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Apple employees in Silicon Valley and other parts of the world have been working from home since early March, and a new report from The Information outlines how one of the most secretive companies conducts business when its workforce is telecommuting, based on interviews with a dozen current and former employees.

apple-park-drone-june-2018-2.jpg

Apple normally requires all of its employees to work in-office and places a high value on in-person meetings and communications. While people are working from home, Apple encourages them to use Apple-designed tools like FaceTime and iCloud Drive for security purposes, but tools like Slack, WebEx, and Box are permitted as Apple employees have not found it easy to work with Apple's own apps due to their consumer rather than enterprise focus.

Working on hardware has proven difficult because it typically requires touching and viewing parts in person. Apple engineers often travel to China when gearing up to produce new devices to finalize component designs and other particulars, which hasn't been possible, leaving them to rely on grainy photographs to make hardware decisions, with Apple closely controlling who in the factory gets access to the cameras, which have no wireless functionality and sealed removable storage.

Given the time differences in China, it can take many hours of back and forth emailing for Apple's teams to receive the photos they need from the factories in China, which has led to some Bay Area employees working on a "night shift" so there's someone available to respond to suppliers in China during their workday.

Employees who rely on prototypes for their work have been unable to access Apple's secure labs, which has caused prototyping work to grind to a halt.
Employees can no longer use Apple's 3-D printers and milling machines, nor can they conduct stress and drop tests of their designs. One employee said prototyping in Cupertino had mostly stopped. At first, Apple didn't have a protocol in place for employees to bring components from future products home with them, but more recently it has established a process for doing so in some instances, two employees said.
Other employees have been able to replicate what they do at home, accessing confidential documents using corporate VPNs or accessing desktops remotely. Apple has reportedly sent regular updates advising employees on how best to work at home, and is allowing them to expense office supplies and bring items home from their workplaces. Apple has also attempted to maintain security protocols for work from home employees, such as making sure other people in the household can't see their screens.

Despite the difficulties Apple employees have to overcome to work remotely, one Apple supplier that The Information spoke to said that there are "no signs" of slowdown. Apple has continued to place a steady stream of orders for components, and has increased orders for iPhone 11 and 11 Pro orders.

The Information's full article has much more detail on how Apple employees are handling working at home and is well worth a read.

Article Link: How Apple's Culture of Secrecy Poses Challenges for the New Work From Home Reality
 
While people are working from home, Apple encourages them to use Apple-designed tools like FaceTime and iCloud Drive for security purposes, but tools like Slack, WebEx, and Box are permitted as Apple employees have not found it easy to work with Apple's own apps due to their consumer rather than enterprise focus.

It's a shame that Apple has completely ceded the enterprise space to these other companies.
 
It's a shame that Apple has completely ceded the enterprise space to these other companies.

agreed. After years on Macs, two apps I still can't reliably replicate, MS Visio and Project. I've tried a couple of independents and they're fragmented at best. The Omni group stuff is just OK (but expensive) and workflow isn't quite the same - especially when collaborating with Windows users. Now our whole org has gone O365 and thus making working in an (well, mine) enterprise with a Mac even more PITA.
 
It's a shame that Apple has completely ceded the enterprise space to these other companies.

I dont agree, Apple is good for what they do PC products,etc,etc,etc but sorry for enterprise communication there are others. and thanks OK. for example Apple and Cisco are PARTNERS, so using things like Cisco VPN or Webex would be normal. Just like Cisco uses Apple products....

I think Cisco should focus on what makes Cisco good and companies like Apple do the same
 
Love the grainy photos of hardware bit. Apple make their own material for the rumor sites.
I’m just imagining Apple engineers stuck at home, waiting for the next MR article to drop so they know what product they’ll be working on next.

Apple Testing AR/VR Headset With HTC Vive-Like Controller, Crosswalk Bowling Game, and More

"Oh, neat, I've been hoping to do some AR stuff!"
 
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agreed. After years on Macs, two apps I still can't reliably replicate, MS Visio and Project. I've tried a couple of independents and they're fragmented at best. The Omni group stuff is just OK (but expensive) and workflow isn't quite the same - especially when collaborating with Windows users. Now our whole org has gone O365 and thus making working in an (well, mine) enterprise with a Mac even more PITA.

Same here re: th e O365 and the Mac. The difference between the windows and Macs version are painful in areas that I would want to use the most. Try doing a flowchart in a Word doc on a Mac, ouch!
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I hope this leads to better software as far as Apple goes. The fact they can't really use some of their own products because they aren't feature complete enough is glaring. Starting with sharing your screen with a group on a FaceTime call. Should have been implemented already.
 
