nikon133

slurpy said:

Can someone fucking explain to me how "iPhones are underpowered compard to Android" is still an extreme common meme I see on the internet, especially in comments? I mean, I understand that Apple haters are mostly delusional, but there must be SOMETHING they think they're referring to, considering the facts are the complete opposite and the iPhone wipes the floor with pretty much everything out there and has been doing so for years.

Fanboyism aside, "power" does not necessarily mean "performance". Well, not for all. Depending on what people do with their phones, larger batteries, higher screen resolutions and expandable storage can give them more "power" to fulfill their needs, than faster CPU/GPU alone. And then of course, there is always question of cost for what you get.

I was quite seriously looking at XR for my new phone, a few months back. I don't play games or do anything else super-demanding on the phone, thus any modern SoC will do fine. Eventually went for LG G7 ThinQ. It is significantly cheaper than XR by default - NZ$1000 vs NZ$1400 - but on top of that, promo was in place, where for same NZ$1000 retailers were tossing in Sennheiser Momentum 2 headphones and decent wireless charger. Looking at NZ retail prices (and considering that I was in the market for headset), phone itself didn't cost more than $500.. just a bit over 35% of XR. Beside extras, I have also got one of the best DACs on the market, and reasonably cheap 256GB microSD card later (Samsung Evo Plus, NZ$140) I can store all the music I want to carry, and still have plenty space for camera etc...and I can replace it for larger one when I need it, since phone should be fine with up to 2TB of flash size. 

Phone has its share of compromises. Cameras are serviceable but lack level of details of best mobile cameras on the market, especially in low light. I still prefer dedicated cameras - something with large sensor, at least 1" - so I can live with that. Slight bonus is super-wide angle on 2nd camera - I am more likely to need wide than zoom, since landscapes and architecture are my main interests, and it happens that I cannot fit everything in my dedicated camera, so phone is last resort to get that darn cathedral tower in the frame with the rest of it... Screen is not OLED, but has very high resolution and, thanks to RGBW setup, gets brighter on sunlight than many OLED screens - close to 1000 nits, while using less power (according to LG). It does use more power indoors and in mostly dark screen scenarios. Overall, I am not spending more than 40% of 3000mAh battery from waking up to going to bed (phone sits on wireless charger overnight) on average and, with worst case scenario of 60% of battery usage (new phone, a lot of software installed etc in single day) I am not worried with power consumption, at all.

Arguably, this phone gives me more power to fulfill my needs than XR would.

anantksundaram said:

big brother 84 said:

anantksundaram said:

big brother 84 said:

It is sad to see Tim Cook taking this line. Most of the people on this forum will stay with Apple to the bitter end but vast swathes of the unconverted may just look at this situation and decide to go for Samsung for their next phone.

LOL. Have you looked up how much Samsung pays in taxes in the EU? Can you produce any figures to show that it is at a higher rate than Apple does?

The point I am making is that it is Apple that is getting all the bad publicity, made worse by Tim Cook's response. Unless Samsung get the same bad PR it won't affect them regardless of what they pay.

If you think that switching to a thieving company like Samsung -- who, for all you know, could be paying less in taxes than Apple -- is the solution, knock yourself out! I personally don't think it will happen. My guess is as good as yours. 

Well, Android has huge lead over iOS in Europe... over 70% of market share, compared to iOS 20+%? So EU is already on Samsung, more or less. Withdrawing Apple products from EU would not cause crisis or revolution. Apple would lose 750 million potential buyers in the future. I think long term, Apple would suffer more than EU.

Insinuation that Samsung might be paying even less is hardly an argument. They might be paying less. They might be paying much more just as well. They also might be slammed with same retro-taxing in a week, or a month, or at any time, if they are also having some super-sweet deal with any EU country. But this is about Apple, not Samsung.

From my completely unprofessional, simplified point of view - I'm IT, not economist - I think it is only fair, in general, that taxes are paid where money is made. I would dare say that Ireland should be allowed to give any company special taxes on products sold/money earned in Ireland, but as long as products are sold in whole EU, money made out there should be taxed accordingly. Everything else is open to machinations. Apple products are designed in US, but made in China. Part about US design can be scrutinized - Jonathan Ive is UK citizen, and still is EU citizen just as well. I'd bet that he works from UK home quite often, and in this era of fiber links and telepresense, I'd bet that some other non-US Apple designers and other professionals work often remotely just as well. Par about China production is pretty much set in stone. I'd guess then, if taxes are not paid in countries where money is earned, Chine should have as many, if not more, claims to taxes than US.

jannl said:

blitz1 said:

thewhitefalcon said:

The EU is an extortion racket. They've done their job screwing over the smaller countries in Europe (ask Spain and Portugal how the Euro worked out for them) and now they continue to extort money from US companies.

What an absolute disgrace. 

Check out how Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the Central european countries fared before entering the EU and look at their situation now.
You're in complete denial or a fool if you think they were better off without the EU

Oh? Maybe you check out Greece... Totally bankrupt, owing too much to EU and IMF, which they can never pay back.
No own currency, so much less tourist (main income) because no currency advantage. And in the end Germany (our schreckliches Merkel) has bought a lot of the last assets of Greece (airports / ports) for a very low price.

I have some relatives in Greece.

Taking huge amounts of loans that you cannot pay back, and spending them irresponsibly - growing state bureaucracy beyond reason, giving 13th salary for Christmas, and in general having very inefficient, slack, unsustainable economy that exists only thanks to those loans, and would crush & burn much earlier otherwise... are not best ways to plan for long term prosperity.

EU offered candies, take for free now, pay later. Greece overindulged. I'm not sure I can blame EU for that.

GTRownsU said:

WOW! Really Microshaft?! Ummmm , Apple did this Mac Vs. PC thing like 15 years ago! Has microshaft even created their own hardware other than a ghetto phone, and Surface tablet. When will Micorshaft compare laptop to laptop ? Oh that's right, they don't have one except for Surface of my bawls convertible tablet. Compare desktop to desktop? Ooops, I've NEVER seen a MS desktop. EVER...... Nice try microshaft, keep riding apple's coattails!

Who's that Micorshaft you keep babbling about? 

mike1 said:

I never got past the warning that everything typed on the keyboard would be sent to MS. Uninstalled immediately. Too bad too. I really liked the premise of the angled keyboard for one-handed typing and wanted to give it a try. Oh well.

Looks like Appleinsider is really very Apple die-hards destination

Reading about this keyboard over at Macrumors, it almost sounds like completely different product is being discussed. Including this part:

"...keyboard features like auto correction and word prediction are included, with options to enable or disable a word learning feature that improves word predictions by sending keyboard usage information to Microsoft".

Interesting.

apple head said:

One theory: Apple and the FBI cut a deal. Apple would unlock the phone, but the FBI wouldn't tell. I'm not sure. I don't like to believe that Apple would do that, but it would make sense. Apple could do away with all the bad press and save their face, the FBI could get their phone unlocked... It would require a bold faced lie from the FBI, but I wouldn't put that past them considering how they've acted during the rest of this ordeal. 

I was thinking the same. This way, they both get to be heroes in their respective supporters' eyes, and because they made a deal - maybe even a long term one? - court case is dropped. Everyone wins.

Have DOJ really cracked encryption on their own, can't really see why would they drop case. That might be precedent that can create them a lot of trouble in some future case when they are not lucky/capable to crack phone themselves... and not only against Apple, but any other phone maker. Or a tablet maker. Or laptop. Pretty much anything that can be encrypted...