Apple has developed two types of masks – called the Apple Face Mask and Apple ClearMask – that the company is beginning to distribute to corporate and retail employees to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Last week, an Apple employee sent MacRumors an image of the Apple Face Mask:
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Apple told staff members that the masks were developed by the Engineering and Industrial Design teams, the same groups that work on devices such as the iPhone and iPad.
The Apple Face Mask is made up of three layers to filter incoming and outgoing particles. It can be washed and reused as many as five times, the company told employees. In typical Apple style, the mask looks unique with large coverings on the top and bottom for the wearer’s nose and chin. It also has adjustable strings to fit around a person’s ears.
Apple told staff that the masks were designed and manufactured completely by Apple. The company, which confirmed the news, said it conducted careful research and testing to find the right materials to filter the air properly while not disrupting the supply of medical personal protective equipment.
The other model, the ClearMask, is the first FDA-cleared surgical mask that is completely transparent, Apple told employees.
MacDailyNews Take: We wonder if the Apple ClearMask will allow Face ID to work?
As for the Apple Face Mask (pictured above), we vehemently dislike masks with ear loops. In fact, when we’re faced with ear loop masks, we always use an ear mask extension strap to eliminate the ear pain they usually cause.
Stupid… Mask pevent nothing.,,
How do you know this?
Saint Dr. Tony told us at the very beginning in one of his rare moments of honesty.
As I say below, barbarians at the gates. There is no civilization without civitas, the instinct to put the public welfare (res publica) above personal benefit, and no civitas without a modicum of civility.
You’ve been brainwashed. Gonna cost you. Good luck.
It prevent you from acting like a sociopath.
Just wear the mask.
Paul is actually pretty close to correct. Talk to any medical expert who wears PPEs regularly. While masks may prevent inhaling airborne water molecules, they’re simply deposited on the mask itself. How many times every 10 minutes do you touch your mask? Do you correctly doff your mask and dispose of it after one use? Doubtful. Thus, the mask actually does little.
So, is Paul 100% correct, no. But he’s about 95% correct.
Paul is about 10% correct. The most valuable thing that masks do is protect against OUTWARD transmission of the virus. It is OTHER PEOPLE’S masks that protect you. Even the simple improvised masks are quite good at this, and it doesn’t matter if you touch your mask with your own virus on it.
The problem is that psychopaths have this emotional revulsion to the idea of people helping one another. So you can explain it too them all day and they just won’t get it. They will be all MY mask doesn’t protect ME, and nothing else matters.
Paul and Pirate are a great illustration of the breakdown of American civilization. Our culture is grounded on Greek and Roman traditions that insisted that there can be no liberty except through mutual responsibility and interdependence. A society grounded on pure self-interest is not civilization, but savagery.
As a 19th century historian put it, “In the history of Rome, the Latin term civitas was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law (concilium coetusque hominum jure sociati). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities (munera) on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other. The agreement (concilium) has a life of its own, creating a res publica or “public entity” (synonymous with civitas), into which individuals are born or accepted, and from which they die or are ejected. The civitas is not just the collective body of all the citizens, it is the contract binding them all together, because each of them is a civis.”
The Greek polis had a similar meaning. It doesn’t just mean an unorganized collection of rugged individuals living together in a city-state. It implies a social organism tied together by bonds of mutuality. The highest science for the ancient Greeks was the art of perfecting the polis, a science called politics. The rejection of politics is a rejection of civilization and an embrace of savagery.
Insisting that masks are worthless unless they benefit the wearer is the same as calling members of the military “suckers” because there is no financial reward for volunteering.
I cited the Roman concept of “civitas” for those who keep insisting that the United States is not a democracy, but a republic (res publica). That would come as a shock to the guy who described our system as “government of the people, by the people (demokratia), for the people.” While it is certainly possible for a republic to not be governed by majority vote, a polity that does not govern according to rules that reflect the broad consent of the governed is not a republic but a tyranny. The key to both civitas and politika is the willingness of the citizens to subordinate private interests to the public good.
The determination of mask-deniers to endanger those who are more vulnerable than themselves is a natural reflection of a country where a popular political leader can tell someone in a private conversation on March 6 that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted through the air and is deadly, and then insist in public speeches as late as the 18th that the virus does not represent a threat—because telling the truth might affect the markets, which might affect his re-election. We will never know how many lives were lost due to that, any more than those who refuse to wear masks will ever know how many others they infected.
