thrang

Calvinator said:

My goodness, all the verbal gymnastics here arguing against something as common sense as hiring the most qualified person for the job.

Yes a bunch of nonsense. DEI has always been misguided, it’s clearly going away, and good riddance.

Funny, as nearly every writer here at AppleInsider appears to be white! (based on the author photos)… Wesley, resign to make room for a DEI hire! Do the right thing!

What is the definition of “white”? I look white by every definition, but had a half middle eastern / half Eastern European heritage. But I’m a white….minority?? 

andyring said:

Consider:

Apple makes a HUGE deal about privacy. I believe Tim Cook said it is at the core of everything they do.

If that were the case, they would not hesitate to spend FAR more than a paltry $90 million to prove in a court of law that they do not do what is alleged in this lawsuit. 

Instead, by settling, it is a tacit admission of guilt.

Therefore, there exist one of two possibilities:

1. Apple does indeed save and sell Siri recordings to advertisers.

or

2. Their legal team consists of a bunch of idiots who can't see the big picture.

Which is more likely?

#3

lordjohnwhorfin said:

Actually he’s controversial because he’s a traitor, a convicted criminal, a convicted sex offender, a con artist, and a buffoon who makes this country a laughingstock on the international stage.

And yet the country elected him! Go figure! What you wrote is much more of an indictment of the Democratic polices that have been dividing, weakening, and suffocating the country than of President Trump... Looking forward to the next four years.

nubus said:

thrang said:

Putting aside the debate about the overall nefarious nature of Google, it's disturbing that the federal government can inject themselves in a free-will business decision wherein Apple can decide is the up front money is a better return on their investment than building out.

If Apple were COERCED into this deal, that is a very different story. But they were not as far as any reporting of this scenario is known.

The feds can and should inject themselves into free-will business decisions. They have been placed there to do exactly that. Otherwise there would still be slavery and free immigration as businesses loved both, the environment would be a toxic waste ground, and products would once again be "unsafe at any speed".

Antitrust: "every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade," and any "monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize.". A behavior that was deemed fully inappropriate 140 years ago and still is. You could even go read the Bible and find that the problem was addressed earlier. There was never a "Here is Earth - stand still and be greedy as hell".

For Google to know that their main competitor on mobile won't compete against them, and for Apple to be OK with the way Google handles our privacy the moment we write something that isn't a URL... disgusting.

We will have better search and privacy without this deal.

This is a free will decision by Apple in return for financial compensation and elimination of a tremendous level of up front and ongoing expense. If they didn't like the deal strategically or monetarily, they could freely tell Google NO. It's not up to the government to get into that type of decision. To tell company's they MUST develop a product or feature for the marketplace? That's a very ill-guided way to think.

I don't like Google, would like Apple to have a search product (and I bet they have a working infrastructure in their labs and have for some time, just like all companies play safety bets). But none of that matters, as Apple is not being forced or coerced into this position AFAWK. And the money that Apple collects helps them fund other R&D projects which benefits the market in many other ways outside of search.

And you don't think Apple ADDING their own search engine (and ad revenue) wouldn't garner the same or even greater scrutiny from the government for monopolistic behavior? They would own the OS, the computer, the default browser, and now the search? (Personally I think this would be a great option given how well Apple generally handles integration and privacy...) Nonetheless it's simple to see - 

Governments have a sophmoric intelligence where big=bad, success=sanctions. It's very misguided in many ways, and really is a crass money grab in most cases. Small companies can be guilty of be anti-competitive behaviors, and large companies can operate cleanly. The law itself is so vague - "every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade." Boy, without much effort you could arbitrarily apply this to nearly anything, like Coke buying shelf space at a grocery store, or Ralph Lauren leasing a large corner of Macy's for their good exclusively. It's so arbitrarily and capriciously applied, it stifles business grown in many way.

And if anyone says "What about the little guy who can't compete?" My answer would be bullshit. Figure it out. Most of the tech companies with huge SUCCESS  started with nothing or next to it and innovated their way past established companies into success (including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, eBay, PayPal, Tesla and so many others).

The government stifles innovation at almost every turn.  And you think forcing Apple to create a search engine is going to help the little guys? HA! Or forcing them to default to DDG is a great thing?

Apple already gives users a choice, they simply default to Google and get paid for it. Really smart actually...

Grow a pair.

Putting aside the debate about the overall nefarious nature of Google, it's disturbing that the federal government can inject themselves in a free-will business decision wherein Apple can decide is the up front money is a better return on their investment than building out.

If Apple were COERCED into this deal, that is a very different story. But they were not as far as any reporting of this scenario is known.

The feds want to force Apple into building its own search engine, in the name of competition? The absurd irony is if Apple DID build their own search engine (in an alternative universe without the Google deal),  Apple would be much more ripe to be sued as a monopoly! The government could never play hockey, because they can't tell the difference between assholes and eyeballs when approaching a situation....