rwes

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  • Apple Pay coming to NYC transit in July, NFL in time for regular season

    rwesrwes
    apple ][ said:
    I wonder how it'll work. Can I purchase a metrocard for my Apple Watch and just use that whenever I walk through a turnstile? I hope so.
    Probably tie in with the MetroCard replacement, OMNY. https://new.mta.info/system_modernization/omny

    Timeline (source: https://www.amny.com/transit/metrocard-replacement-omny-1.29297988):

    MetroCard phase out timeline:

    —Late May, 2019: Initial pilot on Lexington Avenue line and Staten Island Buses

    —2019: Incorporate payments via digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay

    —Fall 2019: OMNY account management live on new MTA website and phone app

    —December 2020: OMNY readers launch at all subway stations and bus routes

    —February 2021: OMNY cards launch, on sale at local retailers

    —February 2021: Launch OMNY/eTix 2.0 for Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North

    —Late 2021: Incorporate other transit networks in region

    —2022: Install 2,180 OMNY vending card machines in MTA stations

    —2023: Retire MetroCard

    ravnorodomforgot username

  • Apple says 'looking into' video of apparent iPhone 7 Plus meltdown

    rwesrwes
    avon b7 said:
    JinTech said:
    Wonder if they are using Apple branded wall chargers or third party.
    She's using a cheap off brand charger with no protection circuitry... I guarantee it.

    Take any iPhone and run 120v (or even 30v) thru the charging port and you can likely overwhelm the protection circuitry built into the phone over time (it's designed for transients, not 8 hours of charging 20 days a month!) 

    Eventually the phone can't protect itself, the LiIon battery gets over charged and puffs up like this.  (The expansion is the protective plastic shell the battery is in preventing a very explosive lithium fire.)

    I've done a lot of damage to lithium batteries as part of Robot combat events (think BattleBots but smaller).  They are very powerful, and have to be treated right.

    This is why you NEVER use anything but an Apple charger.
    Third party chargers can be worse, as good as, or better than Apple chargers. If Apple charged less for chargers people would be less tempted to go non-Apple. Their chargers are anything but robust and have a long history of poor design with cable ends. I have no idea why lightening connector casings aren't stronger and do not flange slightly on either side to able to pull them out more easily. A slight curve would make things far easier for people to pull out. Especially people who aren't able to apply much force between thumb and index finger.

    Given the simple function of the device, I'd implement a lifetime warranty and ask users to hand in the failed charger to get a new one. No doubt it would lead to an instant improvement in the basic design.
    Some of my favorite links to provide people (often friends, who still probably never read them):
    - http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html
    - http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html
    - http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38167551

    macarena said:
    Karma catching up? For a long time, Apple has been tempting karma - selling overpriced lightning cables to customers whose cables frayed out within months, soldering RAM into the motherboards, so that customers have no choice but to accept Apple's rip off pricing, etc. When a company goes out of its way to screw its own loyal customers, you can be assured that its day of reckoning is coming. It is ridiculous that a company that makes such humongous profits and that charges such a stiff price for admission into their walled garden finds the need to rip off even its own loyal customers this way. And not just the company, even Apple shareholders and Apple fan boys rubbed their hands in glee when Samsung had a huge loss from the Note 7 recall. There's lot of bad karma in there too. Apple's greed will only get worse. They will keep pushing the envelope, trying to make the phones thinner - even if the wimpy batteries struggle to last the whole day! They only care for making these devices as thin and as light as possible. Obviously, all that thinness and lightness is making the devices vulnerable to such problems. It is indeed unbelievable how many people hate Apple. And how even a lot of Apple's customers hate the company.
    I'm a little biased, being a little bit obsessive compulsive (and having worked for 'cable' manufacturers), but people could treat their cables better. I loaned a lighting cable to a friend to charge his phone, in a rented vehicle. At one point, he grabbed his phone, by reaching for and pulling the cable first, no where near the (small) strain relife on the cable. I nicely asked him not to do that and explain why. I have lightning cables, in near perfect conditions (aside from some discoloration due to long use), from when I got my iPhone 5. That being said, a majority of people don't know/care to know how to handle their cables.
    SpamSandwichrandominternetpersoncalijahbladeStrangeDayswatto_cobraargonaut

  • Goldman Sachs credit card practices under investigation by US watchdog

    rwesrwes
    Like someone else mentioned, and as we most already know, it's best to not carry balances but if you have to, the rates being mentioned seem to be common now even if you've got a decent credit score.

