Apple is reportedly developing smart home locks with face recognition tech.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Apple is developing smart home locks with face recognition tech.
This move aligns with Apple's growing interest in the home devices market.
Apple's device would compete with Google's Nest and Amazon's Ring in home security.
Apple is reportedly working on bringing its facial recognition technology to home security.
The tech giant is developing a smart lock and doorbell that would allow residents to automatically open their home doors by scanning their faces, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
The report said that Apple's doorbell system could work with existing third-party locks or the company could partner with one lock provider to sell a complete product. The technology is still in the early stages and could be released at the end of 2025 at the earliest, the report said.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Not all these developments may come to life. This year, Apple scrapped its car project and stopped efforts to develop a subscription model for the iPhone.
The door device couldgive the company an opportunity for more cross-selling with its other home products and its existing lineup of devices, like the iPhone and Apple Watch.
It could also allow the iPhone maker to compete withΒ Google's NestΒ andΒ Amazon's Ring. These devices have doorbells with a motion sensor that activates the camera and records a video of the surrounding area.
Such a product could draw the company into new debates about balancing users' privacy rights and working with law enforcement. Through emergency requests, police departments have received videos from Ring without receiving consent from the owner.
Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook, are known for prioritizing user privacy. In 2016, Cook refused to cooperate with the US government to unlock an iPhone used by a shooter in a mass shooting and attempted bombing in San Bernardino, California.
Autonomous vehicle technology and electrification startups were once the darlings of the VC and corporate world. The two technologies promised billions of dollars in revenue β and a new pathway for automakers to make money beyond building and selling cars.Β Those VC-money-printing days have been over for AVs for a while now, with a few [β¦]
Thereβs been a lot of reporting in recent months around Appleβs efforts to expand its footprint in customersβ homes with in-development products like a wall-mounted smart home hub. According to a new report in Bloomberg, that strategy could also include a smart doorbell. This doorbell would use Appleβs FaceID technology to scan peopleβs faces as [β¦]
The feature, available in the latest iOS 18.2 update, summarizes groups of notifications from an app on a user's iPhone to give them a quick rundown of what they missed at a glance.
Users, however, have pointed out at least two instances of it providing inaccurate information when attempting to summarize notifications from news organizations.
In one case, the summary falsely claimed the BBC reported that Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had killed himself. Mangione is alive and was extradited to New York on Thursday.
In another instance, the feature wrongly summarized a New York Times article to say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. The NYT article actually reported that the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest, not that he had been arrested.
The nonprofit Reporters Without Borders has called on Apple to remove the feature.
"AIs are probability machines, and facts can't be decided by a roll of the dice," said Vincent Berthier, the head of the group's technology and journalism desk, in a public statement this week. "The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet's credibility and a danger to the public's right to reliable information on current affairs."
Apple, the BBC, the NYT, and Reporters Without Borders did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
A spokesperson from the BBC previously said the organization has filed a complaint with Apple "to raise this concern and fix the problem."
"It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications," the spokesperson previously said.
On Wednesday, Elevation Lab announced TimeCapsule, a new $20 battery case purported to extend Apple AirTag battery life from one year to 10 years. The product replaces the standard CR2032 coin cell battery in the Bluetooth-based location tracker with two AA batteries to provide extended power capacity.
The TimeCapsule case requires users to remove their AirTag's original back plate and battery, then place the Apple device onto contact points inside the waterproof enclosure. The company recommends using Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries, which it claims provide 14 times more power capacity than the stock coin cell battery configuration.
The CNC-machined aluminum case is aimed at users who place AirTags in vehicles, boats, or other applications where regular battery changes prove impractical. The company sells the TimeCapsule through its website and Amazon.
Cybersecurity experts, who work with human rights defenders and journalists, agree that Apple is doing the right thing by sending notifications to victims of mercenary spyware β and at the same time refusing to forensically analyze the devices.
Β Tim Cook led Apple through a year of highs and lows in 2024.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Apple launched new products in 2024, including the Vision Pro and AI-powered iPhone 16.
It faced challenges in China with iPhone sales and antitrust issues in the US and Europe.
Apple also introduced Apple Intelligence at WWDC, marking its entry into the GenAI market.
