kiwimachead

Home automation makes me gag. Would be happy if Apple could improve AppleTV 4K functionality with decent hardware and a smoother UI experience for music & TV, support for gaming and AI that is actually helpful. It’s at the stage where any old smart TV with Android works way better and more reliably, so Apple definitely need to upp their game or they’ll soon lose me. Bought the wife and I AirPods Pro 2’s last year and we occasionally watch TV or a movie together after the kids are in bed. The sound is great (much better than our paired HomePods) and simultaneous listening on AirPods is one of Apple TV 4k’s cooler features, but man have I had some major hassles keeping a glitchy 4K working…

Looking like the iPhone 16 product line up will be a year old before the upcoming machine learning AI features are implemented, so I’m sticking with the workhorse 14 Pro until iPhone 17 or 18 Pro models are released. iPhone is starting to look a bit stale and really needs worthwhile hardware improvements across the board, plus for all of the new AI features to be actually working in iOS. One positive for consumers is that Apple have at least showcased what is forthcoming to iOS, as well as provided honest information regarding hardware requirements. Three sheets to the wind bloatware vendors like Microsoft would’ve capitulated to shareholders by releasing iOS 18 to everyone in a beta state before promptly closing ranks!

Far out. I’ll always struggle to understand how north Americans voted this psychopath into the White House, twice.

Xed said:

jdw said:

Finally!  And I hope I never hear about that ridiculous "Apple Car" again.  It never made any sense for a computer and mobile phone maker to get into the car space.  It's a completely different sort of thing altogether, and that would have made the company "too diverse."  I think it would have harmed Apple in the end, so good riddance.  No doubt they'll glean money off all the patents they filed in the years to come.  That's enough.

1) That's the same argument I heard when Apple started making MP3 players, and then again when it was rumored they were making a cellphone.

2) You really don't see how a tech company could make a vehicle like a Tesla or Rivian?

I’d never want a Tesla or a Rivian. Drive by wire, sketchy reliability, cobalt mining, a-hole CEO, etc. New vehicles are just an expensive extension of our fragile egos - give me a reliable second hand Toyota hybrid any day.

timmillea said:

I have an M1 MBA 16gb/2TB and wonder how long I will have to wait before Apple produces something that will actually excite me enough to upgrade? 

Regarding fans, once you have been fan-less, there is no going back. Like children, computers should be "seen and not heard". For studio sound recording, it means you no longer need a 'booth' and do you really want to be distracted by a change of fan speed, up or down, while writing? Silence is bliss and its value cannot be underestimated. 

My next Mac will be a fan-less, small laptop with either 8 or 16 TB internal storage. A mini would be tempting except that an MBA can do everything a mini can do plus it is also a laptop. Otherwise, I could just buy an NVMe thunderbolt-connected 8TB and make my current M1 MBA last another 10 years. 

Hear you. M series MBA’s are brilliant and anticipate keeping my new M3 for a long time. Apart from the silent operation, battery life is for me the most impressive thing in newer MacBooks. In my experience as a Mac user since the ‘90’s, the biggest increase in product lifespans came with the introduction of the SSD. A while ago now I had an MBP for work and an MBA at home (both 2011 models). The same Ram and storage but the little 11” MBA had an SSD and it massively outperformed the Pro, actually lasting until earlier this year when the NVRAM finally died, but otherwise it was still snappy chugging along with Photoshop, Office and Safari/Chrome windows open. Prior to the introduction of SSD’s, my Mac’s would become too bogged down to enjoy using after a few years.

Mike Wuerthele said:

pixeltini said:

A lot can happen in 60 days, but hey, you never want to miss a chance to fear monger.

Tim Cook predicted $900 million in extra costs because of the tariffs this last quarter. Apple paid $800 million that they would not have had to pay had these not been put in place. They're not getting that back.

He predicted $1.2 billion for the next quarter, because the SEC makes this kind of thing a legal requirement to report. Cook is more often right than Trump is.

Oh, and the 25% tariff on exports from India is now official.

Show me where the fear-mongering versus "this is happening now" is.

Exactly. We have the same coal range fired, small government climate change denialists down here in NZ running the show as well. The economy is going backwards and of course everything is blamed on their predecessors. They’ve even had Patel down to announce an FBI outpost a few days ago. How much longer do we have to put up with this fascist s$$t show 🫣.

Happy with my 14 pro for another year. That said, next iphone will be a 17 pro max as the screen, camera, AI tools and larger battery will be appreciated. Will say, whether or not Apple planned it, battery life in iOS 18 and 18.1 still sucks for my 14 pro - compared with iOS 17 my phone battery is down an extra 30% by 5pm despite running through all the usual battery saving OS hacks. Guess it’s to be expected after a couple of years based on my prev iPhones and Apple OS’…

curtis hannah said:

The MacBook Airs are a really nice product, especially now that it's the first time Apple has had a 15" screen laptop offered for less than $1500 in many years.

The one problem is this generation they released the M3 version in March and announced the M4 in the iPad Pros in May. So now for the first time Apple has the MacBook Airs with an inferior chip to the iPad Pro, and presumably the M4 MacBook Airs are coming way later in the M4 Mac release cycle too.

Of course these things don’t matter in practice and I can’t imagine an M4 model next year will be noticeably faster. With the 13” M3 MBA Apple hit a home run. It’s AI ready and somewhat future proofed with new power features such as ray tracing. I never notice the screen notch, the build quality feels premium with a very nice keyboard + trackpad, 13.6” retina screen is an ideal size for a laptop, battery life is fantastic and transfer speeds on the USB C/thunderbolt ports are quick. MBP 14” and MBA 15” were within my cash budget but the 13” (midnight 16GB/512gb)  stacked up as by far the best value of the three and I would happily buy again.

iCloud+ has been a good reliable service for me, and the cost is pretty decent. Most consumers would have forgotten/forgiven Apple for how clunky the original switchover was from iTunes and I don’t miss that lame sync to save data followed by another to back up the Mac. These days I just have a full subscription to Apple One premier - every time I look at trimming subscriptions they keep me sucked into the ecosystem as I realise we actually use all the services on offer.

Apple doing the only thing anyone can do. American’s just have to wait for these psychopathic losers to get booted out of the White House, then get in behind any coherent effort to rebuild your democracy and economy…