I would love to see a MacRumors user win this auction. Tim Cook would refund the entire bid out of his own pocket after the first minute of nonsensical rambling and whining.
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Tim Cook's Charity Lunch Auction Raises More Than $500,000 for RFK Center
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Exclusivity, 2 of something doesn't make it as interesting.
It's probably as much wanting to meet Tim as wanting others to not be able to!
Isn't that what's happening with this?
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Supporting a charitable cause? How horrible!
The increase in funds raised directly correlate with how much mac users want to slap Tims chops.
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Ask him what the time is. (Then check what time piece he chose for dinner wear).
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Ask him what the time is. (Then check what time piece he chose for dinner wear).
I hope the newly acquired funds help:
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Human-Rights-Campaign-Reviews-E245335.htm
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Human-Rights-Campaign-Reviews-E245335.htm
I think for $500,000 Tim likely would let you steer the conversation & you could gain a little insight on pretty much ANYTHING you felt like that isn't secret or inappropriately personal.
Maybe, but if it isn't secret other people probably can get that insight for free.
You aren't paying for an interview opportunity. In fact, you aren't actually buying anything. It's a donation to charity.
It would be cool to have Tim Cook personally tell you some of the things the rest of us will read on MacRumors though.
There are literally HUNDREDS of questions we could brainstorm right now that are not trade secrets, that would be fun to ask Tim.
We most certainly can NOT get that insight "for free" though. Do you have a PR person that can schedule you an interview with Tim at any time, so you can pick his brain? No. No you do not. During his infrequent interviews, he's typically asked very boilerplate questions that fans already know the answers to. A candid conversation would be fun for any one of us, I'd wager & allow us to ask for stories about Steve, stories from his college years, favorite things about the new Apple Campus, etc, etc.
I get that he wouldn't show someone an iPhone 7 prototype or anything.... but pretending like he'd limit your personal conversation to sound bites that are about to be released to MacRumors seems silly to me.
If I were having lunch with him, perhaps we'd talk about the 1st cars we ever owned, our favorite sports teams, the technology advances that have impressed us most in the last decades, desired legacies when we pass from this mortal coil, etc. NONE of those are about to be reported on here, but all would be interesting to discuss with one of the most powerful (and private) tech leaders of our time.
I'll admit that I'm baffled by this. I could understand someone bidding to spend an hour-long meal with a talented musician, artist, writer, or even actor, depending on your interest. I would bid a good amount, for example, to spend an hour with Hilary Hahn (my favorite musician -- search for "Young Hilary Hahn plays Bach" on youtube if you've never heard of her). I could imagine even political leaders getting high bids for an hour of their time from their gullible supporters. But the CEO of a company??? If it's the visionary founder of a particularly innovative company, Elon Musk, for example, I could even see that. But a garden-variety CEO??? I own several Apple devices. I like them and I think they are well designed and well constructed. But as one poster commented above, I'd pay money to avoid having to spend an hour with Tim Cook.
Now, if Tim Cook agreed to donate $500,000 to a charity of my choosing, I would agree to have lunch with him. I'd take him to a good restaurant of my choosing. He'd have to arrange his own transportation and lodging.
Now, if Tim Cook agreed to donate $500,000 to a charity of my choosing, I would agree to have lunch with him. I'd take him to a good restaurant of my choosing. He'd have to arrange his own transportation and lodging.
Perhaps not a garden variety CEO, but the CEO of a company that has been considered to be the most valuable company and that has set historic earnings records? And even that aside, just as someone might be into music and would spend big money to meet their favorite musician (someone that maybe many others don't care for or don't even know), there are plenty of others with all kinds of other interests, and some that even don't care much about music, that would find that similarly silly (same goes for writer or actor or whatnot). It all depends on personal interests, and those vary from person to person, without one being any more good or bad or right or wrong compared to another (perhaps short of some extreme ones essentially).
It was a Mac Pro lover that got the lunch. They are going to lean over the table and grab him by his shirt and demand where the updated Mac Pro is 
That would explain wanting to meet Steve Jobs, who led Apple to its present place. But Tim Cook??? Gimme a break! People idolize their favorite musician, writer, actor, or even politician or business visionary. Who idolizes the hum-drum guy who just happened to take over from the visionary?
