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As I've mentioned under other articles in the past, my experience with ChatGPT4o isn't that great.  I want like to use it to check multiple online sources quickly, in the hope it can Google faster than I can on my own.  And it is fast.  But the problem is, it lies a lot.  So I always ask it for sources.  Then it gives me stupid links that when clicked on, open nothing.  So I have to then as it for plain text URLs.  It complies, but none of them ever work.  EVER!  They lead to the expected domain, but they always result a 404 file not found.  ALWAYS!  I then complain to ChatGPT saying it needs to read the articles it links for me to ensure the article truly exists and exists at the plain text URL it will give to me.  It apologizes and seemingly complies, but it continues to give me more bogus URLs.  I have repeated that cycle multiple times in a row, until my free sessions with GPT4o expires.  It never learns from its mistakes.  It never gets it right.  I've been using it for months, and it hasn't improved at all in that regard.  So I mostly find it useless.  And this experience remains valid even if some GPT lover comes along a raves about how well it summarizes text.  Fine and well, but it still lies and gives bogus URLs to its source info.  

This is why I won't shed many tears when and if OpenAI finally goes under.  There was so much promise with their creation.  But they've not done anything I can see to show it's worthy of sticking around when the funds run dry.  Let a better company come along and do an actual good job on AI for once.  Whether that can be Apple or not is yet to be seen.  Apple did come out with Apple Maps despite the global love for Google Maps, so you never know.  They may release their own ChatGPT style AI chatbot one day, with true intelligence that doesn't lie and gives working URLs.

I'm rather surprised no one has mentioned the obvious, but since I've lived in Japan for the last 30 years, perhaps my perspective will assist in understanding that particular Tokyo protest for what it is.

If you look closely at the main photo in the article, and then if you Google up more photos of the protestors, you will find that the vast majority are not Japanese (and not even Asian).  That matters.  A lot.

Japan is between 97.4 to 98.5% native born Japanese (depending on which stats you choose). And while there are more foreigners in Tokyo compared to central Japan where I reside, the fact remains that foreigners are still a teensy tiny percentage of the overall population.  As such, those protestors at the Tokyo store may have been called in from overseas just to do the protest, just as many protestors on American college campuses have been called in from the outside.

Even if some of those Tokyo Apple store protestors happen to live in Japan (most likely for a very short time though), they risk giving "gaijin" people a bad name in the eyes of Japanese people.  That would be different if half or most of the protestors were visibly Japanese, but again, that wasn't the case.  Although Japanese people are extremely welcoming to non-Japanese people, there is a tendency to view them as being ignorant of Japanese ways (which is often true).  And it really is the way of Japan to avoid confrontation, which is why native born Japanese people tend to avoid protesting in general, especially when compared to the amount and type of protesting done in other countries.

So the protests in Tokyo would seem to have been staged as a part of a larger global set of protests, done in order to garner the attention of the mass media, in part to hurt America's home grown success stories like Apple, but also in part to be a Pro Palestinian mouthpiece for hate, insofar as most of these pro Palestine groups are doing the bidding of Hamas, which not only is a terrorist organization, but which also calls for the "destruction" of Israel.  

The biggest victory gained by protestors is when the mass media picks up the story.

Well, well, well...  This kind of writing certainly is getting rather "political" for AppleInsider.  Even so, I do see AppleInsider allowing people to actually comment under more hot button articles now, which is a good thing.

One thing that's important to note is that Vance is very much a pro-union guy, so much so that many Republicans were surprised at Trump's choice of him as VP. But agree with him or not, Vance is a slick talker and that may have been the biggest reason for Trump choosing him.

Pro-union people will talk up anything that pertains to workers, so a "slave labor" remark is not out of line for them.  But the reality is that both sides of the political aisle, Democrats and Republicans, have voice negativity toward Apple's business practices in China, particularly about child or slave labor.  And it doesn't matter if those complaints are right or wrong with regard to what I am arguing here; namely, that political party has nothing to do with the rhetoric against Apple. Focusing exclusively on Vance only works to incite bickering on the comments between pro Trump and pro Harris factions。

The mass media (not necessarily the tech media, but sometimes including it) in the USA has basically become a form of propaganda, not too dissimilar from what we’ve seen in lesser nations like North Korea or Russia.  Yes, there are huge differences, but the underlying problem that makes it “propaganda” is there.  More specifically, the strong bias toward a single way of thinking makes it propaganda.  It claims to be objective truth and factual reality, but it is actually highly filtered and very much one-sided. That’s why when I need to Google something about Trump, for example, I have to ignore everything written or said by MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic (thanks alot for the objectivity, Laurene Powell Jobs!), Rolling Stone, Vox, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, and so many more.  But when doing those news searches, I often tend to shy away from Fox News too, because I knew they have the opposite bias. I really hate bias!  Just give me the facts without all the stupid biased commentaries, for crying out loud!

So to get objective news on any hot button politician, I cannot accept articles from any ultra biased sources, as they have a preferred candidate they wish to promote and another candidate they wish to demonize.  It is with that in mind that I viewed the article about Vance with special scrutiny.  

Is what Vance bad?  Yes.  But so is everything similar spewed forth from Democrats.  There really isn’t one party that has bashed Apple more than the other when it comes to what Apple does in Asia, although we could be honest and blame the President’s administration for pushing more anti-trust violations against companies like Apple, which as well all know is taking place right now by the Biden DOJ. That has a far WORSE impact on Apple than anything a mere unelected candidate can say.  We should have articles on a daily basis decrying that anti-trust atrocity, and yet we don't.  As is typical of the mass media, it's all Follow the Leader.  One news media outlet releases a story, then everybody else follows.  It's always so laughable.  And it happens here on AppleInsider too, all the time.

Let's be clear.  This article by AppleInsider has a strong left-leaning slant to it by having analyzed the recent debate with the deliberate choice to use the liberal media's talking points about the mention of pets.  The article summary is basically, "Look at how bad this guy and his running mate are; and by the way, something false was said about Apple."

We all like Apple and want to defend it against wrongs.  But the reality is that you need to defend Apple against both left & right these days.  It’s not simply one or two guys out there wearing a MAGA hat.

I consider articles like this amusing, mainly because I am in the camp of FRUGAL PEOPLE (yes, we are rare) who actually use an iPhone for 6 six or so.  My last iPhone was an iPhone 7, and I paid Apple once to change the battery.  I purchased the iPhone 15 Pro Max last year.  So it's not like people like me don't upgrade.  We have an upgrade cycle.  It's just not every year, every other year, every three years, or even every four years.  The fact that most people are facing hard economic times and now deciding to forgo spending money they cannot afford to spend is a SIGN OF POSITIVE CHANGE.  Maybe not for Apple.  But for the overall greater good.  People need to have more sense about how to spend money.  I say this as as AAPL shareholder since 1999, who has never sold a single share.  I want people to be loyal to Apple because Apple makes great stuff, and I realize most people shouldn't be upgrading that stuff annually.  But with billions of people buying Apple stuff, that bodes well for Apple in the long run.  So not all is bleak.  And Apple is in no way "doomed."

While I do appreciate this and other AppleInsider articles, I am rather shock and surprised there is no mention whatsoever in the article about Apple having taken steps to prevent yellowing of its clear cases, which is perhaps the single biggest consideration for people who like that style of case.

But to aid the AppleInsider article reader, here's what Apple's product page has to say:

And all materials and coatings are optimized to prevent yellowing over time.

Short and sweet, but nevertheless important and appreciated info.