It's been an eventful year for Apple.
The tech giant launched a brand new hardware product, made its official entrance into generative artificial intelligence, and added a new iPhone generation β all in the span of 12 months.
It's also faced questions about CEO succession, challenges in one of its largest markets, and criticism about being behind in the AI arms race compared to some of the industry's fiercest players. Meantime, it's been under antitrust scrutiny from both US and EU authorities.
"2024 has been a year of notable highs and lows for Apple as it expanded into mixed reality and AI while navigating shifting consumer preferences and market dynamics," Jacob Bourne, tech analyst at Business Insider's sister company EMARKETER, said.
Apple got off to a rocky start this year. Its stock got two analyst downgrades in early January, with bankers citing worries about poor iPhone sales in China. Still, it celebrated wins in the services department of its business and partnered with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to new iPhones. It explored new territory with the Apple Vision Pro and upgraded company staples, including iPads and AirPods.
Here's a look back at Apple's 2024.
There was trouble in China
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at a conference in Beijing, China in March 2024.
Fu Tian/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images
Apple started 2024 with struggles in its important Greater China region β a trend that continued. Analysts called sales of the iPhone 15 in China "lackluster" as competitors like Huawei and Xiaomi stepped up their competition in the local smartphone market.
It showed throughout Apple's earnings in 2024. Although the company beat revenue estimates in its fiscal fourth-quarter, sales in China missed and dropped year over year.
Still, Apple CEO Tim Cook said there are "positive signs" in the region during the fiscal Q4 earnings call on October 31. Cook took frequent trips to China this year β at least three times, as of November β amid fears that Donald Trump's potential tariffs will affect the country that makes a majority of Apple's iPhones, AirPods, Macs, and iPads.
"China's just been a disappointment in '24, full stop," Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said.
Apple launched the Vision Pro in February
Apple Vision Pro was met with weak demand, analysts previously told BI.
Anadolu/Getty Images
Apple launched its first headset, the Vision Pro, in February. The mixed reality device retails for $3,500, making it one of Apple's priciest products to date.
The headset was met with mixed reactions. Its uses are limited, and it was unclear if the tech was for gamers or professionals. Months after it released, Cook told The Wall Street Journal that the Vision Pro is for "people who want to have tomorrow's technology today."
"At $3,500, it's not a mass-market product," Cook said. "Right now, it's an early-adopter product."
Apple is reportedly slowing down its Vision Pro production and is instead eyeing a more affordable version of the headset.
It was hit with a DOJ lawsuit in March
The US Department of Justice accused Apple of maintaining an illegal monopoly on the smartphone market in an antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ alleged the iPhone maker was involved in "delaying, degrading, or outright blocking" rival technology. Apple denied the allegations.
The suit said the company "repeatedly responded" to competitive threats by "making it harder or more expensive for its users and developers to leave than by making it more attractive for them to stay."
Apple asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit in August, saying the government's argument includes speculation. US District Court Judge Julien Xavier Neals will have to decide whether or not the case will go to trial.
Neals' decision could come as early as January, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Apple was fined about $2 billion related to its App Store and was subject to other competition concerns in the region.
Apple rolled out new iPads
iPads performed well for Apple in 2024.
Apple; Business Insider
As OpenAI, Google, and others announced updates and demonstrated the power of their new AI assistants, Apple introduced new iPads in May.
The latest iPad Pro models are the first to have OLED display; Cook and Co. unveiled them at Apple's "Let Loose" event. Cook said it was "the biggest day for iPad since its introduction."
Although the launch came as Apple watchers waited for a bigger AI announcement, iPads performed well for Apple in Q3.
Apple's official debut into the AI wars, which have escalated since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, was the "biggest story" of the year, William Kerwin, a technology analyst at Morningstar, said.
The hype around Apple Intelligence was instant. Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said it would usher in a "golden upgrade cycle" for iPhones. Apple said it'd be a big part of the iOS 18 software update too, though Apple Intelligence is only available on iPhone 15 Pro models or later.
The company made some lofty promises at WWDC, and plans to deliver on them after the initial rollout in October and through 2025, although not all the features touted have launched yet. So far, US iPhone users have gotten access to "Writing Tools," AI-generated emojis, and ChatGPT through Siri. The company had been criticized for its late entry to the AI scene.
