Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t often wear colorful Apple watch bands, but he made an exception during Apple’s Peek Performance event on Tuesday.
Cook emceed the event wearing an eye-catching yellow Sport band. Paired with his blue sweater, Cook seemed to be making a subtle gesture of support for the embattled country (yellow and blue are the colors of the Ukrainian national flag).
Message of support
Cook didn’t call out the situation in Ukraine during the presentation, but the color pairing seems unlikely to have been a coincidence. All over the world, supporters of the country have been wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag or adding it to their social media profiles.
Apple has been strong supporter of Ukraine. The company has pulled its products from sale in Russia and limited Apple Pay and other services. Two media outlets aligned with the Russian state — RT and News Sputnik News — have been removed from the App Store.
The company has disabled traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine “as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.” It has once again made Crimea part of Ukraine on Apple Maps. It is also matching Apple employee charitable donations 2-to-1.
Cook has personally expressed his concern about the war. In an email to Apple employees sent last week, Cook said: “With each new image of families fleeing their homes and brave citizens fighting for their lives, we see how important it is for people around the world to come together to advance the cause of peace.”
He continued: “This moment calls for unity, it calls for courage, and it reminds us that we must never lose sight of the humanity we all share.”
What was announced
The Apple Peek Performance event featured a number of big product reveals, most notably the announcement of the Mac Studio with the crazy powerful M1 Ultra chip. It also unveiled a new iPhone SE, which features 5G and an A15 Bionic chip, plus a new iPad Air and hideous new iPhone colors.
