Meanwhile, all sorts of crazy stuff seems to be happening overseas right now. We assume you're aware of Apple's apparent ongoing campaign against the British, right? For the past several years, Apple's continually withdrawn from England's Apple Expo (think Macworld Expo but with different accents) even after promising to show up and bring Steve Jobs for a keynote. Such actions have led to plenty of ill will, lost revenue, and litigious thoughts over there across the Atlantic-- and insult-to-injury moves like canceling the British English edition of the Mac OS just made things worse. We understand it's just not a very fun time to be a Mac user in the UK these days.

But the assault doesn't stop there; last month Apple laid off the entire UK marketing staff, which may seem well in keeping with the whole "Let's Annoy The British" campaign. And now faithful viewer Kevin Lee claims that as of the end of this month, "all Apple Store / AppleCare / Apple tech support people are being laid off or relocated to Cork, Ireland." We should stress that Kevin's our only source on this story so far, but it seems pretty much in line with everything else that's been happening over there. The downsizing continues.

But is this purely an anti-English attack on Apple's part? On the contrary-- it's pro-French! Think about it: the Apple Expo in England gets the shaft, but Apple Expo in Paris not only gets Apple in full attendance, but also receives a full-fledged Steve Jobs keynote. On top of that, faithful viewer Jens Baumeister notes that Apple's German marketing department is being downsized, and that certain functions will be taken over by-- you guessed it-- Apple France. Sounds like a French coup! The more we hear about this stuff, the more we wonder if an Apple United Nations might not be a good idea...