Apple's Cook visits Normandy war cemetery, iPhone X supplier ahead of meeting Macron

Apple head Tim Cook on Monday shared publicity photos from a pair of stops on his tour of France, including a visit with iPhone X supplier Eldim, and a trip to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where over 9,300 U.S. soldiers who fought in World War II are buried.

"At Normandy, honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice," Cook wrote on Twitter. The CEO also quoted a part of a prayer carved on a chapel wall — "Think not only upon their passing. Remember the glory of their spirit."

Cook described Eldim as "a team of talented engineers and craftspeople helping make iPhone possible," and thanked them for their work. Eldim is based near Caen, in the Normandy region, and builds components that enable "optical analysis of angular characteristics."

According to VentureBeat and local reports, the company's technology is essential to the Face ID system in the iPhone X. Apple has allegedly been partnered with Eldim for nearly 10 years, but it's only with the iPhone X that the latter's facial recognition technology has entered a shipping Apple product.

Cook is due to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron later today. It's not clear what the pair are planning to discuss, but a likely topic is taxes, given efforts by the French and German governments to crack down on European loopholes exploited by multinationals like Apple. This week is just Cook's second trip to France as CEO.

Update: Cook also stopped by My Little Paris, a startup specializing in place recommendations "The CEO of Apple shared a roast chicken at My Little Paris to celebrate its 11 apps," the company said in a tweet.

Visite surprise de @tim_cook ! Le CEO d'@Apple a partagÃ© un poulet rÃ´ti chez #MyLittleParis pour cÃ©lÃ©brer ses 11 applications. pic.twitter.com/6Kv1SC7OLk
— MyLittleParis (@My_Little_Paris) October 9, 2017

8 Comments

JWSC 1203 comments · 7 Years

About 7 years ago

Walking through the cemetery at Normandy just takes the wind out of you. And it puts into perspective a whole lot of other overinflated problems we are caught up with in the here and now.

Interesting little tidbit about Face ID technology. Would be interested to know more about this French company.

anantksundaram 20390 comments · 18 Years

JWSC said:

Walking through the cemetery at Normandy just takes the wind out of you. And it puts into perspective a whole lot of other overinflated problems we are caught up with in the here and now.

Couldn't agree more.

It is truly one of the most poignant, moving, and magnificent places to visit.

philboogie 7669 comments · 15 Years

JWSC said:

Interesting little tidbit about Face ID technology. Would be interested to know more about this French company.

WHO ARE WE?
ELDIM is a French company located in Normandy.
With more than 30 years of expertise in display technologies and metrology, our team focuses on developing advanced optical metrology tools that always provide competitive advantages to our customers.
Our activity is divided in 3 divisions:
Optical metrology
Optical shop
Video drivers
https://www.eldim.eu/blog

boltsfan17 2294 comments · 12 Years

JWSC said:

Walking through the cemetery at Normandy just takes the wind out of you. And it puts into perspective a whole lot of other overinflated problems we are caught up with in the here and now.
Interesting little tidbit about Face ID technology. Would be interested to know more about this French company.

I completely agree. Although I have never visited the cemetery in Normandy (on the to do list), I did visit Auschwitz some years ago. Talk about depressing. Walking around in Auschwitz, the silence there is just deafening.

rotateleftbyte 1630 comments · 12 Years

JWSC said:

Walking through the cemetery at Normandy just takes the wind out of you. And it puts into perspective a whole lot of other overinflated problems we are caught up with in the here and now.
Interesting little tidbit about Face ID technology. Would be interested to know more about this French company.

The hundreds of cemeteries in and around all the WW1 battlefields are even more moving. Then Tyne Cop near Ypres as the sun sets and finally hearing the 'last post' played at 20:00 daily at the Menin Gate in Ypres is almost guarenteed to bring a tear to your eyes.
I visited the Museum at Pegasus Bridge last Monday. This was the first place liberated on D-Day. also where the 1st Casualty happened.
We owe so much to all of the nations involved in both World Wars.