avon b7

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avon b7
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  • Here are all the big changes to Apple Maps from 2017 through 2019

    They have to try. That is clear, but Google is well out in front at the moment.

    I went to a funeral yesterday up on the mountain. Google gave me directions for public transport right down to the unique identifier of the bus stop and the minutes to wait for the next bus. Updated in real time to reflect delays caused by traffic.
    tylersdadcornchipmuthuk_vanalingamargonautwaltgravnorodom
  • EU hits back at Apple withholding Apple Intelligence from the region

    rob53 said:
    avon b7 said:
    This:

    "Specifically, we are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security," said Apple. "We are committed to collaborating with the European Commission in an attempt to find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety."


    And then this:

    "From previous statements including ones to AppleInsider, it's known that Apple has been continually working with the EU on its responses to the DMA, so it's reasonable to assume that will continue.

    Leads to the question: Why even bother putting the subject into the public domain if communication and clarification are ongoing? 

    Far better to say as little as possible until things are clarified. All it takes is clarification and all for a roll out that isn't even planned for this year! 

    Basically FUD on Apple's part and Vestager has a valid point in her response to a question that wouldn't have been asked if it weren't for Apple. 




    Basically FUD on the part of EU-loving commenters. Apple has a right to provide whatever capabilities it wants to in whatever country/region it wants to. You're buying a product with certain features. There's nothing that says Apple has to provide the EU with everything it has the capability of including. The EU can demand Apple provide everything but that's not the way companies work. This is a brand new Apple capability and Apple has the right to provide it when they feel it's ready, not when a corrupt EU demands it. At this point, I feel Apple is well within its rights to start charging for features in countries it wants to. As far as I'm concerned, Apple should start charging for macOS, iOS, tvOS, iPadOS along with every Apple app and feature it wants to. I'd like to see the EU try and force Apple to provide everything for free. It isn't going to happen.
    No one is disputing Apple's right to bring or not bring certain features to the EU. That is up to them and is irrelevant here. 

    The point is 'making a meal out of something' and putting it down to the DMA even when Apple itself claims it's in contact with the EU on the subject and also claims not to know what is possible or not. 

    It's all completely unnecessary on Apple's part. Why not simply ask the EU and wait for a reply? 
    muthuk_vanalingam9secondkox2h2pkillroyspheric
  • Apple must pay EU $14 billion over Ireland tax arrangement

    "We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate and there has never been a special deal"

    Part of the investigation suggesed that Apple was effectively deciding for itself how much to make available and then paying what Apple itself said it, ehem, 'owed'.

    That resulted in the 0,005% for one particular year. 

    Then Tim Cook came out and said "Apple has values". It's a shame no one bothered ask him to define them with regards to taxation. 

    And then, according to him, it was "political crap". 

    That begs the question "what kind of crap was it when you paid 0.005% in the EU and funnelled taxation away from the countries that generated the income?" 

    As for there never being a special deal, we know that Apple has admitted one in the past but claimed it was so long ago that no one remembered the details. 

    Not dissimilar to when high ranking executives get hauled before Congress and suddenly 'lose' their memories. 

    Apple has changed its ways over the years but only under pressure. 

    In fact, there was a cut-off point for the investigation that led to this situation which meant it could not consider some of those earlier years. 

    Of course way back then, Apple was a smaller company and that it why things didn't pop up on the radar for so long. 



    ctt_zhmuthuk_vanalingamforgot usernamenubussphericLettuceronnHedware
  • Liquid metal hinge in iPhone Fold rumored to be twice as strong as titanium

    This makes a lot of sense if only because this technology has been in use on folding phones since 2019 (with the same claimed 2.5 times stronger than titanium specs) and, later, on smartwatches (and things like Tesla door lock casings).

    Things took off when Eontec bought into Liquidmetal and both companies were able to pool their strengths.

    I believe Liquidmetal was limited to parts of less than 100g whereas Eontec was able to produce parts beyond that limit. 
    randominternetpersonmuthuk_vanalingamSmittyWtiredskillswatto_cobra
  • Trump confirms he reduced tariffs to help Tim Cook

    As I said a long time ago, intelligent people are in charge snd apple will be ok. The president will have a way to navigate Apple through some difficult decidd add jobs. And it has come to pass. 

    Cook was wise to open the door of discussion dnd thr president has been wise in response. 

    I know it’s popular in this particular online space to detract from the president no matter what he does, but the fact is tarriffs are necessary -yet it’s sldd add o necessary to protect Americans and American companies. The idea is to put the pressure on other countries, particularly China - and not on American companies. 

