Apple Halts Product Sales in Russia, Makes RT and Sputnik Unavailable Outside of Russia (macrumors.com) 63
Apple is taking a series of actions in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company said in a statement Tuesday: We are supporting humanitarian efforts, providing aid for the unfolding refugee crisis, and doing all we can to support our teams in the region. We have taken a number of actions in response to the invasion. We have paused all product sales in Russia. Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited. RT News and Sputnik News are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia. And we have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens. We will continue to evaluate the situation and are in communication with the relevant governments on the actions we are taking. We join all those around the world who are calling for peace. Nike also stopped sales on its Russian online store Tuesday.
Not only sales of Apple products (Score:2)
But services as well. As this BBC article relates, people who were subservient to having everything digitally on their phone found out they can't do anything [bbc.com].
Daria, 35, a project manager in Moscow, said this meant he'd been unable to use the metro.
"I always pay with my phone but it simply didn't work. There were some other people with the same problem. It turned out that the barriers are operated by VTB bank which is under sanctions and cannot accept Google Pay and Apple Pay.
"I had to buy a metro card instead," he told the BBC. "I also couldn't pay in a shop today - for the same reason."
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I don't know why you're surprised by that.
Re:Not only sales of Apple products (Score:4, Insightful)
Having police go in and beat up people trying to withdraw funds would basically create a run on the bank type scenario. While people often don't have a problem with protesters having the shit beat out of them, the average man and woman on the street, when the cops stop them from taking money out, will lose their shit. And that would lead to real disorder.
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There's already a run on Russian banks.
I see where Apple is coming from with this, but iPhones are useful tools for organizing against the government. Shouldn't we be trying to help the Russian people, who are mostly opposed to this war?
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"There's an interesting picture in the BBC article you linked, a photo of people queuing, presumably to withdraw money at a cash machine. "
At dollar ATMs, nobody wanted any rubles.
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Can we have the same from 'Apple in all of Europe? (Score:2)
Can we have the same from 'Apple in all of Europe ?
will Google Maps do the same? (Score:2)
will Google Maps do the same?
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will Google Maps do the same?
Re traffic data you mean? They did yesterday.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/tec... [bbc.co.uk]
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Google knows where people are within FEET so they should provide the location of every Russian in Ukraine to the Ukrainian government. Their young men probably can't go without their phones unless ordered to leave them behind.... and why do that? it's not like it'll harm them (until now?)
Thanks, Nike, now Adidas! (Score:2)
Nike is a start. Adidas halting sales to Russia will be the true sanction.
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They'd go bankrupt without the tracksuit sales to Russia!
No, they will just be sold by smugglers. As long as Putin gets his cut it won't be a problem.
A college friend traveled to Russia in Soviet Union days. His used Levi jeans were like gold. He literally traded a Kremlin guard's hat (winter, Kremlin insignia and all that) and belt (the buckle is the interesting part) for a pair. True win-win Adam Smith capitalism right there.
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You're a few decades too late, they've been wearing chinese adidas knock offs for a while now. Export of those isn't stopping anytime this century.
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Spain, Italy and the South of France will be free of rowdy Russian tourists this summer, maybe for much longer.
I guess the same goes for US vacation destinations.
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Nike could make a better start by ending child labor in its shoe production, which it periodically claims it will do but never actually does.
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Those countries are free to do so. As are you.
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Unfortunately, might makes right. The US sees itself as "the good guy" doing what needs to be done, and the rest of the world just lets it happen. Why? Because the rest of the first world needs the US to prevent nations like Russian and China invading.
I say first world, as the US doesn't care about anything other than money (and associated issues, such as oil)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Yeah, US refused to recognize Hitler–Stalin (Score:2)
The US is responsible for the mess they created in the Ukraine, and American should be sanctioned and their companies banned.
True, the US did not recognize the pact between Stalin and Hitler where they agreed on German (NATO) and Soviet (Russian) sphere's of influence.
"In addition to the publicly-announced stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included the Secret Protocol, which defined the borders of Soviet and German spheres of influence across Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The secret protocol also recognised the interest of Lithuania in the Vilnius region, and Germany declared its complete disinterest
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I'm pretty sure they've gotten over it by now...
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The U.S. wasn't really a world power before WWII. There was, like now, a significant fraction of Republicans who were isolationist and refused to support anything w.r.t. Europe even after the war in Europe started. It took Japan for the U.S. wake up and realize it couldn't hide behind the oceans. So put quickly, there was nothing the U.S. could have done for Poland and most in the U.S. couldn't point to Poland on the map. Poland at that time was also a recently minted country whose land was previously owned
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Yeah, I (don't) remember that from high school History. That's the part after the war, when we left the Poles swinging in the Soviet breeze.
I'm pretty sure they've gotten over it by now...
No. This was the start of the war. Stalin was secretly allied with Hitler at the start of the war. (see link in previous post) Stalin and Hitler agreed to split Poland in half, and defined other nations in the region as falling into German or Soviet Union sphere's of influence. Hitler moved first with his invasion of Poland. After a short delay Stalin entered Poland from the other side. Both armies stopped at the agreed upon line and did NOT fight each other. They both solidified their control over their re
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Re:Multiple standards (Score:2)
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The US is responsible for the mess they created in the Ukraine
Excuse me? I'm pretty sure that it's Russia's tanks that are rolling into the cities, and Russian rockets and artillery shells that are blowing up kindergartens and apartment towers.
