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Apple Planning To Build Private Restaurant

First time accepted submitter a90Tj2P7 writes "Apple is building a 21,468 square foot private restaurant in Cupertino so employees can talk shop over lunch without being overheard. Apple's director of real estate facilities, Dan Wisenhunt, stated that: 'We like to provide a level of security so that people and employees can feel comfortable talking about their business, their research and whatever project they're engineering without fear of competition sort of overhearing their conversations.'"

9 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by decora · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Adele Goldberg -- "actually, i did think of that, and told you guys, but you ignored me"

    Consumer - "and that democratization of information between Xerox, Apple, and Microsoft brought technology to the masses and created the computer revolution of the 80s and 90s"

    Apple CEO - "and we cant have that again, because the 80s and 90s were brutal for the entrenched interests. like Xerox"

    Google - "no shit. thats why you shouldnt base your fucking business model on making information secret, when your entire history has been based on borrowing ideas from other people"

    1. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by mad+flyer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd rather have companies "stealing" information from each others (maybeee apple)
      Rather than megacorporation systematically stockpiling private information from the whole planet population (Google Dark Empire of Doom)

    2. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by alen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except that all of google's algorithms that their business depends on are secret

      Maybe google should release all their secrets as well?

    3. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by icebraining · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Funny, considering the algorithm most important to them - PageRank - is described publicly in a patent. Not to mention that it doesn't even belong to Google, but to Stanford University (since it was developed by Page and Brin as a research project).

  2. Next up... by poity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    employee dorms to prevent honey trap operations.

    --
    your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
  3. What's new? by Snowgen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've worked for big companies, and for startups. I have to say that on-campus dining facilities are pretty standard for big companies. We normally call them "cafeterias" but if you want to call it a restaurant knock yourself out.

    Not to mention that Google's in-house chefs are a thing of legend. I really don't see what's news here.

    1. Re:What's new? by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can't believe I had to scroll down this far before someone pointed this out. "Apple to set up an employee cafeteria" is some kind of news item? What about "Apple adds 25 spaces to parking lot D," or "Apple to install new urinals on the fourth floor." Remind me why we should give a crap about this.

  4. Re:Sounds like self-aggrandization by Karlt1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many companies do what Apple does, and do it even better in many cases

    "Doing it better" in business means more profitably or at least with better margins. Which company is "doing it better than Apple"?

  5. Re:Sounds like self-aggrandization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They never got there first. There were other computers, tablets, other music players, other music stores, other phones with music. You're talking out your ass.

    Apple has excellent marketing, yes. Microsoft spends tons on marketing too, but theirs sucks.

    What Apple did was to make tech delightful. Simple and elegant. They ditched floppies first. They made it really easy to buy music and put it on a portable device and make playlists without a tutorial. They did something unprecedented when they made the iPhone-- at home activation. I was waiting in line on release day (for the mother-in-law) a hundred people or so from the from the front, yet I walked out with two iPhones 45 minutes after they opened the doors. (then I wisely waited two days before attempting to activate). For the first time, using a web browser on a phone was fun instead of a disappointment.

    Look at the consumer section of Dell's on-line store. Look at Apple's on-line store. Now which one is more scary to a non-technical person looking for a personal laptop? Do they want the Intel Core i3, the 2nd Gen Intel Core i3, the 2nd Gen Intel Core i5, the... Do they want IKEA laptop covers? Or do they instead want something that "Handles daily tasks with ease" but is rated 3/5 stars.

    The Jukebox 6000, and its successor the Jukebox Studio (see below), used standard USB 1.1 technology, transferring data at a maximum rate of 1 MB per second. These models transfer data at a comparably slow rate compared with succeeding Archos devices using the USB 2.0 standard.

    Regarding the popular predecessor to the iPod line, the Archos Jukebox, Wikipedia has this to say:
    This device was released Saturday, December 9, 2000 and discontinued as of Friday, May 16, 2003. It weighs 350 g.
    The Jukebox is historically notable for shipping with a user interface and operating system so unfriendly and bug-ridden as to inspire Björn Stenberg and other programmers to begin to develop a superior, free and open-source replacement operating system. This project became Rockbox.[citation needed]

    Apple isn't so much about making "new categories of consumer product" as they are about finding broken categories of overly complex and unsatisfactory products and re-imagining them as delightful products. I've supported family on Windows and on Macs.. once they get Macs, they don't call me even 1/10th as much for support issues.