wisey

I agree with Tim Cook.  He owns cryptocurrency but does not impose his views on others.  People who are interested in in cryptocurrency can readily find information on the web regarding how they can mine and trade cryptocurrency.  Apple does not encourage and should not be encouraging such activities.  The situation would be analogous to Apple encouraging gambling.    

seanismorris, I agree with you that many of the inferences in the article are poorly justified and not credible.  The claim that a “glut” of exploits for iOS is responsible for the lower price of exploits being sold suggests that there is a limited budget for such sales and the prices fall when there are too many of them.  I don’t think that there is evidence for such market limits.  

One would also imagine that the more malicious and damaging the exploits, the higher price that organizations would pay for them, suggesting that Android exploits are more malicious and damaging.  

As you point out, the other reason why prices for Android exploits are high is because there are more Android users.  

More exploits for iOS is consistent with the greater wealth of iOS users.  The fact that Apple responds quickly to the presence of exploits and almost all iOS users upgrade their operating systems relatively quickly means that exploits are more rapidly and definitively neutralized, reducing their value.

Most people, including myself, have never heard of IPad.mobi.  So, consumers are very unlikely to be confused by the similarity of the word “iPad” for a service and the name of Apple’s iconic device.  The company RxD likely pushed the name iPad.mobi on their website in order to attract attention to their website and to capitalize on the similarity of the name.  The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled against them last year and now Judge O’Grady has said that the evidence of infringement by RxD on Apple’s trademark is “overwhelming”. I wonder if RxD is now responsible for having to pay damages, as well as costs of the original appeal and then the trial?  I hope so because this would discourage other frivolous lawsuits of this kind.

lukei said:

Arresting the Huawei CFO in Canada has had the effect of Chinese companies either giving away or heavily subsidising Huawei phones for employees. 

There was a country-wide boycott of Apple iPhones starting the second week of December in China after the Meng’s detention in Vancouver in the first week of December.  Feelings were very strong in China.  Even in Hong Kong, many people bought Huawei phones rather than iPhones in protest of the detention.  This has not been covered much, if at all, by the American press.  The timing of the event was very unfortunate and, in my opinion, was largely responsible for the reduction in sales because iPhone sales were actually quite strong going into November.  

I just bought an iPad Pro 11”.  Of course, I looked at my iPad after reading this article and it is as straight as my eyes can tell.  If these articles had not brought it to my attention, it would never have occurred to me to check.  Now that I have checked, I asked my wife to look at the photo in this article. She said that the photograph showed that the iPad Pro is straight.  I told her to look again and she did.  She still could not see the slight bend.  I am wondering if anybody else cannot see the bend in the photo.  

My question to whoever took the picture:  How many iPad Pro’s did he/she have to look at to find this ipad with the slight bend?  How common is this?  Is this one in a thousand or one in a million?  Anybody who is buying an iPad Pro 11” can easily look to see if it is straight or not.  Apple is probably concerned whether people will abuse this small defect to get free replacements.   If Apple adopts the policy of replacing all bent iPad Pros, people may bend the iPad Pro if they want to get a new one.  

So, I then asked myself the question, what if there had been a bend in my iPad Pro 11”.  Would I go to the trouble of replacing it?  This question is not unlike the Zen question.  What is the sound of one hand clapping in an empty forest? The answer is none.  The slight wind produced by the hand perhaps can be heard by somebody with very good hearing.  But, for most people, if you can’t hear it and it makes no difference, perhaps the answer is that it doesn’t matter.

The correct answer is of course that it is in the eyes of the beholder.   If the bend is relatively uncommon, they should just replace the iPads of people who complain.  If the defect is common, Apple should change the manufacturing so that it happens less frequently.  If necessary, Apple can even take a image of each iPad Pro to confirm that it is straight.  Don’t argue with people who may be offended that they have paid for a defective product. Replace it.