alandail

When I read bad, I expected there to be a flaw. Like too wide to fit when a case is used, an actual issue I've had with some non apple cables.

Instead bad simply meant overpriced, which isn't unusual from Apple. I didn't even see the prices of Apple's cables mentioned, just a claim they are overpriced.

The phone itself comes with a USB-C charging cable. Most people won't need anything else.

nubus said:

currentinterest said:

Don’t believe it. Designed to lower expectations while the product blows people away. As initially a largely a developer tool, a sale at near cost is reasonable. The lower cost versions will make up for it.

You don't blow away people with an anti-social $3000 device requiring a battery belt.

VR can be social.

You can play ping pong with people all over the world.

You can play mini golf with family, both in the same room, or while you are in a different states.

More government people who don't understand you can't have a back door to encryption without breaking the encryption.

cpsro said:

I can do without paying $15K extra for a Fully Self Driving vehicle that isn't and really never will be.

FSD Beta drove 1500 miles for me last week, I drove 17 miles. Safest cars on the planet.

Draco said:

robin huber said:

No good deed goes unpunished. The “throttling” was not nefarious, but a good faith effort to protect consumers from overheating phones. In other words what tort attorneys call a business opportunity. 

The throttling wasn't done to prevent overheating. It was done to prevent "unexpected shutdown" which is a case where the phone's battery display shows a relatively high state-of-charge like 20-30%, yet the phone shuts off immediately after a heavy load is applied such as CPU, GPU, camera, etc. 

Users should have been given the ability to opt into this behavior, but Apple, always trying to keep things simple, made the behavior automatic for all users. 

Why would anyone opt out of ensuring their phone doesn't unexpectedly turn off. Apple wrote software to improve reliability and are being fined for it. It's an absurd cash grab by the attorneys.

The trailer was better than the movie.

DAalseth said:

Not being snarky, ok maybe a little, but what does one DO with one of these. I keep thinking of 3DTV, great tech that required funny glasses, but the cost and slow adoption meant that there was little content and it collapsed in the marketplace. What’s out there that would get someone interested in one of these? Gaming? They talk of professional uses, but other than a FEW architects, and maybe someone who designs cara/airplanes/tractors I don’t see a huge amount of use. What’s worth Meta pouring billions into this idea?

Many VR games great exercise. Some are built specifically to exercise, some give you exercise as a side effect. Workouts comparable to going to the gym, dripping with sweat when you're done. But a lot more fun than going to the gym.

Standing up and moving your body as the controller is far more natural than using a controller in a traditional gaming system.

Multiplayer games give you the feeling that you're in the same room with the other person even if you're in different states of countries. The ping pong game Eleven feels like you're playing ping pong with someone in the same room, using all of the same movements as you would at a real ping ping table.

A lot of what Meta is building brings that same sense of being in the same place to business meetings, far mere immersive than things like Zoom. Including shared white boards to collaborate is if you're in the same room.

A big thing with Quest Pro is to improve the immersion by improving the avatars, including eye/face tracking to bring the actual expressions to the avatars. Part of what they demoed for the future is making the avatars look just like the person.

Another big thing with Quest Pro is mixed reality, so the real world and can VR blend together.

I have spent thousands of hours playing VR over the last 4 1/2 years. Quest 2 is my favorite one to play because of the lack of cables. 

Apple needs to get their VR out soon. They are spending way, way too much time getting a product out. As Steve Jobs said, "real artists ship." I'm really surprised they are taking so long since fitness is such a big push in their ecosystem.

Absolutely absurd that the EU imposes fines based on global revenue, not EU revenue. EU has no jurisdiction on business done in other countries.

tht said:

alandail said:

Why don't they just use Starlink?

They might still use Starlink direct-to-cell services if the price is right, like you can use multiple networks/carriers with your eSIM.

They didn’t use Starlink direct-to-cell services in the first place because it wasn’t available in 2022, nor in 2023. Starlink didn’t launch cellular compatible satellites until this year and it was probably iffy that there was enough to support iPhones this year anyways. 

GlobalStar is the type of partner Apple loves. It looks to be a pretty sweetheart deal, and they are now minority owners. So, they can have tailored services to their liking and design more easily. That has a lot of advantages that a deal with Starlink can’t offer.

Starlink has the advantage no custom hardware is needed inside th3 phone.  SpaceX enabled starlink direct to cell functionality after the recent hurricanes for emergency service., including on phones apples solution won’t work on,

People turn their computers off? I haven’t turned mine off except to move it in decades.  I don’t turn off phones, tablets. Etc, either.  I do let them go to sleep.