Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down with Robin Roberts of ABC's “Good Morning America” show earlier this morning to discuss a few topics of interests such as the launch of the major iOS 11 software update, Apple's $999 price tag for the new iPhone X and more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday issued a new email message to all employees in which he reaffirmed his support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), saying Apple will work with members of Congress to advocate for a new solution offering support to any impacted Apple employees, like access to immigration experts.
Tim Cook appeared in a pair of recent videos by Auburn University in Alabama, which he attended (class 1982) and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday afternoon emailed employees about Hurricane Harvey that is causing unprecedented and catastrophic flooding in southeastern Texas, revealing that users had so far raised more than $3 million in aid through iTunes, while the company has pledged $2 million.
Recent deadly protests in Charlottesville continue to reflect negatively on the embattled US President Donald Trump as top Silicon Valley tech leaders have condemned the violent rally, with Apple CEO Tim telling troops in a company-wide email that “hate is cancer”.
Since its debut ten years ago in June of 2007, Apple's iPhone has managed to move a total of 1.2 billion cumulative units globally, remaining the most popular smartphone model in the world in terms of unit sales, brand power and influence.
Tim Cook recently disclosed that Apple expects its Indian operations to be run completely from renewable energy within the next six months. Cook said that during a Sunday meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at a business summit in Washington, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke with Reuters.
The move is part of Apple's mission to leave the world better than we found it.
He also highlighted the economic impact Apple is having on India:
We have a ton of energy going into the country on a number of fronts. We believe, particularly now that the 4G infrastructure is going in the country and it's continuing to be expanded, there is a huge opportunity for Apple there.
Apple has generated 740,000 jobs in India thus far and Indian developers have created nearly 100,000 apps for its App Store, said another person familiar with the talks.
Cook said Apple's sales in India grew by “strong double digits” in the most recent quarter, but didn't disclosed how much revenue the company generated from Indian operations.
As a limited run of ”Assembled in India” iPhone SE units went on sale in many Indian cities, Apple is seeking additional concessions from the Indian government as it looks to expand its presence in the world's third-largest smartphone market behind the United States and China.
Among other things, the Cupertino tech giant is seeking permission to open its own retail stores in India where it currently sells iPhones through resellers.
Apple's chief executive was among a group of tech leaders who met with US President Donald Trump earlier today to discuss improving governmental services.
Reuters photographer Carlos Barria was there to document the event.
He snapped up many images showing tech leaders mingling with Trump, but one particular photograph has sparked our imagination, to say the least.
Seen top of post, it shows U.S. President Donald Trump participating in an American Technology Council roundtable at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, accompanied by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Other tech executives were seated at the table, but they're cropped out.
Cook's facial expression and body language on that image paint a picture of a man who'd rather speak in front of the Google I/O crowd than be pictured sitting next to Trump, and we mean that in a funny and light-hearted way.
At any rate, the photo is priceless, wouldn't you agree? That said, we're struggling to come up with the perfect caption to illustrate the image so maybe you could help us out here?
What is Cook really thinking?
Share your own photo caption with the rest of our readers in the comment section below.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and other technology leaders met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House today to share their views on how the federal government could improve its public services and use technology to reduce government spending.
According to Recode, Cook told Trump that coding should be a requirement in schools.
Cook said the same thing when Apple debuted the Swift Playgrounds app, saying that “We believe coding should be a required language in all schools.”
Cook also suggested that the White House modernize the US government's IT systems.
“The US should have the most modern government in the world. Today it doesn’t,” Cook said. The White House released a video of the meeting. Here's what Cook said in full (edited for clarity):
The United States should have the most modern government in the world, but today it doesn’t. It’s great to see the effort that Jared is putting in working on things that will pay back in five and ten and twenty years.
The government should be focused on its citizens and the services of the government should be measured on how pleased the citizens are with receiving those services.
That basic premise is not how it’s done today.
I would really encourage you to ask the cabinet how they’re measuring their parts of government and what they’re doing to serve the citizens that they’re meant to serve.
Unrelated, I think coding should be a requirement in every public school. We have a huge deficit in the skills that we need today versus the skills that are there. We are trying to do our part or, hopefully, more than our part in doing that.
But I think leadership from government is also key.
And here's the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUU9VavTjE
Trump said the government could save up to $1 trillion over 10 years by updating its information technology systems, which should help cut costs and improve public services.
“Our goal is to lead a sweeping transformation of the federal government’s technology that will deliver dramatically better services for citizens,” Trump said. “Government needs to catch up with the technology revolution. We’re going to change that with the help of great American businesses like the people assembled.”
He called for a “sweeping transformation” of the government's outdated computer systems.
Amazon's Bezos added that the government should make more use of commercially available technologies and Palantir CEO Alex Karp suggested tapping into big data in order to catch and prevent fraudulent federal spending.
Trump's remarks are available on the White House website.
https://twitter.com/BouchardAnthony/status/877196743070429184
By the way, we're running a caption contest for that photo top of post.
