Tim Cook talks tablets, secrecy, Facebook and Siri at All Things D

Tim Cook is on stage at D: All Things Digital for an interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.

Cook's appearance kicks off the annual conference, which runs through Thursday in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.

It's not being live-streamed but AllThingsD began live coverage at 6:30 pm PT and Ina Fried is posting the blow-by-blow in a Liveblog.

Here are a few choice nuggets:

Cook: “In my view the tablet and the PC are different. You can do things with the tablet if you are not encumbered by the legacy of the PC.”

Cook says that isn’t the only way to do tablets but says Apple’s approach doesn’t require all that. “We didn’t invent the tablet market,” he notes. “It was there. We invented the modern tablet.” Cook says that supporting the past requires lifting leg weights.

“Products are about trade-offs and you have to make tough decisions. You have to choose.”

Cook makes his analogy of merging the toaster and the refrigerator, saying that someone may merge the two but it won’t be Apple. That’s not what is coming next week, he says. If you merge the two the PC isn’t as good as it can be, nor is the tablet.

...

As for moving on, Cook said. “I love museums but I don’t want to live in one.”

Cook said he is committed to preserving the culture of Apple.

“It is not that easy to duplicate, either, Cook said.

“If they could, everybody would be like this,” Cook said. “You can’t get a consultant report” and change to be like Apple.

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So will Apple be less secret, Walt asks.

“We’re going to double down on secrecy on products,” he said. But, other things, he said, Apple will be the most transparent company. Supplier reponsibility, environmental issues, etc.

“In this area I want people to copy us.”

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