tundraboy

This supposedly "thin" phone, will the camera lenses still jut out like a barnacle?  If so, then meh.  My car has a wireless charging pad for a cell phone but the protruding lens island doesn't allow the iPhone to lie fully flat on the pad hence charging is slow and even the smallest bump on the road shifts the phone just enough to lose charging contact.

The problem with the suit is there is no discernible underlying legal or economic theory that will explain why something is objectionable when Apple does it but it's okay when other companies do it.  30% commissions are supposedly a horrible thing.  Hello?  Ask any retailer what margins they slap on their merchandise.  30% is on the low side.  Now ask Walmart if any manufacturer can just put their products on Walmart's shelves.  But Apple should just let any app developer get on the iPhone platform and for free, or at a cost dictated by the government?  Maybe you have an argument if Apple is the only smartphone out there and so the government has to step in to make sure that the smartphone monopoly doesn't get abused.  But Android is available and what the DOJ is trying to do amounts to going after Apple because Android is such a lousy product that smartphone customers and thus app developers avoid it like the plague.

There is also the issue, hardly mentioned but implicit in the litigation:  Is the iPhone platform, which is infrastructure built with private funds, a public space, in the same way that streets, side walks, parks, shoreline, etc. are public spaces where easement is guaranteed to anyone who wants to use it (as long as its for legal purposes)?  Or related to this, is the iPhone by itself -- not all smartphones taken together, mind you--  a public utility like power grids, telecoms, water, etc. and is thus subject to more regulation as to who can hook up to the system and what services the utility is required to offer?  This question has far-reaching implications and should be decided by Congress, not the courts.  I don't think as highly of the Supreme Court as I used to but I expect if it even reaches them, they will slap down this lawsuit like a soggy, flea-bitten dish rag.

Just plain stupid.

waveparticle said:

The CEO club has a formula calculating the performance of CEO and a formula of how much to reward. This was written into the contract when CEO was hired. You need to take a close look of the formulas before criticizing a CEO's pay increases. But this is a secret only members of CEO club including board members are able to access it.  In general the most important number is the performance of the stock in the prior year. 

Yes, and CEOs themselves are board members of other corporations.  I won't block your eye-popping comp if you don't block mine. Corporate governance, especially CEO compensation committees, is the most corrupt but still legal practice in the corporate age.  Its self-dealing and good-old-boy network all rolled into one.

My AirPods Pro started crackling a little over two years after I purchased them. Genius Bar can 'fix' them by replacing each earbud for $90.  In effect AirPods Pro is a $200 disposable product.  Actually, based on my experience with other Apple earphone products, they are basically as disposable as IKEA flat pack furniture.  In fact, IKEA probably lasts longer.

So, no thanks, I might as well just go buy the cheap no name brand which will be just as short lived.  Apple makes great products but their whole line of wired and wireless earphones, including Beats, are garbage products:  They're quite pricey but don't last that long.