And someone's favorite musician or writer or actor is easily a hack in someone else's book. There's quite a bit of subjectivity to it all. And someone who has taken the company to being the most valued and profitable one ever worldwide is certainly no hum-drum guy in many people's books, especially those interested in entrepreneurship and other business related subjects (and let's not say it's all because of Jobs and all that, because well over 5 years after Jobs earnings records have been set, and that's not just riding the wave with so much time passing).
[doublepost=1462725231][/doublepost]I think it's great that there is a CEO in a powerful position as Tim Cook who is out to create a better world for everyone, as supposed to trying to make as much money as possible by screwing everyone over, like the rest of the 95% of CEO's in the corperate world.
Apple CEO Tim Cook's fourth annual CharityBuzz auction ended this afternoon, raising more than $500,000 for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The auction, which garnered more than 40 bids, includes a one hour lunch date with Tim Cook At Apple's Cupertino headquarters along with passes to a forthcoming Apple keynote event.
Two people are able to attend the lunch meeting with Cook, with the experience set to last for approximately one hour. While lunch is included in the price of the auction, travel and accommodations are not. The offer expires on May 5, 2017, and the winner will be able to schedule their appointment on a "mutually agreed upon date."
In the final hours of the auction, bidding ramped up significantly, jumping from $275,000 yesterday afternoon to the more than $500,000 finishing price.
At $515,000, the 2016 CharityBuzz auction brought in more money than it did in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, the auction raised $200,000, while in 2015, it brought in $330,001. In 2013, the first year the auction was held, someone paid $610,000 to have lunch with Cook.
It's possible the auction winner will be able to use the keynote event tickets to attend the keynote for the Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple is expected to debut new versions of iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS, and perhaps new Mac models.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, a charity Tim Cook has supported for several years. Earlier in 2016, Tim Cook was elected to the RFK Center's board of directors.
Article Link: Tim Cook's Charity Lunch Auction Raises More Than $500,000 for RFK Center
Having said that, I wish there were another person, in addition to Tim, aggressively in charged of Apple products, the way Steve Jobs was focused on Apple products. Because, lets not forget, Apple is a technology company, first and foremost.
Currently, Apple products are nice, but they are not innovative or unique like they used to be - they are trying to do what everyone else are doing or replicating what's popular, like the rest of the companies. Apple didn't become popular by being like everybody else.
Apple software has become from being unique and intuitive to pushy and annoying, with constant and forced automatic updates, in-your-face, "join Apple Music this and that," buy this, buy that emails...typical of the rest of the damn companies people join Apple to get away from.
IOS updates used to be something exciting to look forward to and download as soon as they are available, because they added great features that serve to improve user experience. Now, it's dreadful to see there has been an update that's automatically forced into the phone/ipad, with bugs and features designed not for better usability but for better advertisement, one way or another.
I want the core of what Apple used to be back - a focused, innovative, product company.
Apple is pretty aggressive about pushing iOS updates, but they are not forced. I think there's a setting to automatically update, but a single switch turns it off. I generally wait a few days or a week to see if people report bugs.
There are no controls for iOS updates (aside from deleting one that might get automatically downloaded, rather than installing it).
In Settings -> iTunes & App Stores, under Automatic Downloads, you can turn Updates on or off.
Unfortunately none of those control iOS updates, just updates related to apps, iTunes content, and the like.
I've never had an iOS update install itself without asking me first. Yes, it pesters me to update. But the update does not happen until I give the okay. (I have auto updates all turned off.)
Generally there's no automatic installation (short of perhaps someone needing to restore for some reason), but there's automatic download of updates that happens when the device is on WiFi (and plugged in as I recall), and there are no end-user controls related to that.
Well, I'm okay with that. Generally I'm going to install updates. I just like to wait a few days or a week in case there are any particularly annoying bugs, in which case I'll wait for the next update to fix them. I guess if you're low on available storage it would be a problem. But the trade-off is faster installation if the file has already been downloaded.
But I think we've wandered pretty far afield from Cook's lunch auction.