dpkroh

The update did not immediately brick my HomePod.

Every comment here seems to miss the point.

The App Store is NOT just another business, Even Walmart and Costco have far more competitors than does the App Store.  The app store is the ONLY choice for people with iPhones. The only quasi alternative here would be an Android App Store.  Are those very similar choices ?  Practically every Apple lover here would argue “no, the Apple experience is far superior”.  This is much different than being able to buy the very same identical TV at a large number of different retailers, as some have suggested.

The ultimate goal of capitalism is to become so successful, as to destroy the free market by eliminating and preventing all competition. Let that sink in because most people can’t grasp that at first,  Once again, the end goal of capitalism is to destroy free markets, and create an all powerful, monopoly or all powerful, duopoly. That destroys consumer choice, which is the very goal of a free market, People often assume capitalism and free markets go hand in hand, and generally they do.... until a business grows so big that it is no longer subject to competition because it can or has effectively destroyed it,

That’s the very point of anti-trust law.  To prevent the destruction of free markets,

There is a price to be paid for total success and rightly so. Once a company becomes so successful that it has essentially destroyed competition, the checks and balances of a free market are destroyed. Either the company is forcibly broken up in a way that restores a level of free market control or it becomes subject to regulations as a substitute for the loss of free market checks and balances.

is the App Store a monopoly or even just a duopoly? The argument for the latter is strong, and for the latter is almost certain,

The real question here is do you support free markets, defined as markets that encourage healthy competition for the benefit of consumers ?  If so, you can’t argue that Apple should be allowed to do whatever it wants, because Apple created the App Store. As you cheer on Apple becoming a 2 trillion dollar company, remember that you are also cheering the end of a truly functional free market for mobile apps.

The United States has become a poster child for massive inequality in developed countries and is getting worse.  That “American Dream” that is all but gone, was strong after world war 2.  The reason the American dream was reborn was the Sherman Act.... powerful anti trust law that broke up large corporate Robber Barons, like Rockefeller.  Forcing the breakup of too large and powerful corporations after world war 2 is what brought back the American dream and decades of shared prosperity.

So the larger question here is do you want to worship the control of monopolistic corporations that have grown to destroy free markets, or do you want to see the American dream restored, where the free market ensures maximum productivity and a fair chance for everyone to share in that prosperity ?

sloth77 said:

rcfa said:

Why is this thing not dual boot macOS and iPadOS?

In particular, a 12” iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard is, in every sense, the superior hardware when compared to a MacBook Air, yet it’s forced to run the crippled iPadOS!

The kernel is the same between macOS and iPadOS, Catalyst is present to run i(Pad)OS apps under macOS, and the OS could restrict apps to Catalyst when used without MagicKeyboard to optimize for touch Ui.

 But why can we not (at least optionally) run macOS on an iPad Pro wit MagicKeyboard?

THAT is what I’m waiting for! A Mac with the ability to use pen/finger to interact where needed. For the most part, I use my current iPad Pro with keyboard and touchpad, with the occasional screen/pen interaction 

Its an interesting idea.  As macOS now runs on M1, I guess there is no major reason why they couldn't do it.

My guess is that they think it may cannibalize sales of Mac hardware

I believe this question of cannibalization was once put to Steve Jobs or perhaps Joni Ives. Their reply was if we don't cannibalize our own products somebody else will.

I owned the 2018 12.9 inch iPad Pro. That size is too big to be handheld. And if it's not going to be handled then what's the point of having a tablet.  I switched to the 2018 inch iPad Pro and have been happy with that ever since.   If the 2021 11 inch iPad Pro had feature parity with the 2021 12.9 inch I might consider an upgrade, but the 11 inch. Meh.

I strongly agree with dual boot as there are scenarios in which an iPad is advantageous and other scenarios in which a MacBook is advantageous.  Right now to have the best of both worlds you have to carry two devices.

