nubus

Vestager is ultra pro open markets. It seems not all here get that part. She is pushing for competition all the way by keeping competition fair. If you're like Apple doing tax evasion with a "Double Irish with Dutch Sandwich" model then you can expect to take some heat. And EU is by the way not keeping fines. Those fines are 1:1 deducted from what the countries pay and EU can't charge taxes on their own. EU is not like the US government.

If Apple can't handle a person running things by the book, fighting for open markets, and being passionate about fair competition then the person replacing Vestager later this year will be a nightmare to Apple. The election earlier this month gave nationalistic parties more votes. Trade protectionism is high on their agenda. Tim Cook shouting at Vestager has all the way been very unprofessional. You don't see him like that when working with communist dictatorships.

Japhey said:

Every time Apple releases a new product, it is met with laughter, doubt, and confusion by the outside world. 

There have been many terrible launches. Some never recovered.

• iPhone 1 didn't sell and got a price cut by 33% (!) after 3 months while the base model was removed.
• Lisa (2700 ended in a landfill)
  
• G4 Cube failed on so many levels and then got repeated by the Trash Mac Pro which also failed.
• AppleWatch 0 failed (series 0 was sold as a fashion statement with celebrities and fashion designers). Refocused to be about health made it a success.
• Pippin, Newton, eMate, OpenDoc (did attend the press briefing in London and Apple didn't believe it would fly), AOCE (PowerTalk), iPod HiFi, and the car that never happened. There have been numerous failures.
• Rhapsody - it was only around 10.4 that Mac OS X started really working.

• iPod was right. Sure the FireWire was strange but navigation, storage, sync, charging using data cable,... it was perfect from day 1.
• iPad... same - as a surf + reading tablet with all-day battery at a time when iPhone had a small screen and laptops did 3 hours on a charge.
• AirPods - probably one of the best products ever by Apple. So well designed and integrated.

I really like the idea of Google Glass but a visor? Apple demand that employees are on-site 3 days per week to interact. They have designed their HQ to create interactions. No capes and no visors :-)

NickoTT said:

Is it even legal to tariff a specific company? 

We're beyond that. Harvard, Apple, a free 747-8, deporting US citizens, using the South Lawn as a dealer lot for Tesla, forcing Microsoft to block mail access for UN employees in Europe.... and tariffs at 145% or 10% or 25% or now 50% towards Apple, China, EU, an island with penguins... 

There is no way of calculating a business case with US manufacturing being far more expensive than just 25% compared to India. Apple might promise to build factories to get a cut on the tariffs. Then plan and build for 3 years, see Trump leave or markets crash, and use the buildings for data centers.

• This morning "tariffs on everyone - penguins especially".
• Earlier today "Trump to hit medicine with major tariffs"
• A bit later "125% on China". The Apple Polishing Cloth could be $45.
• Currently "10% on everything, 125% on China, 25% on steel and aluminum"
• And tomorrow the numbers are... 

It takes 30-40 days to ship products from a factory. Now we get 3 months of uncertainty.
Supply chains remain in distress.

The Hill should take back control. If Trump can wait 90 days then this is no national emergency.

Found a research paper on it. FineWoven is 100% petrol based, and the abrasion test (as measured in Martindale) is a disaster.
The longevity of the Apple series 14 leather cover is at least 100x higher making FineWoven a terrible product for customers and the planet. 
https://unic.it/storage/iPhone15ProMax_FineWoven_VS_LEATHER.pdf

The concept isn't even original. In 2020 Samsung created covers from used plastic bottles. Quality is on the level of leather. Samsung asked the fabric experts at Kvadrat to design and deliver the upcycled material. Would be nice to see Apple work with experts and test. FineWoven should never have shipped.

sirdir said:

Thank you so much Apple! You blocking me from re-downloading an app I paid for or even updating it when I move out of EU-land 

Indeed. For Apple to say "we're all about security" and block updates to already downloaded apps. Why? Is Apple really afraid that cruise ships will sail full steam to Saint Martin for thousands of US citizens to start downloading Spotify from EU marketplaces? This is a new low. We didn't need this.

pwrmac said:

Haha.. EU bureaucrats!! First they want to allow sideloading in iPhone and now they care or are concerned about user safety.

Eh... we're talking a directly elected parliament working with people elected by the local governments of 27 countries and the local governments are involved as well.
Democracy might not be the most efficient way of doing things and being held accountable does add to bureaucracy, but the alternatives are all worse.

With 539 votes for and 54 against this legislation has a very solid democratic support.

Very impressive. I do hope the choice of browser will get Apple to work harder on Webkit/Safari. Also nice that companies don't need to refuel games through Apple. Even Tesla doesn't operate like that.

This might well be the final victory of Vestager as she is leaving EU. Apple should offer her a job. She's one fierce negotiator. Getting 27 countries behind this and making it happen. Well played. Also nice that Apple didn't repeat the USB C fiasco but moved on.

Completed an audit on 1000 Adobe licenses earlier today (spent a month doing it). There are some obvious replacements:

• Photoshop - Apple Pixelmator Pro is fantastic.
• Premiere Pro - Final Cut Pro is the replacement. You can even get a license for a shared computer while Adobe won't do unless EDU.
• Acrobat Pro - Preview does allow for PDF files to be combined and signing can be handled by other tools. pdf24 is OK for online use.
• InDesign is still the industry standard. I don't expect to ever go back to Quark.
• Illustrator was never fantastic. I don't see a switch to CorelDraw. Perhaps Affinity?
• XD... the last UX'er moved to Figma years ago. No wonder Adobe tried to buy it.
• After Effects... motion designers really like this.
• Lightroom... PhotoMechanic is what professionals use - at least if they need to deliver.

Companies could benefit from understanding their license use. Widespread use of Adobe software indicates a lot of non-creatives spending time on stuff they shouldn't spend their time on. We're talking broken workflows, that someone created templates for the SoMe team in Photoshop, manual steps, or "hidden factories" / failed outsourcing.

londor said:

Xed said:

How much did he impose on Ukraine?

10%. AFAIK Russia and North Korea were the only two countries excluded from the tariffs. 

Cuba and Belarus are also members of the U.S. non-tariff zone. Ukraine - exporting less than Russia - got hit by 10%.
There is a 20% tariff on SSDs but 145% on memory cards affecting U.S. photographers. Governments are not supposed to work like this or be allowed to.