Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Amid charges that Elon Musk's social media app "X" has become a dangerous breeding ground for speech Communists don't like, Apple CEO Tim Cook has elected to pull all Apple advertising from the platform. "I refuse to allow my morally pristine corporation to be associated with disreputable characters like Elon Musk," said Cook while shaking the hand of murderous communist dictator Xi Jinping at this week's APEC Dinner. "Plus, the ADL, ACLU, and WEF told me I had to pull my ads or they'd break the story about what I did on Epstein Island. We can't...

Nearly half of Bay Area employers expect employees to work in person on three days a week post-pandemic, a market shift that could result in roughly 1.1 million fewer commute trips per day... The survey, conducted monthly since April, found that an average of 40.75% of Bay Area employers surveyed expect their workers to return to the office three days a week once the pandemic subsides. Around 15% to 20% of employers said they expect their workers to return to in-person work five or more days per week while less than 5% of employers said they thought their employees would...

There is an FR thread California universities using SAT for admissions are violating civil rights, lawsuit claims. The Compton school district is one of those suing. SAT and ACT scores do vary a lot around the state, but so do other objective academic measures. Unless the University of California moves to open admissions and self-destructs, there is no way for the entering class to match California's racial democragraphics. Here is a comparison of the high schools of Compton and Cupertino (home of Apple) with data from College Simply. Compton is 0% White, 0% Asian, 17% Black, and 82% Hispanic. 6...

China was once very dependent on US chips for its phones. The latest Chinese phones have no US parts. The Wall Street Journal reports Huawei Manages to Make Smartphones Without American Chips. American tech companies are getting the go-ahead to resume business with Chinese smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co., but it may be too late: It is now building smartphones without U.S. chips. Huawei’s latest phone, which it unveiled in September—the Mate 30 with a curved display and wide-angle cameras that competes with Apple Inc.’s iPhone 11—contained no U.S. parts, according to an analysis by UBS and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions,...

Independent Vermont senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is not impressed by tech giant Apple’s efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing in California amid a growing crisis. In a statement on Monday evening, Sanders called out the Cupertino, California-based company out for trying to distract from a problem it helped create. “Apple's announcement that it is entering the real estate lending business is an effort to distract from the fact that it has helped create California's housing crisis – all while raking in $800 million of taxpayer subsidies, and keeping a quarter trillion dollars of profit offshore,...

Apple announced new streaming services on Monday including Apple TV Channels and Apple TV+. Apple TV Channels includes content from HBO, Showtime, Starz, Epix and more. Apple TV+ is a new streaming TV service that will feature original content created by Apple.

White Double WHILE, IN FRANCE, the rising spirit of Jansenism was driving God from the hearts of the people, a humble son of St. Francis, in Southern Italy, was showing how easily love may span the distance between earth and heaven. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself, said Our Lord; and time has proved it to be the most universal of his prophecies. On the feast of the holy Cross, we witnessed its truth, even in the domain of social and political claims. We shall experience it in our...

As BART’s ridership surged three years ago, along with the number of homeless people lingering inside its downtown San Francisco stations, the transit system doubled down on custodial work — and some of its janitors started cleaning up paywise. One system service worker, BART’s title for janitors, made a little more than $271,000 in 2015, with $162,050 of that in overtime. A year later, two other BART janitors joined him in collecting more than $100,000 in overtime pay in a year. Three years later — after the tale of the high-earning BART janitor became legend and the transit system, and...

Windows have been smashed on five buses used to shuttle Apple employees around the San Francisco Bay Area in suspected pellet gun attacks during the past several days, the Guardian reported Wednesday. The first incident occurred Friday as the commuter bus was traveling from the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, to San Francisco, the newspaper reported. Subsequent suspected attacks occurred Tuesday, according to an internal Apple memo obtained by the Guardian. "There is nothing confirmed but it is suspected that a pellet gun might have been used in these incidents," the email to employees said. "Luckily, no one seems to...

An employee who spoke to Mashable said that several shuttles have suffered from broken windows, and on an internal email thread, there was speculation that it could be due to "rubber rounds" fired at the buses. There have been at least four reports of broken windows on January 12 and January 16.

White Double WHILE, in France, the rising spirit of Jansenism was driving God from the hearts of the people, a humble son of St. Francis, in Southern Italy, was showing how easily love may span the distance between earth and heaven. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself, said Our Lord; and time has proved it to be the most universal of his prophecies. On the feast of the holy Cross, we witnessed its truth, even in the domain of social and political claims. We shall experience it in our...

