That would be true if the actions presented accurately represent those which actually occurred. Normally such determination is left for a jury to decide, not a grand jury.
Except the "demand" is not a demand directed at anyone, but just the world in general -- since it's after the fact. They would dig up dirt on those who have already written negative articles. No demands are made of them. And no demands are made of any nameable individuals. If you ask "who are they blackmailing", the answer is "a hypothetical."
Fortunately this is self-selecting. The highly qualified people (quite often these are the very best people) who don't have credentials would never, ever want to work for you.
It's not blackmail by either the legal or common-usage definition of blackmail. Even if Uber followed through with such a sleazy plan, it would not be blackmail. For blackmail, a demand must be made, accompanied by a menace. Floating an idea that you plan on digging up dirt? That might have been an incipient but ill-advised plan, it might be idle dreaming, or it might be it might be machiavellian FUD.
Developing for Android, the likelihood is actually they will be less efficient. Generally when developing for a target use the same tools that most people use for it; the probability of someone having encountered the your particular problems and already solved them for you on StackOverflow is so much higher.
I wanted to see how this app feels. Visiting the App Store, there is no app with this name. On my iPad, if I tap on your link, I am presented with (literally) a solid empty white square. Good job, Apple.
So FYI for everyone else not in the UK, this app is only available in the UK App Store. (But I had to fire up my Mac to find out.)
> They can't hold GT responsible for successfully delivering sapphire, but then simultaneously prevent them from having any authority over a vital component in the building of said sapphire.
Yes, we agree. And exactly what you describe is what appears to have happened.
(disclaimer: I have no involvement with this controversy at all)
Not true. If Apple took "100%" of the risk, GT would not be bankrupt. GT was a viable operating concern prior to these events.
Taking only what's available in the article, GT's job included running the factory, part of the process pipeline they had zero choice over, even to the point of selecting or even communicating with subcontractors (the line I quoted). When those machines in the process pipeline wholly dictated by Apple proved inadequate -- and I am not saying those are the only problems -- by necessity GT assumed at least a good portion of that risk.
You are oversimplifying the situation greatly, to the point of being disingenuous.
If in fact the sentence I highlighted is true, it is very much heavy-handedness on the part of Apple. From the context, it is unlikely to be false, though possible.
Bankruptcy isn't "sour grapes", it is the expected result when Apple's concessions were insufficient to extricate the company from its troubles. From the reading of this article, it appears that Apple's terms boxed this much-smaller company in, leaving them with insufficient margin for error. This sentence is particularly telling: "Apple chose the facility, negotiated all the contracts to design and build it, and GT had no direct contact with the Apple subcontractors." Perhaps such a contract should never have been agreed to, but it is an example of heavy-handedness by the stronger partner in the relationship.
Many complaints only some of which come to mind immediately. Presence/status -- can't set it. Will I annoy this other person if I send a message? In busy hangouts requires that I scrollback to new messages, having to remember the last message I read. Can't search. One pile of people, big mistake -- no opt-out of this. Can't segregate people into different attention classes. (Just because I have 1000 people in a g+ circle doesn't mean i want them all to be able to freely message me, or even see my status). These are all UX issues. [Android client. Never looked at the iOS client]
Essentially every Android phone or tablet permits side-loading of apps, and installing third-party app directories ("stores"). People may not use such very much, but the freedom is still there.
It's AI in the sense that a pocket calculator from 1980 is AI. It doesn't know what it's doing, can only perform a limited range of calculations under tight constraints, has no awareness of whether or not the result is meaningful, and unless the authors went seriously overboard developing the suite, cannot learn from what it has done to improve the process.
In this one particular case, yes. But not that they did not receive indirect remuneration (rate concessions) in exchange for unfulfilled broadband promises, possibly far exceeding $2B. I'm not sure why my comment was downvoted, as the article in the Inquirer shows that such promises were indeed made by Bell Atlantic.
State-by-state basis. Pennsylvania paid them $2.1B for fiber that never happened:
In 1994 Verizon (then Bell Atlantic) struck a landmark deal with the state of Pennsylvania. The deal provided Verizon with hefty financial incentives if they met certain broadband rollout criteria. It's estimated that those financial incentives over the years clock in somewhere around $2.1 billion dollars.
As part of that agreement, Bell Atlantic agreed to have 20% of the state broadband wired by 1998, and 50% by 2004. By 2015, broadband would be run throughout the state to the majority of Verizon's customers. It's important to note that this wasn't DSL they were talking about...but 45MB/s symmetrical fiber service right to the door of homes and businesses, ambitious and impractical for certain, but nonetheless included in the language of the agreement. [1]
Absolutely correct. But we also know that the OCDE definition is a strict percentage which is so absurd it creates large middle classes in cultures which have absolutely no middle class. And events may unfold such that the definition may be absurd even in our own culture in 20? 50? years.
Unfortunately this is a terrifically bad definition of middle class, and may not match what people think of as "middle class" life. By this logic, 13th century feudal society had an ample middle class.
We've known for decades that there are enormous quantities of methane clathrates at the bottom of the northern oceans. That some of it vents should not surprise anyone.