After closing most of its stores earlier this year in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, Apple has announced how it plans to reopen them.

If you need a new Mac or other Apple product, you may be waiting for a while. Direct orders for some of Apple’s most popular products have longer-than-usual shipping delays. It’s worth checking with independent Apple resellers too.

Apple’s virtual WWDC will kick off on 22 June 2020. We should be glad that Apple is even attempting to pull it off, given the cancellation of other major tech conferences.

Despite a pandemic and a pending economic catastrophe, Apple still managed to eke out some growth in Q2 2020, largely thanks to its Wearables and Services categories.

The tech rivals are working together on a secure, opt-in, and privacy-focused method of letting people report a COVID-19 diagnosis that would be pushed to everyone they passed near in the previous two weeks.

Apple has acquired the popular hyperlocal weather company Dark Sky, which will probably improve the built-in weather capabilities in iOS in the future but may reduce the number of alternative weather apps.

Apple has issued a statement outlining its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the most notable new addition being the closure of all Apple retail stores outside of China.

Like other big tech companies, Apple has canceled the in-person part of its developer conference. However, in a textbook case of putting the best face on a bad situation, Apple has cast the change as a new online format that will let many more developers participate.

We’re having trouble paying attention to anything outside the COVID-19 news, so here’s what we think we can contribute at the moment. Let us know what else you might like to hear from TidBITS on this topic.

Leap years have been on the Julian calendar since it was put into effect in 45 BCE. A recent customer service failure shows Apple’s back-end developers are still trying to figure it out.

Many interpreted the Apple Independent Repair Program as an olive branch to third-party repair shops, but Motherboard has found businesses balking at Apple’s “onerous” terms.

How did Apple do in 2019? Jason Snell has once again gathered opinions from a large panel of Apple observers—including a number of people from the TidBITS crew—to issue his annual Apple report card.

As Apple watches its iPhone sales growth slow, the company has had to focus ever harder on keeping its parts costs low. In such situations, Tim Cook looks to one man: Vice President of Procurement Tony Blevins.

Thanks to the iPhone 11, Apple’s iPhone product segment saw a return to growth in Q1 2020, while iPad and Mac sales were off. Meanwhile, the Wearables and Services categories continue to grow.

Perhaps predictably, Apple has sent a swarm of lawyers after the Unofficial Apple Archive, issuing over 3700 DMCA takedown orders.