macmojo

I’m Australian and we have a right wing government here, many of whose members are big Trump fans with the usual science-deriding, climate change denying, anti-minority etc.. positions.

The primary news organisation in Australia that backs them is News Corp (of your American Fox News infamy). Here in Australia, they’re losing money hand over fist and Murdoch has long complained about Google & FB eating up "his" ad revenue. The government is concerned that their major backer’s future is clouded so decided to implement this law as a wealth transfer from FB & Google to News (and other major outlets that also happen to be friendly to the government such as Nine/Fairfax and Seven West Media.).

Its basically extortion, FB & Google have no choice but to link to the News sites and pay the news sites for the privilege. The amount to be determined by a government appointed arbitrator. The news companies were claiming billions for their "costs", not the value they actually provide. They're demanding the right to post the articles on FB and that FB MUST PAY THEM for the privilege! As much as I hate FB, no business can operate under these conditions. In fact, they'd be insane to.

The news organisations here are so arrogant and entitled that they’re outraged at FB and demanding it reinstate them!

Also, no one knows more about internet traffic than FB and Google. Their ad tracking networks are all pervasive and they track even when you’re not logged into them or even a member! Can’t wait for iOS 14.5 to stop that, but this means that they know exactly the kind of traffic flows that occur and are able to predict what will happen from this action.

To cut a long story short, FB knows that this will not materially affect them here in Australia, but it will affect the news organisations.

ArcaSwiss said:

I don't get why Apple has their own maps. Google Maps is what I use and don't think Apples are as good

Apple has every right to compete in whatever market it chooses and the reason they created their own maps was due to Google not bringing turn by turn navigation to iOS (back in the iPhone 4 days) unless Apple was prepared to let Google data mine users the same way it does on Android.

Apple said no and the rest is history. For what it’s worth, I use Apple Maps all the time now and it works great for me.

I live in Sydney Australia and just yesterday saw a sedan in my suburb with a strange pole sticking up from its roof with a large bulbous enclosure atop it that looked like it had multiple camera lenses all around it. Was so focused on the weirdness of it I almost missed the writing on the side of the car - “Apple Imagery for Maps”!

so looks like it’s not just our American cousins who’ll be getting this enhancement!

So much for it being a 'failed' product, which is all I heard from the detractors when series 0 launched (which I bought, was a bit slow but otherwise, I loved it).

Currently have a Series 3/iPhone X combo but been patiently waiting for the upcoming series 6. Will go nice with an iPhone 12Pro upgrade...

I moved from NAB to ANZ (the only one offering Apple Pay in Aus) specifically so I could use it. Use it with the Apple Watch, which is super convenient.

The banks here in Aus behave in a manner not far removed from organised scammers. They routinely defraud customers in the insurance and investment spaces and then when caught out, deny culpability and drag out the legal processes until the victims are exhausted (financially and emotionally). And the conservative (believe it or not, they call themselves Liberal here) government works principally for them and other big companies and against the broad public interest and refuses to hold an official inquiry (Royal Commission) into their behaviour.

So its good to finally see them lose something, especially to Apple. Last thing I would want to see is this mob compromise iPhone security with their incompetence, stupidity and avarice...

gatorguy said:

bloggerblog said:

Found it pretty boring, Dune is so much better. 

Agreed, Foundation moves glacially slow and I lost interest. Maybe next season redeems it. Dune on the other hand was very well done IMO. I'm really looking forward to part 2. 

Slow? Is that a joke? You guys either have the attention span of a fish or an idealised view of the books. They weren't page turners, in fact they were very slow reading since nothing much happens page to page. The story spans a thousands years, so its the long game Asimov played with regards to the overall plot.

No adaptation will ever be true to the books in that sense. But this one is very good in that it sticks to the broad plot and has good pace. And its just the start. Goyer is aiming to do 8 series all up! Awesome. 

entropys said:

Is it heresy to confess I think what Goyer has done to the story has improved it?

I'm a heretic like you! Fully agree.

jdw said:

I could have told you that, even before Mr. Lee's findings....

The tests done by this Youtuber don't prove much. Adobe is known for not optimising for the Mac, meaning it simply ports its Windows code across using cross-platform frameworks to speed up the job. This makes it very inefficient. It may not use many threads as a result and the frameworks may be so slow they cause the processor to stall at times (hence the disparity between Windows and macOS). 

I use the 2017 15" MBP (i7-7820HQ, Radeon 560Pro, 512GB SSD). I use it for both work and home running VMWare Fusion Pro with RHEL 7.x Linux and Windows 10 VMs (simultaneously) as well as Xcode (albeit only for script and HTML) and the usual half dozen other assorted apps (Word, Mail, Safari, Firefox, MS Lync etc). It never throttles. Sure, the fans spool up when under load, but still runs to spec.

Finally, anonymous nobodies on YouTube have a vested interest in increasing traffic to their channel and so are prepared to do what's necessary to achieve that end. Slagging off Apple (for any reason), is guaranteed click-bait. I would wait for a testing done by more legit sites like Ars Technica or Annandtech using proper scientific methodology before I draw a conclusion on the current gen. I find it hard to believe Apple didn't thoroughly test the design under load before release.

danvm said:

chasm said:

Max probably knows this, but for some reason it got left out of this video/article:

1. The 2017 MBP introduced a modified version of the butterfly keyboard that significantly lowers the risk of damage/service need (according to Mike Wuerthele's article focused on the 2016 MBP), so a 2018 model will probably improve on that further based on further understanding of where the 2016 one caused issues. For people who hate low-travel keys, you are not likely to notice much if any change. Apple is not giving up on the butterfly design because it is better in most ways, so get real about this.

A butterfly design that have changed two times since 2015 (could it change again in 2018?), that has quality issues and an awful tactile feedback is no something I'll consider better in most ways, as you said. 

I have both a 2012 15” MBPr (handed down to the kids) and a 2017 model (the top one with the Radeon 560pro) so I’m in a direct position to compare them.

I greatly prefer the 2017 model’s keyboard, it’s crisper and just feels sharper. The 2012 model, while I loved it, feels mushy and soft now by comparison.

The Touchbar is far more useful to me than the old function keys ever were. I use it in everything from the Finder to XCode to VMWare Fusion. While your mileage may vary, I much prefer it to the old keys. And the big touch pad is awesome, a great improvement over an already good touchpad.

the improvements I’d like to see is Apple kicking Intel to the kerb and using its own CPU design so that it doesn’t suffer intel’s incompetence any longer. Apple’s A series have supported LPDDR4 since the A8!

I’d also like to see them add haptic feedback to the TouchBar to make it more naturally responsive.

And maybe add Pencil support since the touchpad should be big enough to handle it spaciouly. 

Overall, I love the new model, but I understand that others don’t. The only negative to me is the reduced battery size. But that’s the trade off that comes with reducing the size and weight, which I love since I carry it around a lot.

Apple management have an equation they use, if 80% love a product, 10% neutral and the remaining 10% hate, then they’ll go with the 80. All their comments since the release of the new MBPs in 2016 indicates that’s the case. No matter how loud and noisy the hate may get. So there’s no turning back.