Month: April 2023

Burglars break into Apple Store via Coffee Shop

CompuScoop Staff April 6, 2023 0

Burglars stole more than 400 devices from the Apple store at Alderwood Mall in Washington state cut through the bathroom wall of the neighboring espresso machine store.

The owner of the neighboring business says he’s grateful no one was hurt because the $500,000 theft happened while the store was closed. They’ve never dealt with anything like this in their five years in business at the mall, he said.

“Our front door was locked. They pried our front door open,” Seattle Coffee Gear Regional Manager Eric Marks explained. “[It was a] 24 by 18 hole cut in the wall into what appears to be the back room of the Apple store. I’m surprised we were the conduit for them to get to the Apple store. I had no clue we were so close or adjacent to them.”

Lynnwood police said it happened after 7 p.m. Sunday and Apple employees were not aware of the extent of the massive theft until the next morning.

“Approximately 436 iPhones in total were taken out of the back,” LPD Communications Manager Maren McKay stated. “In total about $500,000 worth of merchandise was stolen and that’s iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches.”

Via: KOMO News

 Apple and global suppliers expand renewable energy to 13.7 gigawatts

Apple Inc April 5, 2023 0

April 5, 2023

UPDATE

Apple and global suppliers expand renewable energy to 13.7 gigawatts

Over 250 global manufacturing partners are now on a path to decarbonize Apple production by 2030

Apple today announced its manufacturing partners now support over 13 gigawatts of renewable electricity around the world, a nearly 30 percent increase in the last year. In total, more than 250 suppliers operating across 28 countries are committed to using renewable energy for all Apple production by 2030. This represents more than 85 percent of the company’s direct manufacturing spend and more than 20 gigawatts in commitments.

Already carbon neutral for its global corporate emissions, Apple uses innovative tools to support progress toward its ambitious 2030 goal to be carbon neutral for every product. This includes $4.7 billion in Green Bonds, which are helping finance the expansion of clean energy solutions and emissions reductions around the world. Apple today shared details of its Green Bond spend for 2022, which includes investments in large-scale solar, low-carbon design, energy efficiency, and carbon removal.

“At Apple, we’re carbon neutral for our own operations and innovating every day to go even further in the urgent work to address climate change,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With partners around the world, we’re adding even more renewable energy to power our global supply chain and investing in next-generation green technologies. The scale of this challenge is immense — but so is our determination to meet it.”

Clean Energy Expansion Across Apple’s Supply Chain

More than 40 manufacturing partners joined Apple’s Supplier Clean Energy Program in the last year. Apple has called on its suppliers to decarbonize all Apple-related operations, including sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity. To help them meet their commitments and go even further, Apple works closely with suppliers to identify and implement solutions for clean energy and carbon reductions — offering a suite of free learning resources and live trainings through its Clean Energy Academy.

“Our new supplier commitments demonstrate the rapid pace of progress we’re making toward our 2030 carbon neutrality goal,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. “We are taking urgent action on a global scale to unlock a greener, more innovative, and more resilient future.”

Through their participation in the Supplier Clean Energy Program, Apple’s suppliers are signaling demand for the expansion of renewable electricity capacity around the world. Since 2019, the operational renewable energy across Apple’s global supply chain has expanded five times over, now totaling 13.7 gigawatts. This equated to 17.4 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions last year — the equivalent of removing nearly 3.8 million cars from the road.

Apple also supports about 1.5 gigawatts of renewable electricity around the world to power all corporate offices, data centers, and retail stores, spanning 44 countries. The company has also invested directly in nearly 500 megawatts of solar and wind in China and Japan to address upstream supply chain emissions.

Apple Suppliers Advance Clean Energy Progress Around the World

Apple’s U.S.-based manufacturing partners are making steady progress toward renewable energy, with 27 suppliers in the Supplier Clean Energy Program finding success with a variety of approaches. Some suppliers — including Bemis Associates — have achieved 100 percent renewable electricity for all Apple-related production, Coherent Corp. is nearing that goal through the use of a green utility program, while others — including Qorvo — are using power purchase agreements (PPAs) for solar and wind projects across the country.

