Tag: apple

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An Apple a day keeps the Doctor Employed.

Mark Cathcart

CNBC has an interesting article about the number, and quality of Doctors they employ.  I’ve no idea what’s going on an Apple, for a number of reasons, I’ve never bought a single product of theirs. However, given their deep pockets and ability to play a strategically long-game, I for one would be surprised if this isn’t significantly more than just about the watch and apps that can diagnose conditions based on data in collects. Here are my thoughts, in the form tweets to @charlesarthur original tweet and link to his daily Startup link list overflow. The Apple thing is an interesting … Continue reading An Apple a day keeps the Doctor Employed.

automation, Politics, politics, tax, technologyLeave a comment

Bringing Jobs Back to the USA

Mark Cathcart

As the GOP push through their tax bill, without any transparency, one of the big ticket items is corporate tax breaks. My opinion is the government are really wasting their time, and our money giving tax breaks, especially to companies to repatriate their overseas earnings, in some kind of swap for jobs. No such thing will happen, sure there will be a few winners here and there, but nothing substantial and certainly nothing overtime. If the government wanted to do this, they’d have been better creating an incentive program, which gave them tax deductions for each net new job they … Continue reading Bringing Jobs Back to the USA

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Apps, bad for your kids, worse for your privacy

Mark Cathcart

I’ve argued this position from first hand experience for about 18-months. Apps in the stores both iTunes and Android have the ability to collect and direct information collected to unapproved websites. In a couple of instances, insisting on this has got me more trouble than I wanted. Now days it’s much more common for an app to ask for permission and for people to accept and install without reading the permissions requested and thinking through the consequences of that. So it was interesting to see this in relation to the way adults let kids use this technology. Just last night … Continue reading Apps, bad for your kids, worse for your privacy

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Tax, Apple, Buffet, and doing the right thing

Mark Cathcart

A number of people on my facebook stream have been posting and commenting on the ruckus over Apples tax avoidance, especially as it relates to iTunes, which even a Luxembourg Government official has jumped in to defend the iTunes tax evasion scheme. The other thread that has been running is commentry on the so called “Buffet Rule”, a proposed tax code change to force millionaires and up, to pay a tax rate that is  comparable to the average middle income family, or some such. I think this is all losing perspective though, although both cases are dissimilar in practice, at their core, the complaints are about the same thing. While Apple … Continue reading Tax, Apple, Buffet, and doing the right thing

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Mac Trojan news

Mark Cathcart

It was only matter of time before there was a serious Apple Mac trojan or virus. I’m not gloating over it, more just warning many of my friends who felt like this was just a windows or pc problem. “Flashback trojan have reportedly infected more than half a million Macs” yes, that means your Apple Mac is at risk. 57 percent of the infected Macs are located in the US and 20 percent are in Canada. f-Secure.com has posted a set of reasonably technical instructions for checking and removing the trojan. Follow along step by step from here. [Update April … Continue reading Mac Trojan news

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East End Match Girls and Apple/FoxCon

Mark Cathcart

I was struck by the similarity of the plight and treatment of the BRYANT & MAY MATCHWOMEN in the East End of London, in the 1880’s, and the hi-tech assembly workers at the FoxConn factories in China. I heard an interview with Louise Raw, Historian and Author, on this mornings Robert Elms, BBC Radio London show, talking about her new book, Striking a Light. The comparison was really only around the plight of the workers than anything else. Thinking about it afterwards the scale of the hi-tech workers is staggering, Wired estimates 1-million workers working on the iPhone alone, which … Continue reading East End Match Girls and Apple/FoxCon

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Journalists would rather act as a gateway for Apple press releases

Mark Cathcart

than do a real job”. Brilliant, sums up what I’ve thought for a longtime. No real examination of Apples products, no difficult questions, except recent coverage of their problems with manufacturing; the press would rather fawn over their products than do a critical examination. Well this is a great summary of the upcoming Apple anouncement “Too many inky hacks pulled out to cover Apple instead. We, the Press would rather sit in a dark room, unable to ask tough questions or actually touch and test an Apple product, than do our job. We would rather serve as a gateway for … Continue reading Journalists would rather act as a gateway for Apple press releases

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The implications of “Mastered for iTunes”

Mark Cathcart

NPR has an interesting blog entry on “What ‘Mastered For iTunes’ Really Means”. I hadn’t spotted this since I’ve been a life long Apple avoider. It’s not that I think Apple has bad products, it’s just they always, always look for a way to lock users into their systems. I’ve felt for a long time that the music industry would eventually find a way to strike back at MP3. In this case it makes perfect sense. Pay particular attenion to the last two paragraphs. http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/02/24/147379760/what-mastered-for-itunes-really-means Continue reading The implications of “Mastered for iTunes”