Apple got a lot of attention in the news this week when the European Union ordered Apple to pay Ireland $14.5 billion in back taxes, plus interest. But ironically, Ireland itself — the country that would receive the taxes — disagrees that Apple owes the taxes, and plans to appeal (as does Apple). Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a public letter on the Apple website explaining why he believes that Apple has done nothing wrong and paid all of the taxes that it owed. But as Matthew Yglesias of Vox explains, the real issue is that the EU thinks that Ireland has been unfairly undertaxing Apple (and others) to encourage them to conduct business in Ireland, and this practice is allegedly contrary to EU rules. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac wrote an interesting article on these taxes, and while his article doesn't account for the ruling because it was written six months ago, it provides great background reading on this issue. Even if the EU is correct, it seems unfair to me to go back and retroactively change the rules for taxes already paid. It would be easier for me to agree with the EU saying that, going forward, Apple needs to pay taxes pursuant to a different formula. But I am not even a U.S. tax attorney, let alone an Irish or EU tax attorney, so all I can really say is that it is obviously a very complicated issue, and I'm sure that there are a lot of lawyers in Europe spending a lot of time on this for their clients. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Florida attorney Rick Georges reviews the QCY Q26 Mini in Ear Wireless Bluetooth, an incredibly tiny device that fits in one ear and wirelessly produces the audio from your iPhone. Wow, that thing is really tiny.
- California attorney David Sparks offers some thought on what Apple may introduce next week in the new iPhone 7.
- Two quick self-promotion items from this Summer. First, New Orleans CityBusiness has a column where they ask people to recommend one or two apps on their iPhone. They recently asked me, and I talked about 1Password and Fantastical. If you want to read what I said, you can click on the link on this page.
- Second, the Louisiana State Bar Association is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In one article in the June/July issue of the Louisiana Bar Journal, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson and I were interviewed by attorneys David Stein and Pete Kee to discuss what we think legal technology will look like in 25 years. Click here to read the article: PDF version. It was fun to think about the future of legal technology.
- Caitlin McGarry of Macworld describes some of the new Siri features in iOS 10, the new operating system which may be released as soon as next week.
- Joseph Cox of Motherboard writes that, in 2012, hackers stole account details for over 60 million Dropbox users, and the details are just starting to come out now. Dropbox says that it has seen no evidence of malicious access to these accounts, but even so, this news is obviously quite unsettling.
- Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal reviews the Automatic Pro, a $130 device (with no service fee) that plugs in to your car and provides information about your car to your iPhone. Better yet, if the device senses that your vehicle is in a crash, it automatically notifies someone who will call you to see if you are OK — and will call 911 with your location if you need help.
- Brent Dirks of App Advice reviews the new Tile Slim Bluetooth Tracker that is thin enough to fit in your wallet, and lets you use your iPhone to locate your wallet — or your wallet to locate your iPhone — if you misplace one of them.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports on a French medical study finding that letting a child use an iPad before surgery was just as effective as using a sedative when it comes to reducing the child's anxiety level. So the next time you are feeling anxious, you know what to reach for.
- You know that "Sent From My iPhone" that you sometimes see at the end of an email? Lara Williams writes in an article for The Guardian that the connotation of that phrase has changed over time from a way of showing off ("Looking at me! I have an iPhone!"), to something else completely. Interesting.
And finally, as we look forward to Apple's keynote next week at which the new iPhone will be introduced, it is fun to take a look backward at the great Apple keynotes of yesteryear. NotesKey is a neat website that has extensive details on every major Apple keynote since January of 1997. I enjoyed using NotesKey to relive the details of the July 2000 keynote at Macworld New York, the only Apple keynote I attended in person; it was a real treat to see Steve Jobs on stage. But one of the very best keynotes ever was the January 2007 keynote at Macworld San Francisco, where Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Here is how Steve Jobs began:
This is a day I've been looking forward to for two and a half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. And Apple has been, well ... first of all, one is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple has been very fortunate. It has been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn't just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. And it didn't just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry.
Well, today, we're introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. [Crowd cheers] The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. [Crowd cheers even louder] And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things. A widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator. [Crowd goes wild] Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
If you want to watch it again as we look forward to next week, here is the full video of that January 2007 keynote; the iPhone introduction starts around 21:50:
