed its 2020 revenue outlook after strict quarantines were enforced at its China plants for a period in February to guard against the coronavirus outbreak. The manufacturer went on to suffer its biggest monthly drop in revenue in about seven years because of the containment measures.

The manufacturer had earlier claimed the viral outbreak had had a "fairly small impact" on ‌‌iPhone‌‌ production, suggesting its factories in other countries like Vietnam, India, and Mexico had been able to fill the gap.

China's coronavirus epidemic has passed its peak, its top health commission said on Thursday. It logged just eight new infections in Hubei province, the first time the epicenter of the outbreak recorded a daily tally of less than 10. Following the slowdown of the spread of the virus, more businesses have reopened in China as authorities ease strict containment measures.

However, for the Taiwan-based company, which is Apple's main assembler of iPhones, production issues have now been replaced by U.S. sales concerns.

"In the United States, what we are worried about is the market," said Guo. "If production was resumed quickly but consumers stop spending... that would be key to the economic recovery."

The Foxconn founder also raised concerns about the electronics supply chain in Japan and South Korea, which are grappling with their own serious outbreaks of the COVID-19 disease. Gou also cited rising prices for RAM chips and supply issues with display panels, but didn't elaborate.

In China last month, Apple sold fewer than 500,000 iPhones amid the ongoing curbs on travel and transport – a 60 percent slump in ‌iPhone‌ sales compared to the February 2019 quarter.

Apple in mid-February announced that its financial guidance for the March quarter would fall short due to the COVID-19 outbreak. During the January earnings call, Apple said it expected to see revenue of $63 to $67 billion in the March quarter, but that is no longer a goal the company will be able to meet.

Apple cited lower customer demand in China and constrained ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ supplies worldwide as the factors leading to lower than expected revenue.

Tags: China, Foxconn, COVID-19 Coronavirus

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Report: Apple's New 'World-Facing' 3D Camera Coming to At Least One iPhone This Year

For some time now, rumors have suggested Apple will add a laser-powered time-of-flight (ToF) 3D rear camera to its iPhone 12 series, which will bring significant improvements in the form of new augmented reality experiences and better photos.

A report on Wednesday by Fast Company adds to those rumors, citing sources familiar with Apple's plans. According to the report, Apple has tapped San Jose-based Lumentum to supply the VCSEL lasers that will power the "world-facing" 3D depth sensor in "at least one of this year’s iPhones."

VCSELs, or vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, have been a key component of Apple's TrueDepth camera since the iPhone X in 2017. The lasers power several flagship features like Face ID, Animoji and Portrait mode selfies, as well as the proximity-sensing capabilities of AirPods. However, a ToF camera system is a major step up from TrueDepth due to its more advanced use of laser.

TrueDepth relies on a structured-light technique that projects a pattern of 30,000 laser dots onto a user's face and measures the distortion to generate an accurate 3D image for authentication. By contrast, ToF calculates the time it takes for a laser to bounce off surrounding objects to create a 3D image of the environment. This allows for more accurate depth perception and better placement of virtual objects, and should also result in photos better able to capture depth.

Apple has sourced VCSELs for its TrueDepth cameras from Lumentum before, but the California-based firm has typically shared the spoils of Apple's business with other suppliers in previous years, and Fast Company's source appears to be suggesting they will be Apple's exclusive VCSEL supplier this time around. Lumentum is believed to have been ramping up additional manufacturing capacity for VCSELs and edge-emitting lasers since at least March 2018.

Multiple sources have claimed that Apple's 2020 iPhones will include a laser-powered time-of-flight 3D rear camera that will result in significant improvements to AR experiences, including Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Those rumors indicated that two higher-end iPhones coming this year will use the new time-of-flight rear camera, indicating that it may not be available in the lower-end iPhones that are going to have a lower price tag.

Rumors suggest a 6.7-inch ‌iPhone‌ and one 6.1-inch model will be higher-end OLED devices with triple-lens cameras, while the 5.4 and 6.1-inch models will be lower-end iPhones with dual-lens cameras and a more affordable price tag. All iPhones in 2020 are expected to feature OLED displays regardless of price.

In related developments, a report earlier this week claimed that Apple is planning to introduce a new augmented reality app in iOS 14, which is codenamed Gobi. The app is said to allow users to "get more information about the world around them" through AR.

The app may feature integrations with Apple Stores and Starbucks, which suggests users could do something like hold up an ‌iPhone‌ in an Apple Store to view information about products.

Related Roundup: iPhone 12

Tag: fastcompany.com

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