Comment Glorious! (Score 4, Informative) 252
4.5 hours now.
Submission + - Apple, Amazon, Disney, Microsoft Lobby Against Climate Bill (theguardian.com)
mspohr writes: Some of Americaâ(TM)s most prominent companies, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney, are backing business groups that are fighting landmark climate legislation, despite their own promises to combat the climate crisis, a new analysis has found.
A clutch of corporate lobby groups and organizations have mobilized to oppose the proposed $3.5tn budget bill put forward by Democrats, which contains unprecedented measures to drive down planet-heating gases. The reconciliation bill has been called the âoethe most significant climate action in our countryâ(TM)s historyâ by Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the US Senate.
None of the companies contacted by the Guardian would rebuke the stance of the lobby groups they are part of and none said they would review their links to these groups.
âoeHiding behind these shady groups doesnâ(TM)t just put our environment at risk â" it puts these companiesâ(TM) household names and reputations in serious jeopardy,â Herrig said.
A clutch of corporate lobby groups and organizations have mobilized to oppose the proposed $3.5tn budget bill put forward by Democrats, which contains unprecedented measures to drive down planet-heating gases. The reconciliation bill has been called the âoethe most significant climate action in our countryâ(TM)s historyâ by Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the US Senate.
None of the companies contacted by the Guardian would rebuke the stance of the lobby groups they are part of and none said they would review their links to these groups.
âoeHiding behind these shady groups doesnâ(TM)t just put our environment at risk â" it puts these companiesâ(TM) household names and reputations in serious jeopardy,â Herrig said.
Comment Re:Apple won't let it happen. (Score 1) 70
A very rich child, with the government in their pocket.
Uh, yeah, totally in their pocket:
But never let reality get in the way of your bias.
Comment Yep (Score 1) 390
You are right. I checked some maps and pics and would say they are very adjacent samsung headquarters. As there are passageways but no streets between the buildings I’d say it is the same block though.
Comment Brilliant (Score 2) 231
This sentence from the summary is just great:
“When Tesla Motors needed to improve the back-end software that runs its business, CEO Elon Musk decided not to upgrade the company's SAP system.”
Someone should make a poster from it.
Comment Niche market (Score 4, Interesting) 390
[] apple computers became just a niche market back then, iphones are becoming right now. []
Both are/will be very profitable niche markets though:
And regarding Androids ubiquity, fragmentation or open-source-ness, this article suggests Google wants more control:
Comment “SOURCE: Strategy Analytics” (Score 3, Interesting) 390
Strategy Analytics is the company Samsung uses to push the numbers they like to the press, while at the same time avoiding any regulatory oversight. Strategy Analytics‘ Korean headquarter even is in the same building as Samsungs.
Comment Caribbean (Score 1) 292
My problem with the summary, other news sources (including NYT) and many comments is that Apple themselves state:
"Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US in order to avoid US tax; it does not use revolving loans from foreign subsidiaries to fund its domestic operations; it does not hold money on a Caribbean island; and it does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands."
(From testimony of Apple Inc. before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations US Senate)
http://www.apple.com/pr/pdf/Apple_Testimony_to_PSI.pdf
Comment Dream Recorder (Score 4, Informative) 112
I have this on my Mac:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070602172914/http://www.dream-recorder.com/
That was from 2007. There were newer versions:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080704183437/http://www.dream-recorder.com/
Never tested it seriously. And I remember reading about an iOS-App in the last year or so
Comment We all know the real reason (Score 1) 100
“Oh, so I’m not allowed to mention the fact that he messily devoured a live salmon during a staff meeting?”
http://crazyapplerumors.com/2013/03/21/bob-mansfields-review/
Comment Re:Another way to look at it (Score 4, Informative) 100
Jup, that’s what Gruber says: ‘Everybody Loves Bob’
http://daringfireball.net/2013/07/mansfield
Quote: “Inside Apple, they seem surprised that we’d read juicy backstage intrigue into his simply being removed from their executive list.”
