zoetmb

command_f said:

Um ... convictions ... credit card fraud ... who're the good guys here? Perhaps the first thing to say should be 'well done' to the Metropolitan Police for smart thinking as they made a lawful arrest of a villain.

Could be our credit cards next.

If the guy has boxes of phony credit cards, as the photo in the article implies, then they don't need anything on his phone to convict him.    And that's true in most cases where a crime has been committed.   There's usually plenty of other evidence besides anything on the phone.   

Let's say you decided to rob a store today.   What would be on your phone that would help in the conviction unless you stupidly sent an email or text that revealed your plans.   All it would do is result in 'guilt by association' for the people you had listed in your address book or exchanged emails, etc. with.   

I don't care if developers want fast approval.   They can fast approve apps from developers who already have a valid app in the store, but new developers should be better scrutinized.  Apple needs to do a better job.   They certainly have enough employees - what the hell does everyone do over there?

bobolicious said:

g-news said:

So to remove a socket, they had to add a socket. Makes perfect sense.

Agreed. If there is some compelling (performance?) reason to do this I wish Apple would communicate such, and perhaps even market based on it, with demonstrable data...? As I recall I have upgraded both RAM & drives in every computer I can remember, most recently creating a Fusion drive on my trusty iMac, and for <$300 bumping my macbook pro to a 1TB SSD, using the HD as a portable... Big performance boosts!

Totally agreed.   I'm still using a late-2008 MBP where I've changed the battery out twice, upgraded the hard disk twice and upgraded memory, all without any service visit.   Also had the optical drive replaced (by Apple) early on.   That's the way to build a machine.   I would like a new machine, but I am really hesitant to buy the new MBP because I would have to buy it fully topped out since it can't be upgraded later, making it absurdly expensive and because it's the first of its generation, and I see people already reporting problems.  I may just have to hold out another year, but that doesn't resolve the issue that these machines can't be upgraded or easily repaired.   All because Ive has an obsession with thinness and not having any lines in the bottom of the case.   I'm getting a little tired of Apple's anal retentiveness on the wrong issues.    I have an obsession as well, but it's with value, efficiency and usability.   

techprod1gy said:

I applaud Uber moving technology forward. For the hater jobs are not going to disappear. It will be a long time before drivers are completely removed from the picture so chill out. This will create many jobs on the backside in terms of support and creation. The end game for self driving cars is a safer more efficient society so I am all for it.

I don't see how you come to any of those conclusions.   The people who drive cars for a living are not the people who will get jobs designing automated driving systems, just as coal miners don't get jobs designing or installing windmill farms and former factory workers don't become computer programmers.  

And I'm not so sure that self-driving cars actually will be safer and even if they were, I don't see Americans in particular accepting them.   I have no faith in an industry that releases products with tons of bugs and thinks nothing of it.   When my browser slows down because Flash is doing something stupid, I can go into a panel and eliminate Flash from running, but if my car slows down, it can lead to death.   We've already had at least one Tesla death, although that seems to have been the driver's fault.   But when there are more deaths from automated cars, even if the rate is far less than from conventional vehicles, people and politicians are going to freak out and such cars are going to be banned in numerous locales.   

One of the reasons why Americans (outside of a few older city centers) don't use mass transit is because the American macho man wants to be independent and "in control", even if that means sitting in endless traffic jams.   Also, I would assume that self-driving cars won't permit drivers to break driving laws and therefore won't drive over the speed limit.   I can't see most American drivers accepting that.

While I do believe we have to move ahead technologically and can't preserve obsolete jobs, especially those that endanger the environment, when every company desires to eliminate as much labor as possible and there are few jobs for workers, especially those without special skills, we have a society where very few can afford to purchase the products and services of those very companies.    It's a suicide plan for corporate America, but each company only cares about its own profits.   So Uber figures that those laid-off drivers would have never spent money on Uber anyway so they don't care.   But when other companies lay off their people because they've implemented more automation, those people won't be using Uber either.    CEO's only care about the next quarter, but if they looked at the long term, they'd realize that unless they make things better for workers, they're actually in a death spiral (unless you're a company who only sells to the rich). 