"They caught up by partnering and by adding AI to something only Apple can do," Munster said.
Meanwhile, the company is reportedly exploring ways it can bring Apple Intelligence to Chinese iPhone owners. Apple will have to partner with a local company if it wants to deliver AI to its most important international market.
The first AI iPhone launched
Finishes for the new iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple
Apple announced its first iPhone "built from the ground up to deliver Apple Intelligence" at its "Glowtime" event in September.
The company faced slowing iPhone sales in the quarters leading up to the launch; the new AI-enabled iPhone 16 was expected by some to be the boost it needed. It released without Apple Intelligence, though that was made available through a later iOS update. It did come with a new camera control button and some software updates.
The phones start at $999 for the iPhone 16 Pro and $1,199 for the Pro Max model. Although a golden upgrade cycle hasn't happened yet, analysts still have high expectations for the next year of iPhones.
"We believe iPhone 16 has kicked off a multi-year supercycle for Apple as the AI Revolution comes to the consumer," Ives said in an analyst note.
It scrapped some projects along the way
Among the new launches in 2024, Apple also axed some ideas that were said to be in the pipeline.
Bloomberg reported in December that Apple would no longer work on building a subscription service for iPhones. The team working to make iPhone ownership possible through monthly fees and annual upgrades was reassigned to other projects, according to the article.
The tech giant also shut down its buy now, pay later service, Apple Pay Later, in June, instead partnering with Klarna to bring its offering to Apple Pay, The Verge reported.
In April, Apple filed documents outlining that it planned to cut more than 600 employees working on projects related to screens and its electric car. Before that, the company reportedly told 2,000 employees that it would wind down its multi-year efforts to make an electric car.
Still, canceling the Apple Car to reassign talent to its Apple Intelligence efforts was part of a "one-two combo" that helped the company catch up in AI, Munster said.
Apple started rolling out Apple Intelligence features in October.
Apple
Apple is looking to integrate AI in iPhones sold in China via local partnerships, Reuters reported.
Regulatory barriers in China mean Apple is required to partner with domestic AI companies.
Apple has faced increasing local competition in one of its key markets.
Apple is in early-stage talks with Tencent and ByteDance to integrate their AI models into iPhones sold in China, Reuters reported.
The move could be a way for Apple to introduce AI to mobile devices in China after the country blocked its rollout of Apple Intelligence.
The tech giant started releasing some Apple Intelligence features in the US in October. However, Apple must partner with domestic AI companies to deliver the new features in China while complying with local rules.
Apple has yet to roll out the full suite of Apple Intelligence features planned for its iPhones. So far, the company has introduced a limited number of functions, including a feature that uses OpenAI's ChatGPT for Apple's Siri voice assistant.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a recent earnings call that the company plans to roll out more AI features in April.
Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
Apple has also discussed partnering with Baidu to roll out AI features on iPhones in China, but technical disagreements reportedly stalled progress, The Information reported in early December.
It comes as Apple attempts to fight off increasing competition from local brands like Huawei and Xiaomi. The company has had a rough time in one of its key markets and missed its sales estimates in Greater China last quarter.
Apple hopes the AI features will encourage consumers to upgrade to new iPhones that support the technology. While some analysts have predicted that the iPhone 16 would drive a massive upgrade cycle, others have been enthusiastic about the idea.
Apple is close to resolving its dispute over iPhone sales in Indonesia.
At a meeting on the weekend, Indonesia's president Prabowo Subianto told officials to accept Apple's $1 billion investment offer, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The offer was made in an effort to end the country's ban on iPhone 16 sales.
The southeast Asian country requires that at least 40% of the material in smartphones and tablets sold in stores nationally come from Indonesian producers β a measure to protect local producers and attract foreign investment.
Apple offered to expand its investment plans in Indonesia's growing tech economy in an effort to ease the ban.
The offer included a proposal for one of Apple's suppliers to set up a plant producing AirTags on the island of Batam, with the aim that it will one day account for 20% of global production of AirTags, Bloomberg reported.
