theotherphil

Osbert said:

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Those that pretend not to understand are the ones that wish to do great harm to society.
Society is not easy and Governments should not be allowed to infringe upon any citizens or even a non-citizen's, right to privacy.

SO GLAD we left UK in 1648.

!!! NOBODY !!! SHOULD HAVE ALL THE KEYS TO ALL THE CASTLES !!!! - nobody.

Absolute power brings absolute corruption!

The quote, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety," is popularly understood as a declaration about the importance of civil liberties and as a warning against giving up freedom in exchange for security.

However, the historical context of the quote is a bit more nuanced. It comes from a 1755 letter that Franklin, then serving as a Pennsylvania assemblyman, wrote on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor during a time of frontier war. The letter was a response to the governor's refusal to allow the Assembly to tax the lands of the Penn family, who ruled Pennsylvania from afar, for war expenses. Instead, the governor proposed that the Assembly give up its power to tax in exchange for funds to ensure frontier security. In this context, "essential liberty" refers to the Assembly's power to levy taxes, and "a little temporary safety" pertains to the financial aid for frontier defense.

Thus, Franklin's quote was a criticism of the governor's proposal and a defense of the Assembly's political power. Over time, the quote has been abstracted from its specific historical context and widely used in discussions about civil liberties, privacy, and security.

I highly suggest you read Edward Snowdon's book before casting criticism of other country's alleged lack of "freedom". 

As a developer, you can use whatever payment processor you like and keep all profits yourself all whilst targeting every iOS device right now….no legislation needed. Progressive Web Apps (PWA’s) are supported both on iOS and Android. This gives developers the option of not using Apple’s App Store and saving themselves 30% if they have their own payment processing, marketing, discovery, worldwide tax reporting, local payment methods and multiple currency support etc, etc.

https://www.simicart.com/blog/progressive-web-apps-examples/

Stymyx said:

Strange this is being reported now.  I installed the iOS 17 Public Beta 1 on my 14 Pro Max about 2 weeks ago, and with it, I installed the WatchOS 10 beta (21R5305e).  I've had the Snoopy watch face for 2 weeks now.

It's been there from the first dev beta because that's how long I've been using it.

GeorgeBMac said:

Unexpected things happen at unexpected times.  

That's why I replaced my original Apple Watch with a series 4 with LTE.   I feel much safer with it.  It's only off my wrist to charge while I have coffee & breakfast in the morning.  I do not feel safe without it.  Actually, that's one of the main reasons I would update to a Series 7 with LTE:  33% faster charging so it would spend less time charging and more time on my wrist.

The charging speed is by far the best thing about the S7 and the watch itself also seems more efficient. I too upgraded from the S4 and it was worth it for that alone. In my rough estimates, it now charges just above 1% per minute (from 50% upwards). It'll likely charge faster the lower the battery percentage is at the start.

samrod said:

Interestingly, the project points out that Apple's own drivers for Apple Silicon are not conformant for any standard graphics API

As expected given that Apple GPU drivers only support its own Metal API. 

And as Metal API is the standard on Apple Silicon Macs and iOS, I'd say Apple's drivers are conformant to Metal API.

mayfly said:

Don't need faster chips, denser memory chips, better cameras or higher def screens. What's there now is more than good enough. What I need, and what most of us need, is better battery life.

When we set the upper limit of PC-DOS at 640K, we thought nobody would ever need that much memory.  — William Gates, chairman of Microsoft

Myself and the wife both have iPhone 6 and will be upgrading with the next release.

gatorguy said:

igorsky said:

In all of these initiatives in the EU they always throw out that they want to protect competition, but rarely do they talk about the consumer.  How about asking us if we want the EU sticking their nose in the way Apple operates?  Clearly consumers have spoken with their wallets and they like the way Apple does things.  

I think we will all be better off, and certainly the tech landscape, if authorities start throttling the power wielded by Apple, Google and Microsoft. 

it will be impossible for honest competition to evolve when at the first sign of potential one of the big three swallows it up by acquisition, or nullifying any possible market presence by creating their own version and outlasting/outspending any legal challenges from doing so. No company on earth is more economically powerful than Apple, and Google and Microsft are not far behind. They can withstand any challenge except by government authorities. 

Being monitored and regulated won't prevent any of the three from becoming even larger and more profitable, but it could at least help level the playing field for other innovators and start-ups.

That's a very modern view....we at the point in history where everybody feels entitled to a participation award. I'm not entirely sure that having quotas for minorities is the way to foster "competition" or "equality". It's not competition when one party is held back because they are too "good" or "successful".

Don't forget, Apple entered the mobile phone business with no experience whatsoever. They were laughed at by all the big players of the time as the were just a consumer electronics company - what could they possibly know? They weren't even being taken seriously in the PC space at the time either. They came from nowhere and took the lunch of the existing players through good business acumen and solid products. This was even more impressive given the existing cell operators pretty much controlled the market globally.

You'll have a hard time convincing me that "start ups" and "innovators" need their "competition" to be held back in order to create a so called level playing field. What they need is a good business model and a product that solves a problem.

Market share in Germany:

iPhone - 39%
Android 58%

Yep, the cash cow needs more scrutiny.

The better analogy is trying to get your product stocked in a retailer such as walmart, costco or target for example. Here, the retailer typically takes 60% and you take the remaining 40%. Not only is Apple the distributor, but the retailer, payment processor and marketer as well. You are welcome to go elsewhere, but all the other App stores are charging the same, yet Apple provide access to customers willing to spend more.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/answer/222356
https://www.allianceexperts.com/en/knowledge/what-is-a-reasonable-margin-for-your-distributor/