    It’s not changing mindset. It’s continuing forward motion, msnuevering as needed. That’s only good stuff snd Apple is the better for it. As this year marks time for my iPhone upgrade and early next is my next Mac purchase, I am a pretty happy potential customer right about now. 
    If intelligent people were involved, surely none of this would have been necessary. 

    He imposed tariffs. There were little to no exceptions. He let that situation sit while markets collapsed everywhere. He doubled down on there being no change of thought and barely hours after saying there would be no backing down, he did just that, suspending 'reciprocal' tariffs for 90 days. 

    Then, late Friday exemptions were put in place.

    By late Sunday we were being told there were no real exemptions (according to Lutnick) but a sort of pause within a pause and everyone was 'on the hook' (according to Trump) and that new tariffs were being devised to replace the original ones but they simply weren't ready and we know no one will even dare explain them (because they are being cooked up as we speak and don't exist). 

    Even within the administration mixed messaging is emerging and now we are to believe Trump is 'flexible'?

    It is nice to hear about walls and going over or below them, or even around them but the US decided to crash straight into them. 

    There is no intelligence on show here. It's the complete opposite. Chaos and reaction to the problems chaos brings. 

    Intelligence would never have seen this mess get to this point. 

    Intelligence would not have seen Trump congratulating his pals for stock market gains hours before he announced another walk back (opening him up to valid insider trading accusations). 


    Tim Cook and every CEO and small business owner in the US would know what trade policy is and be acting on it. That isn't happening because there is NO stable trade policy.

    Everyone is running blind. 


    sconosciutodavJanNLAppleZuluForumPostjcs2305Hillsish1danoxkurai_kagesinophilia
  • Trump confirms he reduced tariffs to help Tim Cook

    avon b7 said:
    As I said a long time ago, intelligent people are in charge snd apple will be ok. The president will have a way to navigate Apple through some difficult decidd add jobs. And it has come to pass. 

    Cook was wise to open the door of discussion dnd thr president has been wise in response. 

    I know it’s popular in this particular online space to detract from the president no matter what he does, but the fact is tarriffs are necessary -yet it’s sldd add o necessary to protect Americans and American companies. The idea is to put the pressure on other countries, particularly China - and not on American companies. 

    It’s not changing mindset. It’s continuing forward motion, msnuevering as needed. That’s only good stuff snd Apple is the better for it. As this year marks time for my iPhone upgrade and early next is my next Mac purchase, I am a pretty happy potential customer right about now. 
    If intelligent people were involved, surely none of this would have been necessary. 

    He imposed tariffs. There were little to no exceptions. He let that situation sit while markets collapsed everywhere. He doubled down on there being no change of thought and barely hours after saying there would be no backing down, he did just that, suspending 'reciprocal' tariffs for 90 days. 

    Then, late Friday exemptions were put in place.

    By late Sunday we were being told there were no real exemptions (according to Lutnick) but a sort of pause within a pause and everyone was 'on the hook' (according to Trump) and that new tariffs were being devised to replace the original ones but they simply weren't ready and we know no one will even dare explain them (because they are being cooked up as we speak and don't exist). 

    Even within the administration mixed messaging is emerging and now we are to believe Trump is 'flexible'?

    It is nice to hear about walls and going over or below them, or even around them but the US decided to crash straight into them. 

    There is no intelligence on show here. It's the complete opposite. Chaos and reaction to the problems chaos brings. 

    Intelligence would never have seen this mess get to this point. 

    Intelligence would not have seen Trump congratulating his pals for stock market gains hours before he announced another walk back (opening him up to valid insider trading accusations). 


    Tim Cook and every CEO and small business owner in the US would know what trade policy is and be acting on it. That isn't happening because there is NO stable trade policy.

    Everyone is running blind. 


    Incorrect. It’s because of intelligent and good people that we are finally addressing long-standing abuses and doing so in a way that is benefitting Americans as much as possible and sparing collateral damage where possible. It’s not changing your mind when you planned to do something already. Trump hinted at this previously and we saw precedent in his first term. And that El Salvador president sure seemed to respect him tremendously. 

    The right thing to do isn’t to continue to be ripped off. Nor is it to apply tarriffs without concern for American companies. 

    People elected the president in a number of issues. This is one. The previous admin let American get bullied around. We saw a microcosm of that with Apple and the EU. That era is over. All of a sudden we hear the eu saying they’re willing to deal. We hear them second guessing their ridiculously exorbitant fees charged against Apple for stuff they make up as they go along. America is strong again. And as a result, so are Americans and our companies. This is good. A lot of mental acrobatics to try to spin it any other way. 

    Are you saying this is the intelligent way to address these issues? That there were no, far, far less damaging options available to reach the same goals?

    If you are then that is utterly absurd. 

    The damage has already been done. None of it was necessary. 