Apple had previously proposed a $10 million payment for a factory in Bandung, located southeast of Jakarta, the country's current capital. The factory would manufacture accessories and components.
Former Indonesian President Joko Widodo meets Apple CEO Tim Cook in April.
Secretary President of Indonesia/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Indonesian market represents an insignificant portion of Apple's total sales globally, but has become one of the company's key alternatives in the region as it looks to move manufacturing out of China.
In April, CEO Tim Cook visited Indonesia and said that Apple was investigating the feasibility of establishing local manufacturing facilities there. The tech giant has already built four developer academies in Indonesia.
With over 280 million citizens, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most-populous nation and is a growing market for Apple.
Bloomberg reported that Subianto told his cabinet to seek more future investments.
Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment made outside normal US working hours.
In theory, it ought to be as good a time as ever to be a gamer on the iPhone.
Classic console emulators have rolled out to the platform for the first time, and they work great. There are strong libraries of non-skeezy mobile games on Apple Arcade and Netflix Games, streaming via Xbox and PlayStation services is continuing apace, and there are even a few AAA console games now running natively on the platform, like Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil titles.
Some of those games need a traditional, dual-stick game controller to work well, though, and Apple bafflingly offers no first-party solution for this.
The global app economy continued to recover in 2024, after an earlier slowdown in 2022 β at least in terms of consumer spending. In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year. However, those increases were driven by [β¦]
In December, Business Insider first reported that AT&T is following suit and expecting employees to be in the office 40 hours a week starting in the new year.
The two business giants are just one of the many companies calling their employees back to the office following the pandemic as COVID-19 restrictions have eased.
The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, told employees this week they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider.
Other major employers, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, have also abandoned the hybrid attendance policy they adopted during the pandemic and instead implemented full return-to-office mandates.
Several executives and leaders have said they believe productivity increases when workers are in the office together, while others hope to increase in-person collaboration. Even some CEOs who previously praised the flexibility of remote work have started backpedaling, pressuring workers to comply with RTO mandates with threats to track attendance or even fire employees who don't comply.
Here's a list, in alphabetical order, of major companies requiring employees to return to offices. Business Insider will update this list regularly.
Amazon
CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a September 16 memo that Amazon would be pulling the plug on remote work starting next year.
"We've decided that we're going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID," Jassy said. "When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant."
The CEO cited easier employee collaboration and connection and said in-person work would strengthen the company's culture, echoing hisΒ February 2023 memo, which mandated employeesΒ spend at least three days a week in the office.
Not everyone agrees. Some Amazon employees have taken to an internal Slack channel to criticize the new RTO policy, Business Insider's Ashley Stewart first reported, with one staffer writing that it is "significantly more strict and out of its mind" than pre-Covid operations.
"This is not 'going back' to how it was before," they wrote. "It's just going backwards."
The critical reaction is reminiscent of employees' response to last year's surprise return-to-office rule. Thousands of Amazon workers joined a Slack channel to share their thoughts, with some even organizing to file a petition against the change.
Apple
In August 2022, Apple's senior leaders told workers they had to return to the office at least three days a week after previously requiring two days a week. CEO Tim Cook said the decision was meant to restore "in-person collaboration." Some employees fought back and issued a petition shortly after the announcement, arguing that staffers can do "exceptional work" from home.
AT&T confirmed to Business Insider that it's requiring all office employees to work on-site five days a week starting in January.
The change follows about a year of AT&T accommodating a hybrid schedule in its widely publicized office push.
"The majority of our employees and leaders never stopped working on location for the full work week β including during the pandemic," a spokesperson for the telecom giant told BI.
AT&T told BI it's updating its facilities amid the policy change.
"As we continue to evolve our model, we are enhancing our facilities and workspaces, adapting our benefits programs, and incorporating best practices to ensure our employees are best equipped to serve our customers," the spokesperson added.
BlackRock
Last year, BlackRock mandated employees return to the office four days a week. The investment firm, which is headquartered in New York City, intended to bring employees into its then newly leased office space β which spans 1 million square feet across 15 floors, according to Hudson Yards.
