AWT News Update: November 17, 2017

A very light news day today, so you’ll be able to listen to this podcast quickly on your way to drinks with your buddies!

• The new Apple Park Visitor’s Center opened to the public today, complete with swag you can buy
• Tesla introduces a set of new products that could be very useful to iPhone users
• Developer betas of iOS 11.2, watchOS 4.2 and tvOS 11.2 are out

The text version of the podcast can be read below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Apple News readers need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.

Text Version

This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update podcast for Friday, November 17th, 2017. 

The new Apple Park campus Visitor’s Center opened to the public today. The building, like many of the facilities at the new Apple headquarters, is beautiful, with a cantilevered carbon fiber roof that looks like it’s floating in midair over the glass walls of the center. A 3D model of Apple Park is located inside the building, providing guests with an augmented reality tour through dedicated iPads. While it’s not a full Apple retail outlet, a number products and accessories can be purchased at the site. Much more importantly for Apple fans, there are exclusive t-shirts, hats, and more on sale. A rooftop terrace provides a look at the rest of the campus, and you can enjoy coffee, tea and snacks while visiting. 

Finally, there appears to be a Tesla product even I can afford. After last night’s reveal of the new Tesla Roadster and Tesla Semi, the company also revealed a small iPhone/iPad charging power bank that looks similar to the Tesla supercharger monument in Hawthorne, California. The small device uses a single 3350 mAh power cell, the same type that’s used in the Tesla Model S and X cars. The Tesla Powerbank costs $45, or you can get a scale model Desktop Supercharger that looks just like the ones found around the world. Just like Tesla’s Model 3, they seem to have problems keeping production up with demand as both of these charging gizmos are out of stock. 

Our last story on this slow news Friday is that Apple has issued the fourth betas of iOS 11.2, watchOS 4.2 and tvOS 11.2 to developers. This is just a few days since the last betas were delivered, which usually indicates that the public release of the new operating systems could happen soon.

That’s all for today; I’ll be back Monday afternoon with another edition of the AWT News Update.