Category: Apple Insider

 

By Mikey Campbell
Thursday, March 05, 2020, 06:11 pm PT (09:11 pm ET)

The County of Santa Clara on Thursday issued guidance in the wake of newly discovered COVID-19 cases, urging employers in the region, including tech giants Apple and Google, to postpone or cancel mass gatherings.

Santa Clara’s public health department in a press release announced six new confirmed cases of the virus, brining the county total up to 20 people. In an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19, new guidance lists a number of recommendations for residents and employers living and working in the county’s cities, including Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose and Sunnyvale.

Specifically, companies operating in the county are asked to suspend nonessential employee travel, minimize close employee contact at work, cancel large meetings and conferences, and urge employees to stay home when they are sick, among other measures.

Further, the department recommends postponing or canceling mass gatherings and large community events “where large numbers of people are within arm’s length of one another.” If a large gathering cannot be avoided, guidance calls on event planners to urge the sick or those at high risk for serious illness not to attend, find ways to provide visitors with ample physical space to avoid close contact, endorse “increased” hygiene, and keep public surfaces clean.

“We are making these recommendations to protect the most vulnerable members of our community from the virus, and slow its spread,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara’s Public Health Officer. “We are continuously monitoring this evolving situation, and will issue new guidance if and when that is warranted.”

The guidance arrives as Apple is expected to announce plans for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Traditionally held in June in and around the Bay Area of San Francisco, the annual convention typically involves keynotes, special events, technical sessions and other in-person happenings, and is attended by thousands of developers from around the world.

The Verge reported on Santa Clara’s guidance earlier today.

A number of major international events have been canceled due to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Facebook in February nixed live portions of its annual F8 conference, GSMA canceled the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, and Informa called off the 2020 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. On Monday, Google and Adobe canceled in-person segments of Google Cloud Next 2020 and the Adobe Summit, while Google a day later scrubbed the live portion of Google I/O.

Apple is also taking steps to curb potential COVID-19 fallout and this week restricted employee travel to Italy and South Korea. The company also withdrew from SXSW 2020, where it planned to premiere three Apple TV+ originals.

 

By Christine McKee
Wednesday, March 04, 2020, 09:01 pm PT (12:01 am ET)

Today only, B&H Photo has slashed the price of Apple’s upgraded 13-inch MacBook Pro by $600 during its Deal Zone event. Select between a 16GB memory upgrade or 512GB storage boost for just $1,099 with free next day delivery.

Save $600 today only

2017 13″ MacBook Pro (2.3GHz, 16GB, 256GB) Gray: $1,099 ($600 off)
2017 13″ MacBook Pro (2.3GHz, 8GB, 512GB) Gray: $1,099 ($600 off)

In what is the lowest price available, B&H Photo has two Mid 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro models on sale for $1,099 for one day only. The first model is equipped with a 2.3GHz processor, 16GB of memory and 256GB SSD. Shoppers wanting additional storage in lieu of the memory upgrade can also pick up the 2.3GHz, 8GB, 512GB model for the same discounted price. Both systems are in Apple’s popular Space Gray finish.

Normally retailing for $1,699, the $600 discount is valid while supplies last during B&H’s 24-hour Deal Zone event, with free next day delivery available on orders shipped within the contiguous U.S.

Qualifying shoppers can also select between no interest financing on orders paid in full within 12 months with the B&H Financing Card, or a sales tax refund with the Payboo Card when shipped to an eligible zip code.

As mentioned above, this special Apple Deal Zone is valid today only while supplies last.

Even more Apple deals

AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive savings on Apple hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, software and more. These offers are as follows:

 

By Christine McKee
Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 10:34 pm PT (01:34 am ET)

Amazon-owned Woot is shaving up to $920 off refurbished 2017 and 2018 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros during its latest 1-day flash sale. Prices start at just $679.99 while supplies last.

Flash MacBook Pro deals

These 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros at Woot are refurbished by Apple, but do not come with an Apple warranty. Instead, the 2017 models are backed by a 90-day Woot warranty and the 2018 models are backed by a 1-year Woot limited warranty, with all of the systems packaged in a generic white box. This allows for aggressive savings of $620 to $920 off original MSRP. Compared to models in new condition, Woot’s prices on the refurbished systems are $410 to $700 cheaper.

Amazon Prime members can also get free standard shipping on the notebooks during the flash sale. These deals are scheduled to end at 10 p.m. Pacific on March 4, but supply could run out at any time.