Love the grainy photos of hardware bit. Apple make their own material for the rumor sites.
I guess the next iPhone will be delayed because the only way Apple employees can share photos now is to make a photocopy from a textbook like it's 1985 and then fax it to someone and that person spills on it and then makes a copy of it and faxes the copy back to the original person with edits.
 
I dont agree, Apple is good for what they do PC products,etc,etc,etc but sorry for enterprise communication there are others. and thanks OK. for example Apple and Cisco are PARTNERS, so using things like Cisco VPN or Webex would be normal. Just like Cisco uses Apple products....

You're making a huge assumption that Cisco is "good". Cisco sucks at consumer-facing stuff and small to medium businesses. They have a narrow focus on Fortune 500 IT departments buying their high-margin on-premises hardware. If you're not going to sign multi-million dollar support contracts for those boxes, they don't care.

Zoom has steamrolled WebEx. People use Slack and Microsoft Teams, not Jabber or WebEx Teams. People buy RingCentral cloud voice, not CallManager Express. (They did buy Broadsoft) Cisco doesn't even have a cloud storage operation. Probably because they were afraid each of these services would cannibalize their existing on-premises hardware.

I think Cisco should focus on what makes Cisco good

Being stuck 10 years behind the times and being passed over by the cloud?
 
I’m just imagining Apple engineers stuck at home, waiting for the next MR article to drop so they know what product they’ll be working on next.

Haha. Well, those same Apple engineers are probably paying closer attention/visiting 9 to 5 Mac first, As Macrumors is usually a day or two late reporting some of the latest rumor/leaks. Not knocking Macrumors, just sayin, Still a great site by all means.
 
You're making a huge assumption that Cisco is "good". Cisco sucks at consumer-facing stuff and small to medium businesses. They have a narrow focus on Fortune 500 IT departments buying their high-margin on-premises hardware. If you're not going to sign multi-million dollar support contracts for those boxes, they don't care.

Zoom has steamrolled WebEx. People use Slack and Microsoft Teams, not Jabber or WebEx Teams. People buy RingCentral cloud voice, not CallManager Express. (They did buy Broadsoft) Cisco doesn't even have a cloud storage operation. Probably because they were afraid each of these services would cannibalize their existing on-premises hardware.



Being stuck 10 years behind the times and being passed over by the cloud?
Why worry about having their own cloud operation when they are literally powering the networks of the cloud?
 
Why worry about having their own cloud operation when they are literally powering the networks of the cloud?

They aren't. None of the cloud providers use their hardware; way too expensive and inflexible. They run white-box switches made by Taiwanese ODMs with Broadcom chipsets. They use Linux-based software that is centrally controlled by cloud services, so-called software-defined networking.


 
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I think Cisco should focus on what makes Cisco good and companies like Apple do the same
Yeah, ask the people at Eastman Kodak how well that worked out for them. And the folks at Research In Motion... And Nokia... And the Microsoft Windows Mobile team.

You do know that IBM started selling scales in the 19th century, don't you? Nintendo was making playing cards back in the 19th century.

And BMW made aircraft engines in WWI.

It's okay to adapt your business to modern times.

Maybe Apple should give up this fanciful smartphone thing and just go back to making desktop computers.

Yup, you should be getting your full tenure as a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business any day now.
 
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Love the grainy photos of hardware bit. Apple make their own material for the rumor sites.
That part cracked me up too!
I was like: “Wait... these aren’t leaks. Quick surreptitious shots taken by workers afraid of being fired or catching charges.
These are professionals, from multi-billion dollar corporations, trying to get the best quality info to their trillion dollar client.
Ummm... but they can only find people/equipment in China to provide “grainy photos”.
Lol, gtfo MacRumors!!!!!
You jumped the shark with that bit of fake-ass news.
There’s clickbait, purposefully over-sensational wording, nonsense........ and then there’s this.

While downright hilarious to read- it’s certainly not journalism.
 
That spaceship building is HUGE! and lots of employees! they have a BIG campus in Austin TX too.

They must have some real blockbuster money making items in the pipeline to afford so many employees and HUGE buildings at a time when retail stores are closing in record numbers due to competition from Amazon and Walmart.
 
I’m sure Apple will deliver a solid product, but it’s a little unsettling they are relying on Chinese workers to send grainy photos of products that are soon to be mass produced. The smartphone market is cooling off. Why not postpone in light of the pandemic a new 5G iPhone that has an incrementally better camera and won’t be noticeably faster? Use this time to perfect iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, watchOS, and tvOS. I would love Apple to add new features, especially greatly expanding iPadOS functionality.
 
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