EsquireCats
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Intel delays rollout of 7-nanometer chips by six months
I daresay Apple wouldn't be dropping intel if they could keep to a reliable schedule. How was Apple expected to respond if Intel's speed bumps were largely driven by making hotter, more power consuming chips.
That is:
- why there are so many mobile chips in Apple's range of desktop machines
- why their laptop range barely gets bumps and has had no significant design changes in years
- why the entire mac range has stagnated to the point that people think Apple have given up on the Mac
Of course Apple want full control also, meaning they can further enhance the relationship between their hardware and software, have exclusive benefits in their hardware, but crucially have long term strategies in play for their hardware and device ranges.
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Lawsuit claims Apple 'perpetuates' iTunes gift card scams
There’s quite a few problems with this case:
- the fault isn’t with Apple, but the concept of payment with gift cards. (Apple is irrelevant as the scam can use any gift card, a bounced cheque, empty prepay Visa card or anything that falsely holds value.)
- the second is the transference of police or legal powers to Apple. Apple aren’t the government. Fraud must be reported to the police, and from there action taken. Apple can’t oversee or validate the transactions of consenting 3rd parties.- Commerce is based on buyer beware principles, from 2nd hand Apple hardware that doesn’t boot to illegitimate gift cards. There is no reasonable expectation for Apple to track and police the 3rd party resale of their products.- Asking for such accomodations open a reverse scam: where fraudulent sellers merely cancel the cards *after* the sale is made. After all, the seller would have the original receipt from Apple.- Finally, individual responsibility and accountability must come into fair balance with what is being requested of Apple. This is what is meant by “life isn’t fair”, if someone scams another, it’s because the victim for their own fault did not make adequate protections(whether through escrow, insurance or vigilance), there isn’t a “fairness fairy” to come and make it all right again.
While on the topic of buyer beware: don’t buy massively discounted itunes gift store cards from ebay.
and just as a cherry on top: Apple don’t get “30%”, gift store cards are sold at discount through retail and those cards aren’t free to produce/ship.
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Google Chrome to gain MacBook battery-saving features soon
Many users have noticed that the web doesn't "feel" any faster than it does from years ago - and they're largely correct in this thinking and Google is largely at fault of this with their garbage, overreaching, tracking scripts.
As performance and average internet speed increases, the complexity and number of tracking scripts on websites has increased. Additionally these scripts are from multiple vendors, each performing duplicate functions. Google's own tracking scripts are responsible for a significant slow down of the web, and there is no efficiency between running a script for Google's analytics (which you should never do by the way), and their other services. Additionally other methods used to fingerprint the user also require significant upstream too.
This became most noticed during the introduction of the EU's GDPR, where examples of non-tracking versions of the websites were over 90% smaller in size and significantly faster to use. (Source: )
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Apple makes $1.8 billion in UK, but pays just $8m in tax
Not in defence of Apple, but this is cherry picking the numbers, and misrepresents the reality of the int'l tax law problem. The core is that international tax law is fundamentally incompatible with globalisation or globally spanning businesses. All countries wish to obtain tax in their markets, but simultaneously also wish to claim the tax built from the value provided by their markets - both feel valid, but it essentially means two countries are vying for the same tax dollars.As an example, if you have an orange orchard in the USA. But sell orange juice in the UK, it's possible that all of your UK revenue will be spent on acquiring the staff, rent, utilities, local investment and local marketing, that means that despite earning revenue in the country, your tax bill is zero because all of the profits were spent on operations in the local economy. It also means that the largest component of tax paid will be in the USA, since the USA sold the oranges to the UK subsidiary. Despite this increase in UK productivity and economic function, the zero tax bill has poor optics, since the lay person believes that a company's sole contribution to the economy is via tax. (It's actually via gainful employment.)The kerfuffle between Apple, Ireland and the EU right now is centred in this idea. Apple aren't paying less tax than they should - no - rather there is disagreement if it should be paid to Ireland or the USA. The USA is the main source of Apple's intellectual property (both their own and 3rd parties), and if those costs are fairly licensed to the Ireland subsidiary that would erode Apple's Irish profit, and thus taxable income.In the case of the UK, it's almost certain that the taxation is being paid into Ireland, as it's the regional centre. Tax problems are way more nuanced than comparing revenue versus company tax - when you see the two being compared in conclusive terms it means that someone is trying to fool you.
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'iPhone 12' packaging render points to lack of EarPods, AC adapter
I think it's more interesting how people literally can't think "outside of the [iPhone] box".If Apple are going to provide a range of charging options and cables, then it makes total sense to remove the charger from the standard packaging. It's not a baseless idea: two of the EU's concerns about Apple's use of lightning have been charger waste and the need to purchase secondary cables to use other charging options. Apple can work to resolve these concerns by letting the user choose their cable and charging solution. That could include USB-A or USB-C based chargers/charging cables, as well as wireless charging options.WRT the moulding shown, it shows a connected square and circular area which could also accomodate a wireless charging solution. Noting that the square inlay has Apple's rounded corners which are typical for their products. Also of interest is that the moulding would imply that the phone's edges aren't hard, but still utilising the rounded glass approach.
