linkman

I ordered a 15" MBA in Starlight with the only upgrade being a 1 TB SSD on March 10 and the expected delivery date is March 26.

22july2013 said:

For those of us outside the USA who have been waiting for 4+ years for this service, with no hint of it arriving in our countries, we kinda hope the service will die in the USA. Apple needs to think worldwide, and not provide services to Americans only. How many other Apple services are available in the US only?

Doing this for every country would be like doing this 200x. The financial sector typically has huge administrative and regulatory burdens. It's probably not worth them touching it except for the largest GDP countries. Considering how most news reports indicate Goldman Sachs has lost big money on this venture it is likely any other bank (and Apple) is leery of testing the waters in another country.

Apple Card has been a big hit with me and the wife. It's been a much more pleasant experience than using the few other credit cards during our lifetime. I hope Apple is able to find a good successor and provide a similar experience with that replacement.

rotateleftbyte said:

Could Apple and Google do better?
You bet. They could automatically disable the phone the next time it is connected to a network. That might not be so easy in some countries.  Make reporting the theft easy. Do it in hours not days. 

You do realize this feature has existed on iPhones for several years already? It's called Find My. The owner can remotely activate it and once the device connects to the internet it's essentially bricked. Without the owner reenabling it or knowing the Apple ID's password the phone is only worth a few parts.

AppleInsider said:

Besides, if you want Windows in a portable form, there's a few Windows tablets on the market available for purchase.

And they are all bad.

I have two printers at home, one B&W laser and one color laser. I gave up on inkjets a decade ago because I don't print enough and can't sustain replacing nearly full ink cartridges once the liquid dries up along with replacing the printer because the nozzle is unfixably clogged. The HP 4050 (circa 2000) I obtained used is still going strong with MacOS Sequoia along with a color $100 Canon I obtained new on clearance. The Canon is still on the starter cartridge set.

Most people and especially businesses don't appreciate how expensive color printing is. The typical cost for a color page is 10x that of B&W.

The one piece of hardware I recommend improvement on is to add a speaker to the remote. Even with the remote finder method using an iPhone it can be tough to find the very petite remote. A speaker beeping would make it much easier to discover.

If the author has complaints about a buggy YouTube app -- he should try the YouTube TV app. Oy.

The least expensive Mac Mini is $600. This dock is listed at $400. Unless the real world price is a lot cheaper than $400 we see a big disparity in what you get what you pay for.

steveh said:

maestro64 said:

A device which is dumb like a charger which just provide powers should not be the issue, there is more to this than the power source.

Chargers are no longer necessarily dumb devices. At least, not properly designed chargers.

They should be talking to the device's charging systems, and reacting properly, like dropping from normal charge current to a trickle charge level, or off, as the battery comes up to full charge.

At the very least, the device being charged at the very worst should be able to control the charger in self defense.

The device being charged is the one that controls the current. It is the duty of the charger to supply the correct voltage. A system that requires the charger to reduce the current in response to the battery state means the charger would need direct feedback from the battery or obtain a signal from the device as to the battery condition -- this would require a more complicated setup in connectors, wiring, and charger. An iPhone is fully capable of regulating the current to the battery being charged.

The problem with these bad 3rd party devices is that their voltage goes out of allowable limits. I don't know the specifics but it is possible that they have a large AC component. Voltage too high or too low could be a problem too.

voice-of-reason said:

mrwitt said:

Tariffs are a very positive long term strategy. Our country has been taken to the cleaners for years with gross trade deficits.

this is a mind-numbingly ignorant comment. Tariffs do NOT address trade deficits. No matter how high we "tariff" Vietnam, they do not have enough people or income to balance trade with us. You have to know this. I simply can't believe you actually believe a tariff war will even out trade deficits. 

Tariffs will encourage companies to move production to domestic which avoids tariffs. This can keep the price to the retail consumer lower than if a tariff were applied. Let's say a clothing manufacturer imports 1M units a year from Vietnam, responds to tariffs by producing those 1M units in the USA -- end result is a more balanced trade. So yes, tariffs can level out trade deficits with the smallest and/or poorest of countries.