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LA-Based Apple Staffer Tests Positive for COVID-19

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple confirmed that a staff member at its Culver City office had tested positive for coronavirus. The affected staff member is currently self-isolating, Variety reported.

“A team member in our Culver City office has informed us they tested positive for COVID-19. The individual had no symptoms when they were last in the office, and remains in self isolation at home,” a rep for Apple said in a statement. “We recognize this is a challenging time for our global community and our thoughts remain with those around the world personally affected by COVID-19 and the heroic medical professionals and researchers fighting it.” The office remains open, although Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week the company had asked employees to work from home if their position allows while the company “deep cleans” its offices.

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Shadowserver Keeps the Web Safe. Now it Needs Help

Andrew Orr ·

A small nonprofit organization called Shadowserver helps keep the web safe. It scans almost the entire internet to create activity reports for network operators. It also hosts a database of 1.2 billion malware samples, freely accessible to everyone. But it needs to raise money to stay in operation.

For more than 15 years, Shadowserver has been funded by Cisco as an independent organization. But thanks to budget restructuring, the group now has to go out on its own. Rather than seek a new benefactor, founder Richard Perlotto says the goal is for Shadowserver to become a fully community-funded alliance that doesn’t rely on any one contributor to survive. The group needs to raise $400,000 in the next few weeks to survive the transition, and then it will still need $1.7 million more to make it through 2020…

I had never heard of Shadowserver but it’s clear the organization is important. You can become a sponsor to donate money here.

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No, Apple Isn’t Going to Buy Disney

Andrew Orr ·

Disney stock is dropping and analysts like Bernie McTernan from Rosenblatt Securities think that tech giants like Apple should consider buying it.

We believe those with long-time horizons, like mega-cap companies with large cash balances and whose equity outperformed Disney over the last three weeks, like Apple, could take advantage of the volatility. The upside from acquiring Disney would be securing their content/streaming strategy and potential synergies from adding the emerging Disney ecosystem to the iOS platform.

Apple could also look into buying a private island, renaming it Island+, and forming its own country. I don’t know about you but sign me up for a squircle-shaped house.