每日三篇英语新闻随记135
2019年7月31日
Tim Cook says Apple wants to continue making the Mac Pro in the US following reports that it was shifting production to China
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company wants to continue making its Mac Pro computer in the United States following reports that it was shifting production to China. Cook’s comments come after Bloomberg reported last week that Apple had asked President Donald Trump to exclude components for the new Mac Pro from tariffs on imports from China. In a tweet last Friday, President Trump said Apple will not receive such relief, and instead encouraged the company to make its products in the US.
The Mac Pro has been the only major Apple product that the company produces in the US, but The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have both reported that Apple was shifting production from its Texas-based facility to China. Those reports indicated that Apple had tapped Taiwan-based Quanta Computer to manufacture its forthcoming Mac Pro.
The discussions about Apple’s plans for producing the Mac Pro come amidst an ongoing trade dispute between the US and China. Although President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to reopen trade discussions after the G20 summit that took place in Japan in June, President Trump also recently said there’s “a long way to go” when it comes to imposing tariffs on Chinese goods.
Apple unveiled a redesigned Mac Pro during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, signalling the first time the company has updated its powerful professional-grade desktop since 2013. The machine starts at $US6,000, and is designed to be easily upgraded unlike its predecessor.
Australians are spending almost 5 hours commuting to work each week
Australian workers could be forgiven for asking where the time goes. After all, they spend much of it just trying to get between home and work — 4.5 hours on average a week. That’s almost an hour more than back in 2002, or an extra 12 minutes a day, and around an hour more per week than the global average.
Depending on where you live, however, those travel times have blown out even further. Sydneysiders for example probably won’t be surprised to hear their commute is the worst in the whole country, with workers spending 71 minutes getting to work and back every day, just shy of six hours a week. That’s what you get for building Australia’s largest city around a harbour that has frustrated planners since its foundation.
Melbourne workers spend 65 odd-minutes — just six minutes less a day — with none of the views or excuses. That average, however, hasn’t budged by much over the last 15 years or so that the Institute has completed its survey. The real surprise, however, is that Brisbane, with just a fraction of the population, has commuters spending a minute more each day getting to their daily grind. In fact, it’s blown out completely since 2002, the earliest figures from the Melbourne Institute.
Back then, Brisbane commuters got to work quicker than Perth workers, taking just 46 minutes a day. Now it’s 66 minutes. That means if Brisbane is home, you have 1 hour 44 minutes less free time every week. In 2002, Canberrans spent just over two and a half hours getting to work each week. Now their commute has almost doubled, spending two hours more on the road.
What agile means and how it can make your next tech project a winner
Technology is constantly changing. These rapid and consistent changes are allowing businesses across industries to be more efficient than ever before. However, this doesn’t mean the transition to digital adoption is always smooth. The way tech projects are implemented has to adapt and transform. To do both things effectively, your team needs a clear strategy. Agile management – as opposed to traditional ‘waterfall methodology’ – seeks to complete projects by meeting smaller goals along the way. These goals are set and delivered incrementally throughout a project’s lifecycle, rather than all in one go. By breaking down tasks into manageable pieces, this methodology is a useful way to ensure IT projects are completed to budget and on time.
Importantly, being agile means your team is flexible. This enables them to adapt to the changing needs of any project. It also means that they won’t necessarily need to complete work chronologically. For example, you might begin testing as soon as possible to seek out customer responses early. They’ll then be able to implement feedback into the project as it develops.
Rather than being a manager per se, agile project managers are more like caregivers. In this context, your team won’t necessarily need managing – but the processes and strategy will. Managing timelines and keeping projects on track is a key part of the agile role. They’ll be able to oversee lead times between ideation and implementation, prioritise tasks and identify if the project is running over time.
Often projects factor in very little planning time, making it difficult to predict outcomes. As deliverables develop mid-project, an agile manager can adapt these changes while overseeing budgeting requirements and keeping stakeholders informed. The process becomes more customer-centric because of its collaborative nature, ensuring that the deliverables meet the expectations of your client.
An agile project manager will be adept at managing and responding to conflict, making sure that needs are addressed and communication between stakeholders is restored quickly. A project manager is responsible for managing the expectations of external (and sometimes remote) stakeholders. They will ensure that stakeholders have visibility over the project throughout its lifecycle, making it easier for them to be a part of the larger conversation and team dynamics.