Image: Carlos Barria/Reuters
Project Titan is officially about autonomous driving software, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
The video was posted today, marking the company's public admission regarding true purpose of the secretive project. Laying out exactly what Apple is up to in the automotive market, Cook said their current efforts are concentrated on self-driving technology.
Here's what he said (edited for clarity):
We’re focusing on autonomous systems. It’s a core technology that we view as very important and probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on. There is a major disruption looming there. You’ve got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame. If you've driven an electric car, it's actually a marvelous experience.
The “three vectors” Cook refers to are as follows:
Self-driving technology Electric vehicles Ride-hailingAs you may have suspected, he ultimately declined to say whether or not Apple might eventually manufacture its own car. “We’ll see where it takes us,” Cook added.
“We’re not really saying from a product point of view what we will do.”
Watch the full video below.
Ever since rumors began swirling that Project Titan involves a self-driving vehicle, there's been no shortage of reports analyzing whether or not Apple should build its own car.
In October of last year, Bloomberg reported that Project Titan had refocused from building an actual vehicle to developing autonomous self-driving software.
Whether or not the fruits of Apple's labor will ever see the light of day in CarPlay, or perhaps as a standalone new app for autonomous driving, remains to be seen.
Following Apple's quarterly earnings report two days ago, CEO Tim Cook sat down with CNBC's “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer to talk business and “the bigger picture”. Marking Cook's third appearance on the show, Cramer spoke with the Apple CEO about Wall Street’s reaction to his company’s latest quarter, job creation in the United States and his views on the future of Apple.
In terms of US job creation, Cook said Apple employs about 80,000 people domestically.
Of that number, nearly 25,000 people work in research and development. Cook said Apple is now buying more parts from US-based suppliers like Corning and 3M and underscored that an additional 6,000 people are employed by his company in a facility in Austin, Texas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcxR0-ZgO5o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTOR_of39do
Apple spent $50 billion last year in the US alone, Cook said.
But is he concerned about iPhone users switching to Samsung?
Read the full quote:
No, we don’t see much of that. We don’t want to see any of that, and we try really hard to retain people by giving them an experience that they really love. That’s our objective.
But generally speaking we measure that fairly closely, and we don’t see very much of that. On the switcher side, we were very pleased that we set a record for switchers outside of China for the first six months of this fiscal year.
As you know, we start in October and we just finished the first half in March. And we set a record there and we set a record for upgraders across the world. And so this felt really good.
Cook revealed that Apple is creating an advanced manufacturing fund in the United States.
“We're initially putting $1 billion in the fund,” he added, saying the Cupertino company will be announcing the first investment for this fund later in the month of May.
Fun fact: Cook has lost 30 pounds “thanks partly to my Apple Watch”.
You can read the full transcript of the Tim Cook interview on CNBC.
Would you like to have a lunch with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the company’s impressive Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California? If so, bid on the Charitybuzz website before May 16 at 3pm EDT for your chance to score an one-hour lunch with the CEO of the world’s most powerful publicly traded corporation.
At the time of this writing, nine bids have been entered for a total of $84,888 with the auction listing an estimated value of $100,000. Proceeds from the charity auction will be donated to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
The lunch is valid for 2 people.
Cost of the meal is included in your bid and the experience cannot be resold or re-auctioned.
Travel and accommodations are not included.
“We expect all winning bidders and their guests to conduct themselves appropriately when attending an experience won at Charitybuzz,” the charity marketing firm said. “Polite manners and respect for the generous donor and adherence to any rules or parameters are a must.”
From the Charitybuzz listing:
As CEO and a member of the board of directors, Tim is overseeing a company-wide effort to use 100 percent renewable energy at all Apple facilities and has helped improve conditions for workers who make the company’s products.
He is also continuing Apple’s efforts to advance the company’s inclusion and diversity and to invest in schools where technology can have a tremendous impact, as part of the ConnectED initiative.
Under Tim’s leadership, Apple initiated a program to match employee donations, has given millions of dollars to the American Red Cross and is the largest corporate donor to (RED) to fight AIDS in Africa.
Cook is a busy man: the website notes that it may take up to one year to schedule the lunch based on availability. The winning bidder and their guest(s) will be subject to security screening (this is Apple we’re talking about after all).
This is how much Cook’s previous Charitybuzz campaigns have raised:
$515,000 in 2016 $200,000 in 2015 $330,001 in 2014 $610,000 in 2013Apple’s boss was recently honored with the Newseum’s Free Speech award for creating technology that has changed the way people communicate and for using his position to take a public stand on issues like racial equality, privacy, the environment and LGBT rights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFhcnzSmH-E
While this is the fifth year in a row that Cook has partnered with Charitybuzz, it’s the first year that the winning bidder gets to visit Apple Park.
The most recent 4K drone footage of Apple Park shows continuing construction progress as finishing touches are being put on the new campus sprawling across 175 acres of parkland with 9,000 freshly planted mature trees.
The main ring-shaped build is clad entirely by the world’s largest panels of curved glass and files as the world’s largest office building. And with 17 megawatts of rooftop solar, Apple Park will run one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world.