TxUser, if I recall correctly, I don’t think I agree with you on any political issues. But maybe we do agree on the issue of whether this democratic republic is worth preserving against insidious, perfidious subversion by nefarious actors both foreign and domestic. The anti-mask crowd is a product of the deliberate sabotage of our most fundamental governmental institutions by a puppet government installed by an enemy deadbeat on destroying us.
Huh??? What about the mask topic?
It’s astounding this message hasn’t gotten through to people yet.
My mask protects you, your mask protects me.
(And it doesn’t take a medical study to prove this — though you will find them. You can put a cheap mask on, breath and sneeze all you like, and notice the meaningful reduction in droplet projection from your mouth. You don’t even need science to debunk the mask conspiracy, just eyeballs.)
Your points well taken. Nice to read common sense combined with science. Yes, masks help mitigate but certainly most folks do not use properly as you noted washing or throwing away and putting on a new one daily. The best article I read masks are effective no higher than 50-60% of the time, but with all surveys it is a only a limited snapshot in time. Months ago I was listening to a medical expert PHD working at a major Washington D.C. medical facility and don’t recall the ethnic name or name of the hospital. But what I clearly remember is the analogy the good doctor used that wearing a mask to stop the virus, is like erecting a chain link fence to stop mosquitoes. Reason being, the size of the virus in microns is 50 times smaller than the pores in the mask. All that said, I wear masks faithfully for no other reason than they are better than nothing…
As we might expect, your comment focuses exclusively on how well a mask might protect you, illustrating my point perfectly.
Don’t flatter yourself over inflated ego boy. I only read the first couple off topic obtuse sentences and gave up on the esoteric rest. Did not bother with your second post assuming is just as off topic obtuse…
The immediate topic was the pathological refusal to wear masks based on their allegedly questionable personal benefits for the mask wearer. I observed that it is just a symptom of a broader breakdown of the notion that people owe an obligation to the public good, a notion that underlies any civilized society. To refuse to follow public health advice because it will primarily benefit one’s vulnerable neighbors and not oneself is all of a piece with
Regarding Americans in the military and public service as “suckers” because they could make more money doing something else.
Hiiding the known danger of a pandemic to gain a political advantage.
Using public resources to defend oneself from a private lawsuit.
Using military pension funds to build a wall and suspending the collection of the taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare to gain a political advantage.
Claiming concern for Americans with medical preconditions while pursuing multiple lawsuits to terminate their insurance coverage.
Claiming to be the Law and Order President while encouraging armed militias to invade statehouses in a “revolt” against the public health guidelines that your,own administration developed.
Refusing to condemn either the Russian efforts to murder their political opposition and their efforts to subvert our own political process.
Repeated efforts in one’s official capacity to use the resources of the US and foreign governments to gain a domestic political advantage
The virus is in expelled in droplets, not as an isolated virus. Droplets get retrained by the mask when expelled and to a lesser degree also when inhaled.
☝️this. It gets very boring hearing people discuss the size of virus particles when it’s the most irrelevant fact when discussing masks.
No taste and no smell for the rest of your life? No Texas BBQ FOR YOU….
Wrong! it prevents you from getting laid.
Not a fan of reality, are you?…
Imagine if Jony Ive was still here.
“Apple Face Mask uses a custom engineered, polymer non-woven fabric that is both stunningly beautiful, and very effective at filtering micro-droplets. In fact, it is so effective that we were able to make Apple Face Mask up to 30% thinner than any other mask made up to this point.”
“Warning: Apple Face Mask is not intended to be used for extended periods exceeding one hour. Do not expose Apple Face Mask to sudden temperature fluctuations or conditions of excess humidity, as this may damage the polymer fabric layer. Apple Face Mask is not intended to be used in medical settings where the failure of the product may result in transmission of pathogens to or from the user. Don’t spread diseases.”
Your description was so spot-on, I could actually hear Apple’s music, and imagine the camera swirling around a gorgeously photographed mask bathed in etherial white light.
But you forgot to mention, “the special weaving machines we have developed that uses a patented nanofiber matrix to produce material that can stretch more than one milllion times without losing any of its stretch potential.
And he forgot the “Ah lou min ee um” parts.
Are these masks beta versions or full release? 🙄
I want one. Or more. And ear loops don’t bother me at all.