Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a company-wide memo out to all employees this morning, thanking them for their hard work during the month of September, which saw the release of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8 and the announcement of the Apple Watch. Cook also announced that Apple employees will be receiving additional vacation time during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, as they have in past years.
"Each of these introductions represents years of innovation and hard work by teams all across Apple," wrote Cook in the letter, which was first shared by 9to5Mac. "Many of you have put the best work of your lives into these amazing new products, which bring together world-class hardware, software, and services in the way only Apple can."
Without you, none of these accomplishments would have been possible. Our people are the soul of our company, and we all need time to refresh and renew. To provide that time, and to recognize all of these achievements -- as well as your boundless talent and dedication -- I'm happy to announce that we're extending the Thanksgiving holiday this year. We will shut down with pay on November 24, 25 and 26 so our teams can enjoy the whole week off.
Apple will be shutting down during the week of Thanksgiving, giving employees November 24, 25, and 26 off in addition to the actual holiday on November 27 and 28. While stores will remain open, retail employees will be given the same amount of time off, but at varying dates. International teams will also receive extra vacation.
Apple routinely closes up shop for multiple days around Thanksgiving and Christmas, giving employees time off to spend the holidays with family. While iTunes Connect shuts down during the Christmas holidays, it has, in the past, remained functional over Thanksgiving leading to little end impact on customers.
Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Friday January 24, 2025 9:09 am PST by Juli Clover
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today.
On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models.
...
Saturday January 25, 2025 5:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch.
In each of the past four years, ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 2:48 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year.
Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...
Google gives employees phones and tablets. Apple gives employees cheap swag.
I just left Apple after three years in AppleCare. This is truly insulting considering the amount of work we put in, the time we're expected to be away from our families, the lack of upward advancement opportunities, and low wage compared to similar jobs elsewhere.
This would be worth about $200 to me based on what my pay was when I left. Diddly freaking squat. Richest company in the world is also the cheapest. The only rewards we get our cheap Apple pens and mugs ordered from the same promotional company over and over again. I have four water bottles, three pens, a mousepad, a hat, one jacket (2 sizes too large, thanks manager for paying attention to the size I sent you) and a keychain with a light on it that was broken when I received it.
Apple is a great tech company -- the best -- but they have a lot to learn about how to treat their employees.
I just left Apple after three years in AppleCare. This is truly insulting considering the amount of work we put in, the time we're expected to be away from our families, the lack of upward advancement opportunities, and low wage compared to similar jobs elsewhere.
This would be worth about $200 to me based on what my pay was when I left. Diddly freaking squat. Richest company in the world is also the cheapest. The only rewards we get our cheap Apple pens and mugs ordered from the same promotional company over and over again. I have four water bottles, three pens, a mousepad, a hat, one jacket (2 sizes too large, thanks manager for paying attention to the size I sent you) and a keychain with a light on it that was broken when I received it.
Apple is a great tech company -- the best -- but they have a lot to learn about how to treat their employees.
I guess that's why you left right? It wasn't working out for you, but that doesn't mean it doesn't workout for other people. I want to see you start a large company and try to please everyone, get back to us.
Did Tim also thank them for their oversight of not checking out the strength of the iPhone 6 Plus? There are enough complaints about the phone bending that its become an embarrassment to the company. How can these so-called engineers overlook this?:o
Most people in the US only get 10 days a year. In some jobs, that includes holidays :(
You're joking right?
But saw a sign with 8$'s pay an hour at Mc Donalds. Here they get 21$'s an hour plus extras for working late hours and/ or weekends. So I guess if they are paid so poorly, they also cheat with vacations in the us.
By the way. Vacations are PAID time of in Denmark.
In Denmark the holidays does NOT count for your 6 weeks vacation