Two new Apple product reviews published on our site and our YouTube channel this week: the 2020 versions of the MacBook Air and the iPad Pro, reviewed by Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and executive editor Dieter Bohn, respectively.
Nilay and Dieter also co-host The Verge’s podcast The Vergecast, so on this week’s episode, they dive into those reviews and compare how each managed their workloads on a practical day-to-day basis. What is the computer to buy in 2020 for the average consumer?
But before all of that, this week marked a visible change in how tech companies are handling the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom is transforming from an enterprise app to an essential consumer app, handling everything from work-from-home calls to family video chats, Amazon’s warehouse workers are petitioning to improve safety measures in their facilities, and streaming apps like Disney Plus, YouTube, and Netflix are reducing streaming quality as internet traffic increases. The Vergecast tackles how these reactions from the tech and culture sections of the world are changing the ways we use the internet.
There’s a whole lot more in between all of that — like a Dell app that can mirror your iPhone on your PC, Huawei releasing the P40 Pro, and Paul’s weekly segment “It’s my year of the Linux desktop, boys” — so listen through here or in your favorite podcast app to hear it all.
Stories discussed this week:
- Amazon warehouse workers are outraged after a coworker tested positive for COVID-19 and they weren’t notified
- ‘We’re all going to get sick eventually’: Amazon workers are struggling to provide for a nation in quarantine
- It’s time for a regular Amazon daily coronavirus briefing
- Twitter locks account encouraging coronavirus ‘chickenpox parties’
- Zoom is 2020’s hottest yoga studio
- Apple says customers must wait to pick up repairs locked inside its retail stores
- Best Buy moves to curbside pickup only as it sees surge in orders for home office equipment
- Disney Plus and Facebook are also reducing streaming quality in Europe
- Amazon and Apple are reducing streaming quality to lessen broadband strain in Europe
- YouTube joins Netflix in reducing video quality in Europe
- YouTube creators figure out how to film during a pandemic
- Fashion influencers are rethinking their curated aesthetics because they can’t leave their houses
- Fox will broadcast NASCAR’s substitute sim racing ‘season’ on television
- Pro drivers are competing with gamers after F1 and NASCAR canceled races
- How to watch movies with friends online
- Everything you need to know about the coronavirus
- Subscribe to Home Screen: a newsletter to brighten your inbox
- Apple MacBook Air (2020) review: the best Mac for most people
- Apple iPad Pro review 2020: small spec bump, big camera bump
- Never buy hardware today based on a promise of software tomorrow
- The new MacBook Air and iPad Pro are already discounted on Amazon
- Huawei hopes the P40 Pro can lure you away from Google
- Living a Google-free life with a Huawei phone
- Dell now lets you control iPhones from its PCs