Code/red: Apple Promises It Won't Listen to Its Customers

// HAPPENING TODAY

• Oracle and Red Hat report earnings.
• Qualcomm Uplinq conference kicks off in San Francisco.
• Alibaba prices its record-setting IPO.
• The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation hosts a panel discussion on digital piracy.

Apple: We Don’t Violate Your Privacy — There Are Hackers for That

Two weeks ago, Apple was scrambling to do damage control on the theft of saucy celebrity photos from its iCloud service. Today, it’s touting itself as a guardian of personal information and an exemplar of security. In an open letter published Wednesday evening, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company’s view of privacy is different from that of its Silicon Valley brethren. “We don’t build a profile based on your email content or Web browsing habits to sell to advertisers,” Cook wrote. “We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you.” A cordial yet brutal gutting of Facebook and Google, who Cook doesn’t even bother to name. Pretty audacious of Apple, playing its security card on the heels of all that indecent exposure.

Dammit, Where’s the Restart Button?

Remember back in July when Sony surprised the market by returning to a profit for its second quarter? Turns out that was an anomaly — not an indication that the stumbling consumer electronics company is beginning to right itself. Sony’s share price continued to slip deep into the mud this morning after the company said Wednesday that it expects to post a loss of more than $2 billion for the fiscal year, nearly five times what it previously forecast. A jaw-dropping impairment and one for which Sony is paying dearly. Also weighing on the company’s stock was Sony’s announcement that it will not pay a dividend for the year — the first time it has forgone one in decades. Sony’s loss for the current year will be its sixth in seven years. What’s CEO Kaz Hirai going to do now?

To Start With, Planes Would Take Off and Land in Order of PageRank

Amir Efrati, The Information: “With friends and colleagues, Mr. Page has talked about his desire to build an airport that would be more efficient than existing ones. … It’s not clear how Mr. Page would go about building such an airport.”

Guess Jony Ive Didn’t Have Final Sign-Off on Tim Cook’s Businessweek Cover

Could they have found a sillier font? It’s not like he’s opening a diner.

Just Ask Foxconn’s Workforce …

Sequoia Capital Chairman Michael Moritz: “Alibaba is also valuable because of the drive of its leaders and the indefatigable work ethic of the company — people just work a lot harder in China than they do anywhere else.”

Drama Critics Hail QuickType as “Next Ionesco”

Geoffrey Fowler and Joanna Stern, the Wall Street Journal: “If you keep following its train of robotic thought, QuickType will form entire sentences on your behalf. The result is so goofy that it is brilliant. For the last week, we have been conducting serious tests of the new iPhones and iOS 8, while also holding nonsensical auto-generated conversations with each other.”

So if You See Tim Cook Empty a Suspicious Vial Into Your Goblet, Look Out

Time: “Bono, with the grandeur that routinely lands him in trouble, compares the relationship between Apple and the band — which goes back years — to the Medicis’ patronage of Michelangelo, chuckling when it’s pointed out that opponents of the tech company might well accept its parallels with the ruthless Florentine dynasty.”

Blowing the Bubble Call

Marc Andreessen: When NOT in bubble, 100% of people who call bubble are wrong. When IN bubble, 99.99% of people don’t think it’s a bubble: why it’s a bubble.

Snoop’s Interest in Twitter Reaches New High

Snoop Dogg on VC Peter Thiel’s blunt assessment of Twitter management: “I heard #puffpuffpasstuesdays is a weekly twitter holiday?!”

For One Thing, It Would Be Big and Blue

Apple CEO Tim Cook on an IBM smartwatch: “You wouldn’t want to see it. It would be awful. I think [IBM CEO Ginni Rometty] would admit that.”

Off Topic

A homemade shot-for-shot remake of the “Mad Max: Fury Road” trailer.

Thanks for reading. Send tips, comments and bacon guitars to John@recode.net, @johnpaczkowski. Subscribe to the Code/red newsletter here.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via