Comment WTF? (Score 5, Insightful) 251
The industry analysts and pundits have been predicting this for ages
Ages huh? 15 years ago Apple was “beleaguered”
that while Apple led for ages
The iPhone went to market only in 2007. *Six* years ago, Apple was late to that game. It was only that the other players were caught with their pants down.
reaped windfall profits as a consequence
Their insane margins were more a testament of Tim Cooks logistics expertise, the reason Steve Jobs hired him.
Google would barge in, turn smartphones into a commodity, and crush Apple's margins
Maybe in bizarro land. Apples only competitor is Samsung. The rest of Android phones replace the feature phones of old.
the PC market, where nowadays, it's impossible to make serious money on PC hardware
Uhm, except for Apple?
What's interesting about this story, at least for me, is that iPad sales have tanked.
Tanked. Yeah, right. Yoy 16 to 14.6 million. With FQ3/12 being the quarter with the brand new retina iPad.
Wish
Comment Uhm, nope. (Score 4, Insightful) 156
Any of you wonder why the text reading “revised the terms of its warranties in France, Germany and Belgium” links to an article that instead says: “Apple has updated its policies”? And why said article doesn’t link to those policies but instead (for Germany at least) links not to a promised PDF but an article at ifun.de?
http://www.ifun.de/apple-kommuniziert-gewaehrleistungsanspruch-deutlicher-41275/
In which is stated that Apple adds this paragraph to its product pages in the Apple Store:
“In Deutschland haben Verbraucher gemäß BGB innerhalb von zwei Jahren ab Übergang der Ware Anspruch auf eine kostenlose Reparatur, einen kostenlosen Austausch, einen Rabatt oder eine Rückzahlung durch den Händler, wenn das gekaufte Produkt zum Zeitpunkt des Übergangs nicht dem Kaufvertrag entspricht.”
My human translation: “In Germany—according to BGB [Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch/civil code]— customers have the right, within tow years of transfer of the goods, of free repair, free replacement, a rebate or repayment by the vendor, if the purchased product does not comply with the terms of the purchase contract at the date of transfer.”
They do this because with the Apple Store (be it online or brick and mortar) they are the vendor. This, EU-mandated, german warranty applies to the vendor. If you buy an Apple product at Random-Computer-Hütte and it breaks within one year you can either call the manufacturer Apple upon their 1-year warranty or go to the vendor. If it breaks after a year but within two years you’ll have to deal with that vendor. If you buy at an Apple-run store manufacturer and vendor are the same. And if it breaks after two years you could use Apple-care if you bought it.
Still, Apples warranty gives better protection. With the EU-warranty, if the product breaks after 6 months the burden of proof that the product did not comply with the terms of the purchase contract when you bought it, is on your side. And if you buy AppleCare you not only get Apple warranty for three years instead of one, but free phone support on top of that.
Comment Apple’s side: (Score 5, Informative) 716
Why not link to their answer as well?
http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/Apple_Testimony_to_PSI.pdf
“Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US in order to avoid US tax; it does not use revolving loans from foreign subsidiaries to fund its domestic operations; it does not hold money on a Caribbean island; and it does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands. Apple has substantial foreign cash because it sells the majority of its products outside the US. International operations accounted for 61% of Apple’s revenue last year and two-thirds of its revenue last quarter. These foreign earnings are taxed in the jurisdiction where they are earned (“foreign, post-tax income”).”
Comment Maybe they don’t know all their options (Score 3, Interesting) 953
Very often I noticed that the industry software some small businesses use could be replaced with more standard solutions. I recently had to deal with a stonemason and his software. These days they plot stencils and sandblast the letters. I didn’t like the few fonts he offered for tombstones and there was no way to make a file for him he could import. As it turned out he would have had to buy an additional (very expensive) module for the program he uses to import other fonts or any vector graphic format at all. During my research I discovered that his “special stone mason software” was more or less a repackaged plotter software which would be more powerful and cheaper if bought directly from the source.
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