Apple Spanked Repeatedly as Tim Cook Leads from Behind

Here are seven recent stories (in no particular order) that all agree that Apple is rotting.

Waterproof My ***


Samsung is being taken to task in Australia for deceptive advertising.

Samsung was one of the first companies to make water resistance a regular feature of their flagship smartphones, but it turns out the confidence this gave consumers to use their handsets around bodies of water is false, as, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the company regularly “denied warranty claims from consumers whose phones were damaged when used in water.”

Samsung in hot water Down Under for misleading ads about water resistance
Samsung & Apple lied about water resistance

Buried in the bottom paragraph of this story is this nugget.

Samsung is not the only company who advertises their phones as water resistant and who then refuses claims based on water damage, with Apple guilty of the same practice, using weasel words in their warranty documentation.

Crumby Earphones

If you are looking to replace your awful Apple AirPods, here’s the good news. Sony WF-1000XM3 is the latest noise canceling truly wireless earbuds that has arrived in the market. According to the early reviews from various tech blogs, it may be the best truly wireless earbuds that money can buy.

Sony’s new wireless noise-canceling earbuds can replace your awful Apple AirPods

5G Vaporware

5G technology is expected to change the way users interact with each other. Undoubtedly, 5G will open more opportunities than what 4G roll-out did. And now that we are on the verge of getting a commercial roll-out of 5G, almost all smartphone manufacturers are trying to bring it in their upcoming flagship.

Although there isn’t plenty of 5G-enabled smartphones available at the moment, technology market analyst firm Canalys says the shipping of 5G-enabled smartphones will reach nearly 1.5 billion by the end of 2023, while the shipment will reach 800 million in 2023 alone, which accounts for 51.4 percent of all smartphone shipments, surpassing the number of 4G smartphones shipped.

Local Chinese brands, such as Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and ZTE, are 5G handset launch partners for the three operators, while Samsung will also use this window of opportunity to fight back in China. Yet Apple will miss out, leaving loyal iPhone users waiting another year, which might risk them switching to aggressive competitors,” said Canalys analyst Mo Jia.

5G smartphones to surpass 4G ones in 2023, says analyst firm Canalys

China more or less?

For Apple it’s both, which makes no sense.

June 28, 2019


Apple Inc. is manufacturing its new Mac Pro computer in China, according to people familiar with its plans, shifting abroad production of what had been its only major device assembled in the U.S. as trade tensions escalate between the Trump administration and Beijing.

The tech giant has tapped Taiwanese contractor Quanta Computer Inc. to manufacture the $6,000 desktop computer and is ramping up production at a factory near shanghai, the people said.

Apple Moves Mac Pro Production to China
–Wall Street Journal

July 3, 2019

Microsoft, Google, HP are planning to follow Apple to cut hardware production in China to avoid tariffs in the US-China trade war.

Nikkei also reported that these companies have been planning to move out of China for many months, well before Apple. Apple is really the very last and the slowest to start formulating plans, while everyone else out there is much more aggressive,” an unnamed supply chain executive said.
However, we haven’t heard anything official from these companies. Neither Apple nor most of the companies in the Nikkei report have commented( via AppleInsider).

Microsoft, HP, Google join Apple to move hardware production out of China

iPhone designer quits Apple

Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive is leaving the company later this year to form an independent design firm. And Apple will be one of his first primary clients.

Ive’s move may not be as tectonic a shift as a possible retirement or leaving Apple completely. But it does mark a dramatic shift for the tech behemoth.

Ive, after all, has been credited with helping power Apple’s resurgence after co-founder Steve Jobs took over as its head in 1997. He helped create the iMac, the MacBook line and the iPod music player. It was the iPhone, though, that would prove to be his biggest hit, turning Apple from merely a computer company into one of the world’s largest and most profitable.

iPhone designer Jony Ive is leaving Apple

Apple subscription News App not living up to promised revenue

Citing publishing sources in contact with Apple, Business Insider reports the tech giant is actively seeking input from publishers as it tweaks Apple News+ to address concerns from partners.

One pressing issue is money. Apple is said to have estimated publishers would in their first year on News+ rake in 10 times the revenue they made from Texture, the digital magazine subscription service Apple acquired in 2018 to build its premium news product.

It’s one twentieth of what they said,” the publishing executive said. “It isn’t coming true.”

Apple looks to rejigger Apple News+ as publishers carp over low revenues, ‘unfinished’ product

Measured by the simple metric of right or wrong direction, the verdict is clearly that Apple is going the wrong way.

Amazon Burns Books Again while California Goes to War with Biblical Christianity

Another story has surfaced about Amazon.com burning books. In a previous installment, it was documented that Amazon had deleted books warning of the existential threat of Islam and its incompatibility with Western Culture (i.e. Christianity).

On January 7 of this year, I published an article at PJ Media about Amazon removing doormats featuring Qur’an verses from sale because the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) found them offensive. In that article, I asked:


“How long will it be before Hamas-linked CAIR starts demanding that books that criticize jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others also be dropped by Amazon? “

The answer turned out to be 51 days.


It’s the British government and the BBC, rather than CAIR, that are likely behind this, but Amazon has just dropped the book Mohammed’s Koran by the renowned British activist Tommy Robinson and Peter McLoughlin — and apparently only because its censors dislike Robinson. In the last two weeks, Robinson spectacularly embarrassed the BBC by exposing the bias and dishonesty of its reporter John Sweeney. The retaliation has been swift and severe: Robinson has been banned from YouTube and Facebook, and now his book has been withdrawn from sale.

Amazon Bans Tommy Robinson’s Book, ‘Mohammed’s Koran’

The article above then goes on to say:

This is an extremely ominous development. Amazon and Barnes and Noble — which is also not carrying this book — have a virtual monopoly on book sales. When these two giants refuse to carry a book, that book effectively does not exist.

This time Amazon has banned books that say homosexuals can be cured of their sinful lifestyle (my words).

Amazon has removed English-language books by a man largely considered “the father of conversion therapy” from its site following mounting pressure from LGBTQ activists.


Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, founder of the now-shuttered Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic, as well as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), authored several how-to guides directed to parents of LGBTQ youth, including “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.” His books are some of the most well-known works about conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Amazon removes controversial books by ‘father of conversion therapy’

Coincidently, the Bible also talks about some first century Christians being former homosexuals. (The Greek word for homosexual is highlighted in blue below.)

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

I Corinthians 6: 9-11

So, is the Bible next? Actually, yes; but not by Amazon. Enter the State of California. Specifically, ACR-99. Oh, before I get to the specifics of this little gem, consider this. ACR-99 is sponsored by three assembly members and 56 co-sponsors out of 80 members. So, 59/80 is 74 percent support. Yep. This baby is a done deal with bipartisan support and a veto proof majority.

Those of you that are naive enough to think government doesn’t legislate morality, here is clear proof to the contrary.

So, what is it?

This measure would call upon all Californians to embrace the individual and social benefits of family and community acceptance, upon religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy, and upon the people of California and the institutions of California with great moral influence to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.

You can read the whole thing here

The bottom line is that the government is telling your pastor, among others, that trying to convince a homosexual that living that lifestyle is sinful and they should repent because God’s model is heterosexuality is against the beliefs of the people of California. Public policy in this state is now to oppose anyone that teaches beliefs contrary to the government’s position.

So, your pastor is now being told that he must accept homosexuals as normal and affirm their lifestyle…or else. The flipside is that telling them to repent is harmful. Sorry but I think letting someone go to Hell is harmful and not warning them is wrong.

You saw already what the Bible had to say but the government knows better.

WHEREAS, The California State Legislature has found that being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBTQ) is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming; and

i.e. homosexuality is not a sin

WHEREAS, Practices or therapies that attempt to create a change in a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity are often referred to as conversion therapy; and

This included pastoral counseling.

WHEREAS, Some family, caregivers, and communities promote conversion therapy when a person is known or thought to be LGBTQ; and California law recognizes that performing conversion therapy on young persons is ineffective, unethical, and harmful; and

Such pastoral counseling is declared as “ineffective, unethical, and harmful”

WHEREAS, The stigma associated with being LGBTQ often created by groups in society, including therapists and religious groups, has caused disproportionately high rates of suicide, attempted suicide, depression, rejection, and isolation amongst LGBTQ and questioning individuals; and

The State’s declaration is not that homosexuality is a mental and spiritual illness but the opposite. Calling homosexuality wrong, sinful, or deviant—all things declared in the Bible about those that practice such behavior—is now and forevermore to be anathema in California.

Don’t believe me, read the next clause:

WHEREAS, The State of California has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including LGBTQ youth, and in protecting its minors against exposure to serious harms caused by family rejection and attempts to change sexual orientation or gender identity; and

This is the same rational that is used in Canada to prosecute Christians and discriminate against them for believing God instead of man. This is not hypothetical and tin foil hat nonsense, but stuff already done to Christian families, churches, and colleges and upheld by Canadian courts.

Resolved, That in addressing the stigma often associated with persons who identify as LGBTQ, we call on the people of California–especially its counselors, pastors, religious workers, educators, and legislators–and the institutions of California with great moral influence–especially its churches, universities, colleges, and other schools, counseling centers, activist groups, and religious centers–to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.

There’s the game plan in a short paragraph. Conform or else. As much as they can, this resolution is presenting a public policy framework to stamp-out opposition to homosexuality anywhere it is found.

Like all things Liberals do, this is a beginning and not the end. Look for this new foundation to be rapidly built upon.

If you want to know where this leads then look to Canada. They are a few years ahead of where California is now. Students of private colleges can’t get government loans. Degrees grant by said colleges are not recognized for government employment or professional licensing. Parents opposed to government positions on morality have their children taken away by child protective services never to be returned. The goal is to use the power of the state to stop the propagation of Christianity. You will find similar tactics in places ruled by totalitarian governments.

Today is July 4th. We should be celebrating freedom but beware the future. We are one generation from losing it.