Apple

In a blogpost Monday, the company said it would open registrations for the program later this week for Vietnam and 37 other marrkets including Australia, South Korea and the UAE.

In other countries like China, it will begin later this year.

This means customers will not need to visit Apple authorized service providers to get their iPhone and Macbook problems fixed and can instead go to third-party repair providers.

Interested businesses can join the program for free but must have an Apple-certified technician (certification is also free) doing the repairs.

The technicians must pass exams through an online authorized testing center and the certification is updated on a product basis annually.

Apple said further applicants must be an established business with documents available for review by it, and have easily accessible premises and not a residential address.

“Qualifying repair providers can purchase genuine Apple parts and tools at the same price as [authorized service providers] and receive free access to training, repair manuals and diagnostics,” Apple wrote.

There are already over 1,500 accredited independent repair shops in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Apple to pay $3.4-m over iPhone obsolescence in Chile (Source: freepik.com)

Apple is accused of having programmed a limited lifespan into some products to force users to replace their phones sooner than necessary, and has previously settled similar cases in the United States and Europe.

In Chile, some 150,000 users of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and SE sued the US company, claiming their smartphones started underperforming after software updates programmed by Apple before December 21, 2017.

The agreement provides for a registration period for affected clients, who will have to provide proof of their devices’ reduced performance, a lawyer for the Odecu consumer body, Juan Sebastian Reyes, told a virtual press conference.

Each client stands to get maximum compensation of $50, which is to be shared if there are more than one claim per serial number, as in the case of second-hand phones.

In December 2017, Apple admitted iOS software was tweaked to slow performance of older iPhones whose battery life was deteriorating.

An outcry forced Apple to upgrade its software and offer steep discounts on battery replacements.

In March 2020, Apple agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over slowed iPhones in the United States, followed in November by another $113 million to settle litigation with more than 30 US states over the same issue.

The company has also settled a case with France’s consumer watchdog for 25 million euros ($29.7 million) for failing to tell iPhone users that software updates could slow older devices.

Italy, for its part, has fined Apple and Samsung 10 and five million euros respectively for planned smartphone obsolescence.

AFP

The Apple logo sporting a green leaf to mark the upcoming Earth Day is seen on a window of the company’s store in Bangkok on April 14, 2021.(Mladen ANTONOV / AFP)

The Restore Fund, launched in partnership with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, expected to have its first projects targeted later this year.

“Nature provides some of the best tools to remove carbon from the atmosphere,” Apple vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson said in a statement.

“Through creating a fund that generates both a financial return as well as real, and measurable carbon impacts, we aim to drive broader change in the future — encouraging investment in carbon removal around the globe.”

Forests draw in carbon from the air, storing it away and stopping the gas from contributing to climate change.

The fund aims to remove one million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere, equal to the amount spewed by more than 200,000 passenger vehicles.

Apple said last year it would become carbon neutral by 2030 for all its operations, including manufacturing.

The California-based iPhone maker said its goal was to have no climate impact for all its devices sold.

“Investing in nature can remove carbon far more effectively — and much sooner — than any other current technology,” Conservation International chef executive M. Sanjayan said in a joint release.

“As the world faces the global threat climate change presents, we need innovative new approaches that can dramatically reduce emissions.”

Also Thursday, Google unveiled a time-lapse feature to its Google Earth service that provides a satellite view of the world.

The new feature is based on tens of millions of satellite images from the past 37 years to enable users to see in rich detail how the face of the planet has changed.

“Timelapse in Google Earth is about zooming out to assess the health and well-being of our only home, and is a tool that can educate and inspire action,” the company said in a blog post.

“Visual evidence can cut to the core of the debate in a way that words cannot and communicate complex issues to everyone.”

AFP

The digital travel pass, currently in the testing phase, had been planned to be launched by the end of March.

IATA Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East Kamil Alawadhi said it was expected to launch on the Apple platform around April 15, and later for the Android platform.

“But the application will only achieve its success once airlines, different countries, airports adopt it,” Alawadhi said.

UK-based carrier Virgin Atlantic said on Friday it would trial the IATA app on its London to Barbados route from April 16. Barbados has said it will accept the pass at its border, one of the first countries to accept a digital pass instead of paper documentation.

IATA has said its travel pass will help speed up check-ins.

“A huge amount of airlines have requested to be on board,” Alawadhi said.

Vietnamese workers apply for jobs at Luxshare, an Apple partner, in the northern province of Bac Giang in June 2020. Photo courtesy of Luxshare Precision Industry.

The news that Foxconn received a license in January to build a plant to manufacture laptops and tablets in Vietnam’s northern province of Bac Giang starting in the first half of this year has got hundreds of millions of views and thousands of comments on China’s largest social media site Weibo.

“Apple, the world’s biggest tablet maker, could start manufacturing iPads in Vietnam by the middle of this year, marking the first time it produces a significant number of tablets outside of China,” Chinese technology company Sina said.

Many Chinese said initially Vietnam lacks the capability to make Apple’s high-quality products, but reports that Apple has started iPhone, MacBook and HomePod mini manufacturing in Vietnam have apparently got many Chinese worried.

A user with the name Zhang Qin Qin wrote: “We were wrong [about Vietnam not being able to produce Apple products]. Now even the earphones are produced in Vietnam. Soon enough millions of Chinese workers will lose their jobs.”

Others feared that other foreign technology companies would also pull out of China.

“Samsung has left [Samsung shut down its last factory in China’s Huizhou city in 2019], and also Apple.”

Another user, Xing Wang, said: “Production shifting to countries outside of China is a threat to not only the technology industry but also the whole economy. What will the future of unemployed Chinese workers be?”

Japanese newspaper Nikkei said Apple’s ramping up production outside China has benefited Vietnam. Foxconn has invested $270 million in a plant to manufacture laptops and tablets in Vietnam.

Apple’s Chinese supplier Luxshare Precision Industry is expanding its HomePod mini production capacity in Bac Giang.

Chinese company GoerTek, a key contract manufacturer for Apple, began manufacturing AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and HomePod mini in Vietnam in 2020.