I'd argue this just created a ton of waste. You were formerly able to continue using those cables. Long term maaayyyybe it reduces waste but history tells us that cables are going to change over time regardless. Even if they use a similar design connector doesn't mean they do the same things (just look at the advances in HDMI cables despite the same connector for a couple decades). I'm not anti-this law but I don't see it as really helping much when it comes to waste.

Who said they did? Like, what is your point? That the earth will go on? Yes, it will. But we only care how it'll go on vis-a-vis *us* and the species and uses we have for it.

Except that's only one example in the article...

Yeah I find it one thing when 15 year olds do this kind of stuff. When grown ass adults do it I just wonder wtf we're doing as a society that people think that's acceptable.

Sort of. That is true only if no one else is willing to pay them anything. Otherwise is $20B minus X (which could be more or less).

I mean... yes, it is too much to ask that. Because it's 2024, not 2004. Based on what Apple's saying, though, data is not accessible to 3rd parties and is mostly locally processed in the first place. But if you're not even using siri, none of this is relevant to you.

Microsoft Cloud services are the largest generator of income in the company.

If you're saying there's a mix of monetization methods, sure, I don't disagree with that. Just like cable or streaming has both ads and subscription revenue. I'm not sure what your point is. If you want less monetization of you, where "less" is anywhere from 1% to 100% less, then you have to pay an amount more.

Except that that's literally how the web runs - either you pay yourself, or you allow the monetization of yourself so that others will pay for you. I'm not sure what the EU expects anyone to do without those options?

I honestly don't even know what you're asking for 2, and obviously you didn't actually ask anything on 1.
Back to 2, though, if you said something similar on reddit... what do you expect people to respond with? "that sucks"? Like, what were you looking for?

Oh for sure, I never thought you meant that. I mean, I took a shop class and a couple coding classes.

That's the best explanation/comparison I've ever heard for this.
It's not that coding isn't important, it's that it's important to only a subset of people. It's not core knowledge, it's shop class.

Um, what? They've had offline playback since... pretty much always?

That's... not how that works. You sue someone (in a case like this) to determine if they're breaking the law. YOU (the EU) believe they are. That doesn't mean they are.

This sounds like the same thing people said when the iPod came out, and the iPhone, etc. But here's the thing - when those came out, Apple wasn't "Apple". And yet somehow, those are the products that everyone knows, and turned Apple into a $3T company. You're right in that Apple isn't the first - they've never been the first at anything. But they've been the best at repeatedly taking a product and turning it into something people actually can use, and want to use. Is it "revolutionary"? Well, depends on your definition. But the words you're using are a repetitive argument that has been pointless before, even when Apple was tiny, and may (or may not) be pointless again. Only time will tell.