In a May 2023 memo sent by the company's COO, Rob Goldstein, and the head of human resources, Caroline Heller, the execs wrote: "Career development happens in teaching moments between team members, and it is accelerated during market-moving moments, when we step up and get into the mix. All of this requires us to be together in the office."
Additionally, the memo notified staffers that the firm is giving them the opportunity to work remotely for two weeks during a time period that is relevant in their country, in an effort to offer "seasonal flexibility."
Chipotle
The fast-food chain announced last summer that corporate workers work in the office four days a week, Bloomberg reported. Chipotle had previously required workers to show up three days a week, according to the report.
Citigroup
Citigroup asked its 600 US workers, who were previously eligible to work remotely, to return to the office full-time, Bloomberg reported. In a memo released by the investment firm in May, the majority of staff are reportedly still able to work a hybrid schedule, with up to two days a week outside the office.
HSBC Holding Plc and Barclays Plc also followed suit, mandating workers to come into the office five days a week, according to the report.
Vaccinated Citigroup employees across the US were asked to return to the office for at least two days a week in March 2022, an internal memo obtained by Reuters said.
Dell
Dell told its sales staff to return to the office five days a week starting on September 30. Previously, the company let US employees pick between working remotely or following a hybrid schedule with about three days a week in the office.
September's sales-team mandate came with just a few days' notice, sending employees with kids into a hurry to find childcare, Business Insider reported.
Disney
In a January 2023 memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Bob Iger told workers that starting that March, any Disney staff member working "in a hybrid fashion" would need to return to Disney's offices four days a week.
In response, over 2,300 employees signed a petition asking Iger to reconsider the mandate.
"This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss," signees wrote, according to The Washington Post.
Goldman Sachs
In March 2022, CEO David Solomon told Fortune that the company was asking employees to return to the office five days a week. Seven months later, he told CNBC that about 65% of staffers were working in the office.
However, some staff have failed to follow the policy a year into its implementation, causing senior managers to become frustrated and Goldman Sachs to further crack down on employees to return to the office full-time.
Google
In March 2022, Google employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and "several other US locations" were told to return to the office for at least three days a week starting the following month.
Last year, however, the company tightened RTO expectations, telling staff in an email that office attendance would factor into their performance reviews.
Google's Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi told workers in the memo that requests to work remotely full time will now be considered "by exception only."
Some employees expressed feeling "frustrated" with the new policy. One staffer previously told Business Insider, "We don't like being micromanaged like school kids."
The company asked all its US managers to report to an office or client location at least three days a week, according to a January memo viewed by Bloomberg.
A source told the outlet that staff would have to live within 50 miles of an IBM office or client location. The memo reportedly told employees they had until August to complete their relocation arrangements, and those who were unable to comply with the new policy must "separate from IBM."
CEO Arvind Krishna previously told the news outlet that employees' careers could suffer if they work from home. He said that although he wasn't forcing his own staffers back to the office, he thought remote workers may struggle to get promotions.
JPMorgan
In April 2023, JPMorgan announced to employees in a memo that all managing directors must work in the office five days a week. The memo also reminded other workers of the current policy of working in-person a minimum of three days a week.
Despite some pushback from employees, CEO Jamie Dimon doubled down on the policy, saying disgruntled workers can choose to go elsewhere.
"I completely understand why someone doesn't want to commute an hour and a half every day, totally got it," he told The Economist. "Doesn't mean they have to have a job here either."
The company has also been collecting data on staff activity, including tracking attendance.
Meta
Meta updated its remote work policies in September 2023, requiring employees to head into the office three days a week.
It had also stopped offering remote work in new job listings. People familiar with the company previously told BI that hiring managers could no longer post new jobs that list the work location as "remote" or outside of an existing office.
The company doubled down on its RTO efforts in June of this year, telling workers that their attendance would be tracked daily and failure to comply could lead to termination.
However, some employees returning to the office said they were met with a lack of space and privacy, with one worker calling the mandate "a mess."
Redfin
In April last year, real estate company Redfin announced an updated return-to-office policy via a memo from CEO Glenn Kelman.
The memo noted that starting July 2023, Redfin would require "headquarters employees" who live within 20 miles of the company's Seattle, San Francisco, and Frisco offices to work from the office for a full day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Those who live beyond the 20-mile radius are required to visit the office in-person once a quarter for a day or more of meetings, the company said.
