MplsP

9secondkox2 said:

welshdog said:

9secondkox2 said:

darkvader said:

9secondkox2 said:

This is theft. 

The government wants money. Solution? Just retroactively “adjust” someone’s taxes from years ago! A good solid decade ought to do it. 

Pure evil. If there was ac actual issue all this years ago, the IRS WOULD HAVE NOTIFIED THEM AND THEY COULD PAY WHAT WAS OWED. this isn’t that. This is an extortionist government. 

Microsoft didn’t do anything illegal. They took advantage of the way the tax systems were set up, like any smart company would do. 

The only theft is what Micro$oft did.  And the sad part is that a company with $136 billion in profits in 2022 only has to pay $29 billion in penalties for their decade of theft.

Minimizing tax burden by storing your money in a more favorable location (still within US jurisdiction) wasn’t illegal at the time. Retroactively making it so is just theft by the government. Pure and simple. “Adjustment” my left buttock! Microsoft didn’t do anything wrong. They looked at options available to them and utilized them. anything else would just be dumb. But now you have the government retroactively changing things. If a company knew that would happen, of course they’d do things differently in the past. But they didn’t. Because it wasn’t wrong at the time. It’s like an entrapment feature of the government. Pure thievery.

You don't know that "Microsoft didn’t do anything wrong.". No one has said they were doing anything illegal, they simply didn't do the tax dodging in a manner the IRS thinks is correct. There will be a back and forth and eventually a settlement will be reached. There is no reason to ever place any faith or belief in corporations doing the right thing, that's not how they operate. All desisions are based on what makes or saves the most money - period. Apple are slightly less guilty of that than some mega-corporations, but MSFT? Come on, they are not going to follow the law to the letter if they think they can get away with it. Gates' legacy of hacking and gaming everything, always and forever lives on.

If that was so, it would have been caught the first year. The IRS watches big corporations like s hawk. 

They are even calling this an “adjustment.” Thst means the government is changing things now. That can be applied moving forward but should never be retroactive. That’s wrong. If the rules for a gamrr we change next year, you shouldn’t lose your trophy thst you won playing by the rules in years prior. 

AppleInsider said:

When removing the battery, they discover it features a new message that reads "Warning: Trained Technician Serviceable only."

Xed said:

MplsP said:

Stabitha_Christie said:

gatorguy said:

Xed said:

sbdude said:

Xed said:

doggone said:

longfang said:

williamh said:

I saw the finewoven case at the Pentagon City Apple Store on Friday and it seemed not that high quality and overpriced.  I'd prefer the silicone case to finewoven.  

Honestly asking, what is the environmental issue with the leather case?   The leather cases are reusing the wrapping from my beef, it's not like cows are produced to use for iPhone cases and the meat is an afterthought is it?   Is the process of making the leather and using it worse than just composting the cow hides?  What is it?  I know my tone might seem snarky but seriously isn't there just an enormous amount of cowhide out there?  Wouldn't an iPhone case be better than tossing it?

The chemicals and water used during the tanning process would probably be a big part of it.

I agree, leather is a by product of the food industry.  It also is a natural product and ages extremely well.  I've had the Apple leather case for 2 years and it is only now starting to break up at the edges after a lot of abuse.
I will be looking for a leather case from another provider.  Any suggestions?  I saw someone mention Nomad

That isn't quote correct. The hide is a byproduct of the food industry, but the tanning process to make leather is a different story and I don't know of a single mass producer that has used so-called "natural" methods for tanning these days. Even if we did use some old-timey "natural" methods, like scraping oak bark for its tannins, that has a cost. What is the ratio of cut oak trees for its various uses in lumber to the amount of bark obtained? Is there a chemical option that can be created that would do a better job at a lower cost? What other ingredients and byproducts are created to create leather? How much of the tanned leather is wasted (something I've noticed happens so that the material is consistent for the entire piece needed)?

I can't say whether leather produced at an industrial scale is or isn't better for the environment than reusing discarded plastics, but I can't say it's better simply because one initial aspect of it is a byproduct of another industry or that someone calls it "natural". There's a lot of date to crunch to get an informed answer.

There are any number of leather purveyors that don't use arsenic, cobalt, or other chemicals in tanning. Check Bridge of Weir. The leather used in BMW i4s and Polestar 2s use natural tanning. So the argument begins to fall flat at scale.

1) You need to supply scale numbers to show that the options you mention are comparable.

2) Again, the use of "natural' doesn't saying anything except check a box for a marketing buzzword. How do they tan? What is the current overall and longterm environmental cost of using leather from start to finish v reclaimed materials?

Seriously? If BMW can do it with much more leather needed for a car interior, why would it be impossible for Apple to source cases?

BTW, look into how Horween leather is tanned. Phone cases using their leather should definitely be more friendly to the environment. 

These cases are made of 67% recycled materials. That alone makes them more environmentally friendly than any leather. 

Also, using BMW as the example of scale is misleading. 

They sell around 2.5 million vehicles a year most of which are their entry level models that don’t use leather interiors. The remainder are sold with various types leather. The two models you mentioned are EVs. I couldn’t find a world wide sales number for them but in the US they sold 15k EVs last year. This is not an example of scale. 

Are they more environmentally friendly, though? Leather is renewable and although the fabric is recycled we don’t know the cost of doing so. 

As far as BMW goes, the comparison isn’t about pure numbers - how many phone cases can you make from the leather in a single car?

1) LOL I love you say leather is renewable (nothing else added) and then drop a concern about recycled material that would even make even Tucker Carlson splooge
 in his pants. I have to wonder if you take that same argument with renewable resources over fossil fuels. I'm guessing you will talk for days about the horrible environmental costs of wind, solar, and hydro over "clean coal".

2) You say it's not about numbers and then immediately ask a "how many" question? 🤦‍♂️