gatorguy

rob53 said:

Why in Texas? People thought Apple's products were getting too expensive, just wait for products coming out of Texas. They will break everyone's budget. Who in Texas will actually work at this manufacturing facility? Will everything be automated? Where will the people for these 20K come from, India? Who's going to build the facility? Not the hardest workers from south of the border. trump made sure of that.

Final assembly will be in Texas, and only for servers that Apple is using in their own facilities. All the pieces will still be imported, already matched and boards fully assembled, just needing to be put in the shells. In actuality, probably nothing changes from what Apple was already doing and planning. But Trump likes his boasting moments and Apple is giving him one he'll be allowed to take credit for. 

linkman said:

Do we have any idea as to what the biggest competitors to Apple in this space -- Android and/or Samsung -- is doing regarding this? I can only imagine they have complied without notifying anyone or are soon to announce their plan.

Without a major software change, Google would be unable to comply. Unlike Apple, Google does not allow users to disable E2EE for user cloud backups or Google Messaging. It's automatic and not opt-in, and Google has no key. 

Also no mmWave in the 16e sold in the US, which may or may not be important to you.  The other 16's do. Outside of the US, iPhones don't include mmWave antennas anyway AFAIK, no matter the model, so it wouldn't matter.

Hreb said:

As an iphone 12 user, the clumsy, giant form factor of the 16e combined with lack of magsafe makes the 16e extremely uncompelling.  It's not even cheap.  Zero chance this is my next smartphone.

As the owner of a very good and fully operational 11 I would agree. The 16E is not at all tempting. 

godofbiscuitssf said:

And in the USA, the US Government will manipulate Apple Intelligence to reply that the body of water officially known internationally as "Gulf of Mexico" is instead supposedly "Gulf of America".

LOL! The US Government doesn't proactively manipulate Apple Intelligence results, unlike the Chinese authorities. They can't, so "Yeah but whaddabout" doesn't equate.
Staying on topic would make this a better discussion thread. 

So keeping it there, Apple's Private Compute in China will not be so private. Agencies will presumably have access to all cloud processed user requests as needed.