semi_guy
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A call from Tim Cook helped convince Trump to introduce tariff exemptions
i heard that same NPR interview yesterday with Munchkin CEO. His points are comments were identical as those expressed with other small and medium size businesses. They have spent significant capital setting molds and equipment in China. That equipment, tools, and molds cannot be exported, and the current administration is not even addressing the simple problem of visa/license/export issues. In addition to those simple issues, there greater problem is that there are no equivalent factories, trained workforce, or supply chain. Those take years to create, debug, and train. In the meantime, those businesses stopped ordering and there will be a shortage of items in 60 days. The lead time once orders start is 45 days, with the waffling of red light/green light on tariff, no company is going to start orders. The lack of material will even drive prices much higher than the tariff, and worse than in COVID. Those companies without revenue will laid off people, close, or go bankrupt.So you might be able to order and get an iPhone, but not find a case, adapter, mount, or cable, even if you wanted to pay extra. Can't imagine the cost of auto parts and the increase on our auto insurance since parts will be more expensive, if they are available. -
China escalates US tariff war by halting rare earth mineral exports
Rare earth mining is not that minerals are rare, they are abundant on earth's crust. It is very difficult to separate them and requires an open pit mining. Open pit mining is a large scale destruction of the environment and pollution of land, water, and air. Finding an isolated place with the minerals to mine that you do not mind polluting is very difficult. Rare earth metals has been a priority in Biden's administration, as well. In fact, Mountain Pass in the US was sending its mining to China to be separated. Mountain Pass acquired the bankrupt mine in 2017. The original mine was on operation in 2010-2015. -
Tim Cook may have met with Trump during WWDC to discuss second term priorities
hexclock said:foregoneconclusion said:The 2017 tax cuts that CEOs used for stock buybacks are due to expire. These are the same tax cuts that the Fed predicted would increase inflation. Go figure…Reducing the corporate tax rate to compete with other countries allowed US companies to repatriate billions of dollars back to the United States.According to the CBO those tax cuts increased federal tax revenue because the economy grew. Inflation came from all the crazy spending congress has done over the last few years, starting during the pandemic.Then all these semiconductor companies asked government to fund them more factories and they got the chip act.In short, greed caused inflation. Crazy spending in excessive tax breaks, low interest, and government handouts to industry added a second wave to the inflation. Pandemic spending prevented many companies and individuals from going bankrupt and that spending ended 3 years ago. However, companies realized they could raise prices and still maintain their customers. Hence, many companies have reported record profits in the past couple of years: greed... -
Apple TV+ shares second season trailers for 'Home Before Dark,' 'Trying'
Home Before Dark had some good moments. Its mediocre show whose premise had so much potential, but the series fail to exploit.The adults are all hobbled with past psychological issues, the kids run around with little adult supervision and messing things up, those in the law and power are very corrupt with some good ones trying to make a difference. So it somewhat mirrors many of the problems of a lot of towns and small cities. The show seems to drag the plot too much. Maybe it will be better in the second season.I would say so far Ted Lasso, Mosquito coast and Tehran had been the best shows I have seen so far. -
Apple's A12Z Bionic chip could be a re-binned A12X
Disabling and limiting for price points is to save test time and improve yields. Not testing a part of the CPU can save precious test time which leads into a cheaper part. Also portions of the chip might not be as fast as the rest due to longer paths to memory, main busses, power rails, etc. Thus, it is faster to test and produce higher yields leading to savings in manufacturing costs. Moreover, a portion of the chip might add too much power consumption or noise to the system, so it is better to shut it off. There could be a bug with a portion of the chip where timing closure was tight and a subsequent version addresses this issue or reduces the power consumption. Given that Apple is the only customer for their own parts, disabling a portion is probably one of these concerns rather than pricing for additional features or speed.