mark fearing

jdw said:

Love them or hate them, all of these tech companies, INCLUDING APPLE, are America's home grown businesses that should be celebrated not destroyed by the over-reaching hand of Big Brother.  And I say this hating all the silly fact checking labels FaceBook puts on posts (and Twitter too), which in fact limit individual liberty, even if one can content those fact checkers are correct.  So even though I personally dislike various things about FaceBook and even Google, I would never ask Big Brother to step in and crush them for being Capitalists.  

Sorry, but when you are in business, you seek to limit your competition.  Label it Anti-trust or Anti-competitive if you like, but it's only reasonable to buy Instagram as a matter of good business.  And what may be a near Monopoly within the USA is most assuredly not in China, which is a massive country everyone needs to ponder.  China gains when America loses.  And America is not gaining by breaking up its big tech firms.  What you see in the news on this topic is merely a game of envy and revenge and the illusion of "protecting the little guy and increasing competition for the good of all consumers."

Also bear in mind that even though there is more digital blood being shed at the hand of the US Government at Google and FaceBook right now, Apple is still a target.  By supporting the anti-trust lawsuit mania, you are in fact supporting action against Apple too.  Just keep the in mind.

Celebrating what exactly? And your argument about 'liberties' quite simply, not on target at all.  You are welcome say ridiculous things anywhere you want. But if you do it at any private company, online, in a film, or around the water cooler, that company doesn't have to listen to you, have their employees or clients listen to you and they can certainly fire you for what you say. These are private companies with chat-boards basically. If you don't like the rules you leave. The only issue is - has Facebook manipulated the market to gain control of...whatever market they say it's in. I think your 'liberty' argument is fairly easy to dismiss. Yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre? And 'facts' are real things, and they can be 'fact checked'. So putting labels on BS seems like nothing more than another step in a long history of people who say false things being held accountable. You do not know what the future holds anymore than Facebook. This case might be great for further internet development or it might not be. But historically breaking up monopolies has proven very difficult and I wouldn't expect this to be easy especially since Facebook's acquisitions were OK'd by the Govt. So they will need to get over that hurdle. But please, a persons rights are not being infringed when a company points out that the person is posting incorrect info. One can always tell things to impressionable friends or relatives without any interference from people who actually have facts available to them. But there is no reason to force others to lower the bar for sake of making a person feel OK about not having relevant facts at hand and spreading incorrect information. 

wood1208 said:

USA, the great country to live in. Screw it for your benefit and law sides with you against the highest authority of country. Now I am confident, with Chinese political structure, China will be super power controlling world economy and no one will be able to challenge their military superiority.

Ahhh, That makes no sense. But I'm glad you're sharing your rather paranoid disconnected train of thoughts with the readers here. Again I'd ask you read about the case, see that the app offered no threats, no real threats, and then realize it was being used as a political pawn by the Federal Government that is run by Trump - who does plenty of business with China. Again, read about the real issues. There are serious issues but taking this to the an extreme doesn't help the debate.

The fact is, the third party items are always cheaper online. I've overheard Apple store employees dozens of times let customers know that. And more and more customers can shop on their phone. Since it's not a good deal, not sure they should be there at all. When Sony had a store (do they still?) I don't remember a selection of Samsung devices. And of course Apple stores don't offer the best price on Apple hardware anyway. If you just want the best price, you shop online or check out a retailer. The Apple store has a better shopping experience most of the time and I feel like that's why you would shop at one.

What an idiot...him deciding to 'ban' apps? WHat's next, he 'bans' newspapers? This is ridiculous and sad. He's a frightened man-child.

I’ll need to recheck this but I think ADT is a horrible company. They run their money through one of the island nations (incorporated there) so as to avoid fair taxation. And people bitch about Apple in Ireland. If this hasn’t changed it’s a pretty dirty bedfellow for Google.