Welcome to 95 Mac Daily for Friday, May 8th, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are sponsored this week by Bitwarden. Leading off today, a group of U.S. senators and seven members of Congress have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and incoming CEO John Ternus, pressing Apple for answers over the planned closure of its Towson retail store just outside of Baltimore. The backstory here is that earlier last month, Apple announced it would close three stores in the U.S. Apple Towson Town Center, Apple North County in California, and Apple Trumbull in Connecticut. The reason behind these three decisions was roughly the same. They're located in struggling malls where other retailers have also been leaving. While the decision to close the stores in California and Connecticut went largely unnoticed, the Maryland store has been a different story altogether. That's because the Towson Town Center location was the first Apple Store to unionize back in June of 2022. For this reason, the decision to shut down the store has sparked a dispute between Apple and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which is the union representing the Apple Store workers, particularly over whether employees should be allowed to transfer to other Apple retail stores. Apple argues that the negotiated union agreement only requires transfers within 50 miles of the Towson store, with severance offered otherwise. The union, however, says Apple is discriminating against unionized workers by denying them the same transfer opportunities given to employees at the other closing stores. Apple says the contract writes that Apple only has to transfer or rehire employees if it opens another new store within 50 miles of the current location, something the company has no plans to do right now. In this letter sent to Ternus and Cook, lawmakers want to know a clearer understanding of the rationale behind this decision, including whether relocation alternatives were, quote, meaningfully considered. They want to know what factors led to the decision to close the store, what analysis Apple conducted to assess the economic and workforce impacts and what measures Apple is taking to support the impacted employees Finally while recognizing the complex business considerations involved in these decisions, the lawmakers want Apple to, quote, reconsider whether there are viable paths forward, end quote, that would not only preserve jobs directly affected by the decision, but also its broader impact on the local economy. Next to today, Apple just reached a major milestone in its development of AirPods with cameras. Bloomberg reports that Apple's work on this product has entered a phase where prototypes feature a near final design and capabilities. The report says there will be a camera in both the left and the right earbuds. The cameras, however, won't be used for photo or video capture. Instead, they'll serve as the eyes for Siri and will capture the environment around a user in low resolution. The idea is to let users ask questions about an item they might be looking at. For instance, they could be facing food ingredients and ask what they should cook for dinner. It's a similar experience to what someone gets from uploading photos in services like ChatGPT or in the iPhone's own visual intelligence function. Apple is exploring other use cases as well. The device could give the wearer a reminder based on something the camera sees, or it might use external visuals to provide more advanced turn-by-turn directions in Apple Maps. The AI could cite a specific landmark ahead when telling the user where they should turn, for example. These AirPods are said to feature longer stims than normal AirPods Pro to accommodate the cameras, but otherwise they'll look largely the same. They will also include a small LED that will turn on when visual data is being fed to the cloud to address privacy concerns. The AirPods are said to be in advanced testing, with testers inside Apple using prototypes in the design validation testing phase. The next and final stage is production validation testing, or PVT. This is when Apple will begin early test mass production of the product. As for a release date Bloomberg says Apple had planned for a launch as early as the first half of this year but that was postponed due to the continued delays impacting the next generation version of Siri Whenever they do launch Apple is reportedly expecting strong demand for the AirPods with cameras and is already at work securing components for mass production. We are sponsored this week by Bitwarden. You can get started with the Bitwarden Password Manager, including a free plan with unlimited passwords by hitting the link in the show notes or going to Bitwarden.com. Bitwarden helps you generate and store strong, unique passwords and passkeys across all of your devices so you're not reusing the same login everywhere. It also keeps things simple with autofill for passwords, cards, and identities, plus vault health records to flag weak or compromised passwords. With end-to-end encryption and built-in protection against phishing and data breaches, Bitwarden is trusted by over 10 million users and 50,000 businesses worldwide. And with World Password Day taking place this week, it's a great reminder to make sure your passwords are actually protecting you. Hit the link in the show notes or head to bitwarden.com to get started today. Riding out today, Apple is rolling out two big changes to the education store in the United States and other countries. Starting today, Apple now requires shoppers in the U.S. to complete verification when making a purchase via the Education Store. This change also applies to Australia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Canada, and Chile. In many other markets around the world, such as the U.K., Apple already required verification before today. As a refresher, people eligible for Apple's Education Store include current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers across all grade levels. The store offers a discount on Apple's hardware provided to students, faculty, and staff, and up until now, it's largely been on the Honor system. Apple is teaming up with Unidaze to handle the verification process starting today. Students and educators will be asked to create a Unidaze ID, then verify their academic status by logging in to their school's academic portal. Alternatively, users can upload a photo of their student or faculty ID Homeschool teachers meanwhile would need to provide an identity document Such as a driver license state ID or passport They also need to provide one homeschool document such as a letter of intent or letter of acknowledgement Apple says that most customers will be verified instantly and that those requiring manual verification should hear back within 24 hours. The same verification process applies both in-store and online for Apple Education Store shoppers. Apple hasn't provided any explanation for why it's now requiring verification in the U.S., but in January of 2022, Apple tried its first attempt at rolling out verification, also in partnership with Unidays, but it backtracked just two days later. That initial attempt was marred by a ton of technical and verification problems. Apple seems to have ironed out those problems with this second attempt. The timing is also interesting because Apple debuted the MacBook Neo in March at an incredible $599 starting price, or an even more impressive $499 price point for education shoppers. Reading between the lines, there's likely at least some correlation between that and the new verification requirements. Meanwhile, Apple Watch is now available with discounts through the Apple Education Store for the first time. This includes the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Ultra 3. This marks the first time Apple Watch has been available in the Education Store. You can view pricing and more on Apple's website in your respective country. In the United States, Apple Watch Series 11 starts at $359, down from the usual $399 price. Apple Watch Ultra 3 starts at $719, down from $799. And Apple Watch SE 3 starts at $229, down from $249. That wraps up another episode and another week of 9to5MacDaily. as always if you like the show it's very helpful to us if you head to apple podcasts and leave a rating and a review you can find an ad free version of the show at 9to5mac.com join for five dollars a month or fifty dollars a year you can find all of the latest apple news on 9to5mac.com follow along with me on threads at chance h miller and we'll be back on monday for a new week of apple news
