Tim Cook

In this week’s top stories: Tim Cook hints at a “can’t live without” feature for iPhone 7, we detail Apple Music’s upcoming redesign planned for iOS 10, and the latest round of iPhone 7 reports.

And other top shared stories include Apple’s announcement of a new enterprise-focused partnership with SAP, news of a couple high-profile hires and departures from the company this week, and much more. Head below for the usual handy links to all this week’s top stories and videos:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook is no stranger to conferences and keynotes, and later this month the Apple CEO is set to appear at the first Startup Fest Europe in Amsterdam. Cook will open the event as its keynote speaker on May 24th, followed by appearances by other big names including Google/Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt, Uber’s Travis Kalanick. Google and Apple-partner IBM are among Startup Fest’s sponsors.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In a TV interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer this week, Cook said the iPhone 7 will have a killer feature that would prove to be an upgrade customers won’t be able to resist. “We are going to give you things that you can’t live without that you just don’t know you need today,” Cook teased.

Could it really be something we already know about? Could any of the rumored features for the device possibly fall under the groundbreaking or irresistible category of features Cook hinted at? Perhaps the new rumoured dual-camera system could be enough to account for Cook’s comment? Of course, it’s also possible it’s all just post-Q2 PR hype after a quarter of declines. Will Apple have something new and exciting that we don’t yet know about for the iPhone 7?

That’s the question we ask readers in today’s poll. What rumoured new feature for iPhone 7 will make it upgrade worthy for you? Or will Tim Cook and Co need something beyond what’s expected to get upgrade numbers it didn’t get in 2015 with the 6s update and this year with the iPhone SE?
Expand
Expanding
Close

After focusing on Apple’s second quarter earnings and the subsequent reaction by Wall Street in the first part of his interview on CNBC’s Mad Money, Apple CEO Tim Cook got a little more personal in part two. During today’s portion of the interview that just aired, Cook talked about his personal motivation for creating products, as well as people he looks up to and more.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[UPDATE: Video below.]

As expected, Apple CEO Tim Cook this evening appeared on CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer to discuss the recent news surrounding the company’s second quarter earnings results. The company reported $50.6 billion in revenue and $10 billion in profits, but its stock was sent into spiral. Speaking to Cramer, however, Cook defended Apple’s future and called Wall Street’s response a “huge overreaction.”

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple today has spoken out against a controversial new bill in Mississippi that was signed into law by the state’s governor earlier this week. House Bill 1523 is spun as protecting religious freedom but has been criticized for enabling LGBT discrimination. Apple today has joined a variety of technology companies in voicing its opposition to the law.

Expand
Expanding
Close

As the United States heads full speed into election season, Apple has been a topic of conversation for a variety of reasons thus far. Republican candidate Donald Trump has said that he will “get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country,” while he also last month called for a boycott of Apple when it refused to comply with the FBI’s request for help unlocking the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen.

Now, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has commented on Apple in a new interview with New York Daily News. In the interview, Sanders echoed some of the comments from Trump, noting that he would appreciate it if Apple would move some manufacturing to the United States.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In homage to its history, Apple has hung a pirate flag at its Infinite Loop Headquarters (images via @twfarley and @mjisrawi). On April 1st, 40 years ago, Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The iconic flag, complete with rainbow Apple logo for an eye, dates back to the creation of the original Mac. The Mac team hung the flag as an act of rebellion, distinguishing their cool work, led by Jobs, from the rest of the company which was preoccupied making the Lisa.

Watch Apple’s 40 year celebration video, first shown at its event last month, after the jump …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Somehow, it has become a part of mainstream culture for iPhone and iPad users to quit all their apps in multitasking as some kind of regular tech maintenance ritual to improve battery life or speed up the hardware. An understanding of how iOS multitasking works however, shows that this is completely unnecessary to close every app in the multitasking view frequently. A 9to5Mac reader decided to ask Tim Cook for an official stance on whether he quits all his apps and if it’s necessary. Although Cook didn’t answer, Apple iOS chief Craig Federighi did with an unambiguous answer ‘no and no’ …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Update: Elon Musk said in a tweet today that the American Enterprise Institute meeting was not secretive and that he was not there to talk about Trump.

The AEI meeting wasn't secret and I was only there for a few hours to talk about Mars and sustainable energy. Nothing to do with Trump.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2016

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been very vocal with his opinions about Apple recently and now, it appears that Tim Cook is part of a coalition trying to stop Trump gaining the nomination. According to a report from the Huffington Post, Cook was among a handful of tech CEOs and Republican establishment members who recently met at the American Enterprise Institute’s World Forum to discuss how to best stop Donald Trump.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In an interesting summary of the possible outcomes of the Apple vs FBI standoff, Quartz notes that some experts believe that CEO Tim Cook could be held personally liable for defying a court order and face jail time.

Attorney Peter Fu told Fast Company that the scenario would arise only if the case went all the way to the Supreme Court and Apple lost but continued to refuse to cooperate.

Under these circumstances, there is a universe of possibilities where Tim Cook could actually go to jail for refusing to comply with a lawful order of the court. This is because Apple has already publicly declared that it will not comply with a court order to unlock the iPhone and as such, necessarily forces the courts to favor punishment over coercion … 

Stephen Vladeck, an expert on national security law at American University, disagrees.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook and company lead Apple’s annual shareholders meeting of 2016 this morning, and as usual there were some interesting questions and answers between those in attendance. Like last year, Apple’s rumored electric vehicle project came up, only the Apple CEO didn’t automatically defer to CarPlay this go around. Diversity and Apple’s ongoing battle with the FBI over encryption were also topics of discussion at the Cupertino meeting at Apple HQ.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple CEO Tim Cook has today sat down with ABC’s David Muir to talk about the company’s battle with the FBI. Last week, a California court requested that Apple unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen in December. Cook replied to the request with a letter on Apple’s homepage, saying that Apple did not want to create the tool that would be required to unlock the device. In his interview with Muir, Cook elaborated on the company’s decision…

Expand
Expanding
Close

In a Fortune interview with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO suggested that Apple is not yet committed to making a car, but is only exploring the idea at this stage. Asked by Adam Lashinsky why Apple wouldn’t comment on its plans given that it is known to have acquired a high-profile team to work on the project, Cook said hiring people wasn’t the point at which the company committed itself.

We don’t have to spend large amounts to explore. So I can’t talk about this certain area that you’re talking about. But when we start spending large amounts of money, we’re committed at that point. But we explore things with teams of people. And that’s a part of being curious […]

Once we start spending gobs of money—like when we start spending on tooling and things like that—we’re committed … 

Lashinsky also asked how Cook responded to ‘peak iPhone‘ concerns …

Expand
Expanding
Close