AppleZulu

Really, the whole thing stinks to high heaven. The pragmatist in me calculates that for a few thousand dollars of gold in a fake “award,” Cook is potentially saving Apple billions in tariffs, which are themselves likely illegal. The “gift” was given to the United States, but everyone knows Trump will keep it for himself. So technicalities aside, it’s a bribe, offered in public. Bob Menendez is in prison right now for accepting bribes in the form of gold bars.

So really, while it’s seemingly understandable in the current environment that Cook would drink some antacid and go do this, in any other administration this would be obviously reprehensible, and a front-page scandal. Now, it was just Wednesday at the White House. Either way, this is one more example of surrendering in advance, ceding unearned and illegitimate authority to Trump.

So we should ask ourselves: at this point, where is the line? It is very likely that this bribe will only temporarily hold Trump off. While Trump is easily manipulated by flattery, he also sees these acts as weakness, and he sees weakness as opportunity to demand more. At what point should we expect Cook and Apple to simply refuse to genuflect to this wannabe dictator? At what point should we expect Apple as an American company to put its own profitability behind the preservation of American democracy? Maybe instead of handing over tribute, shouldn’t Apple be challenging Trump’s authority to levy these tariffs in the first place?

NYC362 said:

NickoTT said:

mikethemartian said:

It’s comical.

Tim Cook just needs to do what he needs to do to distract our pea brained president, regardless of where the money goes and what for. Trump is like a child. You have to give him candy so he'll sit still and shut the f#ck up.

You hit the nail on the head.   A little golden trophy is perfect for him.

Oh... AppleInsider, I really doubt that base is solid 24K gold.  First, it would weigh an absolute ton. Second, 24K gold is pretty much never used for anything big, it's too soft.  Third, my guess is that it is 24k gold leaf (that's what it looks like),   Even Olympic Gold Metals aren't all gold.. of any karat.  

The plaque was of course -by law- a gift to the American people. Don’t be surprised, however, when, like the “free” 747 we are about to pay $1bn to retrofit, it ends up going into Trump’s personal collection. 

elijahg said:

Hugely ramping spend on AI after the announcement is just more proof that Apple was caught off guard. Pre-iOS 18 AI barely existed anywhere in iOS apart from Photos and the occasional suggestion. 

Cook is a typical numbers guy, he plays it too safe to run Apple. Yes Apple is much bigger than in the Jobs era, so it will naturally be less agile. But what made Apple Apple was that agility, skating to where the puck will be; the non-corporate flat management style that Jobs encouraged, which Cook abandoned virtually on day one. He needs to allow engineers to work on skunkworks projects which then become great products (the iMac for one started as a skunkworks project that Jobs caught wind of). But ultimately imo his time is up, Apple needs someone new, someone more agile. 

Your critique is built on the presumption that the LLM AI put out there by others isn’t overhyped hot garbage. The brawl on one side of the rink is getting all the attention, but it isn’t where the puck will be. 

So Spotify still doesn't offer lossless audio or spatial audio? 

Their "premium" plans appear to still only include compressed, lossy audio, and they're more expensive than Apple Music, which does include lossless, spatial and a second specialized app for classical music. Also, Apple pays artists better.

Interesting.

VictorMortimer said:

Before you whine about the Mango Mussolini's DoJ, remember that this suit is something that was started during a sane administration to give US more rights to the products WE own.

It doesn't go far enough, we need the right to install whatever software we see fit on OUR devices without Apple's permission or interference.  And while some of the issues have already been resolved, they haven't all been, and they definitely need to be resolved in OUR favor, not Apple's favor.

You already have that right. You can buy an Android phone. Some of us don’t want to lose the choice we currently have to buy a phone that comes with a secure, bespoke operating system. Forcing Apple to be more like its competitors reduces consumer choice.