    It was not intelligent to send someone like JD Vance to the Munich Security Conference to proclaim there was a 'new sheriff in town'. That was plain stupid, disrespectful and embarrassing. It wasn't intelligent to belittle world leaders by saying they were queueing up to kiss his ass. It wasn't intelligent to speak of the Chinese as peasants (in any context). It wasn't intelligent to speak about the 'Governor' of Canada or the '51st state'. It wasn't intelligent to speak about using force to take Greenland. It wasn't intelligent to begin 'peace' talks on Ukraine without Ukraine at the talks. It wasn't intelligent to speak about not letting the people of Gaza back. Or taking control of the Panama Canal. 

    All of the above should have been approached in an entirely different manner because he has achieved nothing to date and created I'll-will everywhere. Not intelligent when you never know when you might need the collaboration of someone else. 

    Tariffs are not new. Tariffs are not a problem. 

    The Trump Tariffs are a problem because they immediately became counterproductive and led to pushback and counter-tariffs from the EU (suspended in good faith) and China (pushing back hard).

    Not to mention that two weeks after Liberation Day, nothing has been 'liberated'. Ironic. 

    Let's also skip over the fact that so much of what he said he would do would happen on Day 1.

    So the CEOs of all the top US companies now have literally no idea of what's going to happen next apart from they are all 'on the hook'.

    If Trump had done the intelligent thing he would have communicated his plans (those that impacted top US corporations) to make things clear. 

    Did he do that, in spite of talking to Tim Cook for example? Because if he did do that, Tim Cook wouldn't have airlifted millions of iPhones from India. Right? Or is it Tim heard him out and still thought 'oh, shit!'.

    There is no intelligence on show here and the evidence is piling up daily. 
    Hillsish1danoxkurai_kagesinophiliamr.scottthedbailarynxtiredskillsmuthuk_vanalingamwoodymirag
  • US may ban the most popular home router over Chinese security fears

    It's all basically nonsense and definitely has nothing to do with the blanket claim of 'national security'.

    Even the Pentagon still relies on waivers to skirt 'obligations'. 

    https://fortune.com/asia/2024/07/03/pentagon-huawei-ban-national-defense-authorization-act/

    Much of the internet ends up running over vast networks of fibreoptic cables and Huawei has laid (and manages) thousands of km of underwater lines. 

    The so called 'clean networks' that the US tries to promote (while trying to keep a straight face) are also nonsense.

    Huawei offered to licence its entire 5G stack to a US consortium (just to allow it to have something of 'its own' to control) but the US refused.

    The reality is (and always was) that the US sees China as being able to overtake it in key areas and instead of trying to compete with better products and technologies it chooses to try and bludgeon any rival out of the game. 

    That includes 'allies' who used Chinese technology (5G for example) and who refused to play along. Just ask Boris. 

    https://www.ft.com/content/a70f9506-48f1-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d

    https://frontierindia.com/cias-black-ops-led-the-uk-to-drop-huawei-5g-book-reveals/?srsltid=AfmBOopICiosJ_OrLJshH8Hvh5XsjrMdXnaWYFfPhtMlbJg6G-7Q_XcV&utm_content=cmp-true

    The UK was a prime example, seeing its 5G capacity and performance crumple into one of the worst in the EU and costing billions in the process. 

    As a result China has become more self sufficient and is on an accelerated path to further self sufficiency. 

    Erradicating TP-Link from US systems will do nothing to enhance national security and using Cisco might even make things riskier! Maybe that's tongue in cheek.

    The internet is what it is, and has to be, for what we expect of it even if the US (and China too) would like to see it split apart in order to gain more 'control'. 

    I believe Trump once put forward the idea of an 'American 5G' and had to be 'informed' of reality. If that is true (and I believe he suggested Apple create it) I'm sure it wasn't tongue in cheek. 

    tht9secondkox2muthuk_vanalingamAlex1N
  • US and China temporarily lower tariffs to start trade negotiations

    Thatguy2 said:
    USA wins yet another trade deal, and this one where everyone said china would never cave. Now 90 days to make it permanent and help our farmers with more china purchases like last time. Impressive 
    It is as far from a trade deal as it was last week. 

    The  recently announced US-UK 'deal' wasn't a trade deal either. 

    These are 'goodwill' talks at best. Goodwill obviously being a stretch as we are in an 'America First!' world now where everyone else only exists to follow the orders of the new sheriff. 

    Trade deals can take a very long time to be hammered out. They definitely aren't done over a weekend. 

    China did not cave. While the Trump administration was claiming the Chinese were in talks (without providing details) the Chinese said no such talks had taken place. 

    Later, it was Bessent who admitted there had been no contact with China (that of course changed this past weekend). 

