Lettuce

strongy said:

cropr said:

The title is misleading:  Apple must not pay the amount to the EU, but to the Irish government.     The court has decided that the reduced tax rate  must be considered as illegal government aid to a private company.  This illegal aid must be reimbursed to Ireland.    

Ireland is on apple's side they said as much, i bet you the all the EU wanted was get its hand on all that money at least they don't get any of it.

stencil said:

Apple might very well shoot itself in the foot with here.
There are economic reasons for once. Apple products are already sold with a premium in Europe. European customers are very price conscious. This makes Apple products less popular in Europe, i.e. Apple's market share in Europe is considerable but not as big as in the US.
If Apple withholds features it might make competitors devices more desirable when those all of a sudden see an opportunity and decide to implement popular AI features. On top of this would be the fact that most of the competitions devices are still cheaper.
Taking all of this in consideration and add to it the economic headwinds Apple is experiencing in China it might turn out not to be the smartest move.

On the other hand and apart from economic reasons this is also about loosing credibility for Apple. I have lived in a couple of country in my life and I can say that no matter how critical people are towards their institutions they don't like it if someone from outside criticizes the same thing. Big cooperations need to learn to respect local customs and institutions no matter how worthy of criticism they are. Apple's wording is quite condescending, though.

avon b7 said:

My scheduled video conference with HP has hit the skids. I was told at 8am this morning that IT support were working on the problem but I doubt they'll apply the machine-by-machine workaround offered by Crowdstrike which requires booting into Safe Mode and deleting a file.

It's touch and go for the meeting which is scheduled to start in 30 minutes. 

It is more likely they'll wait for the fix from Crowdstrike to flush through the systems. 

Global automated updates should be rolled out in phases to catch these glitches before they become wildfires. 

I see some airlines still have boarding cards that can be handwritten for the lucky ones who have been able to get off the ground.

EDIT: meeting postponed.

rob53 said:

spheric said:

Fidonet127 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. 

spheric said:

sbdude said:

 Imagine if Apple geo-fenced people who created their Apple Account in Alaska so that if they traveled to Texas they wouldn't be able to see half of their music. The US would regulate them to stop that behavior (and rightly so). That is what this is about, it's just countries in the EU rather than states in the US.

That might be the most ridiculous comparison I've ever read. Comparing states within a single country to various countries within an economic union is an oversimplification of the nuanced national laws each country in the EU may have. In the US, interstate commerce is regulated by the Federal Government; there is one single framework. The States do not have the ability to regulate purchases made outside of their respective jurisdictions. While the EU may provide for a common currency, and the fabulous gifts Margrethe Vestager bestows upon business, each EU member still has their own laws and regulations to comply. There's a reason Apple has it's European headquarters in Ireland, an EU member: the laws are more favorable. The EU would rather you ignore that basic fact.

Errrr…does the concept of a "Common Market" ring a bell? 

It's kind of central to the whole idea of the European Union. 

https://european-union.europa.eu/priorities-and-actions/actions-topic/single-market_en

I also rather enjoy how you single out Apple's Ireland HQ — in complete ignorance of how that backfired, spectacularly, to the tune of some $14 billion, because the Irish regulations were found to be in violation of the EU law governing exactly the the unified regulation you claim does not exist. 

Brilliantly done — if satire. 

If not: Wow.  

apple4thewin said:

I turned on an iPhone 5c the other day and instantly nostalgia hit, and I remembered that the gyroscope on the phone can let you also see the background move. With that being said, it feels off because of how outdated the UI is, especially being used to iOS 17 and 18. (The iPhone 5c’s last update is in iOS 10.)

hammeroftruth said:

Has the European Commission ever released a report on how many smaller competitors that are not Epic or Spotify are harmed by Apple specifically by anti-competitive practices and not by bad business decisions?  I remember some dating apps that were joining with Epic in Europe, but I haven’t seen any examples in these articles where there is some factual evidence that legitimate anti-competitive practices from Apple has harmed a small competitor from making a service or product and the consumer would also be harmed. 

I understand Sherlocking, and I’m no fan of Apple doing that, but I would like to see if Appleinsider has ever seen a report that has legitimate evidence that this draconian behavior has bore fruit that has benefited the customer.