bugsnw

I've never had a bad experience at an Apple store. Just the opposite - it's always been a wonderful experience. Talented, knowledgable people who listen and seem to care. And they smile and display enthusiasm. I'd want these workers for sure. Whatever Apple does to improve that, I'm game.

So I'm getting a gut reaction here that DED hates Microsoft......

What a fun read!

I started with an Atari 800 and then my dad bought a Mac in 1984 and we loved that thing so much. It was so cool to have my friends come over after they put out shoddy looking crap with their endlessly fussy PCs.

I never understood why people defended PCs as compared to Macs. The cost difference was there but I always thought people should see above the $ and value time and creativity.

The computer I absolutely fell in love with was my NeXT. TopDraw and the writing program and the GUI..... their software was miles and miles ahead of anything else. If Apple was a little bolder, they would have adopted more of the GUI such as detachable menus.

I recently had to use a Windows 7 PC at work. Some organizations upgrade slowly. Part of life using that thing included several calls to the tech support center. Restarts. Waiting several minutes for the OS to launch. Launching apps and staring at low-res screens and jaggy fonts was an experience. I do have to say, however, that my typing speed skyrocketed with that spongy PC keyboard. Apple.... please engineer some key travel back into your keyboards.

I understand DED's intense hatred of MS. They put out some truly mediocre shit and really held the industry back. Thank god that Steve had patience and passion and vision to counter the nerds.

I went to the Apple store to check out the 13 inch MPB (without touch bar). I was really impressed by the thinness and quality. If I didn't know it was an Apple product, I would have dinged it for the screen. It's so incredibly thin that when I opened it, it felt like it was plastic or some low quality material. Way too thin to feel substantial.

I know it's Apple and therefore high quality but it's just mind-boggling how thin the screen side of the laptop is. Oh and what a screen!

So now it's just a matter of which kid I'm going to sell on eBay to buy this thing.......

It's exciting to imagine a world where desktops and laptops follow iPhones on the hardware upgrade cycle. Even if the upgrades for non-phones were every 2 years, consistently, that would be better than some of the huge delays that occur now. Modular designs where components could receive updates for a certain time would be helpful in extending the usefulness of our hardware. I can think of one particular instance where Intel really put the screws to Apple: my MacBook was maxed out at 16GB ram and really needed 32 for opening up browsers with dozens of tabs. From what I understand, Intel's chip limited Apple on that front.

There's always a few nuggets of truth or a germ of interest in new ideas. Some ideas, such as socialism, sound wonderful to younger people without the benefit of historical understanding. There are issues with unbridled capitalism and there have to be intelligently applied rules so everyone who wants to play the game has a chance to birth a great idea. When I hear some of the ideas from Warren, I tense up instinctually. My initial thoughts are always, "what could go wrong here?" I line up the govt. on one side, or at least Warren, and Apple on the other, and wonder if it's a good idea that Warren or the govt. should have whatever control they are seeking over a company. There should be innovation as well as consumer protections. When companies appear to be violating the rules, they should face the consequences. It's a balancing act and the pendulum swings from side to side. Companies who abuse privacy laws, practice collusive pricing practices, or abuse consumers should be held to account. I feel our filters just need to be a little tighter when it's election season and politicians are throwing out candy for re-election.

pigybank said:

No offense, and I'm not at all a Trump supporter, but if that is who the American people choose, then that is who they choose. This is especially frightening if people within the government themselves are looking to interfere in the electoral process. Why don't Tim and these big tech companies plot to help a candidate they support win instead?

Amen. I find this whole thing troublesome. Here's your input, Tim... vote. That's it.

Who knows what specific attributes are going to be powerful for America and which ones will detract from success as president. We've had all manner of personality types as presidents. Some were better than others.

This idea that Trump is going to destroy America is odd. And we've heard it before, with Ronald Reagan. WWIII was imminent, according to these elitists, plus he had no background in economics. He turned out to be pretty good.

