Back in the 90s when I was at a small BBC spin-off writing 3D Atlas (published by EA) we'd periodically get orders from EA to mark Tibet or Taiwan as part of China, or attribute Kashmir to India or Pakistan or something, apparently required for a particular localized version.
It was a more innocent time, and we'd always tell them to fuck off.
Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
151–160 of 303 posts
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#152Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#153Well, there is no denying that the region is in fact currently governed by Russia. Whether that is right is another question.
And unfortunately it seems like the question that many people are willing to give Apple a pass for.
Nobody is giving Apple a pass. The map is factual. Like it or not, Crimea is now part of Russia (again). I’m not sure why the change is only visible to Russia.
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#154i'm a big fan of apple products and definitely bought into apple's stance -- but now i'm starting to think it's nothing more than a convenient branding campaign that only works in the USA. all these aspects that apple markets in the USA seem to be completely negotiable anywhere in the world, and i wonder how long before they can also become negotiable in the USA. in the USA, because of fairly well established democra…
What you're indirectly saying is: Apple should break the law in countries that don't follow western ideals. This is a slipppery slope. Do you really want companies to fight over what they think is morally right? ...because then get ready for Xiaomi sending the floor plan from your Roomba straight to the chinese government. ...or what if Telegram suddenly started banning gay users because that's obviously wrong and im…
But Apple is already doing that - they’re building their perception, at least in USA, as freedom of speech and privacy fighting company, with Tim leading the way sharing his personal experience being a gay man. Where is Tim’s aversion to oppression and discrimination when it comes to standing up to Russia and China? If Tim was an open gay Joe Schmo waking around in st Petersburg he would be considered a criminal. So yes - Apple does try to speak out of both ends and that’s my issue here: at least every other tech company acts as a corporation putting profit and market penetration first, only Apple tries very hard, in USA, to make it seem like they stand for something more only to immediately roll over behind the scenes.
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#155Why are people under the impression that Crimea is not part of Russia?
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#156This happens pretty much everywhere with every online map. Kashmir, Taiwan, Western Sahara, etc. etc. Apple doing it for one country is not particularly news. The only major-league mapping site I know that doesn't do local alterations is OpenStreetMap, and that's because OSM's attitude is "you want the map to show something else? sure, download the raw data and host your own instance".
> This happens pretty much everywhere with every online map. Kashmir, Taiwan, Western Sahara, etc. etc. Apple doing it for one country is not particularly news. Exactly. Couple days ago, I have entered "Palestine" into google maps. It did not highlight any territory and just showed me generic location of Middle East. On mobile it did not relocate map view at all. AFAIK with disputed territories it was always like tha…
"The Island That Switches Countries Every Six Months", Half as Interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJZs_VLx6p4
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#157I don't know the specifics of Crimea that well but there should be some easy heuristics to see who owns what country.
- When items are sold, which country collects sales tax?
- Who provides the police, driver license, mail?
- If there are elections, who to the people vote for?
Does Crimea not have simple answers to those questions?
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not the argument tho, is it? I think Russian speakers in Ukraine were pretty comfortable themselves.
No, not in Crimea. True hate for all things Ukrainian was real there, especially in older folks. Many older generations never learned the language anyway and feeling of being heavily abused by politicians in Kyiv didn’t help the cause either. This was very different from for example Baltic states.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification
To this day in Baltic states there are places where people were moved in by Soviet Union and even today most of the people hardly speak the language of the country they live in. Because of this they mostly watch Russian national tv and think that Soviet Union was the best place in the world.
The Baltics are still very vurnerable to Russian propaganda, for Ukraine it's even harder to escape propaganda, because of Slavic roots and similar languages.
Edit: If there's a majority of former Soviet nationals thinking that they are somehow "abused" by living in the independent Baltic state, so do you think father putin should save them by occupying the country? Or should those people need to buy one way ticket to their motherland and never come back?
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
So Russia would annex a portion of the US and not trigger war or any conflict? Yeah, no that's highly unlikely.
People of Alaska will declare independence (with little help of Russian tourists, journalists, and some honest news). This will not trigger a war, right? Independent Democratic People Republic of Alaska will join Russian Federation next day after that. Job is done.
Just in case the original Alaska message was not sarcasm.
States can not secede from the US. Do a little reading on this. And if they try there will be action from the rest of US starting from police and up to full blown military enforcement. And if Russia will try to protect said state we will have nice little nuclear war. Say bye to your iPhone and Hacker News.
Re: Apple changes Crimea map when viewed from Russia
#160I can imagine that it would be much easier to convince a generation of people who believe Crimea is part of Russia to go to war to win back "their" territory.
One has to wonder if companies like Apple have considered such consequences.