lukas_canji

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lukas_canji
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  • Apple's block of Xcloud & Stadia game streaming apps is at best consumer-hostile

    lukas_canjilukas_canji

    Yo spam, I am quite certain that if you listed a few of your hobbies people might make the same determination. Regardless, speaking on the topic at hand in the article, this is an anti consumer move from Apple.


    I just feel that they have no pulse on what is happening in the gaming industry at large. It is quite a shame given the size and impact of the industry (which is substantially larger than film, tv, and music). 


    Apple has had a similar policy to the Steam Link app that allowed you to play PC games on mobile devices via your Local Area Network. Valve (parent company of Steam) originally had issues with Apple for similar reasons but it was resolved a few months later. Apple seriously need a head of gaming as they appear clueless and flailing in all things related to this industry. 


    Nonetheless, the position that Apple is currently taking (requiring approval of all streamed games individually despite them not being locally on device) is tantamount to Apple requiring Netflix to individually submit every film and tv show for approval by Apple before they are allowed to stream on Apple's platform. It is idiotic. I think once they are educated on the topic they will approve the service.


    Furthermore, another possible reason for not allowing this service on Apple devices is that it would wipe the floor with what Apple Arcade has to offer. The ability to play 100+ AAA $60 games for a monthly fee of $15/month is an insane value proposition. Perhaps Apple knows this and understands that they cannot compete with this. 


    Nonetheless I hope Apple comes around.

    dysamoriawilliamlondonInspiredCodemuthuk_vanalingamelijahgOferLoveNotch_n_AirPods

  • What to expect from the March 25 'It's show time' Apple News and streaming video event

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    randominternetperson said:
    lukas_canji said:
    I really hope the focus is movies, tv, and live broadcasts. I feel that devoting too much time to the news and magazine aspects would be a mistake. If they get video right (price, value, variety) they will make a killing. I will seriously reconsider my current streaming costs (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crave (only way for Canadians to get HBO), Sportsnet). I really hope they can offer something that cover these bases with additional value that would convince me to switch. I have Apple Music and if I can bundle the video service along with it in a family plan package at a reasonable price I will definitely be on board.
    You can't get HBO via Hulu in the Great White North?
    No, there is a devils bargain between Canadas worst telecommunication company (Bell) and HBO. Crave is the Bell owned digital distribution channel that allows its subscribers to watch tv and movies from HBO, Showtime, and a few other channels). Additionally Hulu is not available in Canada (without the use of a VPN).

    Canadians have some of the highest telecommunication bills in the world, no thanks to the cabal of our telecommunication overlords (Bell, Rogers, Telus). It also doesn't help that when competition from the states tries to make inroads into Canada these companies shit a brick and run to the government. And predictably nothing happened. 

    Local ISP's have started to challenge the established players (with FTTH, which I luckily have), but we need a similar thing to happen to the mobile space as it is depressingly overpriced and monopolistic. 
    jbishop1039DAalsethlolliverrandominternetperson

  • Apple is still working on under-display optical Touch ID reader

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    I was quite a fan of the ability to have my phone unlock as I was picking it up so that it would already be open by the time I laid eyes on it.

    Additionally, maybe this can pave the path for notchless iPhones.

    I mean Face ID is cool, but I would not miss it (I mean maybe I would miss Animoji) if the fingerprint scanner was put into the screen.

    Full screen iPhones will be really cool and sleek looking. Apple tends to focus heavily on aesthetics, and most people who follow apple probably know what their design goals are generally. 

    On another note, I have a fun conspiracy theory with regards to Face ID. What if the purpose of Face ID was to get dimensions of peoples faces so when the apple glasses product is available, they would be fitted with the appropriate size and there would be no risk of poorly fitted glasses. Probably not the case given Apple's stance on privacy, but you never know.


    Beats

  • Editorial: Apple just told you that they aren't going to make an 'iPhone SE 2' any time so...

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    I really miss my iPhone SE. I just hate the moronic act balancing my current XS (smallest of the previous generation phones) on palm with open hand to shift to reach the corners, or on the tip of the fingers to gain functional use of the upper corners. The fact that I have not dropped it yet is a miracle.
    Samhainbaconstangargonauttobian

  • Elon Musk uses iPhone email bug to illustrate the importance of software innovation

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    mdriftmeyer said:
    sflocal said:
    I admire what Musk does.  He's a rockstar in my book... but whatever Musk.  Maybe it's "fresh blood" engineers that are breaking the software?  Maybe it's not iOS that was buggy, but maybe identified a problem with Musk's email system?  Lot's of assumptions being made here.

    Fresh blood is necessary in every industry.  Experience, especially of those that have been in the industry a while is even more preferred as far as I'm concerned. 

    He's an overrated ass hat.
    He is the most important entrepreneur since Edison.
    GeorgeBMacGG1Dogperson

  • Apple has the 'key ingredients' needed to disrupt the car market, analysts say

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    I would be interested to see what their spin on these vehicles will be. They have to lead with something. A break through battery innovation is one such way to establishing themselves as a contender in the BEV space. I think another differentiator will be the in car entertainment and infotainment system. 