Nearly 70 suppliers in China are now committed to 100 percent renewable electricity. Building on experiences with Apple’s Supplier Clean Energy Program, Avary Holding, which joined the program in 2020, is launching its own initiative to help drive scalable action by having its suppliers adopt renewable energy and decarbonize. Proceeds from the 2019 Green Bond contributed to Apple’s investment in the China Clean Energy Fund, a first-of-its-kind investment fund to connect suppliers in China with renewable energy sources. The innovative approach has so far enabled Apple and its suppliers to jointly invest in over 650 megawatts of renewable electricity.

Thirty European manufacturing partners are committed to clean energy, with six — including Viscom AG and Victrex — already achieving 100 percent renewable electricity for their Apple loads. Bosch Sensortec GmbH, which recently joined Apple’s Supplier Clean Energy Program, and VARTA Microbattery GmbH are achieving 100 percent renewable electricity through green utility power.

In Japan, 34 manufacturing partners have committed to procure 100 percent renewable energy for their Apple production. Businesses like Taiyo Holdings Co., Ltd. are deploying onsite solar solutions, and other companies are using PPAs as availability increases. This includes Rohm Company Limited and Nissha Co., Ltd., which both joined the Supplier Clean Energy Program this year. Apple and its partners also continue to work together in support of wider deployment of affordable clean energy through collaborations such as the Japan Climate Leaders’ Partnership.

Similarly, in South Korea, Apple continues to call for an ambitious 2030 national renewable energy target, and engage in collaborative advocacy to improve transparency and expand cost-effective options, especially PPAs. In total, 18 businesses headquartered in South Korea are now part of the Supplier Clean Energy Program, with LG Innotek using onsite solar to help meet its commitments and SK hynix having achieved 100 percent renewable energy for its Apple production in the country.

$4.7 Billion in Green Bonds Accelerate Environmental Progress

To help accelerate clean energy progress and environmental innovations around the world, Apple has disbursed over $3.2 billion of the company’s $4.7 billion Green Bond commitment to date — including the total $2.5 billion of its first two bonds. So far, the company has allocated $700 million of the proceeds from the 2019 Green Bond to support 59 projects — including the development and distribution of clean energy training resources for suppliers and collaborative advocacy efforts in Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea.

The projects supported by the 2019 Green Bond are expected to mitigate more than 13.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over their lifetime. Beyond building capacity for renewable energy across the supply chain, Apple’s Green Bond investments last year supported a wide range of environmental innovation across the business, including low-carbon design, energy efficiency, and the expansion of renewable energy in grids around the world.

For example, the 2019 Green Bond helped fund the IP Radian Solar project that recently became operational in Brown County, Texas, with a project that now produces 320 megawatts of electricity. Apple invested in the project to help address the carbon impact of the energy Apple customers use to charge their devices. The bond also supported the company’s utility-scale battery located at the California Flats Solar Project in Monterey, California, which became operational in 2022. The large battery stores up to 240 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity for later use, when the carbon intensity of the grid is highest. This helps to address the intermittency of renewable power across the state.

For more information on Apple’s Green Bond efforts, visit investor.apple.com/Apple_GreenBond_Report. This year’s annual impact report covers the cumulative allocation of Apple’s 2019 Green Bond proceeds to environmental projects that incurred spend between September 29, 2019, and September 24, 2022 — Apple’s 2022, 2021, and 2020 fiscal years. Sustainalytics provided a second-party opinion on the selected projects, and Ernst & Young LLP provided an attestation report on the spend.

Press Contacts

Sean Redding

Apple

s_redding@apple.com

(669) 218-2893

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com

iOS 16.4: Updates are installed automatically by default

Dan Uff April 5, 2023 0

This article is more of a "Did You Know" type than the usual how to. We have been informed by various sources that the iOS 16.4 update comes with the auto-update feature turned ON. This means that the device will update itself when it's not in use for a given amount of time (usually overnight when the device is plugged in, connected to WiFi, and not in use).

While most users may not care about this, others may have apps that may not work correctly with the latest update, or they may want to do the updates manually.

