Oliver Haslam on March 31, 2020, 8:07 pm

Apple Continues To Work On New iMac, iPads, Apple TV, Apple Watch, HomePod; Employees Testing Prototype Hardware At Home, More

Apple has closed all of its offices and Apple Stores – except those in Greater China – as the company does its bit to help try and slow the spread of coronavirus. But that doesn’t mean that work has come to a standstill, with Bloomberg reporting that the company continues to work on new hardware.

Apple recently announced new iPad Pro and MacBook Air products, but those will have been finalized long before coronavirus hit. However, the work continues on a refreshed HomePod and Apple TV, while new iMac, iPads, and even the Apple Watch Series 6.

Still, Apple hasn’t paused its efforts to build future devices. The company is working on new versions of the HomePod speaker, Apple TV set-top box, MacBook Pro, budget iPads, Apple Watch, and iMac for as early as later this year.

This despite the fact that Apple’s employees are no longer working in the same offices. That’s made possible by the use of a number of authorized apps, all chosen because of their security at a time where Apple continues to try to keep a wall of secrecy around its plans.

Meetings have continued by phone and video conferencing. Apple requires employees to communicate via its own FaceTime service, Slack Technologies Inc.’s app and Cisco Systems Inc.’s Jabber or WebEx in order to maintain secrecy. For file sharing, Apple limits working to its suite of productivity apps, Salesforce.com Inc.’s Quip and Box.

(Image: 2020 Refreshed iMac concept)

Other tidbits from the Bloomberg report include the fact that developers of software like iOS 14 must seek approval before they are able to take the software home. Considering everyone is working from home right now it’s fair to say that’s everyone working on it. The same goes for hardware, with Apple allowing engineers to take prototypes home despite its usual policy of ensuring that doesn’t happen except in very specific cases.

Apple reportedly has a busy few months of software releases ahead of it, despite coronavirus. All eyes are now on the iPhone 12 and whether it will arrive in September as anticipated.