javacowboy

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javacowboy
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  • New German law mandates opening up Apple Pay NFC tech to rivals

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    I'm not American.

    Still, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated by what I see as an egregious anti-American bias by various governments in the EU nowadays.

    People who claim that Apple somehow has a "monopoly" are using specious logic.  Apple competes with numerous other platforms, each of which contains an ecosystem combining hardware and software.  Apple no more has a monopoly on its own software than Ford has a monopoly on the software running in its cars.

     
    StrangeDayspujones1MacProjahbladenetmageanantksundaramMacQcstompylordjohnwhorfinurahara

  • Apple is evaluating new keyboard mechanisms to make thinner MacBooks

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    Apple's obsession with thinness is causing them endless problems.

    Do pro laptop users (as opposed to consumers) care about thinness?  Well, put it this way:  My work laptop (my employer's property) is a Dell Lattitude running Linux.   It is significantly thicker but the keyboard is amazing.  Yeah, the trackpad isn't nearly as good, but that has nothing to do with thinness.  I'm pretty sure Apple has lost a lot of server-side developers to Linux.

    These keyboard experiments have been fraught with hazards.  The best you can say about the butterfly keyboard is that it's "controversial" or "polarizing".

    boboliciouscroprdysamoriaanantksundarambaconstang

  • Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro is built to blaze through pro workflows

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    No listing of all the ports and connectors? THAT is what separates a pro computer from the incapable POS’ we’ve been getting called MacBook Pro.
    I can't tell if you're being serious or not. This remains a crazy take on Thunderbolt 3.
    Not commenting on the original poster but as much as I've been critical of many of Apple's design decisions going all Thunderbolt 3 was a smart move:

    a) Adapters are now cheap.  On amazon.ca (which in many cases is *way* more expensive than amazon.com) I can find lots of USB-A to C adapters for $10 CAD.
    b) Thunderbolt 3 ports are polymorphic.  This means I can use any given port as either a charger, USB-C, ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI, or plug into USB-C hubs that I can get for as little as $50 CAD.   This is an impressive degree of flexibility that would be unavailable to me were my laptop wasting space on ports I don't care for, like HDMI.
    c) The PC industry is catching up to Apple (receiving far less criticism than Apple did, of course).  For example, the XPS 13 has no USB-A ports, only Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C.
    StrangeDayscaladanianroundaboutnowsportyguy209fastasleepdysamoriawatto_cobra

  • Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro reveals its future direction

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    DED and many other Apple pundits have blinders on when dismissing just how much of a debacle the various iterations of butterfly switch keyboard have been.

    Just to be clear, aside from a few initial instances of errand keypresses (ex:  asssess instead of assess), I've had no issues with actual defects with my late 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard.

    However, the experience has been absolutely dreadful while every keypress for years has registered correctly.

    I own two mechanical keyboards with Cherry MX Clear switches.  Going back between my external and internal keyboard has been absolutely jarring.

    There's a massive difference between half a millimetre of key travel and probably several millimetres of key travel on a mechanical keyboard.  I find typing on this thing so incredibly unpleasant that I can't use it for more than a few forum posts or quick emails.

    Once the latest model is available at the Apple Store I'll try out the keyboard.  I really hope they fixed it for good this time!



    muthuk_vanalingamirelandwilliamlondonphilboogie

  • Editorial: How Steve Jobs' 'Thoughts On Flash' gave iPad a head start in tablets

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    Good riddance to Flash!

    I remember reading a Daring Fireball post about 10 years ago where Gruber announced he had uninstalled Flash from his Mac and urged others to do the same.   He argued convincingly that Chrome came with Flash as part of an embedded installation and he could fall back on it should he need to view a Flash site.

    Almost immediately I followed his advice and never reversed course.  I was so happy I did!
    StrangeDaysDoomFreakjdgazsarthoswatto_cobrajony0

  • New German law mandates opening up Apple Pay NFC tech to rivals

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    urahara said:
    Lol. People who suggest Apple to pull out of Germany because it’s just a rounding error. 
    Are you the same people who suggested Apple pull out of China. And before that out of India. 
    By your business senses - Apple shouldn’t do business with any other countries except US, and maybe Canada and Australia. LoL.

    You sound like a bunch of kids throwing a tantrum. 
    Germans love cash and use it far more than most advanced countries.
    philboogieanantksundaramcat52Carnagespheric

  • Editorial: Apple Pay passes PayPal, tramples Google Pay & Samsung Pay

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    Apple Pay still works with my first generation Apple watch.  I've had problems with some readers (my inclination is to blame banks or payment processors, not Apple) but most of the time the experience is seamless.
    Don.Andersenlolliverwatto_cobraBart Y

  • Mac shipments continue to slide in Q4 as PC market grows

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    The fact is Windows isn't the train wreck it used to be, and is closing the gap with macOS (in many ways deficient but still good enough for all intents and purposes).

    Linux distros are getting better and more polished.

    On the other hand, macOS has largely stood still (dark mode and some solid but unexciting security features).

    The very best pro PC laptops such as the XPS (2020 keyboard layout notwithstanding) and ThinkPad X1 Carbon are compelling offers.

    Apple may still offer the very best premium experience for its mobile devices, but I sense a lack of will on the part of the company to keep up with the ultra-competitive PC industry.
    cy_starkmanentropysmuthuk_vanalingam

  • Editorial: Steve Jobs shared secrets of Apple's iPad but nobody listened

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    The iPad is simultaneously two things:

    1) A fantastic media consumption *and* creation device that is so much more convenient that the desktop/laptop form factor.
    2) A crippled device artificially limited by two easily reversible hardware and software design decisions.

    Which design decisions am I referring to?

    a) Lack of USB-C on the non-Pro iPad.  This would open up a universe of desktop peripherals to iPad users such as removable storage, etc.  Aside from possible supplier constraints, I can't see why USB-C is a Pro-only feature.
    b) Lack of spellchecking using only an attached keyboard.  Fixing typos requires reaching for the screen and breaking the flow of typing.  Windows and Linux have the context menu key/shortcut (SHIFT-F10).  macOS first-party have use an elegant API where users can select spelling corrections using arrow keys.  From my experiments at the Apple store, no such API exists for iPadOS.  This limitation prevents Apple from selling the iPad and iPad Pro to authors, journalists, transcriptionists, etc who spend a lot of time typing.
    dysamoriawatto_cobra

  • How to declutter your Mac using only the tools in macOS

    javacowboyjavacowboy
    Apple still gets a lot of these consumer-level details right.  As much as the OS very often lacks the pro features that Linux has, features like these are welcome for less technical users struggling to recover disk space.

    Having said that, if SSDs didn't take over the world and people were using spinning disks, Apple might not have needed to add this feature,
    watto_cobra