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Apple Is Trash
Why Apple Is Trash? Because Apple has demonstrated a moral bankruptcy in its behaviour. In the west, it is pro-LGBTQI, pro-security, pro-freedom etc. However its conduct elsewhere shows that it supports and strives to please authoritarian regimes.
The Information on Apple in China, Apple’s Deal, Evaluating Apple’s China Risk – Stratechery by Ben Thompson – This analysis of what Apple did is, of course, distinct from the question of whether or not it was right. That is certainly something worth debating, but I suspect it is more of an academic question here in 2021. The time for Apple to decide whether to start the process of decoupling itself from China was when this deal was made; the company decided to go in the opposite direction — deepening its dependence in the process — and I don’t see it reversing anytime soon. The fact of the matter is that Apple isn’t simply the preeminent example of China’s manufacturing prowess – Apple Is Trash.
Apple and China may renew their deal if both parties agree to do so, which means Apple may have continued stronger hold in China / Digital Information World – will Apple be seen in the same way by Xi now? How much lower will Apple need to? Will Apple Is Trash plumb new depths?
What Apple’s removal of a Hong Kong protest app means for democracy – Vox – yet another example that – Apple Is Trash
Despite all of the Apple is Trash things that they have done, it still doesn’t pay off: Apple’s nightmare before Christmas: Supply chain crisis delays gift deliveries – Nikkei Asia
China
Exclusive: Meet ‘Director K’, the MI5 spy responsible for keeping Britain safe from China and Russia
President Xi of China lures Commonwealth with military diplomacy | World | The Times – which has implications for future demands of British military equipment sales and private military contractors in the developing world
Chinese mining groups scour Afghanistan for opportunities | Financial Times
Brief #98: sanctioning Lithuania, Didi delisting, China-Africa forum – the Lithuania sanctions move by China is interesting
China-Pakistan Belt and Road Initiative hits buffers | Financial Times
China’s indebted property sector highlights a fading economic revival | China | The Guardian
Chinese weddings fall to 13-year low as demographic crisis brews | Financial Times
Macao Casinos to Close Lucrative VIP Rooms in Wake of Junket King’s Arrest – Caixin Global – Melco Crown closing VIP rooms where whales from the Chinese junket trade would have gambled
Exclusive: Lithuania braces for China-led corporate boycott | Reuters
Consumer behaviour
Is Britain entering an age of aggravation? – The Face – “My own, lefty inclination is that this is what happens when you continue to grind people up against each other in an increasingly competitive society. That years of austerity rule and a “fuck off” discourse are really starting to show”
The Uncanny Valley: The Original Essay by Masahiro Mori – IEEE Spectrum
Ethics
Investigating Facebook: a fractious relationship with academia | Financial Times
Mediatel: Mediatel News: Are future freedoms of expression under threat?
China in the WTO – 20 happy years and (at least) one unfulfilled promise | Merics – forced technology transfer
Finance
Do AI-Powered Mutual Funds Perform Better? – ScienceDirect – AI-powered mutual funds significantly outperform their human-managed peers. AI-powered mutual funds show superior stock selection capability and lower turnover ratios to humans. – index trackers still important
China property stocks rise as Beijing tries to ease Evergrande turmoil | Financial Times
Facebook’s David Marcus, Creator of Embattled Diem Project, To Leave Company – Slashdot – its interesting, but then does Facebook need payments for a decentralised metaverse?
Hong Kong
China’s Didi to delist from New York and switch to Hong Kong | Financial Times
Ideas
Techno-optimism for 2022 – by Noah Smith – Noahpinion
Ireland
How the bungalow took over the Irish landscape – great RTÉ documentary on how the plan catalogue Bungalow Bliss affected the Irish rural landscape
London
Calls grow for probe into Beijing’s influence after London Chinatown attacks — Radio Free Asia
Luxury
Pets Are Flying Private Like Never Before – Robb Report
Media
Advertising Market Recovery 2022 COVID: Social Media to Overtake TV – The Hollywood Reporter
Online
SoftBank shares fall as value of portfolio companies plummets | Financial Times – not terribly surprising
Retailing
The Amazon Empire Strikes Back – Stratechery by Ben Thompson – For years, Amazon has been quietly chartering private cargo ships, making its own containers, and leasing planes to better control the complicated shipping journey of an online order. Now, as many retailers panic over supply chain chaos, Amazon’s costly early moves are helping it avoid the long wait times for available dock space and workers at the country’s busiest ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles… By chartering private cargo vessels to carry its goods, Amazon can control where its goods go, avoiding the most congested ports. Still, Amazon has seen a 14% rise in out-of-stock items and an average price increase of 25% since January 2021, according to e-commerce management platform CommerceIQ… Amazon has been on a spending spree to control as much of the shipping process as possible. It spent more than $61 billion on shipping in 2020, up from just under $38 billion in 2019. Now, Amazon is shipping 72% of its own packages, up from less than 47% in 2019 according to SJ Consulting Group. It’s even taking control at the first step of the shipping journey by making its own 53-foot cargo containers in China. Containers are in short supply, with long wait times and prices surging from less than $2,000 before the pandemic to $20,000 today.
Security
Tech Exec Brags That New Phone’ Cameras Will Always Be Watching You – Qualcomm not at all creepy
Hefty jail term for Hong Kong Telegram channel admin convicted of inciting riot, arson and violence during 2019 protests – HKFP – what I am more interested in is how he was discovered as the Telegram admin
CS Energy hit by Chinese cyberattack that almost cost 3m homes power | news.com.au – the link between the ‘criminal hacking’ community and government hackers in China due to the way talent has been recruited means that cyber warfare incidents sit in the kind of grey space that China likes to operate
Web of no web
Scientists develop wireless IoT networks for brain control | EE News Wireless – I immediately thought of the Clint Eastwood film Firefox
Wireless
Mobile data traffic has increased almost 300-fold with 5G to soar | EE News Wireless
COTS Software Defined Radio for 5G Development by Bob Munro, Pentek
5G driving mobile and fixed markets convergence | EE News Wireless
SpaceX’s Starlink Is Testing Internet Service for Aircraft – Slashdot – big threat for Panasonic who is the leading provider at the moment