   

I'm going to have to disagree with many of your assumptions and comments:
- Your comments about your own needs are nothing but anecdotal.
- While I understand that Apple is a company that wants to make money and therefore will build what sells, they're not necessarily building what's desired and/or needed.  And there's also usually a big difference between what sells to the masses and quality.  IMO, Apple has an arrogance that makes them think they know better than what their users do about their needs.  In a few cases, that might be true, especially when wanting to drive the technology forward.  But in most cases, it's not, especially for true pro users who understand their business needs, apps and workflow.  
- You seem to think that the difference between 'too big and heavy too lug around' and Apple's definition of what to include is binary.   There are stages in-between and the way Apple could have and should have dealt with that is by offering choices. 
- You can rationalize Apple's decisions all you want, but there is no question in my mind that Apple is far more interested (and obsessed) in form than function.
- For a machine that costs upwards of $2400 (and $4299 fully tricked out), please don't tell me about how I can make up for Apple's failings by using third-party solutions.
- By rationalizing that most people don't need all the power that 'pros' are asking for, all you're doing is making a case to not buy this machine in the first place.  If someone is mainly a consumer of content and spends their day on Facebook, YouTube and doing work using Office applications and maybe uploading their photos to the machine, they don't need a machine like this at all.  They can buy a $400 Wintel machine or an iPad.  
- Apple's technology has brought DOWN the cost of SSDs?   Give me a freaking break.  To go from 512GB to 2TB costs $1200!!!.    The Cloud is not a universal solution for everyone, especially pro video users.  I really don't want to split my files to different drives - I want everything on the laptop and I'm approaching 1TB now.   If I buy a new MBP that I expect to last for at least five years, I need at least the full 2TB.    Again, most people may not need it, but then they probably don't need this machine at all.  
- Although I was originally freaked about the machine only including USB-C ports, I'm okay with it now that I see (non-Apple) adapters on sale for $9 (assuming that they both work and last).    Having said that, it still makes Apple hypocritical because they only care what the machine looks like in ads, not in real use where pros will have a bunch of dongles hanging out.
- Rationalizing that had Apple included the dongles, they would have been e-waste is ridiculous.   Did you think that people would just toss them in the trash?   Besides, Apple could have included a coupon that gave each purchaser a choice of two dongles and if not used for dongles, they could have been an iTunes credit or a discount on accessories or something.   And at the very least, they should have included a USB-C to Lightning port cable or do they not think that MBP buyers are iPhone or iPad users?
- Although most of my camera bodies used CF, not SD cards, so I personally never used the SD card slot, I still think Apple should have kept it.   It's not a deal breaker, because memory card readers are cheap (although I would have to buy a new one or stick an adapter on the one I have), but it's one more example of Apple's obsession with having a clean design take precedence over the way people actually use the machines.   Although one could also argue that because some newer top-of-the-line cameras like the Nikon D5 uses XQD cards, there's too much diversity to choose just one memory card slot type. 
- Rationalizing the choice to eliminate the MagSafe charging port is a losing proposition.   I realize that Apple's rationale is that you can now have power and signal over one cable, but it still doesn't make up for what we've lost by eliminating MagSafe.   And unless there's a MagSafe to USB-C adapter, all those extra power supplies people bought to keep at home/office, etc., WILL wind up in e-trash.   MagSafe is one feature which was probably more needed by home users than pro users, since most pro users wouldn't be in environments where they're tripping over cables.  
- If Apple really cared about their users and stopped obsessing over how thin they could make the machine, they would go back to design that permits the end user to replace the battery, storage and memory.   Their arrogance in this regard really makes me nuts.   They probably think it help sales because users will have no choice but to buy a new machine when the storage or memory isn't enough.  But I think it hurts sales because it defers purchasing decisions or makes people (like me) so incredibly pissed at Apple that we just keep what we have until we absolutely have to upgrade.   

Personally, I think you hurt your credibility and do yourself a disservice when you rationalize everything Apple does instead of praising the good design decisions and fairly critiquing the bad ones.   I think it's fair to say that for most people and especially for professional users, a slightly heavier and larger machine that does the job is far preferable to a smaller, lighter machine that doesn't, because if small and light is a priority, there are other machines that do that better and less expensively.