2017 13″ MacBook Pro savings

2018 13″ MacBook Pro discounts

Prefer the best deal on a 13-inch MacBook Pro in new condition? Pick up a 2018 model for $1,399 ($400 off) while supplies last.

2018 15″ MacBook Pro flash deals

Looking for the lowest price on a 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro in new condition? Discounted prices start at just $1,999.

Additional Apple deals

AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive savings on Apple hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, Office 365 and more. These offers are as follows:

 

By Christine McKee
Friday, February 28, 2020, 10:05 pm PT (01:05 am ET)

Head over to Amazon now for the lowest price on Apple AirPods Pro while the hot accessory is in stock and on sale, matching Amazon’s own record low price.

Apple AirPods Pro back in stock

With Apple AirPods Pro backordered at Apple for two to three weeks, Amazon is the place to not only get the hot wireless earphones now, but also save money.

Now shipping for delivery as soon as March 1, Amazon is knocking $15 off AirPods Pro, bringing the cost down to $234.98 and matching Amazon’s own record low price.

Considering AirPods deals regularly sell out quickly, it’s best to order now before the price changes or inventory sells out.

Those wanting to save the most money on AirPods can also pick up Apple AirPods 2 with Wireless Charging Case, which are currently $30 off and in stock. Amazon has AirPods with Charging Case on sale for $139 ($20 off) as well, with the cheaper alternative also in stock and ready to ship.

Apple AirPods deals

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Additional Apple deals

AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive savings on Apple hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, Office 365 and more. These offers are as follows:

Interested in additional Apple hardware? See if there is a Mac, iPad or Apple Watch deal that will save you $100s by checking out prices.appleinsider.com.

Apple’s autonomous vehicle testing program saw a significant drawdown in 2019, with its fleet driving 72,201 miles less than it did in 2018. The company also appears to have changed its disengagement reporting protocol, information commonly used to gauge system efficacy.

According to numbers submitted by Apple to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, 23 of the company’s 69 registered self-driving testbeds were active between December 2018 and November 2019. Collectively, the fleet of modified Lexus RX450h SUVs logged 7,544 miles during the reporting period, down from 79,754 miles in 2018.

Apple reported 64 disengagements across the 7,544 miles driven, which equates to 8.48 disengagements per 1,000 miles. This compares to a whopping 69,510 disengagements, or 871.65 disengagements per 1,000 miles, recorded in 2018. At the time, Apple’s system was the worst-performing test platform in California. By contrast, then-front runner Waymo managed 0.09 disengagements per 1,000 miles over the same evaluation period.

While the improvement seems impressive, it should be noted that disengagement reporting is not a hard science. Typically, disengagements are defined as instances in which a self-driving vehicle’s autonomous systems are unable to process current conditions, forcing it to pass control back to the human driver. Human interventions also count as disengagements.

As explained by Apple in a letter to California’s DMV last year, the company in 2018 took a “conservative” approach to disengagements that required “drivers to proactively take manual control of the vehicle any time the system encounters a scenario beyond our currently proven abilities.” Further, the company said its “software self-monitors and returns control back to the driver when it encounters any errors or issues during operation.”

The letter implies Apple’s built-in threshold for failure is, or at least was, much less tolerant than competing systems, a thesis was borne out in total disengagement figures recorded during the period. From December 2017 through November 2018, the 47 other firms testing automated vehicles on California roads clocked a cumulative 3,040 disengagements over nearly 2 million logged miles.

That said, Apple appears to have narrowed its reporting methodology in 2019.

Of the 64 disengagements, 52 were initiated by the autonomous vehicle system, while human pilots overrode AV decisions 12 times. The most common reason for disengagement was a vague “controls discrepancy” issue.

According to numbers compiled by CNET, Baidu led the pack in 2019 with 0.06 disengagements per 1,000 miles, followed by Waymo and Cruise, both of which managed 0.08 disengagements per 1,000 miles. Toyota reported the highest rate of disengagements with 1,620 per 1,000 miles, though the Japanese carmaker fielded six cars that traveled 1,817 miles.

Apple’s self-driving car initiative began under the “Project Titan” banner, with the program initially tasked with creating a branded car from whole cloth. Apple scaled back operations in late 2016 after hitting a number of snags and the Titan team has since refocused attention to autonomous vehicle subsystems. Whether an “Apple Car” will one day make a public debut is unknown.