Jeff Gamet

Apple’s latest addition to its original television lineup is a series based on Min Jin Lee’s best selling book Pachinko. The book chronicles the lives of a Korean that immigrated to the U.S., and Apple signed it into what Hollywood Reporter calls “a sizable script-to-series commitment.” HR adds,

Soo Hugh (who oversaw on season one of AMC’s The Terror) will pen the script for Apple as well as executive produce and serve as showrunner on the likely series. Pachinko hails from Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res, which is behind Apple’s upcoming Reese Witherspoon-Jennifer Aniston morning show drama and was the tech giant’s entry into the scripted space. Author Lee will also be credited as an executive producer on the Apple take.

I love how Apple is bringing diversity to its original TV show programming and is turning its back on the old-school white male-dominated television world.

Facebook wants to offer new services to its users, so it’s asking banks in the United States to share personal account information. That includes account balances and credit card activity, because who better to have access to our personal financial data than Facebook? From the Wall Street Journal:

As part of the proposed deals, Facebook asked banks for information about where its users are shopping with their debit and credit cards outside of purchases they make using Facebook Messenger.

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have shown time and again that our personal data is far more valuable than our privacy. At least one bank has already told Facebook “no,” and hopefully the others will, too.

Apple iPhone processor maker TSMC was knocked to its knees over the weekend when the WannaCry computer ransomware virus infected fabrication tools. The virus left the equipment unusable while it was being removed. Bloomberg reports,

TSMC said that 80 percent of the fabrication tools affected by a virus outbreak Friday evening had been restored and that it expects full recovery on Monday. The Taiwanese company said the incident, which comes as it ramps up chipmaking for Apple Inc.’s next iPhones, would delay shipments, without specifying which customers would be affected. Its shares fell more than 1 percent in Taipei.

Odds are TSMC is prioritizing Apple, so we probably won’t see much of an impact on iPhone availability when new models ship this fall. TSMC’s other clients, however, probably won’t fare as well.

Almost all of the podcasts from Alex Jones, the media personality known for his right-wing Infowars platform and conspiracy theories, have been blocked from Apple’s iTunes Store. Apple is citing hate speech as the reason, just like Facebook, YouTube and Spotify when those platforms blocked his content. Apple told Buzzfeed,

Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users. Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.

I’m with Andrew Orr on this one: Apple made the right move on this one. Regardless of political views, actively engaging in hate speech is wrong, and when you’re in Jones’ position can entice others into doing the same—or even into taking physical action against other people. And saying Apple, Facebook, or any other company that refuses to host or link to Jones’s content is violating his First Amendment rights is flat-out wrong; the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from curtailing what you can say, not what companies allow on their online services.

Apple became the first company with a US$1 trillion market cap on Thursday, and CEO Tim Cook marked the occasion with a memo to employees for helping reach the milestone. Cook called the event a “Significant milestone,” and went on to say products and customers are more important than a number. He said,

Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.

It’s true: Without products like the iPhone, and incredibly loyal customers, Apple wouldn’t be where it is today.