Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral • Hacker News Board

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#71

Post by teraflop » Thu, May 01, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote: post #45

intrasight wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not gonna happen. And for the reason that you just gave.

The only reason I have the smallest bit of hope is that this is a state case in California and not a federal one.

No, it's a federal court case. The original claim that Epic won against Apple was based on California state law, but it was decided in a federal US District Court (N.D. Cal) because there were also claims under federal law (the Sherman Antitrust Act) and because Epic and Apple are headquartered in different states.

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#72

Post by hedora » Thu, May 01, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #19

dataflow wrote: post #14

Is there any reason to believe anyone will even get charged, let alone face trial, let alone convicted? And if so is there any reason to believe they won't be pardoned upon a conviction?

> And if so is there any reason to believe they won't be pardoned upon a conviction? Given Apple's direct pushback against Trump's anti-"DEI" campaign, it's less likely than I might have thought - or maybe that's leverage? e.g. what if Trump promises to pardon Apple's executives if they remove the giant rainbow thingie from Apple Park and stop selling pride-related Apple watch straps?

An Apple attorney is now head of the NLRB. The day they were appointed, they stopped three ongoing lawsuits against Apple (including the #appleToo anti-harassment class action suit):

https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/02/trump-admin-poach...

Tim Cook is better at PR than Musk, but he's also a member of Trump's inner circle (why else would there be tariff carveouts that directly benefit Apple?):

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/apple-ceo-tim-...

Unlike Musk, the two were also close during Trump 1.0.

The rainbow thingy isn't a gay pride thing. The rainbow colors are out of order, just like in the original Apple logo.

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#73

Post by roamerz » Thu, May 01, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

mperham wrote: post #49

nostromo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want Apple to protect me from app developers. For me, it’s a feature not a bug. I want them to prevent social media companies from tracking my device across my other apps. I want them to integrate billing so I can easily cancel subscriptions or get refunds. I want them to require Oauth that allows me to keep my email private from app developers. These features make my customer experience better not worse. I’m sorry…

None of that requires a 30% cut.

Requires, no but in all regards it’s a great deal for app developers. You write code they do everything else. You want options? They exist (Windows/Android) but are all shitified minefields of commercial ads and poor design choices that I only use when required. Is Apple perfect? No far from it. When I buy and use their products though I feel more like the customer than the product. It’s a tool built for me not their advertisers.

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#74

Post by DaiPlusPlus » Thu, May 01, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote: post #59

grogenaut wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been to the county of orange? San Francisco does not California make.

I live in California. I know how red parts of the state are.

Bakersfield, amirite?

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#75

Post by throwanem » Thu, May 01, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

WD-42 wrote: post #50

throwanem wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if I'm buying it as a devkit I'm sure my accountant and I will find a way to write that off, anyway. $3500 isn't quite pocket change, but it is close enough to petty cash. But why do that if there's no users? And even the day-one diehards among my colleagues stopped wanting to be seen in them before long. I think it isn't really chicken-egg, is what I'm saying. Devs were so hot to target iPhone from day one that…

What made the early apps great and viral on iPhone were the indie developers. The ones making flashlight and farting sound boards. They paved the way, and for them $3500 is a lot of money. Who cares if it’s pocket change for google or meta, nobody wants another Facebook app.

Sure. And those early indie devs paid, inflation adjusted, iirc around $500-1000 for the hardware they developed against to put those indie flashlight fart noise apps on the then nascent App Store, because that's what an iPhone cost.

$3500 is, as I said, pretty close to petty cash even for a sole-owner LLC that needs taking at all seriously, and I would front that sum without a second thought out of my own personal pocket if I thought VR had legs, the same way I've put about $9k toward inference-capable hardware in the last two years because AI obviously does have legs. It's an investment in my career, or at least toward the optionality of continuing a career in software in a post-AI world, assuming I don't decide to go be an attorney or something instead.

I appreciate not everyone can drop a sum like that, like that. I can and I'm not ashamed of it. Why should I be, when it's exactly what I've worked the last 21 years straight to earn?

