Apple, like a lot of other tech companies across the world, has embraced the work from home culture in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. Apple is known for its strict policies to maintain secrecy about its upcoming products but the company is reportedly being more flexible by allowing some of its employees to take home early versions of products.
The report comes from Mark Gurman of Bloomberg citing unnamed Apple employees. According to the report, Apple started allowing engineers to take early-stage products home to work during this lockdown period.
However, that requires approval from a vice president and the list of employees with unreleased products is often reviewed by the team of Apple’s senior vice presidents. Apple’s approval is not only required for hardware devices but also for employees working on upcoming software versions.
According to Bloomberg, the software releases for this year are currently planned to be held as per the schedule at its annual developer conference WWDC 2020, which is happening online this June due to coronavirus outbreak. As per reliable tipster Jon Prosser from Front Page Tech, the internal tentative date for WWDC 2020 is June 1.
In addition, the report reveals tools used by Apple employees during this lockdown period. Apple allegedly uses FaceTime, Slack, and Cisco’s Jabber & WebEx for video conferencing, and Apple’s productivity-focused applications, Salesforce’s Quip and Box for file sharing.
The company is giving tips to configure ergonomic work setups and offers reimbursement for desks and computer monitors to make sure employees don’t face too much struggle during this time of crisis. Also, they’re running a desk setup contest to take the pressure off.
