Let’s Talk Apple – Ep. 51 (November 2017)


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Panel:

The show starts with some Apple-related legal stories that made the news in November before moving on to look at some interesting Apple-related staffing changes. The four main stories for the month are Apple’s taxes, Apple’s month of embarrassing OS bugs, how FaceID is working out in the real world, and Apple’s continued adventures in the health arena. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some shorter Apple-related stories that made the news in November.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

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Legal Latest
  • US Supreme Court rejects Samsung’s appeal of their patent loss to Apple — www.reuters.com/…
  • Apple have filed a counter-suit against Qualcomm, saying they are not infringing Qualcomm’s battery life management patents, but that Qualcomm are instead infringing on 8 of Apple’s batter life management patents — www.macobserver.com/…
Notable Staffing Changes
  • Despite only taking up the role of Head of Diversity and Inclusion in Apple in May, DeDenise Young Smith is leaving Apple for Cornell University. Christie Smith formerly from Delloite will be joining Apple to assume the role — www.macobserver.com/…
Main Stories
  1. Apple’s Taxes in the spotlight again
    • The so-called paradise papers revealed that Apple uses subsidiaries registered in Jersey (one of the Channel Islands that are sorta-kinda but not fully in the UK) to legally minimise their US tax liability on foreign-earned income. This triggered a lot of criticism of Apple — arstechnica.com/…
    • Apple responded with a post on their web page — The facts about Apple’s tax payments — www.apple.com/…
    • Editorial by Bart: The reason Apple made changes in their tax registration is that Ireland changed its tax laws. Before the change companies could effectively be nationless when it comes to tax registration. After the change, every company had to pick some nation to be their home nation for tax purposes, so, Apple was forced to choose one. What the leaked documents show is that Apple asked a legal company for advice on which country to choose. That’s not a scandal, it’s good corporate governance, and responsible fulfilment of Apple’s fiduciary duty to their share holders. No on is claiming Apple did anything illegal here. They also did nothing unusual — companies would leave themselves open to shareholder lawsuits if they voluntarily paid taxes they did no legally owe! The problem is the laws Apple, and all other American multinationals, have to abide by. Companies are not charities, they are money-making machines. They are by their very nature amoral — neither good not evil. Companies optimise profits within the law. It’s law makers that get to decide what is and is not OK for companies to do, and they are failing MISERABLY at doing so. Every elected lawmaker who feigns outrage at Apple is just trying to distract you from their abject failure to do their job!
  2. A month of Embarrassing Bugs for Apple
  3. FaceID gets tested in the real world
  4. Apple continues their push into Health
Quick Stories

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