koop

Just want to drop a friendly reminder that Google has had their night mode in some beta form or another for a year now. So let's no drop the ol copying accusation when Android N hits later this summer please.

Roku seems to be cutting better deals since they have no ulterior motives as a small company. Until this changes, Apple TV isn't the future of TV anymore than Roku is the future of TV and Roku seems to have the edge so far.

Pay $50 for the Roku stick, get everything, or pay $140 for an Apple TV and get some things. 

I think people here aren't going to like this, but iOS/Siri is more of a liability for Apple than it's ever been since the first iPhone. Pixel is basically trying to sell itself on software and artificial intelligence. They are selling this as their A.I. phone. You can giggle about the spec wars, but you're missing the big picture that Google has surpassed Apple in software years ago, and Google is going to drive their "information" advantage into a hardware war that wont be about who has the faster CPU or most RAM. 

I can only imagine in 2030 it's really about what company has the bigger server farms, artificial neural networking and machine learning algorithms that determines which product makes consumers lives the easiest. Not some display resolution or wide color gamut. 

Google has the long game here. We're still figuring out what Apple has besides their phone at this point.

DED's been on a rampage since Apple's quarterly. Getting a little dizzy from all the spin and pom poms.

This is just another example of the hypocrisy in the Apple brand. Which is synonymous with American wealth and success, yet is produced packaged and supported on substandard wages. But hey at least you get a free Mac or something. It's definitely the American way. 
 

mrdave79 said:

I adore these weekend editorial articles. It's what makes AppleInsider stand out from the crowd. Been reading the Verge this week and all their bleating on about the loss of the bloody headphone jack. Any audiophile knows that thing is best gone. Am I the only bugger whose headphones died regularly because the wires become disconnected. Am I the only bugger who hates the crackle and the lack of audio fidelity from that little cable. 
The fact that Walt Mossberg has an issue with it is just incredible. 
Anyway. Thanks for punching through the reality of the situation with great reasoning and facts. A joy to read.

Nope, nope nope.

Any audiophile would rather people have a choice. iPhone DACs are (were) already good, so anyone can plug in any headphone into iPhone's headphone jack and you know they're getting clean audio quality. 

All Apple has done is encourage a market where the headphone maker is going to be making their own DAC with their headphone. This increases the prices of the headphones because not only do they need to make more hardware, they'll need to pay a licensing fee to Apple for the lightning port.

Not only this, but DACs will not be made the same. Someone who buys a cheap iPhone lightning headphone from skullcandy might have a god awful DAC integrated into the buds, reducing their audio quality from a headphone jack solution.

It's just an inelegant mess. It's not "courageous" at all.