VisualSeed

The legal argument should never be "you should help us because you can afford to help us." If that was the criteria then courts should be able to compel the rich to feed the hungry or build houses for the homeless. I have a friend that I helped move 4 times over the last few years. This weekend I decided I didn't want to help for a 5th time. Am I somehow legally obligated to help because I own a truck and helped in the past?

I wish my life was filled with this level of disappointment... 

wood1208 said:

$1M, $2M $10Millions, what's a difference ? All our tax dollars. FBI don't have to go earn them. If they can protect us better than all worth it.

But they obviously can't protect us better. The number one function of our society is not crime (terrorism) prevention. $1.4M in tax payer money could be used for many different things much more beneficial to society than to try to one up someone in a pissing contest. 

sog35 said:

ihatescreennames said:

Don't you mean something along the lines of "Wow! Great job Tim Cook! I'm glad to see progress coming out of you!"?

There are some things that Cook is really good at:

1. Supply chain
2. Inventory managment
3. Closing deals - IBM, China Mobile, DocoMo, SAP

He is absolutely great at those things. But that does not make him a great CEO.

It really isn't a knock at Tim. Some people just are not meant to be CEO of the most powerful company on the planet. NO shame in that.

Apple needs a CEO who is a visionary and motivator. 
A CEO who is not afraid to call out the media/Wall Street.
A CEO who is willing to get his hands dirty and go to 'war' against his competitors.

No matter how great Jobs was as an idea man he sucked at managing a company. Had Cook not been there Jobs' second tenure at Apple would have looked like his first or like NeXT's. Great ideas and bad execution. Most companies do not rely on the CEO to think up new products ideas. They come from inside the company and the CEO's job is to cultivate the best ones and provide business conditions for making them successful. CEOs that spend their time arguing with wall street or blabbing about the future are usually not doing a good job running their companies. Cook has done a very good job at going to war against the competitors.. he decimated them. I see no evidence that Cook lacks vision and motivation. On the contrary, I see one of the most successful CEOs in history rightfully ignoring the distraction of millions of talentless armchair CEOs. Apple is behaving as Apple has always behaved, keeping its cards close to its vest and playing only the hands the are sure to win. 

bdkennedy said:

Steve would have done something for the person that bought it.

The person that bought it did get something special. An iPhone. 

That famous quote in Tora! Tora! Tora! about awaking a sleeping giant really applies here. Apple has a massive war chest and has never really spent much of it lobbying Washington. I think that's about to change.

maestro64 said:

It is all about better Optics and honestly the French aren't known for optics, that is the German and Japanese expertise. But really how much high tech has been known to originate in France.

This is very near Geneva (Switzerland). This area of France and all of Switzerland is well known for their high end imaging industry. AGFA has a huge medical imaging research facility just a few kilometers from here. On the consumer side, Canon and Nikon have also invested heavily in building research centers in France. 

I think it gets added as an option if anything. Space Grey is pretty set as a color across all Apple's products now. 

Get 'em while they're hot!

boltsfan17 said:

thedude1 said:

Still doesn't match T-Mobile's perks.

Some of the perks aren't as good as they are made out to be. The free international roaming is a joke. It's super slow because T-Mobile is throttling your speed. Even though it costs $2 to use, Verzion's offering is way better. You use your current data plan overseas with no limits on speed. 

I use it extensively and while it's kind of slow it is still usable and has saved me tons over using international roaming on AT&T or buying a local sim. For the summer in Europe, right now I'm enjoying full LTE speeds, so it's not all that bad.