mbmoore

It sounds like the author thinks UK legislation will be a great thing--it is NEVER a great thing when Government, ANY Government, tries to police private industry. The world has connectivity like it has never had before, individual people have access to just about any kind of information (good and bad), products, and communication that they have never had before, and Government, as it always does, is going to step in and destroy it; it will be a slow but steady erosion of capability. It is rare that Government oversight improves anything. Of course, large enterprise private industry often does the same thing; AT&T, Comcast, and numerous others take over smaller entities and slowly destroy them. (AT&T's acquisition of DirectTV is a good example of it.) The difference is that private industry in a free enterprise arena is essentially self-regulating--competition is a wonderful thing; Government is the monopoly--they have no such thing as competition.

The UK is probably the king of destruction. First, it was mandating USB-C as a connection standard, which is inane. Of all the problems (???) to choose, they chose cable connectivity($%???!!). Now, they're trying to regulate app sales. Let's see how long it takes for them to destroy the software apps business.

No USB-A on a Mac Mini isn’t a big deal, but it’s a huge deal on a MacBook. I just bought an M1 MacBook Air, and I like it, but there is no real replacement for my low profile USB-A thumb drive. I’m going to have to use a fragile 90 degree adapter to connect my USB-A thumb drive to one of the two USB-C ports. Not a great solution.

chasm said:

mbmoore said:

No USB-A on a Mac Mini isn’t a big deal, but it’s a huge deal on a MacBook. I just bought an M1 MacBook Air, and I like it, but there is no real replacement for my low profile USB-A thumb drive. I’m going to have to use a fragile 90 degree adapter to connect my USB-A thumb drive to one of the two USB-C ports. Not a great solution.

I have a small hub that does all that for my MBP.

Or you could switch to one of these growing number of USB-C thumb drives.

Actually, neither of those solutions works for me. On my old 11 inch Air, I leave my LOW PROFILE (1/4” protrusion) 512gb thumb drive in the USB-A port practically all the time—it’s a permanent appendage to it and it’s where I save all of my data files. Because of USB-C’s limits to minimization, there is no pathway to that size drive footprint, and I need the extra storage to avoid using up my internal drive space. The only solution is to add structural support to the adapter. I certainly use hubs and other thumb drives occasionally, but not permanently attached. In this configuration, I can pick up my Air and walk out the door without worrying about wagging a bag of attachments with me. Apple throws a monkey wrench into things when they don’t include USB-A—major oversight IMO. I know why they do it—it’s an easy way to coerce buyers into upgrading to a more expensive model, but I’m on a limited budget.

I understand Apple’s efforts to get into gaming in a bigger way, but I have never understood why they didn’t go after the CAD/solid modelling market as well. I’m retired now, but in 2001 when Apple built their OS on Unix, I thought for sure they would wipe Microsoft out of the business. Unix (Solaris, Irix, etc…) was far and away a bettef platform than Windows NT. However, Apple never seemed to lift a finger to encourage it. There still isn’t a top end CAD app on Mac OS to this day. Headscratcher to me.

FineWoven should be remembered, alright. It should be remembered as another boondoggle by Apple—leather has been used by mankind since the beginning of time and likely for a long time to come. It doesn’t make Apple a moral cut above everyone else for ending its use of leather—it just cost them a lot of money. So did the “100% green/renewable energy” (which isn’t really green OR renewable) initiative. It doesn’t seem to matter much right now, but if Apple continues such practices, they will lose their place as a stock market leader. A company has to stay lean and mean in any business to survive, and Apple isn’t doing so. I certainly don’t have a problem with a company having moral standards, particularly if they aren’t contrived ones, but empty calorie morals will end up bankrupting them.

rotateleftbyte said:

It makes sense to me.  Buying T-T will attract a whole new raft of scrutiny from Uncle Sam. Given the changes in Twitter and Facebook as they move to be more Trumpian Friendly, T-T's new owners will be expected to follow suit OR face 'the Spanish Inquisition' from Congress. The Oversight Committee could tie Apple up in lawsuits for years if they owned T-T and didn't start licking No 47's high heels.
As if they didn't have a big enough target on their backs as it is...

The same arguments would apply if Apple started its own search engine.  I am sure that we will soon start seeing Google change its promotion algorithms to put his latest grift subject at the top of all result sets.

IMHO, it is far better for Apple to stay well clear of that part of the DC swamp. There be leopards ready to eat Tim Cook's face. 

It isn’t just about being Trump-friendly. It’s about ceasing the almost outright ban on views that oppose extreme left dogma. Regardless of political persuasion, social media platforms should be neutral, allowing the free flow of information. The only rules that should exist are ones that enforce current laws regarding pornography, inciting of riots, and personal threats.