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#76

Post by behnamoh » Thu, May 01, 2025, 2:55 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #27

post_break wrote: post #15

The top brass at Apple just think they are above everyone else. Remember when Tim Cook lied about Apple not giving anyone special terms in the app store and that everyone gets the same deal. And then it came out Netflix was one that got special terms? The sheer arrogance of Apple leaders is astounding. They think they are outright owed rent on anything that runs on an iPhone, iPad, etc. Apple thinks developers are no…

Apple always has been like that, see The Cult of Mac book. However, it appears being at the edge of bankruptcy, and having turned the ship around has made them paranoid of losing a single cent. When Apple Store came out it was great. I was a Nokia employee at the time, and 30% was a dream compared with what you would have to pay to phone operators, app listenings in magazines with SMS download codes, for Blackberry,…

> However, it appears being at the edge of bankruptcy, and having turned the ship around has made them paranoid of losing a single cent.

That was more than 20 years ago, under a totally different market condition and Apple leadership. Back then, they needed developers to turn the ship around, now they think devs need them. They's a cash cow and act like assholes.

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#77

Post by gostsamo » Thu, May 01, 2025, 3:01 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #40

Workaccount2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't blame them, Americans on the whole fall over themselves to defend Apple. Apple is the magic entity that figured out how to send full videos and pictures in text messages. Something a google android could never figure out. Apple phones didn't come bloated with garbage. You go to the apple store for help rather than the verizon store. You are above others when you have an iPhone. Apple's external veneer is s…

I want Apple to protect me from app developers. For me, it’s a feature not a bug. I want them to prevent social media companies from tracking my device across my other apps. I want them to integrate billing so I can easily cancel subscriptions or get refunds. I want them to require Oauth that allows me to keep my email private from app developers. These features make my customer experience better not worse. I’m sorry…

If you don't like social media, don't use it. Isn't that what all apple fans tell when someone dislikes apple practices?

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#78

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, May 01, 2025, 3:04 PM UTC

weaksauce wrote: post #69

grogenaut wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been to the county of orange? San Francisco does not California make.

orange county is still pretty liberal just not quite as liberal as the other parts. huntington beach and newport beach is not all of orange.

Orange often gets cited as the example of a Republican county in California because it is the highest population county that is pretty reliably Republican (it has a slight Republican registration edge, but more solidly votes Republican because it also has a Republican-favoring balance of independent-by-registratiom voters.)

But most of the Central Valley and the inland Northern California counties are much more Republican than Orange.

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#79

Post by vessenes » Thu, May 01, 2025, 3:05 PM UTC

In the words of a trial lawyer friend of mine, “Nobody in the history of the world has said, ‘You know what? The judge was right; I was an asshole.’

Definitely some of those vibes there. I’ve generally been on team apple for this case, and as Gruber notes, they largely won the case. Dunking on their power to set other contractual fees seems to have come back to bite them. That said, as a user, I strongly prefer to use Apple’s in-app payments — I was just buying a hearthstone purchase from Blizzard; on my laptop it popped up options like “Credit Card or PayPal?” I was like “nah” and loaded it up on my iPad to pay with Apple Pay.

Do I hate PayPal? No. Do I appreciate a payment service that shows all my recurring payments in one place, lets me cancel them, and feels generally very safe? Yes. I’m happy to have Apple compete on fair playing field for payments.

Summary: Oops.

Re: Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral

#80

Post by behnamoh » Thu, May 01, 2025, 3:07 PM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #35

post_break wrote: post #15

The top brass at Apple just think they are above everyone else. Remember when Tim Cook lied about Apple not giving anyone special terms in the app store and that everyone gets the same deal. And then it came out Netflix was one that got special terms? The sheer arrogance of Apple leaders is astounding. They think they are outright owed rent on anything that runs on an iPhone, iPad, etc. Apple thinks developers are no…

I wouldn't blame them, Americans on the whole fall over themselves to defend Apple. Apple is the magic entity that figured out how to send full videos and pictures in text messages. Something a google android could never figure out. Apple phones didn't come bloated with garbage. You go to the apple store for help rather than the verizon store. You are above others when you have an iPhone. Apple's external veneer is s…

> Americans on the whole fall over themselves to defend Apple.

What does it have to do with nationality? I've seen Apple fanboys from all countries. Sure, Apple's market share in the US relative to other phone manufacturers is high, but that's mostly due to the "trust" Americans have in US-based companies (you can argue this trust is misplaced).