I think the establishment is nervous about a candidate winning that they have little control over.

red oak said:

Your obviously seething about the election results, being you were so far up the Democrats and HRC's asses

BTW, it's a 10% tax holiday and then 15% going forward on all foreign earnings. Apple will be all over this and will be able to bring $200B back to the US if they wish 

More important, it would be a 15% income tax on everything going forward, vs the current 26% Apple has been accruing.  It would be a massive windfall and dramaticallly improve operating results of the company going forward.  Was this too inconsequential for you to mention in your tirade? 

No need to repeat this so thanks to the poster who articulated this huge boon for Apple as well as our country. We need growth and now it's coming. 

On this next product cycle for iPhones (7) and updated laptops, I echo a previous commenters wish that they are sexy as hell. Pull out the stops. 256G storage options, huge flash drives in laptops, upgrade free iCloud allotment, max out the CPUs....do something to really surprise wall street and main street.

Right now, and for a long time, it appears that Apple is sort of coasting. I can't put my finger on it. I know there's the iPad pro, but I almost walked past it at Costco. It looks like an oversize iPad. Nothing about it said WOW!!!!! Not even the screen.

It's just my gut feeling. This can be fixed by really pushing the industry hard. If we see anything from Apple that says 16G, I'm going to throw up right on my tv.

As far as Wall Street....can't just ignore them. Tim Cook is not the legendary visionary who founded Apple and sees into the future. He has to work that much harder. In fact, he's sort of a plain jane. I like him as CEO, but maybe he needs to ramp up his mojo. Talk up Apple, at least. Give Wall Street a sneak peak at something. I dunno. At least Steve Jobs addressed his return and the economic slump that was before him, "Apple is going to INNOVATE our way out of this!" and of course that was followed shortly by massive innovation and change.

This can turn around quickly. But the iPhone 7 cannot look anything like the iPhone 6. Wall street is superficial and will respond to shiny objects. Apple can engineer something really cool that screams NEW!!!!! while being just as innovative and beautiful as the 6s were. Last time, every component in the iPhone was overhauled. Except the outside. Now it's time to dazzle. Same with iOS and OS X. X needs a facelift. Someone take away Ive's white crayon. There is a LOT in the interface that needs polish and rethinking.

If Apple attacks from all fronts - hardware, software, design, engineering, cool, sexy, etc - they can turn around the perception that they've stopped innovating and possibly turn around Wall Street's notion that the king is dead and Apple will likely head into a gradual decline. Sales will be great (like Microsoft), but lack of true innovation will eventually sink it (Microsoft).

Apple... surprise all of us. Pull out the stops.

This isn't just security vs. privacy. Those goofy bastards half way across the world want to do all kinds of evil things to the people in this country. I just don't see how the govt. can protect us without having some sort of 'mechanism' that helps them get into whatever communications devices these terrorists are using.

Maybe the solution would be to give Apple that particular phone and let them work on it. And when they get into it, they can provide the govt. the data without the key (mechanism) itself. Apple would control the key (or destroy it).

I would trust this corporation/govt. partnership more than just having the FBI maintaining a master key. People have pointed out in replying to my post that personal privacy is a misnomer. That's why I said upfront that our security and privacy in the wild is not what we think it is. Various times of crisis have temporarily eroded various rights in this country's history. That's why the pendulum swings both ways. When there's a terrorist attack (or multiple), we loosen up our rights. We adjust to the need for security, as it should be. There just needs to be equal weight given to oversight and attempts to keep that pendulum from getting stuck way over on one side.

I don't see how it can be any other way. If my son was being held by a kidnapper and the FBI obtained his phone, I'd certainly want someone to de-encrypt it. National security is that, on a much higher level.

Both sides make great arguments. I can't think of a more pressing debate than this one.... my personal pendulum swings gently to either side, depending on the arguments I hear. It's difficult to stand rigid on this one. I can't wait for smart people to start debating this one.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.