I see no defensible excuse for Apple not to do this. If they are worried about revenue the base 12.9 inch iPad Pro already costs as much as a base MacBook Air.  Apple could sell a lot more of their obscenely expensive iPad magic keyboards if the Magic keyboard would unlock dual boot MacOS  functionality for the iPad.

I can see compromising and getting the larger 12.9 inch iPad if it would also dual boot to macOS.  And if Apple offered dual boot functionality on the 11 inch iPad Pro it would be a great alternative to the 12 inch MacBook they used to sell.

sirozha said:

How does a service with just a few shows compare to Netflix or Hulu, which have thousands of titles? 

Apple TV should have become a streaming delivery platform for content providers to use. Kind of like a cable TV provider is a delivery platform for multiple content providers. This way, content providers could concentrate on the content and let Apple handle the technical issues related to streaming. 

Instead, Apple decided to become a content provider with their own streaming service. It’s clearly a dead end approach, as people will only be willing to have a limited number of streaming services. 

sirozha said:

How does a service with just a few shows compare to Netflix or Hulu, which have thousands of titles? 

Apple TV should have become a streaming delivery platform for content providers to use. Kind of like a cable TV provider is a delivery platform for multiple content providers. This way, content providers could concentrate on the content and let Apple handle the technical issues related to streaming. 

Instead, Apple decided to become a content provider with their own streaming service. It’s clearly a dead end approach, as people will only be willing to have a limited number of streaming services. 

Actually I think quality vs quantity is exactly the right approach. Used to be at least any NetFlix Original was guaranteed to be good to great. Netflix is now so full of crap it’s barely worth the hassle of bothering with. I would much rather subscribe to 10 really good shows with no crap content, then have to wade through the cesspool of mostly never should have been made crap that has to be waded through on a Netflix. I remember when I worked in London, UK in early 2000. Premium TV meant having 3 channels.... yes... just 3 good channels vs 300 channels of time wasting, can’t find anything , keep surfing hoping to find something that doesn’t suck... TV here in North America. Less is more when quality trumps quantity.

StrangeDays said:

dpkroh said:

minor point upgrade to iOS is a good thing but you are missing the biggest iOS 13 story completely.

Until today HomePod has been stuck on version 12.4. Finally today Apple has released 13.2 for HomePod as well. It is been an absurd wait of about a month or more.

I’m not sure which is the stronger feeling. The relief that Apple has finally released iOS 13 for HomePod or the fact that it took more than a month after the general release of iOS 13 to issue the same for HomePod.

I am guessing nobody at Apple insider has a HomePod? LOL?

Absurd wait? For new functionality you didn’t have before? I’m confused, did your HomePods stop working in the interim? Mine are still performing perfectly and I’ve suffered no losses. 

Yes... the wait was absurd.  Had a HomePod when it first came out - sent it back as useless.  The very reason I decided to try HomePod again was due to the multi-user voice recognition.  Everything on Apple’s website after iOS13 was released that mentioned HomePods mentioned this feature.  No where at that time did it still say “coming soon”.

Also when I upgraded my other devices like iPhone to iOS 13 I HomePod features broke. My iPhone started telling me I had to upgrade to newer software on my HomePod - newer software that was not yer available.  So it basically “broke” things until Apple later muted this message.

This is an ECOSYSTEM not single isolated operating systems and devices.  There are features in iOS 13 and HomePod 13 that depend on both devices upgraded.  So yes it is very much absurd.  You may have slack standards, and that’s okay for you, but it doesn’t make it okay for Apple as a company.  Especially not when Apple promotes the idea of buying into an entire ecosystem that works together.

This is GREAT news.  We have a 2018 Mazda CX-5 with windshield projected HUD and a 2020 Kia Soul with a HUD that projects into a pop up panel above the dash behind the steering wheel.  The HUD are excellent for keeping eyes on the road.  Despite Apple & Google Maps, and Waze being far superior navigation apps, I often use the native navigation in the cars,  so everything can be seen on the HUD and eyes can stay on the road.