    The first Trump term agriculture bailout (to save US agricultural farms suffering from his very own tariffs) still saw a 20% increase in farm bankruptcy petitions.

    2024 farm bankruptcy filings rose 55%. Can you imagine the impact of 2025 'Liberation Day' tariffs? Even in spite of a Trump 2 bailout (which he has already said are not off the table). 

    No. It's not impressive. It's terrifying. 

    Now try to imagine the Trump/Farming/Tariffs trident but just substitute 'farming' for 'semiconductors'. 

    Latest news was that Nvidia wrote down a staggering $5B through potential lost sales to China just a couple of weeks ago. $5B in an industry (AI) where, for China alone, Nvidia says could be worth $50B. That is potentially a huge revenue loss and those revenues are for future R&D. Jensen went to the White House in an attempt to transmit the harm being done. Tim Cook was there too (via video link). 


    Apple absolutely relies on the semiconductor supply chain and exemptions are a very fickle thing. Moreso with Trump. 

    Apple will have its own set of chip related issues going forward and that, in the bigger picture will include lost business through China having been forced to create a supply chain (a full stack solution) from scratch devoid of any US technology. And that is entirely independent of tariffs but is business lost forever. 

    Everything is interconnected.

    And now, right this month, news out of China (relative to lithography advances and chip manufacturing) will have sent a shudder down the spine of all US-China hawks.

    It's rumours at the moment but, at this point, who would bet against it? 

    One thing seems clearcut. Trump doesn't hold any, ehem, trump cards. 
    londorteejay2012XedvesaliustrainMan83muthuk_vanalingamalgnormsinophiliabloggerblogfreeassociate2
  • 'Verifiably untrustworthy' Epic Games iOS app store plans in EU killed by Apple

    This doesn't look good for Apple on the face of it.

    Apple has the last word on 'trust'?

    I can't see that going down well in the EU. 

    I suppose Epic will accuse Apple of discrimination. 

    We'll see. 

    muthuk_vanalingamlam921039secondkox2killroyelijahgxyzzy-xxx
  • EU antitrust chief & Apple foe Margrethe Vestager out after 10 years

    rob53 said:
    spheric said:

    tlinn said:
    I will forever be grateful to the Europeans for forcing Apple to adopt USB-C. But the idea that Apple shouldn't be compensated for developing a platform that allows thousands of developers to make a living, or that the "fair" amount of compensation should be decided by developers seems ridiculous to me. Apple is not a charity, nor do they exist to be the world's R&D department. Much of what the Europeans are doing feels like protectionism.

    That said, there are plenty of examples where Apple disadvantages its own customers and stifles innovation—like forcing all browsers to use the same engine. This is where government action should focus. 
    There is no evidence that EU forced Apple to go USB-C as Apple was already heading there. Yes they put it into law, but the market was already forcing Apple to go USB-C. Due to timing, EU got the credit. 
    These statements are so telling: you all think the EU is all about Apple. Fact is, the EU doesn’t give a SHIT about Apple: the USB-C standardisation was about getting EVERYBODY to unify their charging. Apple was already headed there because they aren’t stupid and knew it was coming (and they probably talk regularly with the Commission), having sat out the horrific micro-USB suggestion. 

    The EU rightfully gets the credit for kicking everybody into supporting a single standard — they’d already been working with various manufacturers for a decade before Apple finally switched their iPhones, as well. 
    Why does everybody have to unify their charging standard? Europe has all kinds of electrical "standards" so why don't they adopt America's standard? There's no way America will adopt any non-American electrical standard. This is the EU having a double standard. They want to keep their standard and force others to adopt theirs even if it's inferior to others. How many electronic products are actually developed by the EU? Not anywhere near the number developed in the USA yet the EU continues to force American companies to do the stupid things the EU demands they do. 
    "Why does everyone have to unify their charging standards?" 

    Please read the impact assessments and the preamble to the legislation because you obviously haven't done that. The answer to your question is there. 

    'Standardisation' is a common goal in many fields but there are always exceptions, even within standards. The more ingrained a national standard, the harder it is to standardise across a bloc. That is why, in the case of electrical equipment we have power supplies that cover a range of options.

    The common charger initiative was relatively easy to implement in that sense (but there are exceptions there too) because of the fast moving pace of that industry, which is not limited to mobile phones by the way and does allow for better options down the line. The difference will be that the changes are implemented uniformly across industry.

    No one is asking America to adopt non-American standards. America can do as it pleases and EU companies have to comply. Just like US companies (and EU companies) have to comply with EU regulations if they want to do business here. 
    VictorMortimermuthuk_vanalingamsphericNotSoMuchCheeseFreeze