Feel free to blame the US for the fuckups collectively known as the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan - that's completely fair game. But please enlighten us as to how the US is responsible for the mess in Ukraine.
Re: Double standards (Score:2)
Imagine if Russia struck up a military deal with Mexico, like in the Cuban crisis days, how do you think that USA would react?
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The single greatest security asset any country could have is good relations with its neighbors. If Russia didn't want Ukraine to join NATO -- which Ukraine as a sovereign state has a perfect right to do -- maybe Russia should stop acting in ways that make its neighbors think they'd better sign up to NATO.
NATO membership comes with obligations as well as benefits, so if you don't need the benefits you don't want to be a member. That's why Ireland is not a NATO member, it has fuck-all use for Article 5. B
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You forget Russia's and the Soviet Union's history of screwing their territories and those "citizens". The Tsar was a mean SOB, Stalin was worse. Stalin killed millions by starvation and carted millions off the Gulag. He then signs a non-aggression pact with the Nazis and gets double crossed. After the war, the pain for the territories continued. He went to hell in 1953.
That didn't save the territories because the new Soviet masters were just as inept as Stalin. When the Soviet Union broke apart, the territ
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Up to multiple tens of millions depending on the source. And the great majority were in Ukraine. Making it among the worst genocides on record, though Mao's Cultural Revolution almost certainly killed even more.
Socialism (including Hitler's) and authoritarianism have killed many hundreds of millions of unique and irreplaceable human beings in the past century alone, and promise to do the same going forward until and unless we find a way to stop both of these things.
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The US is responsible for the mess they created in the Ukraine
Could you outline the "mess" the USA created in the Ukraine?
I would say the biggest mess was when the USA encouraged Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal, in exchange for promises of protections from the west that never materialized.
Or are you referring to something else?
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Hmm, it did not seem to be that messy. At least until little green men invaded, and started carving up a country that Russia agreed would be a sovereign country, in exchange for returning nuclear weapons. Until then, things seemed to be looking up.
RT streaming available on iPhone. (Score:2)
rt has been removed from directv! (Score:2)
rt has been removed from directv!
Why Exceptions? (Score:2)
Same for Android! (Score:2)
RT doesn't show on my Pixel either.
EDIT: Oh wait... I remembered that I blocked that trashy news site years ago. Carry on.
I'm not so sure here. (Score:2)
And we have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.
While shutting down Russian mouthpieces (RT et al.) is a good idea, the other services Apple provides may be necessary for Ukrainians to maintain whatever safety they currently have.
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The only services disabled in Ukraine are Apple Maps' live traffic and incident reports. Everything else is working just fine in Ukraine.
In Russia, though, pretty much all services have been
They should have kept selling. (Score:2)
They should have kept selling iPhones, as each one sold sucks money out of the Russian economy and into the pockets of the American elite.
Also, weren't there articles here yesterday about how this was the "Tiktok war", and Musk is riding in on his white space ship to make sure Russians have access to social media? What good is an internet connection without a computer to use it?
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"Also, weren't there articles here yesterday about how this was the "Tiktok war", and Musk is riding in on his white space ship to make sure Russians have access to social media? "
Elon's idea to go to Mars doesn't sound so crazy anymore.
The hypocrisy is AMAZING. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Can we get this sort of stuff applied when ANYONE invades another nation?
How about when they attempt coups?
It's sickening how Israel can perform ethnic cleansing and the US can invade sovereign nations and we get NOTHING like this.
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More like "Apple Virtue Signals When... (Score:2)
So, is seems people using russian money can't actually pay apple anything.
ONLY THEN does apple claim they are concerned about actual human life and will refrain from 'doing business' in russia.
Yeah, right, thanks for the update PR department.
They make cool equipment that you can get in exchange for money, there in no humanity left in that company.
Well, that's my take on the state of apple inc.
Your mileage may vary, but if you think they care then I think you are delusional, and I hope you're okay with that,
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A company that makes cool equipment that you can get in exchange for money?
That's your take? And you figured that out all on your own did you?
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So, is seems people using russian money can't actually pay apple anything.
ONLY THEN does apple claim they are concerned about actual human life and will refrain from 'doing business' in russia.
Yeah, right, thanks for the update PR department.
They make cool equipment that you can get in exchange for money, there in no humanity left in that company.
Well, that's my take on the state of apple inc.
Your mileage may vary, but if you think they care then I think you are delusional, and I hope you're okay with that, don't want to start a war.
The Hate is strong in this one.
If you pay attention, you will find that Google is doing most, if not all, of the same things.
https://www.reuters.com/techno... [reuters.com]
https://news.yahoo.com/google-... [yahoo.com]
https://observer.com/2022/02/g... [observer.com]
So, STFU, Comrade!
Fuck Apple (Score:2)
IBM, AMD etc. (Score:2)