Let’s Talk Apple – Ep. 36 (August 2016) 1

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast – @gazmaz
• Elaine Giles from MacBites Learning – @elainegiles
• Nick Riley – @spligosh

The show starts with a quick look at some notable numbers and Apple-related legal stories which broke in August. The three main stories are the EU’s fight with Ireland and Apple, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 recall, and some changes to the App Store. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other shorter stories that made the news in August.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Notable Numbers

• Apple have now paid $50Bn to App Store developers – www.macobserver.com/…

Legal Latest

• US Federal Judge voids VirnetX's $626.6M verdict against Apple – two cases were unfairly combined into one, confusing the Jury, and need to be re-tried separately – www.reuters.com/…
• Apple settle a patent dispute in Germany with the owners of OpenTV with a 'comprehensive patent license agreement' – www.reuters.com/…
• Apple & Broadcom counter-sue Caltech to have the Wifi patents they are allegedly infringing invalidated – www.macrumors.com/…
• Apple settle out of court with Dot23 Technologies over claims Siri infringes their patents – www.macrumors.com/…
• Designers file Amicus brief in support of apple in their Supreme Court case against Samsung – www.reuters.com/…
• Judge throws out Monster's case against Beats regarding their acquisition by Apple – www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories

1. EU Competition Commissioner Rules that Apple got unfair state aid from the Irish Government in the form of tax breaks – the Commissioner says Apple owes €14.5Bn in back-taxes, and claims Apple's effective tax rate is just 0.005% – www.bloomberg.com/…
   • Ireland and Apple to appeal the ruling – www.reuters.com/…
   • The US Treasury department is also on Apple and Ireland's side – www.macobserver.com/…
   • Apple release a public letter on the matter – www.apple.com/…
   • Tim Cook gives a number of interviews – www.independent.ie/…, www.rte.ie/… & arstechnica.com/…
     • Tim calls the ruling "political crap", saying the commission "just picked a number from I don't know where", and that Apple actually paid $400m in tax in 2014, making it the largest tax payer in Ireland
     • Tim disputes the Commissioner's numbers, saying Apple pay a global tax rate of 26.1%, and that 1 in every 14 Euro paid in corporate tax in Ireland was paid by Apple in 2014 –
     • Tim Cook says Apple plans to re-patriate billions from Ireland to the US next year, which it will pay US tax on
   • A good FAQ regarding the ruling – www.bloomberg.com/…
   • A good description of the bigger-picture within which this ruling sits – www.vox.com/…
2. Samsung recalling 2.5M Galaxy Note 7s because of wide-spread reports of the devices catching fire – money.cnn.com/…
3. Apple announce App Store improvements – old outdated apps will get cleaned out of the store, and stupidly long app names will be banned – arstechnica.com/… & developer.apple.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple release new iOS remote app for controlling new Apple TVs – www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple release their latest diversity report – tidbits.com/… & www.apple.com/…
• Apple will open a new R&D centre in China before the end of the year – www.macobserver.com/…
• Intel licence ARM so they can manufacture ARM chips for customers – www.bloomberg.com/…
• Apple unveils a new 2TB iCloud option priced at $19.99 per month – appleinsider.com/…

Reminder – bit Apple Event on September 7 – www.macobserver.com/…