Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on Apple TV, Jobs’ legacy, US domestic spying in wide ranging interview
13 Sep 2014
Following close on the heels of the launch of iPhone 6, Apple Pay and Apple Watch this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked on a wide-range of subjects to PBS's Charlie Rose, in an interview, which would air on Monday night.
Cook offered his take on the US government's data collection, co-founder Steve Jobs' legacy, and the "terrible," "awful" state of TV interfaces among a host of other issues.
Cook had over several years now, talked publicly of Apple's interest in TV and had been conducting talks with the major owners of cable and broadcast networks, with the aim of setting up Apple TV. The following are some key excerpts from the interview:
On Apple's biggest competitor: "Google is the top and they enable many people in the hardware business like Samsung, and Samsung is the best of the hardware companies in the Android world."
On US domestic spying: "I don't think the government found the right balance; I think they erred too much on the collect-everything side. I think the president and the administration is committed to moving that pendulum back. It's probably not right to not do anything, so it's a careful line to walk. You want to make sure you're protecting the American people but there's no reason for them to collect information on you or 99.999 per cent of other people."
On Apple's use of data: "When we design a new service we try not to collect data. So we are not reading your email, we are not reading your imessages. If the government laid a subpoena on us to give them your imessages, we cannot provide it. It's encrypted and we don't have the key."
Meanwhile, Cook has denied any interest in the social networking area and said that Facebook and Twitter were like partners rather than competitors.
CNET reported Cook also denied rumours that the company was looking to acquire photo sharing and messaging site Path.
Path provides photo sharing and messaging service to over 5 million users, according to the company's CEO Dave Morin.
Morin however preferred to offer no comment on what he called speculation about Apple's acquisition of his company.
Apple, however, had a little history with social networking, and it had in 2010 announce Ping, a music-based social network tied to iTunes.
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