austriacus

sog35 said:

steverob said:

Just to keep the conversation on topic  

My iPhone 6s has been shutting down with 50% battery - it suddenly goes to zero and won't restart. After about 20 minutes it will restart and carry on as normal.  It only seems to happen when I am outside in lower temperatures, so I don't think it's restricted to China -I am in the uk - nor does it seem to be a political stance against Mr Trump!

GET. A. NEW. BATTERY. Batteries don't last forever.

Maybe it shutting down as a safety feature so it doesn't explode.

securtis said:

If China asks manufacturers for something similar I bet Apple would bend.

The times where login biometrics are stored in a govt repository are surely coming. Requiring identification techniques like this would help defeat fraud and also help tracking of terrorists (they often hand off phones to one another to deceive govt snoopers tracking them). As Europe descends into a pseudo police state I'm sure they would like to have something like this. 

flabber said:

Cook also agreed with comments made by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew, who said the tax ruling is a blatant grab at taxes owed to the U.S. government. "I think that's exactly what it is," Cook said. "I think it's a desire to reallocate taxes that should be paid in the U.S. to the EU."

The above part is complete and utter BS. Yes, Apple and Ireland made agreements on the amount of tax that Apple would have to pay if they'd choose to use Ireland as their Eu-base of operations. But in no way is that tax owed to the US government. Technically it's not owed to anyone since there's an agreement. But even íf there's tax owed to anyone, then Ireland and Apple need to specify what amount of profit/income was made based on EU-sales. Because there's no way that áll of the taxes made in Ireland, are owed to the US government.

Having said that: I despise the EU for charging outrageous taxes like that. Ireland made a deal with Apple to improve Ireland's economy. That was done befóre the EU made a vow to stop tax-deals in the EU. If the EU implements these plans after Ireland's deal with Apple, they need to take it up with Ireland. Apple shouldn't be involved or punished for political turbulence (in the EU in this case).

I despise the EU, even more so because of how they try to punish companies for deals made with countries. But I think Apple is completely missing the point here. Just because you paid 400mil in taxes doesn't mean you're paying a proper amount. 0,005% is still 0,005%, and not the norm for most other companies in Ireland. And the US government certainly doesn't have any right to taxes made by products sold to EU citizens.

jameskatt2 said:

This ludicrous politically motivated and invasive ruling is why Brexit no longer has any opposition in Great Britain.  Ireland and the rest of Great Britain need to declare their sovereignty and independence from the socialist agenda of the rest of the European Union.  

Next thing you know, the European commission will want Apple to subsidize Greece and Spain.

The Department of Justice should punish Europe for this misadventure by prosecuting Volkswagen more aggressively - to the tune of a $75 BILLION fine.  Currently they are handing Volkswagen with kid gloves. But with this turn of events, this should greenlight a big stick punishment that would push Volkswagen to bankruptcy. Take that Europe.

nht said:

The simplest response would be for the US to state that Brussels appears to prefer to engage in economic warfare rather than economic cooperation then pull our TTIP negotiators to work on a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK.  Given that TTIP is likely dead anyway a unilateral withdrawal sends a significant message without any long term repercussions.

That would give the UK economy a big temporary boost and a richly deserved middle finger to Brussels for being total putzes.  They would have benefitted under TTIP more than we would have.