bobolicious

First experience with FB raised flags with new 'features' set with all roads set to FB data collection, including as I recall resetting prior privacy settings to default collection...

I have been asking about recent macOS prefs in a similar light, especially Siri privacy with the seemingly buried ML 'Learn from this App' default to on and now (12.6?) an added setting to 'Show Siri Suggestions in App'...?

While Mr Cook makes seemingly carefully worded statements about 3rd party privacy and direct data sales, should we be concerned about a Siri data or machine learning market strategy (even if 'anonymized') seemingly in collecting so much 'Learning' without a front and center request...?

Is CoreML worth a deep dive Apple/FB/Google/Twitter data mining comparison ?

I am reminded of www.googleandtheworldbrain.com/ and ask if this is the Apple World Brain equivalent...?

'Learn from this App' were all set to on after a recent migration, without as I recall any obvious request or warning, even when Siri was turned off and all data deleted from iCloud also selected...?

... the 'final-ever' Intel mini was also available in a 3.2 (4.6) Ghz i7 6 (12) cores and had upgradable ram to 64GB ...
Add to that eGPU (multiple W6900X?) and up to 3 @ 4K monitors and this mac seemed to offer quite a bit of power, upgradability and future proofing...
I understand that the Intel CPU core count generally starts to reach diminishing returns beyond 8 or so,
and would be curious to know how the M macs compare, including perhaps alongside the 8 (16) core base mac pro...?

...non-upgradable = unappealing from this camp...

...how many paying customers really want a post Jobs Apple annual 'forced march', along with the inevitable collateral challenges...?
...has a 'bicycle for the mind' become a tether to the wallet...?

...as the shuffle can hold lossless music is it still valid especially for workouts...?  No tracking either...

... I keep asking where the line is to be drawn between free speech, 'alternate' facts and demonstrable lies ...?

Also is it important to keep in mind that any 'vote' from users depends on who shows up, in a widely noted surveillance based online environment ...?

Does meaningful collective action benefit from respectful civil discourse and vigorous fact rather than belief based debate...?

lkrupp said:

Tech blogs always hate the bean counters but without counting the beans businesses usually fail eventually. Hate Tim Cook if you want, go right ahead and hate him. Hate Elon Musk if you want, go right ahead and hate him.

So is Tim Cook a 'bean counter'...?  It used to seem such was discussed as an essential and supporting role in the design leadership of Apple in a kind of triumvirate alongside Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, with design and customer experience as guiding priorities...

Is the bigger challenge when things become unbalanced...?  

The monetization of all things Apple has arguably been a remarkable quantifiable success, for what that may be worth, and in isolation, and at what 'cost'...

Did (or should) Apple ever try and find a replacement for and (re) balance the roles that made Apple such a design success...?

danvm said:

StrangeDays said:

Definitely not needed as it’s a gimmick feature. Had them on work Windows machines and they were an oft forgotten about annoyance. Reaching up to the touch the screen when your hands are on the keyboard is baaad, m’kay?

IMO, is the same experience when using an iPad with keyboard.  Do you think is a bad experience in the iPad too?

... agreed, and such on the iPad along with capacitance or active stylus allows hybrid professional analogue / digital design work that might otherwise be difficult ...

Hooking up an iPad to a big screen seems a current option, yet has an eye-hand disconnect.  That said I would ask if it should be optional, as not everyone will benefit from such ...

www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/surface-studio-2-plus/8vlfqc3597k4?

TheObannonFile said:

Looks like we are getting into an 18 month update cycle.

I keep hoping to a return to release on merit vs a planned calendar 'cycle'...
I'd also like to think we could get more than 5 year support window for macs...

Might the newest 40XX GPU out from Nvidia (among others) may be upping the performance base line as well...?

SpiPod 2.0 ?