This Week in Apple: That math doesn’t check out

Tim Cook gets put in the cold seat while 13 remains a popular number in Japan. And will Apple get coal in its stocking? If the NLRB has anything to say about it, yes.

A friendly game of softball

In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, Tim Cook appeared on Dua Lipa’s “At Your Service” podcast, forcing many an aging observer of Apple corporate maneuvering to say aloud “Whose what now?”

Cook started out by asserting that everyone at Apple believes 1 plus 1 equals 3 because, uh, something about teamwork. While cute, bad math is not exactly a thing you want to hear from the company making the A-Fib detector in your smartwatch.

It’s an at times interesting interview in which Lipa questions Cook on how Apple measures its carbon output, but it’s not exactly hard-hitting. And that’s fine: not every interview has to be straight out of Marathon Man.…