Apple launches $20-a-month AppleCare One plan covering up to three devices
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Apple has introduced AppleCare One , a unified protection plan that allows customers in the US to cover multiple Apple devices under one subscription. The plan will be available from tomorrow and can be activated through any iPhone, iPad, Mac, or at an Apple Store.Under AppleCare One, users can insure up to three Apple devices for $19.99 a month. Additional devices can be added to the plan for $5.99 per month each. The plan offers 24/7 priority support, unlimited accidental damage repairs, battery coverage, and theft or loss protection for devices such as iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.'Built on the trusted foundation of AppleCare+, AppleCare One extends that same reliability and makes it easier than ever to protect the products you love and depend on like iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, combining simplicity and exceptional value,' said Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.The new service also allows users to include eligible Apple products they already own, provided those devices are up to four years old and in good condition. This marks a departure from the existing AppleCare+ policy, which restricts coverage purchases to within 60 days of buying a device.AppleCare One is designed to be flexible. When a covered product is traded in at Apple, the plan will automatically update to include the new device. Users can also manage their plan easily, removing or adding devices as needed, with no annual lock-ins.Apple says the bundled plan can offer savings of up to $11 per month when compared to individual AppleCare+ plans for three devices.
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Time of India
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- Time of India
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Business Standard
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China wants to prevent the dual usage of rare earth, preventing diversion of magnets by any country to strategic defence requirements. Crisis gets deeper In the last few weeks, many government departments have had a series of meetings with stakeholders to find a way out of the imbroglio. In a signal that things were not looking up with respect to rare earth magnet, Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said last week that electric scooter production had already been cut by half in July. The company may need to close down its EV factory in August, adversely impacting its financials. Siam — the association of auto companies — has already petitioned the government to reduce the customs duty on electric motors by half to 7.5 per cent. While earlier most companies were assembling electric motor in India by installing the imported magnet from China, the only option before them is to import full electric motor from China. Without a duty cut, production cost of vehicles will skyrocket. As for Apple, which started assembling airpods at a new Foxconn plant in Teleganna recently, it was forced to close the factory for two weeks in June as China stopped magnet supplies. The Cupertino-headquartered firm has now got a temporary reprieve by arranging for supplies from Japan. While it is looking at other sources like Uzbekistan to meet the requirement, it has conveyed to the government that this would only increase the cost of production of airpods and make it globally uncompetitive. All about control Experts believe that China can leverage rare earth magnets as a weapon globally, and with India in trade. China controls 90 per cent of the global production of rare earth magnets and more than 70 per cent of rare earth elements which go into the making of magnets. It all started in the 1980s when China identified rare earths as a strategic area of focus—leveraging its low labour costs and rules on environment by building the entire process from mining to extraction and separation of individual rare earth elements. And then it used technology from Japan and the US to make low-cost rare earth magnets at rock bottom price which no one else could match. The countries which dominated the mining and manufacturing of these magnets so far, including the US, Japan and Europe, gradually withdrew unable to compete. For the first time, it used rare earth as a trade weapon way back in 2010. It stopped supplies to Japan for months over a maritime dispute between the two countries. Rising demand Some 15 years later, China is in the game again with rare earth as a trade weapon. Global demand for rare earth magnets is expected to double to 600,000-650,000 by 2035. In India, it could go up four to six times to hit 2,000-3,000 tonnes in the same period. 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