Customers need to remove the band on their Apple Watch before going to get the device repaired. If they leave it on, it will no longer be returned. That’s according to update guidance, reported on by Cult of Mac.

It is now explicitly asking customers to remove them. Its new support document warns that any bands sent in will not be returned. Your Apple Watch band and any other accessories that you send won’t be returned, so please remove them before sending your Apple Watch in for service,” read the updated guidelines. Apple also reminds users who own a Link Bracelet band to “remember to separate the link before you remove the band.” In the past, Apple has been known to return accessories, bundled together, when practical. Apple Watch bands would be be reattached, but they would be sent back to the user. It’s possible that practice has now become too time-consuming.

If you bought one of the new iPad Pros you likely wanted Apple Care+ too.  Cult of Mac explained how you can extend this coverage to your accessories, including the new magic keyboard.

Apple says “AppleCare+ extends your iPad, Apple Pencil, and Apple-branded iPad keyboard coverage and includes up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage every 24 months.” Obviously, that includes the new Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, the most expensive iPad keyboard Apple ever released. The version made for the 11-inch tablet is $299. And Apple asks $349 for the one designed for its 12.9-inch iPad Pro, putting this version of the accessory above the $329 price for the base-model iPad. Accidental damage coverage also covers the Apple Smart Keyboard Folio, which is either $179 or $199, depending on the screen size of the iPad Pro it’s intended for. The $99 Apple Pencil or $129 Apple Pencil 2 are also covered.

Apple offers a variety of discounts – to veterans, to students, to government workers. However, as a reader highlighted to iMore, it does not offer such discounts to those with disabilities, despite the number of excellent accessibility features baked into Apple products. It’s a really interesting discussion, and the letter is very much worth reading.

I have tried everything else, which is to say Android and Windows. They are not the same. They do not work together seamlessly. They are not simple. They are not intuitive. They are not thoughtful. They do not have the built-in features I need. They do not have the third-party apps I need. They do not have Apple’s commitment to security. They do not have Apple’s commitment to privacy. They do not have Apple’s commitment to quality. They do not work with my brain… Accessibility features benefit everyone. It is disheartening when those features are not affordable to those who need it the most. Apple should extend discount pricing to all people with disabilities. Today.

While iPhone sales will inevitably be hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Apple is resuming smartphone production at a better rate than many of its key rivals. That’s according to a note to investors seen by AppleInsider.

Cowen analysts believe global smartphone builds for the second quarter will be down 17% year-on-year. Though it will be a 4% rise in units in terms of sequential quarters, it will allegedly still be worse than the 15% year-on-year decline seen in the first quarter. For Apple in particular, it will be seeing a decline, but not at the same level. Cowen forecasts iPhone builds in the second quarter will be 35 million units, which works out to be a 5% drop quarter-to-quarter and a year-on-year decline of 13%, while Android builds will be down 18% overall year-on-year… “With the current state of the global economy, iPhone unit supply and demand expectations could continue to fluctuate in the coming months,” writes Cowen. The firm highlights how Foxconn’s workforce has “broadly recovered from the COVID-19 shutdown by the end of March,” which helps the outlook on Apple’s figures.

Apple and Google have teamed up to help build contact-tracing apps, aimed at helping reduce the spread of coronavirus. However, there is disagreement in Europe over how to progress, Reuters reported.

Scientists and researchers from more than 25 countries published an open letter on Monday urging governments not to abuse such technology to spy on their people and warning of risks in an approach championed by Germany. “We are concerned that some ‘solutions’ to the crisis may, via mission creep, result in systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large,” said the letter that gathered more than 300 signatures. Tech experts are rushing to develop digital methods to fight COVID-19, a flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has infected 2.4 million people worldwide and been linked to 165,000 deaths.

The iMac is credited with saving Apple during its darkest days. Designed by Sir Jony Ive, it is the first Apple machine I remember really being conscious of. The colorful range of computers first went on sale in the U.S in August 1998 and by April 2001 five million had been shipped. On AppleInsider, William Gallagher reflected on the device’s staggering success.

This machine took the innovation Apple had done before, it took the company’s ethos of strong design and a complete appliance-like tool, and it shouted about it all. Where the Mac had literally said “Hello,” the iMac figuratively said, “look at me.” And people listened. The iMac was announced by Steve Jobs on May 6, 1998, but it didn’t go on sale in the US until August 15 that year. Two weeks later, it was released in Europe and Japan. Two years, eight months, and four days later on April 19, 2001, Apple announced that it had shipped its five millionth iMac. That makes approximately 5,112 iMacs sold every day. It’s one iMac every 1.183 seconds. No wonder it saved the company.