In order to hold employees accountable, the memo included a "no-exceptions" section, reading that "to determine your distance from an office, we'll use Google Maps, with the distance from your home address measured in miles driven over roads by car."
Salesforce
Salesforce told employees in an internal memo seen by The San Francisco Standard that the majority of workers have to be in an office four to five days a week as of October 1.
The new policy is mandated for select staff in sales, workplace services, data center engineering, and on-site support technicians, according to the memo.
Early last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revised the company's annual strategic plan, including return-to-office mandates, according to a draft shared in an internal Slack message viewed by Business Insider.
The updated draft return-to-office policy required nonremote employees to work three days a week in the office and employees in "non-remote" and "customer-facing" roles to work four days a week. Engineers must work from the office 10 days per quarter, down from 20 in the initial draft, which was updated based on employee feedback.
Snap
Snap implemented a new mandate in September 2023, requiring employees to work in an office at least four days a week. The change represented a shift from the company's former "remote first" policy, which allowed employees to work from home or elsewhere.
Employees previously told BI that some managers told them the company is able to track workers' WiFi connections to see who is complying.
Starbucks
In a January 2023 memo to corporate staffers, then-CEO Howard Schultz said employees within commuting distance would be required to return to the office at least three days a week.
Schultz said some staff had failed to "meet their minimum promise of one day a week" and also pointed out that Starbucks baristas didn't have the "privilege" of working from home. The executive had previously said he "pleaded" with workers to come back to the office.
Starbucks employees responded by signing an open letter protesting the company's return-to-office mandate.
In October, the company threatened to fire staff if they did not comply with the RTO policy, Bloomberg first reported, citing an internal memo.
Beginning in January, the company plans to initiate a "standardized process" to hold workers accountable to the hybrid schedule at the team level, where consequences will cover "up to, and including, separation," according to the email obtained by Bloomberg.
Employees, however, may request exemptions due to physical or mental medical reasons.
Tesla
In June 2022, Tesla employees were notified of a mandatory return-to-office policy.
The email from Elon Musk included wording such as "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," and noted that everyone at Tesla must work from the office at least 40 hours a week.
Musk, who has called remote work "morally wrong," nodded to his frequent presence at Tesla factories as the reason for the business' success. "If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt," he wrote in the email.
Ubisoft
In September, Ubisoft, the France-based maker of the popular "Assassin's Creed" and "Far Cry" video game series, ordered its staff worldwide to return to the office three days a week.
French workers at the video game maker went on strike on October 15 over the RTO mandate.
X
After buying X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, Musk told employees that not showing up to an office when they're able to was the same as a resignation.
Musk also told staffers in an email that remote work was no longer allowed and that employees were expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week unless given explicit approval to work elsewhere.
In 2023, X, then Twitter, National Labor Relations Board filed a formal complaint saying that X had illegally fired an employee who complained about Musk's RTO policy.
The complaint said that Yao Yue, a principal software engineer, criticized the mandate, tweeting, "don't resign, let him fire you." She also posted, "don't be fired. Seriously" in a company Slack channel.
Yue was then fired five days later and told it was due to violating an unspecified company policy.
Uber
In a memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees that beginning in April 2022, Uber staffers in 35 of the company's locations were required to return to the office at least half the time. He added that on other days, staffers were allowed to work remotely and that some could be entirely remote if they got clearance from their managers.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently said remote work took away some of Uber's "most frequent customers," adding that "there is an audience who kind of stopped using us as frequently as they used to."
Staffers located in smaller offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto are additionally being directed to the company's central hubs, including its headquarters in Arkansas or New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The retail giant will still permit hybrid schedules as long as workers come in-person most of the time, according to the outlet.
The Washington Post
William Lewis, CEO and publisher of The Washington Post, told staffers in early November that they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by BI.
"I want that great office energy for us every day," Lewis wrote, referring to the energy in the office during election week. "I am reliably informed that is how it used to be here before Covid, and it's important we get this back."
All employees were expected to return to the office by June 2, 2025, while managers were expected to return by February 3, 2025.
After starting remote work in 2020, the Post previously required employees to return to the office three days a week in early 2022.
