linkman

If Apple has serious heartburn about this law it could easily pull out of the country. A short-term loss of sales (population 25 million) would barely put a dent in their bottom line. Aussies would then rally against the law and get it repealed. They need to call the lawmaker's bluff!

seanismorris said:

Total $110,000
Cost of 1 bitcoin = $9,200

Assuming 1 bitcoin per stupid person.  There are 12 stupid people that fell for this scam.  I would have expected more...

Congratulation humanity!  You’re smarter than I thought you were.

It is most likely more than 12 people. Bitcoins don't have to be sent in integer amounts.

Perhaps this was a bit of karma biting Apple in the butt for using pentalobe screws.

I would be mostly satisfied if AM just gives me the correct directions each time. I'm by no means a frequent user of it, but I have had several times in the past two years where it directs me to a totally wrong location -- which I only found out after attempting to drive there and get into an endless loop once I'm close to what AM thought was the destination. Not encountered recently, but I also hope they fixed the problem where it would provide directions to an identically named place that is 1000+ miles from my current location instead of the one that is <5 miles from my current location.

I find that Lightning is easier than USB-C to plug/unplug. I have to plug my USB-C non-Apple work laptop in once per day to a dock and find most of the time I can't do it blind -- where I can always plug in a Lightning connector without looking. I'll definitely miss it.

Someone at my wife's school had a big problem when they attempted to use Zoom the first time for class online recently. One of the students (with malicious intent) published the meeting ID a few days earlier on some social media platform inviting anyone to crash the meeting and it snowballed -- something like 1000 undesirables joined the meeting and were extremely disruptive. The teacher had to end the meeting and that classroom session was effectively cancelled.

That event was not so much a Zoom security failure but an overall design point that is missing. I imagine what is needed are unique user invites -- the unique ID can only be used by a single Zoom userid. It would be additional overhead for the meeting organizer but it would enhance meeting confidentiality. I can't think of any other decent solutions that don't require something like VPN access which would be tough to get working for a diverse set of middle/high school students that use a variety of devices. Any other ideas out there?

Nikon8 said:

I didn’t even know there was a YouTube TV. 

It is surprisingly possibly the biggest lineup for a streaming-only service. I switched to it when Google dropped their Fiber TV service. I did some research and it had the most comparable channel listing compared to what I was losing. The "DVR" is a pretty good setup with unlimited "storage" (the "recordings" are kept on Google's servers but you can access them from any compatible device for 9 months after they are recorded, and there is no limit on how much you record. You could potentially set everything to record if you don't mind your list of recordings being nearly impossible to navigate. YouTube TV does not require any of Google's hardware to watch it, and can be viewed using a lot of different platforms.

One thing I highly recommend is avoiding 8 GB of RAM unless you intend to use if for less than 3 years. While macOS does a lot better than the latest versions of Windows with low amounts of RAM (a mere 8 GB at my work is quite painful to use now without launching any apps), do not underestimate the ability of application programmers to be lazy and inefficient and consume far more memory than they need to.

avon b7 said:
And if you ever get the chance to experience some of the Chinese systems for example, you might even decide CarPlay (in whatever form) isn't the best option. 

I would guess Tesla is in a similar situation to the Chinese with its onboard solutions but Tesla doesn't have its own phones. I don't know much about Tesla's software interfaces so that's guesswork on my part. At least Tesla isn't providing its solutions to third parties AFAIK. That could be a slight advantage for Apple in the US at least. 

After using many different car makes and stereo head units I've decided that CarPlay is currently the best interface/system of its type. Each carmaker's version has some integration features that Apple can't directly provide (such as displaying which seat belt isn't secured), but as for displaying and controlling phone/music/navigation/notifications Apple's is #1.

Tesla's interface is good but to take full advantage of it you'll need to subscribe to their cellular connectivity -- which adds to the cost because I can't use Spotify (example) over cellular carrying my car in my pocket where I can obtain Spotify on my phone both in my pocket and in my car. Without paying for Tesla's subscription I'm stuck using my phone solely in the car using Bluetooth, and that degrades the user experience.

The US Patent Office apparently grants a patent for nearly everything, even if it is stupidly general, simple, or obvious. Pardon me, I'm going to file a patent for a circular thing that vehicles can propel themselves on...