Another spike in COVID-19 cases forced Apple to change its previously announced plan to return many employees to offices in September, and postpone the resumption of work in offices for at least a month – until October, Bloomberg reported. The report says that Apple will continue to monitor the situation and will notify employees at least a month before requiring them to resume work in the offices.
As the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations has accelerated significantly globally, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in June that Apple employees will be returning to the office in September. In a memo to company staff, Cook then noted that employees would work in the office three days a week until at least 2022.
However, even with vaccination, the various variants of COVID-19 continue to cause an increase in cases of the virus in many countries where the number of deaths is still high. As a result, companies have had to rethink their plans to return staff to their jobs this year.
While companies such as Facebook and Google have shown flexibility in allowing most staff to work from home; Apple has opted for a hybrid model that requires employees to work in offices three days a week. Some Apple employees already work in offices on certain days, but from September this should have become mandatory.
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In response to complaints from some employees over Apple’s strict no-work-from-home policy, the company noted that “personal collaboration is essential” to corporate culture, and despite the delay in returning to the offices, that does not mean that of these protests, the company will change its mind.
Apple Introduces iOS 14.7 With MagSafe Battery Pack Support And Other Improvements
Apple yesterday announced iOS 14.7, the seventh major update to the iOS 14 mobile operating system, launched last September. The new iOS 14.7 and iPad OS 14.7 release two months after the launch of iOS 14.6; which added podcast subscriptions.
iOS and iPad OS 14.7 are already available for download via Software Update in the Settings app. According to the release notes, iOS 14.7 adds support for the new MagSafe Battery Pack; which is compatible with all iPhone 12 series devices. The update adds new features for the HomePod and the Weather app; customers in Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, South Korea and Spain will now be able to receive information on air quality. It also became possible to combine Apple Card credit limits for users from the same family. In addition, the update included a number of Apple Music app bug fixes and a number of smaller changes.
iOS and iPad OS 14.7 may be the last major update to iOS 14; as iOS 15 and iPad OS 15 are just around the corner; which were unveiled at WWDC 2021 in early June.