    The biggest innovation that will make them a serious competitor in this space is price first, then range, and performance. If they nail price and produce a compelling vehicle that is cheaper than a Tesla Model 3 and equal in range and performance that they will wipe the floor with the competition. Especially the traditional auto OEM's. 

    However...

    I don't think these cars will be affordable (at first). If we know anything about apple, it is that their products do not tend to be cheap. 

    With regards to their self driving ambitions, 1) they JUST promoted the AI lead to head the Autonomous Driving program (this should have been done years ago), and 2) I am curious about what sensor suite they will be using on their vehicles. The current debate in the self driving world is the use of a vision (camera) based system verses LIDAR. Elon thinks LIDAR is a fools errand mainly due to the cost of LIDAR equipment ($250,000 units you see on top of Waymo vans and what not) and the fact that the current LIDAR strategy has these vehicles follow preplanned routes with millimetre accuracy (AKA not great at dealing with emergent and novel phenomena on the road - will just pull over if unsure what to do). Vision based uses much cheaper cameras and allowing advanced ML and neural networks to be trained and allow for full autonomous that can react and adapt as more drive data is acquired. 

    In the pursuit of autonomous driving, those with the most data will win. 

    1) Acquiring data by having an engineer spend his time in the cars manually collecting data is slow and inefficient. Additionally getting unique drive situations that will train your model with strange driving edge cases that cannot be simulated is difficult, if not impossible, to get using this data collection method.

    2) Companies (mainly Tesla) that are selling vehicles and collecting actual self driving data have a massive data advantage and it is not even close. Billions of miles of actual driver data training and improving the model and you pay nothing to get this as it comes from vehicles people have already purchased. 

    3) Given Apple's stance on privacy, I am curious how they will collect the driver data needed to have a compelling self driving solution. I feel this will put them at a considerable disadvantage.

    But Apple has a few aces up their sleeves. 

    1) Chip design for self driving. Tesla has one (which was designed by an ex A series apple engineer). Apple has the expertise and manufacturing experience to make this happen. A purpose designed chip for self driving.

    2) Amazing supply chain management.

    3) Very vertically integrated which will allow for better range/performance due to optimizations between software and hardware (battery management software, heat management, etc...) We have seen this in their mobile devices, and the best performing BEV company (Tesla) is also very vertically integrated which allows for much more rapid innovation and advancement vs traditional Auto. 

    4) A mountain of money to throw on any issue they encounter. They are well resourced to solve very tough problems in the BEV space. 





    Finally (sorry for the long read), I think Apple has us looking in the wrong direction. Perhaps they are looking to do something even more disruptive that simply a BEV. Perhaps they are looking at the future of transportation and see that car ownership will decline with the rise of autonomous driving platforms. Maybe they are working on driverless vehicles that we use when we need, and transport other people at other time when we are not using them. Kind of like the Tesla robotaxi network they keep speaking about. The cost of such a service would be another apple subscription that would include apple music, tv, news, arcade, fitness, AND transport. Ask Siri for a ride to the university and an autonomous vehicle picks you up and drops you at the front door.




    Anyways, take what I say with a grain of salt, but this is interesting to think about what they could be working on. 
    muthuk_vanalingamh2p

  • Apple begins notifying eligible developers of App Store rate cut

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    Interesting. I wonder if this move would have happened if the whole Epic vs Apple saga did not occur. Food for thought. Probably a good move.
    muthuk_vanalingam

  • What to expect from the March 25 'It's show time' Apple News and streaming video event

    lukas_canjilukas_canji
    crudman said:
    lukas_canji said:
    I really hope the focus is movies, tv, and live broadcasts. I feel that devoting too much time to the news and magazine aspects would be a mistake. If they get video right (price, value, variety) they will make a killing. I will seriously reconsider my current streaming costs (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crave (only way for Canadians to get HBO), Sportsnet). I really hope they can offer something that cover these bases with additional value that would convince me to switch. I have Apple Music and if I can bundle the video service along with it in a family plan package at a reasonable price I will definitely be on board.
    Agreed but with one caveat - as a fellow Canuck I fear the video streaming, magazine and news services will lag on our side of the border like, unfortunately, a lot of Apple services. Call me cautiously optimistic while trying not to get hopes up. 
    This is to be expected but with my current set up it is actually quite good. My biggest fear at this point with regards to video streaming services is not region specific content but the loss of value over time. The very reason I switched to Netflix originally was due to the fact that satellite was horrendously overpriced and I didn't watch 1/100th of the offered selection. The value was there with Netflix at the time. A single platform that hosted the majority of titles. 

    The situation is going south very quick. Every Joe, Dick, and Harry studio has decided that they need their own streaming service. The landscape does not offer the value that it once did. You now have to subscribe to many streaming services in order to get the content you want. The fracturing and creation of a million separate streaming services is studios finally becoming technologically proficient and they have come to collect. They have to make up for the lost time and money that they lost out on during the early days of video streaming.

    At the end of the day the landscape will become more profitable for the studios and way less convenient for consumers.

    Apple is one of the few companies in the world that has a good reputation and a metric shit tonne of cash. All important factors at the bargaining table. If they can bring the studios in line and offer something that makes me see the value, as I once did when I first switched to streaming, they will have a day one customer with me.