Apple

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Check Out Throwboy’s Cute Apple Clothes Collection

Andrew Orr ·

Throwboy is usually known for its pillows and blankets, but Juli Clover writes it’s launching a line of Apple-themed shirts.

There’s a rainbow design that lists Apple’s most important products like the Macintosh, iMac, iPod, and iPhone, along with a “1984” design that harkens back to the classic Apple ad and a “Think Different (Again)” t-shirt. Each shirt is priced at $32.99 and can be purchased from the Throwboy website.

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Apple Faces Case Alleging Discrimination Against South Asian Engineer

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is facing a discrimination lawsuit brought by an Indian female engineer. She alleges that her two managers, one of whom was from India, the other from Pakistan, discriminated against her, Bloomberg News reported. It comes at a time of increasing focus on how Silicon Valley firms treat South Asian employees.

The woman’s case in California state court is the latest to allege workplace bias in Silicon Valley that focuses on cultural prejudices of some tech workers from South Asia. Cisco Systems Inc. is fighting a suit brought by California’s civil rights agency alleging bias against a member of India’s so-called lower castes, known as Dalits. Anita Nariani Schulze is part of the Sindhi minority — she is Hindu, with ancestry in the Sindh region of what is now Pakistan. Her complaint alleges that her senior and direct managers, both male, consistently excluded her from meetings while inviting her male counterparts, criticized her, micromanaged her work, and deprived her of bonuses, despite positive performance evaluations and significant team contributions. Schulze claims the managers’ animus reflects sexism, racism, religious bias and discrimination on the basis of national origin. The Sindhi Hindu nationality is “known for its technical acumen” and its gender equality, she says, which “exacerbated the managers’ discriminatory treatment.”

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How Apple is Going Back to The Future With Its Designs

Charlotte Henry ·

Some of the designs of recent Apple products, particularly, but not exclusively, the iPhone, leave longtime users with a sense of deja vu. Cult of Mac took a good like at how Apple is going Mac back to the future.

Specifically, Apple ditched the curved edges that graced every iPhone since 2014’s iPhone 6, reverting to the squared-off edges of previous devices. That was perfectly OK with me: The iPhone 5 remains probably my favorite iPhone design in history. By borrowing (you can’t exactly steal your own designs) some of that classic phone’s design elements, and then offering some truly up-to-date tech in the form of all-display OLED screens, 5G, and A14 chips, Apple merged old and new in a compelling package. But that’s not the end of Apple’s newfound willingness to reference what worked in the past. Apple’s next MacBook Pro apparently will take a backward leap to move forward. Rumors indicate the laptop will revive the beloved MagSafe charger. And it reportedly will restore ports like HDMI and an SD card reader that disappeared half a decade ago.

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Apple Wins a Patent for Displays with Multiple Refresh Rates

Charlotte Henry ·

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for displays with multiple refresh rate modes. It was spotted by Patently Apple.

Apple notes that displays may be operable at a native refresh rate that is equal to the highest refresh rate at which the display has full resolution. When operating at the native refresh rate, each row of pixels may be scanned sequentially. Displays may also be operable in a high refresh rate mode with a high refresh rate. In the high refresh rate mode, the display may operate at a refresh rate that is twice the native refresh rate, three times the native refresh rate, or four times the native refresh rate (as examples). The native refresh rate may be 120 Hz and the high refresh rate may be 240 Hz, as one example. The native refresh rate may be 60 Hz and the high refresh rate may be 120 Hz, 180 Hz, or 240 Hz, as another example.

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Apple and Facebook Are on a Collision Course

Charlotte Henry ·

We’ve reported a lot on The Mac Observer about the growing tensions between Apple and Facebook. Bloomberg News has a good writeup of how things turned sour between the two tech giants, and why this may be just the beginning.

In March 2018, Facebook Inc. was in the midst of a scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and was facing serious questions about its stewardship of its users’ personal data. A commentator on MSNBC asked Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook what he would do if he were in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s shoes. “I wouldn’t be in this situation,” Cook said…. The feud has escalated rapidly over Apple’s forthcoming update to the software that powers its iPhones, which includes a requirement that developers get explicit permission to collect certain data and track users’ activity across apps and websites. Such a move could undermine the efficacy of Facebook’s targeted advertisements. In December, Facebook took out full-page ads in a trio of U.S. newspapers saying it was “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere” by opposing the changes, which it describes as an abuse of market power.

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Judges Used "Contradictory Reasoning" in Apple Tax Case, Says EU

Charlotte Henry ·

The EU believes that judges used “contradictory reasoning” when granting Apple’s victory in a landmark tax case. The bloc’s determination to overturn the ruling was revealed in documents that emerged Monday, reported Bloomberg News.

The EU said that the lower court improperly conflated Apple’s lack of employees at two Irish units and the company’s level of responsibility for intellectual property on iPhone and iPad sales across Europe. Judges failed to properly weigh the EU’s analysis of the Irish branches and showed “contradictory reasoning” in a separate part of their findings. The EU court “categorically annulled the commission’s case in July and the facts have not changed since then,” Apple said in a statement. “After a thorough review of the facts and the commission’s claims,” the judges were “clear in their determination that Apple has always abided by the law in Ireland, as we do everywhere we operate.” At the heart of the legal arguments are simple questions on where value is created and where it should be taxed.