One thing that I do like about Lemmy is even the Apple community is somewhat critical. While this particular case seems to be more of an exception, you'll get massively downvotes if you critique the standard PR narrative that "Apple cares about digital privacy" or point out how Apple removed content critical of China and AI tech from their streaming service.
Tim Cook is Apple's CEO and is very transparently doing this with the goal of getting favorable treatment toward Apple by the Trump administration. You'd have to be deluded to think this "personal donation" isn't a bribe on behalf of Apple.
I fully agree on the Framework laptop, but Fairphones are insecure and suck. Get yourself a (preferably used) Google Pixel instead and load GrapheneOS on to it, it's very easy and maybe takes 10 minutes.
unfortunately as someone who fixes phones day in and day out I cannot own a pixel. absolutely horrendous build quality. there's a gap behind the screen which is held on solely by shitty adhesive on a thin bezel, and the amount of devices I've seen totaled by a drop on a corner destroying that bezel so a new screen can't be installed is insane.
My experience is not that they suck. But yeah, they sure don't have the same spec as a premium iPhone or a Pixel. But they have a modular design, just like the Framework Laptop. I don't know any other modern phone that does. And they use a SoC that is guaranteed to receive support for a long time.
Apple products are objectively mid at best. They make over priced products then spend way too much on advertising convincing foolish people that their mid products are basically luxury. It's all crap.
This type of behavior will have a dire effect on my purchasing habits. I just don’t know if companies like Apple realize the effect these types of decisions have, or if I’m just not representative of their market. Either way, Cupertino can go and get fucked.
I reckon I could ask the next 100 people I meet if they knew Tim had donated to DT at least 98 of them wouldn't know. And of those that are Apple users, they'd still buy more from him.
Likely tacit acknowledgment that the US is becoming more authoritarian/run by a mob boss. For example, if you don’t pay the local mafia, you can expect them to show up and do bad things to you. However if you pay a bribe and kiss the ring, you may receive protection instead
There is no protection from fascism. It's bribery, and the dumbest part is MAGAzis will still throw them all under the bus depending which way the wind blows on any given day.
It would be super interesting to know more background on these donations. One has to wonder if there was some sort of solicitation going on. Did somebody leave a note on his windshield? I’m willing to bet there was.