The announcement at the Post came shortly after Amazon's return-to-office mandate. The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and executive chairman.
Zoom
Zoom, the darling of remote work, said in 2022 that less than 2% of staffers work in person full time. However, last year, the video-calling companyΒ asked employeesΒ to return to the office.
Workers living within 50 miles of one of its offices were mandated to work there at least two days a week.
"We believe that a structured hybrid approach β meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams β is most effective for Zoom," a spokesperson previously said in a statement. "As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers."
Bargains, socials, and AI dominated the App Store charts in 2024.
App Store
Temu tops 2024 Apple App Store downloads, surpassing TikTok and ChatGPT in popularity.
The Chinese e-commerce app offers big discounts on a wide range of products.
Americans appear to be exploring budget-friendly options through in-app deals.
The App Store favorites of 2024 include social media platforms and one popular AI assistant, but the most downloaded app of the year was Temu.
The Chinese-owned e-commerce app was downloaded more times this year than TikTok, Threads, or ChatGPT, according to Apple. It's become known for big discounts on various products, from tech gadgets to apparel.
Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, is particularly popular among Gen Z consumers in the US. Gen Zers between 18 and 24 downloaded it 42 million times during the first 10 months of 2024, according to the app analytics firm Appfigures, which pulled data from iOS and Android users.
The e-commerce giant launched in the US in 2022 and has had a meteoric rise since then. PDD Holdings' third-quarter sales grew 44% to $14.2 billion from the same period in 2023, according to exchange rates on September 30.
It has invested millions to market to American shoppers. Three Temu ads aired during the Super Bowl, where one 30-second clip during the highly-viewed game can cost $7 million.
With Donald Trump threatening high tariffs on Chinese goods, Temu's popularity could be at risk if it resorts to raising prices to offset a possible 60% levy on its products.
Apps from retailers Amazon, Shein, and McDonald's also made the Apple App Store's top 20 most-downloaded list this year β indicating that consumers were on the hunt for a deal across categories.
McDonald's has found success in using targeted in-app promotions to build loyalty among its customers.
The chain's head of US restaurants said earlier this year that loyalty customers visit 15% more often and spend nearly twice as much as non-loyalty customers, with loyalty platform sales expected to hit $45 billion by 2027.
Amazon, for its part, has sought to capitalize on Temu and Shein's low-price appeal with a new Haul section, which is also an app-only shopping experience.
As former Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan was fond of saying, "The best offers are in the app."
Donald Trump addressed the scores of CEOs who have jockeyed to get private meetings.
"Everybody wants to be my friend," Trump told reporters.
Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and other top execs have met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that major tech CEOs want to meet with him ahead of his second term, showcasing how an industry that once spurned him is now supportive.
"One of the big differences between the first term, in the first term, everybody was fighting me," Trump told reporters during a news conference. "In this term, everybody wants to be my friend."
Big Tech executives like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai have or are expected to visit Mar-a-Lago to meet with the president-elect. "I had dinner with, sort of, almost all of them, and the rest are coming," Trump said on Monday.
"I don't know, my personality changed or something," the president-elect added.
The series of meetings follows an election season that saw some major names in Silicon Valley embrace Trump, including, most notably, Elon Musk.
Trump has reciprocated the love, naming Musk to co-lead the newly created "Department of Government Efficiency" and tapping former PayPal executive David Sacks as his crypto and AI czar.
Some in the tech community have also announced their intentions to make $1 million donations to Trump's inaugural committee either by themselves or through their corporation.
Many in the business community, including tech, were skeptical of Trump's first term.
Some, including Musk, broke with Trump over his decision to stick by his campaign promise to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord. Others, including CEOs from Intel, Merck, and Under Armour, resigned from White House advisory councils in the wake of Trump's response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump, however, continued to court CEOs. In 2019, his White House launched a new business-focused council that included the likes of Cook, along with top leaders from IBM and Walmart.
Chinese shopping app Temu was once again the most downloaded free app in the U.S., according to a list of top apps and games across the App Store released by Apple on Monday. The shopping app moved into the No. 1 slot last year, stealing the position from TikTok, which held the title in in [β¦]
