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Senator Claire McCaskill has just asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about the deal Apple forged with Ireland to pay only 2% taxes, and whether or not there will ever be a country that offers Apple such a great tax deal that they would pack up and move out of Cupertino to overseas.

Tim Cook explained that Ireland originally recruited Apple back in 1980 as part of an initiative to attract technology companies to the then extremely poor country. That rate is what has allowed Apple in the last four years to pay only $10 million tax on $74 billion of overseas revenues.

McCaskill then brought up the question of whether or not there wouldn’t always be foreign countries which would undercut America’s taxes, no matter how modest.

Cook said that America still has extraordinary advantages over other countries, and that a simplified tax code would help. Cook reiterated that he didn’t want to pay nothing on repatriating money brought back home from overseas. “I propose we eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, and we have a reasonable tax on bringing tax back overseas. I think many many companies would bring cash back in that scenario.”

McCaskill then asked whether or not Apple would ever leave America if the tax system became too onerous. Tim Cook seemed astouned by the suggestion.

“We’re an American company, and we’re proud to be an American company. Vast majorty of R&D is in California. We’re there because we love it there. It’s who we are as people. We’re an American company whether we’re selling in China, or Egypt, or Saudi Arabia. It has never even entered my mind to move our headquarters to another country, and I have a wild imagination.”

5-21-13

Source

Devices built around Apple’s iOS operating system have been approved by the US Department of Defence (DOD) for use on its networks, as the department moves to support multivendor mobile devices and operating systems.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which certifies commercial technology for defence use, said on Friday it had approved the Apple iOS 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG).

“Approval of the STIG means that government-issued iOS 6 mobile devices are approved for use when connecting to DOD networks within current mobility pilots or the future mobile device management framework,” the agency said in a statement.

The department earlier this month cleared BlackBerry 10 smartphones and PlayBook tablets with its enterprise mobility management platform BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to be used on its networks. It also approved Samsung Electronics’ Knox, a new Android-based platform designed by the company to enhance security of the current open source Android.

The DOD mobility strategy includes mobile devices configured to the STIG, in combination with an actively managed and defended Mobility Device Management system, DISA said. The agency is responsible for establishing MDM, which provides a process for managing and distributing mobile applications and an enhanced cyber defence infrastructure. DISA is running a pilot program to bring all the pieces together.

A DOD spokesman, Lt Col Damien Pickart, said earlier that a decision on Apple’s iOS was expected to be taken last week. Several mobile devices and operating systems are currently going through DISA’s STIG review and approval process, Pickart said via email earlier this month.

“We look forward to additional vendors also participating in this process, further enabling a diversity of mobile devices for use within the department,” Pickart said. The approvals do not result in product orders, he added. Actual orders will be linked to operational requirements and availability of funding with user organisations, DISA said in its statement.

DOD currently has more than 600,000 commercial mobile devices in operational and pilot use, including about 470,000 BlackBerry devices, 41,000 running Apple operating systems and 8700 on Android. A Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan aims to permit use of the latest commercial technologies such as smartphones and tablets, and to develop an enterprise mobile device management capability and application store to support approximately 100,000 multivendor devices by February 2014, DISA said.

5-21-13

www.macworld.com

Remains of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla.

In response to the devastating tornado that hit Okalhoma City on Monday, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T announced it will be waiving all overage charges for those affected through June 30.

On Monday afternoon local time, Oklahoma City saw a massive tornado system rip through parts of the city and surrounding areas, leaving flattened buildings and at least 91 fatalities in its wake. The New York Times, as well as other media outlets, say the storm system was one mile wide.

Hours later, AT&T announced it would be supporting efforts by waiving voice, data and text overage charges through the end of June for affected areas.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area Monday," said Bryan Gonterman, state president for AT&T Oklahoma. "We are coordinating with local authorities and bringing in additional resources."

Due to expectedly high call volumes, Gonterman recommended that those trying to reach friends and family in the region use text messaging instead of voice communications.

AT&T also reminded customers that they can contribute $10 to Red Cross humanitarian efforts by texting "REDCROSS" to 90999. The donation will be charged as part of a user's monthly bill.

5-21-13

appleinsider.com

There have been plenty of hints over the past months that indicate that Apple’s incoming next round of MacBook Air/Pros would contain 802.11AC Gigabit wifi chips, not the least of which was code we found referencing ’802.11AC‘ in 10.8.4 Betas.

TonyMacx86, found some interesting parts on Chinese VR-Zone today that could be the next 802.11AC boards in Macs, widely expected to be announced at WWDC next month. The Broadcom BCM94360CD PCI-E mini custom combo WLAN+Bluetooth card supports IEEE 802.11ac, the next standard in wireless computer networking. Interestingly, it also looks like it may fit in current iMacs/MacBooks which could mean aftermarket updates could be possible.

This compares to the current iMac cards via iFixit below:

5-21-13

9to5mac.com

During this morning’s Senate hearing regarding Apple’s tax strategies, Apple CEO Tim Cook provided opening statements regarding Apple’s perspective on the issues. Notably, during a time in which Cook was discussing Apple’s United States-based operations and strategies, the Apple CEO said that Apple’s upcoming Made-in-the-USA Mac line will be assembled in Texas…


Apple has not previously disclosed where the already announced US-built Mac will be assembled. Foxconn, Apple’s main assembly partner in China, has factories in Texas.

We previously noted that Apple is working with Quanta on shipping certain iMac models, but Quanta is based in California and Tennessee. With this in mind, it is likely that Apple will be working with Foxconn on the US-built Mac.

Apple, yesterday, disclosed that components for this new Mac will be sourced from Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Kentucky. Today, Cook also reiterated that Apple is building a new administrative campus in Texas.