Apple CEO Tim Cook was facing a Congressional panel today with tough questions about the way the company has organized itself in an effort to lower its tax burden. But at the end of the questioning, John McCain had something else on his mind. That, friends, is what we call a softball.
Apple Operations International is registered in Cork, Ireland, but has “no physical presence at that or any other address,” according to the report. Indeed, the corporate entity has existed for 30 years and apparently never had a single employee. Of the three people on its board, all Apple employees, two live in California; 32 of its last 33 board meetings took place in Cupertino, and the Irish director participated in seven of them. Its assets are managed by a Nevada company, and held in bank accounts in New York.
How to make $30 billion and pay no corporate income tax, the Apple way (via wonklife)
The rotten financial Cork … er, core of Apple?
Some design agency spent a lot of time coming up with a rough concept of what iOS 7 probably isn’t going to look like. But let’s just say it looks kind of cool.
Apple’s data centers now use 100% renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal energy — the company no longer powers any of its operations with coal or other fossil fuels. In fact, last December, Apple powered up a 100-acre solar farm adjacent to a North Carolina data center. Using fuel cells made by Bloom Energy Corp., which generates energy from biogases, Apple is able to generate 60% of all the energy it needs to run the data center onsite. Read more about it from Bloomberg, here.
The news can be harrowing these days for environmental advocates working on climate change issues, of which this is obviously a thoroughly tiny aspect. This stuff is important enough, though, that even modest good news and developments should keep making the rounds.
Coffee date with Tim Cook earns $295,000 bid, breaks Bill Clinton’s charity record
Charitybuzz’s offer of a coffee date with Apple CEO Tim Cook may only have entered its third day of bidding, but it has already broken the record for the biggest ever charity auction on the website. With bids totalling more than $295,000, Cook’s auction has surpassed the previous record bid of $255,000 — for a chance to spend a day with former US President Bill Clinton — and there are still 18 days left to bid.
Tim Cook is an expensive date.
Here it is, everyone. The first totally speculative piece suggesting that Apple plans to oust Tim Cook as its CEO. The only on-the-record source in the entire piece says this line, contradicting the entire point of the article: “We expect Apple’s growth to exceed that of many of its peers.” This guy got on the train early.
Doing it wrong: Just over a year after he started, Ron Johnson is out as J.C. Penney’s CEO. Johnson, who built his career on the conception of the Apple Store, tried a bold strategy of across-the-board price cuts to buoy the department store chain, only to see that strategy totally fail in the marketplace. Johnson will be replaced by Mike Ullman, the man Johnson replaced in 2011. (photo by Thomas Iannaccone/AP)
How a banner ad for H&R Block appeared on apple.com—without Apple’s OK
Hint: Blame the ISP. (Probably.)
That awkward moment where your company’s new VP literally steamrolled your company’s most popular product because of a business decision your company made that affected his old company. Such is the tale of former Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, who just joined Apple after spending much of the past few years publicly bashing Apple’s stance on Flash.
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers.A statement from Apple • Referring to a malware incident which struck the computers of some of their employees today, believed to have been caused by the same code that hit Facebook last Friday. Apple said that a small amount fo employee systems were afflicted after visiting a website for software developers, where the malware was picked up, and that they’re currently working with law enforcement. They also indicated they’ll be releasing a software update soon, to safeguard users on the consumer end. source
No, this guy isn’t going to fix your iPad. In fact, his shop had to change its name because they were getting inundated with support calls. Seriously. “Over the last 12 months I have been inundated with calls and it has reached as many as 25 a week,” the British shop’s owner, Geoff Fisher, told a local newspaper. (photo via Wroxham Barns website)
Over the past six months, Google has begun to systematically replace core, Apple-made iOS apps with Google-made iOS apps. In July, Google launched Chrome for iPhone – a Safari replacement. Then, in October came Google Search – which included a voice search feature to compete with Siri. In December, Google launched Google Maps to replace Apple Maps, and a much-improved Gmail to replace Apple’s core Mail app. It also put out a new YouTube app, to replace the one that Apple removed during its last iOS upgrade.
In a way, Apple shot itself in the foot because, by dropping Google’s apps, they effectively allowed Google to prove is better at iOS app development than they are. (Barring the Gmail app, but that’s a different story.)
Expect iOS7 to have an updated design philosophy, because it’s beginning to feel dated now that developers are increasingly outpacing Apple itself at app design.
Because why not? Here’s a dubstep tune created based on NASDAQ trading volume, along with Apple’s performance against the market, since 2009. The wobblier it gets, the more volatile the market. (ht Hacker News)
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