Metriacanthosaurus

This basically invalidates anything Consumer Reports does, test, or publishes in the future. Possibly in the past too. They knowingly changed settings that would not reflect an actual user's configuration, and deceitfully posted fraudulent results.

If that's how they operate I have no interest in any other opinion they have to offer on any product.

Find My AirPods is a great idea in theory...but it is so limited in its ability to locate them that I can't imagine it will ever help. In the several weeks that I've been running 10.3, I've had at least 3 legitimate occasions where I was trying to find an AirPod, and FMA failed to be of any use.

For reference:

1. It can't find them if they are in the case, so if you misplace the case you're SOL.

2. It can't find them if they are not connected to the device. Seems obvious but...since the AirPods disconnect from the device automatically when you take them out of your ears, this is guaranteed to be the case every time. You need to connect them first, and hope they connect. In my experience, if they are not in the immediate vicinity (within 3-4 feet) and not plainly exposed (not hidden under blankets) they aren't likely to connect.

3. Obviously, it can't find them if the battery dies. Not complaining, but another reality about AirPods is that the battery is draining if they are not in the case, and won't last terribly long. Just another scenario where a misplaced AirPods is likely not going to be findable.

All Catalina does is take things away. It is also about as polished as a rock quarry.

After 15 years of downloading things in Safari, you now get the "feature" of having to approve access to your Downloads folder, manually, for every single website.

You also now "get to" approve access to every single directory any app might request access to. That will go over real well. Since users have no idea why an App needs access to what it needs to access to, users will deny it, and the app will not function. Real smart Apple.

I guess Apple really wants developers to move to web apps. They are much more attractive these days than making native Mac apps. Much, much more.

It’s always the same story. Our puny minds can’t comprehend the expenses Apple has. Well, every company has expenses that are not materials cost. Is that really the customer’s burden to bear? I think what customers want is for some of that past R&D to start to amortize, and result in stable product lines. This unpredictable continuous rise in prices for no compelling reason has everyone concerned. 

Meanwhile, our puny minds can comprehend the balance sheet, and profit is obscene. The same old story doesn’t fly. 

Dont get get me wrong I think it’s perfectly fine for Apple to have a wide line of iPhone, but they’ve pushed the envelope on what a flagship model can cost and they’re not doing anything they weren’t doing 5 years ago when a flagship iPhone was $650. 

tipoo said:

Not being picky but it's a small but important distinction, I don't think this is the successor to the 'budget' iPad - they're still selling that alongside it, and this gains the Air name. 

So I'm assuming this brings back the laminated and antireflective screen to gain the name back? 

Edit: Page confirms antireflective screen is back. I'm assuming laminated but not sure yet. 

It is just a more expensive iPad. Nothing else to see here.

Years ago, to take care of a bully, a group of non-bullies would get together and beat the ever loving shit out of the bully. And the problem went away.

Today, the blame is place on everything and anything except where it belongs...the bully.

They hold hour long assemblies in school on bullying, playing up nothing but victim suffering.

Victim culture is a disease.

foregoneconclusion said:

Apple spent $80 billion on stock buybacks last year, so I'm not sure why anyone would worry about the cost/budgeting for Apple TV+ in the near future.

No one is worrying about Apple coming up with the cash to blow.

What people worry about is more nuanced than that. It is worrisome to see Apple spending a lot of money to produce junk content that no one asked for, and then turning around and pretending that it is a huge success because they're counting every hardware purchase as a $60 year of TV. Despite the fact that no one has paid for it directly, and no one has willingly subscribed to it. After the first year when none of those people continue using it, they can hide all the dropoff by only reporting "new" subs, which will be in the tens of millions thanks to new hardware sales. This pollutes the entire industry with fraud. 

What people actually want, we can't have, because Apple has failed under Eddy Cue to negotiate anything groundbreaking in the way of TV licensing:
- No subscription to iTunes Movies or TV Shows...of any kind. Fail.
- Apple TV Channels includes only small-time content providers and none of the top 3. Not even their own licensed catalog.

Because of these abject failures, Apple changed course and dumped the cash into this new plan, that no one wants, no one asked, no one will subscribe to, but will still be heralded as a major success, paving the way for more such delusions.

Market may indeed be saturated but has anyone even seen what passes for the top of the line Samsung phone? On a rare walk through Best Buy last weekend I saw them and stopped to take a look, as I do once every couple years just to see where they're at. What a POS. It still looks like some confused relic from the palmOS era, and I can't believe they're still pretending like anyone wants a screen with curved edges. As is well known, this was a bad bet Samsung made in the run up to the iPhone 6 release, where the always-wrong rumor mill was flinging around the idea of a screen that curves at the edges...when of course it was just Apple curving the glass on the edges to make it nice to hold and swipe. But Samsung doubled-down on the rumor to try and beat Apple to the punch, and they did...with something no one ever wanted, and Apple never even considered.

davgreg said:

The worst things that ever happened to computers were the in-app purchase and subscription software.

Only to people like you that think everything should be free, or cost $9.99 once for unlimited lifetime usage and updates.

For the rest of the real world, it is the best thing that has ever happened to make the 1000-fold increase in demand for software almost profitable.

Nomad has a newer version that includes Apple Watch charging: https://hellonomad.com/products/base-station-apple-watch?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhPfkBRD0ARIsAAcYycFsgN6y-qVPy8s45IOcY8l8K-zGQpOXwKVqtS6LWhGEZB5sWcJxATUaAo_YEALw_wcB

Ordered 2 of these of today.