If you're one that wants to update manually, there is a way to disable auto-update.

Here's how:

Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates.
Toggle the option to what ever you feel is correct for the device.
That's it.

 At Exceptional Minds, autistic artists turn creativity into careers

Apple Inc April 4, 2023 0

March 31, 2023

FEATURE

At Exceptional Minds, autistic artists turn creativity into careers

With support from Apple, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit and academy is preparing a new generation of animators, VFX artists, and motion graphics designers

Growing up in Burbank, California, Angela Ibarra always knew she wanted to be an artist.

“My mind has always been popping out really creative stuff — endlessly,” Ibarra explains. “I thought, ‘I need to put this on paper and let it come to life.’ I draw stuff and it becomes what it wants.”

Ibarra pulls up an illustration of a Renaissance-era figure interpreted through an anime aesthetic. She’s been using Procreate with Apple Pencil on iPad for years to hone her craft, with a dream of someday working as an animator or visual effects artist in Hollywood.

Ibarra is in her first year at Exceptional Minds, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit academy and studio founded in 2011, where she and her fellow students can often be found working in the lab, taking figure drawing classes, and learning how to render motion graphics. Using products and technology provided in part by Apple’s community grants program, the school trains neurodivergent artists for employability in entertainment through a blend of technical training, hands-on experience, and career-path planning.

“Exceptional Minds is so unique in the way it works with students on the autism spectrum,” says Tim Dailey, the school’s academic dean and director of academic programs. “We want to create a world where a student on the spectrum is recognized for their talents and not the challenges they face.”

In just a few short years, alumni have gone on to land jobs at industry powerhouses like Marvel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network, and these successes are a testament to the school’s approach. At Exceptional Minds, students have the freedom and flexibility they need to go at their own pace, while still being accountable to the rigors of a three-year program — a methodology that sets it apart from the more traditional schools students might have attended growing up. Feedback is plentiful, designed to help artists set reasonable expectations for themselves and their work.

The school’s instructors confide that they learn just as much from their students. “There’s a saying that we like to say: ‘If you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism,’” explains Jessica “Jess” Jerome, a professional animator who has taught at Exceptional Minds for almost a decade. “I’ve learned from my students that not all of them learn the same way. So I have to find different ways to make sure that whatever I’m trying to get across gets across.”

At the school, students learn specific technical tools and skills that will help them be successful as animation, motion graphics, visual effects, and 3D artists once they graduate and enter the competitive Hollywood job hunt.

This means both career readiness courses and training on current, industry-standard hardware and software. Students are introduced to the Adobe Creative Suite of apps on Mac — including Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, and Animate — in their first year, and for many, the Procreate app on iPad allows them the freedom to create beyond the classroom. Students also stay on top of daily tasks with productivity apps like Finch and Zinnia, available on iPhone, and can improve focus using Apple’s built-in cognitive accessibility features like Background Sounds or Guided Access.

Students particularly enjoy the combination of iPad and Apple Pencil for their creative process. “It bridges the gap between physical drawing and digital art,” says Matthew Rohde, a second-year aiming for a career in visual effects or motion design. “That’s what makes it so great. I’ve tried using other styluses, and there’s sort of that disconnect.”

“Apple Pencil has pressure sensitivity,” adds Matthew Rada, a third-year student at Exceptional Minds. “When you lean the pencil this way, it’ll act like an actual pencil and do certain shading in the way a regular pencil does.”

Adjacent to their technical training, students complete three years of vocational training, including a Career Realities track that builds on their skills in resume writing, portfolio building, career planning, interviewing, and other life skills to help them succeed in future roles in the industry. Through mentorship and internship programs, students begin to develop relationships with employers, and those employers begin to learn about their needs or working styles.

“Our artists learn how to hone their voice so they have better opportunities and better networking,” Jerome adds. “We’re not changing their stories; we’re just making it possible for people to see their stories.”

For students like Ibarra, Rohde, and Rada, that means that by the time they leave Exceptional Minds, goals like pitching comic books to DC or working as a motion designer for a major studio aren’t just dreams — they’re well within reach.

Press Contacts

Will Butler

Apple

willbutler@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com