    I've kept one of my first credit cards (a little over 20 years now) which has ~ 6% rate, but the card has no 'perks' so I almost never use it. If I ever need to make a purchase though that I couldn't pay off by the needed date to avoid interest, I would probably fall back to that card.
    scstrrfwatto_cobra

  • Why Apple keeps buying companies - and how it's used them for maximum impact

    rwesrwes
    I'd argue P.A. Semi, Intrinsity, and some of the other chip related acquisitions should be included in the best-known list above. If competitors knew then what they know now (about the grander chip plans). Not that any others could have executed it as well... "playing the long game, every time." for sure it seems.
    pascal007elijahgwatto_cobrajony0byronl

  • Samsung inadvertently uses iPhone to tweet Galaxy Unpacked promo

    rwesrwes
    The conspiracy theorist in me almost wonders if they have people tweet from iPhones for the additional coverage it generates.

    Aside from an earlier mention here on AI about the event, there probably wouldn't have been another mention of the event until it happened, but now... here we are talking about it, or here I am commenting about it anyway. 😅

    💭 "maybe... I'll got see what the S21 is about and maybe I'll switch..."

    /s

    (iPhone 12 mini 🤘)
    right_said_fredwatto_cobracornchipols

  • Apple reveals further details about AirTag's anti-stalking feature

    rwesrwes
    MustSeeUHDTV said:
    Ooh, I got another privacy concern....saw this on macrumors 

    “If you come across a lost AirTag, or if someone comes across your lost AirTag, it can be scanned with any smartphone that's equipped with NFC to bring up contact information.”

    So if you wanted to know the contact info a person you like....then you could scan their keys, bicycles, or whatever exposed AirTag that is left alone?
    Maybe? I say that because maybe until it's in 'lost mode' and away from owner it doesn't broadcast that info? E.g. I'm near my keys with an AirTag on them, it wont broadcast any details?

    I thought I read that elsewhere. But I very well may have confused something else I read.
    MustSeeUHDTVpscooter63watto_cobra

  • Goldman Sachs credit card practices under investigation by US watchdog

    rwesrwes
    JP234 said:
    Goldman Sachs cheating their customers? Say it ain't so! Who ever heard of an investment bank engaging in corrupt and dishonest practices? (cough, cough: WellsFargo). And I know that no former CEO appointed by Trump as Treasury Secretary would even think of it (cough, cough: Steve Mnuchin)!
    Not that I disagree, but don't make it political. IMO, most banks (bank execs, people calling the shots, not the 'low level' employees) are in the business of cheating their customers. Because lets face it, the shareholders are a minority of the actual customer base (if even customers in the same sense at all) and more often that not, what's probably in shareholder interest (maximum profit) does not align with majority customer interest.
    JP234muthuk_vanalingam

  • Password cracking tool can slowly hack T2 Mac passwords

    rwesrwes
    MichaelKohl said:
    markbyrn said:
    The article begs a question though; is the flaw fixable by Apple with a T2 firmware update or not? 
    No, it is not possible to do a T2 firmware and if it was, then hackers could just apply their "special" firmware update. It is patched for new M1 machines.
    That’s not how firmware updates work (I don’t think)… just about all are now signed so a back actor can’t do exactly that; install their “special” firmware update. If anyone could go updating firmware, people/hackers would certainly already be exploring that.

    *If* this is addressable by a firmware update, Apple will have one out in short order I’m sure.
    pmh

  • Apple TV's App Store now hiding installed apps on top charts

    rwesrwes
    rogifan_new said:
    That's dumb. Charts should be the most popular apps, not the most popular apps I haven't downloaded. iOS App Store doesn't work like this.
    Seriously though, why do you disagree with their methodology? Using an example noted above, and one I can personally relate to, if the Top Chart contains Netflix, but I already have it on my Apple TV, why would I (were I you) care to see it in the Top Charts still? And I'm sure were I to delete it from my Apple TV, or pickup a new one (for which I can't unfortunately restore from a backup, or copy the apps already installed on other Apple TV), Netflix would be right up top? 

    Just (really) wondering or trying to understand your POV.
    cali said:
    This is dumb. Why manipulate the charts?

    How about they fix the irritating "reccommended movies/shows" section which shows me a ton of movies I own while shopping.

    I'm looking for new stuff and half the suggestions I own.
    How exactly is this manipulation? And to your point, maybe that's next - if they're doing it for apps (on tvOS thus far anyway, hiding the top entry if it's already on your device and shifting the ones below it up), they should be able to for movies/shows.