So is he going to lobby for a massive overhaul of Foxconn's employment practices?
Apple has done more than any other American company to improve working conditions in China.
What do you base that claim on?
Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
51–60 of 87 posts
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#52This is a pretty ironic statement, given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. I dont see AI at apple being any different. Its for them FIRST, us second, if at all. "humanity" may as well mean corporations since the…
> given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user…
They care about user experience insofar as it attracts users to their platform -- just like every other company in the space. Apple (arguably) just happens to be a little better at it than Google, Microsoft, etc.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sympathetic to that idea and feel like it could potentially hold a lot of weight, yet Tim did turn the tech juggernaut he was bequeathed into a watch band and sticker company.
> yet Tim did turn the tech juggernaut he was bequeathed into a watch band and sticker company. That's such an incredibly simplistic view of Apple's strategy. I expected more out of the HN crowd. I honestly think the moderation team should crack down more on these types of casual and innocuous statements that provide no value that they might as well be memes. It's so incredibly easy to trivialize anything, especially…
> I expected more out of the HN crowd.
Don't underestimate the variance in small samples (especially when the sample size is 1).
The best thing you can do it is to not respond, or create a well argued thread about it, at least then it's on neutral ground.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#54Does it mean that technology companies should pay their taxes, to serve humanity, rather than playing tax optimization tricks ?
Don't blame individual companies for taking advantage of a broken system. This is a political issue, not a business issue.
Didn't Apple make special deals with Ireland? Doesn't sound like everyone else was offered these.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#55This is a pretty ironic statement, given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. I dont see AI at apple being any different. Its for them FIRST, us second, if at all. "humanity" may as well mean corporations since the…
I find myself pretty skeptical of the claim that Apple is "making the UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri".
I can't speak to Apple's internal motives, since I haven't worked there, but I've worked at another major tech company that has received similar accusations in another context, and I can tell you that in that case it was definitely not true. In reality the designers did their best to create a UI that worked for as many people as possible in the time they had available, and they performed extensive user studies to determine which problems needed to be fixed and to validate their solutions. Sometimes they didn't get it right the first time around, and sometimes for one reason or another there were technical issues that required some compromises until they could get sorted out, but there were absolutely no "dark patterns" involved in the process.
Designing a good UI is hard. I don't think we need to assume bad faith or malice when people get it wrong.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sympathetic to that idea and feel like it could potentially hold a lot of weight, yet Tim did turn the tech juggernaut he was bequeathed into a watch band and sticker company.
> yet Tim did turn the tech juggernaut he was bequeathed into a watch band and sticker company. That's such an incredibly simplistic view of Apple's strategy. I expected more out of the HN crowd. I honestly think the moderation team should crack down more on these types of casual and innocuous statements that provide no value that they might as well be memes. It's so incredibly easy to trivialize anything, especially…
It's ironic, and hilarious frankly, that your reply about vapidity was much more vapid than what you were complaining about.
Why don't you offer something of substance rather than complaining about substance.You are part of the 'HN crowd' you speak of and what you contribute literally forms part of this living, breathing community.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> yet Tim did turn the tech juggernaut he was bequeathed into a watch band and sticker company. That's such an incredibly simplistic view of Apple's strategy. I expected more out of the HN crowd. I honestly think the moderation team should crack down more on these types of casual and innocuous statements that provide no value that they might as well be memes. It's so incredibly easy to trivialize anything, especially…
It's ironic, and hilarious frankly, that your reply about vapidity was much more vapid than what you were complaining about. Why don't you offer something of substance rather than complaining about substance.You are part of the 'HN crowd' you speak of and what you contribute literally forms part of this living, breathing community.
They irony here being that attacking others isn't at all "something of substance".
Anger troll undermines anger troll
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user…
Well, most of what Apple did for UI was low-risk for them, and self-serving. And they did some more altruistic things beside. But compared to their power and scale , has Apple been much more altruistic/benevolent compared to other companies ? Have they taken large risks for that ?
I'm not really sure I understand your argument, but please consider that Apple's "power and scale" are really quite recent. It wasn't too long ago that they were in danger of failing as a company. They've gotten where they are now by taking a series of very bold risks that turned out well.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
> given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user…
Apple is extremely user-hostile, they make it hard to do anything they don't want you to do with YOUR device. It's simple things like using uncommon screws internally, or soldering in the ram, or requiring a certain set of bits at the front of your hard drive, or making it so the batteries cannot be removed.
Screws are the straw that will break the camels back?
Everyone knows torx are better anyway. They are less prone to stripping.
I used them on the house I built.
Any curious nerd will have torx bits already. Anyone else won't care enough to even want to open their Mac.
Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around
#60This is a pretty ironic statement, given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. I dont see AI at apple being any different. Its for them FIRST, us second, if at all. "humanity" may as well mean corporations since the…
> given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user…
lol, fuck apple. They go out of their way to make things more difficult for their users. This whole one port thing is a fucking joke!