While the investing community this morning is focused squarely on the very disappointing iPhone 5 relaunch and the lack of a cemented China Mobile deal, which has resulted in a $20 billion loss in market cap in early trading for the second most widely held hedge fund stock, a thing that we find more curious in the aftermath of the latest revalations of an implicit, if not explicitly voluntary, joint venture between Apple and the US government and specifically its NSA uberspies, is just how much of Apple's product suite is derived thanks to developments by the US government....

A new translation of the Bible updates the religious text with modern technology, replacing several words with emojis. The digital text titled “Bible Emoji: Scripture 4 Millenials” uses Apple’s vast library of emoticons to retell all 66 books of the Bible in a way intended to relate to young people.

In 2013, China Labor Watch (CLW) began investigating the labor conditions of workers at Pegatron Corporation factories in China making products for Apple... This year, CLW collected 1,261 pay stubs from Pegatron Shanghai workers, 13 times as many as stubs as last year. The documents were gathered with the assistance of 18 Pegatron workers coming from 12 departments... 1) Workers are paid at a rate of 1.82 USD/hour. 2) On average, overtime pay as a percentage of workers’ gross wages is 42.4%. 3) Workers work more than 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. 83.8% workers’ monthly overtime hours...

Adding to the evidence that Apple is intending to change the name of OS X, the company on Thursday posted an updated webpage referring to the software as "MacOS" instead. The term can be found on an FAQ page within Apple's Environment subsite, specifically in a section about greenhouse gases and product lifecycles. The text is the only direct reference to either Macs or OS X in the FAQ — notably, the rest of Apple's website still appears to insist on using "OS X." In late March it was discovered that one framework in OS X 10.11.4 refers to "macOS."...

U.S. government recommends uninstalling software after security holes discovered If you’re still using Apple’s QuickTime on a Windows PC, it’s time to stop. Apple confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that it is no longer supporting or updating the 11-year-old QuickTime 7 for Windows, and has posted instructions for uninstalling the software. Keeping it installed on your computer may pose a risk. Last week, researchers discovered two new security holes that could allow bad guys to create malicious files to launch within Apple’s media player. Trend Micro, the security research firm that found the vulnerability, said that it hasn’t yet...

Alert (TA16-105A) -- Apple Ends Support for QuickTime for Windows; New Vulnerabilities AnnouncedSystems Affected Microsoft Windows with Apple QuickTime installed Overview According to Trend Micro, Apple will no longer be providing security updates for QuickTime for Windows, leaving this software vulnerable to exploitation. [1] (link is external) Description All software products have a lifecycle. Apple will no longer be providing security updates for QuickTime for Windows. [1] (link is external) The Zero Day Initiative has issued advisories for two vulnerabilities found in QuickTime for Windows. [2] (link is external) [3] (link is external) Impact Computer systems running unsupported software are...

The US-based company has sought approval from the government on setting up single-brand retail stores in the country. A government panel has recommended exempting Apple from mandatory local sourcing norms, a move which would pave the way for Apple to open single-brand retail stores in the country. The company had given a detailed presentation to the committee headed by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek on April 19, on its products, technology, innovations and camera. "The committee has found that the company's products are cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art. It has recommended to exempt them from...

Less than a month after a still unexplained suicide took place inside a conference room at Apple headquarters, there seems to be more trouble in Silicon Paradise. According to CBS, an incendiary device ignited a fire late Thursday night at the offices of digital giant Google, damaging a Google Earth demo car and leaving a large singe mark on one of the buildings, authorities said. Mountain View firefighters were called to the massive complex on Salado Drive at about 10:52 p.m. Arriving firefighters were met by Google security personnel and guided to an area where the car, used in Google’s...

On Thursday, The Guardian published a report by Nellie Bowles in which Cupertino mayor Barry Chang went on a little bit of a rant against Apple, Cupertino's largest employer. Chang had some harsh words about the company spending $5 billion to build an office in his city, including, for example, that "Apple is not willing to pay a dime" and that "they abuse" the city of Cupertino.Apple says that it pays tens of millions of dollars annually in property tax to Cupertino, and that it is the biggest taxpayer in Cupertino. Apple also says it funds millions in public improvements, such as adding sidewalks, bike...