This one has been around since 2000. 15 years, just getting around to auditing the main C library used by EVERYTHING now, I suppose...

It's a horseshit argument, and always has been. Just because someone CAN audit something, doesn't mean they DO. Or that they are competently doing it if they do.

Once the materials that Apple uses are out of the ground and turned into a product, the environmental damage stops except for the electricity required to use it, and it's eventual disposal.

With oil, every step of the process including use does very bad things for the environment.

You could, in theory, use a Mac forever with a solar panel without ever doing anything to the environment.

Okay. That sounds like you've got an issue with the State of Nevada then.

So you are claiming that it's unethical to only pay what is due each jurisdiction under the current laws of each jurisdiction in which they conduct business?

Do you take any deductions on your taxes? Do you itemize? If you do, you are equally unethical by your own measure.

When you do your taxes, do you just pay a flat percentage, or you do take deductions / itemize?

I guess you're acting like a bastard too. And a hypocrite.

Especially if you consider that when I pay 4-5x the amount of taxes that someone else does, the fire department doesn't arrive 4-5x faster, and the police aren't 4-5x better and solving who broke into my car.

And you know what? I'm still happy to pay the 4-5x more in taxes, because I've managed to work my way into a good place in society, and I like what my taxes buy: civilization.

So when Tim Cook sat in front of a Senate Finance committee, sworn in and under subpoena, and said that they paid almost $6B in taxes in 2013 he was lying?

Why isn't he in jail if he lied to all those Senators under oath, on something so easily disproven?

Or are you just misinformed and wrong? I think we know which is more likely.

Except that you are wrong, and Apple paid almost $6B in taxes in 2013 to the US Government and the State of California. Their CEO even testified as much under Congressional subpoena.

Are you saying that Tim Cook should be jailed for Contempt of Congress, or are you just talking out of your ass?

Apple Overseas International is based in Ireland, and that's where Apple books all of their non-Americas revenue. Much like many other multinationals.

Well, Apple doesn't directly destroy the environment with every dollar they make. Yes, there is an environmental cost, but it isn't nearly as drastic as what the fossil fuel industry imposes.

Also, there's plenty of people that live without Apple products. Literally nobody in a developed nation goes without using petrochemicals in some form.

... and the 14 people still using BBM rejoiced.

Seriously, they were 5 years late on that.

So developers should get a lowest common denominator API, and be strictly forbidden to code outside of that?

Do you realize that this would make some of the worst applications possible?

"I'm sorry, project manager - we can't do that in our app because Android 2.1 doesn't support it, and FEDERAL REGULATIONS REQUIRE US TO CODE FOR 7 DIFFERENT MOBILE PLATFORMS."

Why doesn't the Blackberry CEO tell his company to make a better product that entices developers to create applications for it and people to buy it, rather than whining for government intervention to save his failing company that once owned mobile?

Really?

Net Neutrality means mandating that developers and services must create something that works on your dying platform? Does that mean that NetFlix will have to make sure it works with Symbian too? How about PocketPC 2003?

What an idiot.

I didn't buy it for gaming. It's just an added benefit that gaming GPUs have come more towards professional graphics GPUs in the recent past.

Complete horseshit. I've gotten the "Magic Trackpad" to work with Lenovo laptops with multitouch gestures under Windows 7.

My Mac Pro (2009) has had upgraded RAM, upgraded from 2x4-core CPUs to 2x6-core CPUs, upgraded GPU, upgraded to SSD, added blu-ray. I use it for gaming as well as real work.

Your statement is only true for the very latest Mac Pro, and Apple has been hearing it from their customers. There's still quite the market for people to buy 5-year old Mac Pros and throw $300 of Westmere-EP Xeons into them to get a few more years of useful life out of them as a workstation.