Apple's design team has created a new kind of protective mask that's being distributed to retail and corporate employees, reports Bloomberg.
The mask is called the Apple Face Mask and it was developed in-house in Cupertino by the Engineering and Industrial Design teams at Apple. Last week, an Apple employee sent MacRumors an image of the mask design, which can be seen up above.
The Apple Face Mask features a three-layer design that filters both incoming and outgoing particles like many cloth masks, and it can be washed and reused up to five times. The mask has a design with a triangle shape to accommodate the nose without fogging glasses, a rounded section for the chin, and adjustable strings for the ears.
Apple told Bloomberg that it conducted "careful research and testing" to find appropriate materials to filter the air while not disrupting supplies of medical personal protective equipment.
Apple's employees will begin receiving Apple Face Masks over the course of the next two weeks. Apple also provides basic surgical masks to customers who visit its stores, but these are not Apple-designed masks.
Update: This article has been updated. The original article referenced a second mask, the ClearMask, but it turns out the second mask was not designed by Apple. Apple is, however, distributing the ClearMask to some of its retail employees because it shows the entire face so that people who are deaf and hard of hearing can understand what the wearer is saying. Apple is also working on its own transparent mask to be distributed to employees in the future.
Update 2: MacRumors has received additional photos of the Apple Face Mask.
Update 3:
Mark Gurman shares a series of unboxing photos of the Apple Mask:
Here’s your Apple Mask unboxing… unsurprisingly like any other Apple product. https://t.co/Ff0d9nQ6kl pic.twitter.com/9TLQs0V6Lf — Mark Gurman (@markgurman) September 11, 2020
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