djsherly

Beats said:

What next? Wal-Mart not allowed to sell their in-house brands? Restaurants have to give customers “choice” on prepared ingredients? YouTube having to allow PornHub videos? DuckDuckGo giving users the “choice” to run Google ads instead? BMW allowing customers the “choice” to preinstall Ferrari engines?

Do these sound stupid to you? So should Apple not being allowed to run its software  the way they need to. And if this sounds extreme, remember, the government works in baby steps.

None of these analogies make sense.

If artists agree to exchange their time for an item, then on the face if it, it’s their problem.

But, in being treated this way, it just perpetuates the idea that the arts is a curiosity, that it doesn’t have any real value, and that it is legitimate to approach an artist and tell them that this will be good for “exposure”.

Yes, I appreciate that in this case, that artists *are* compensated.

However for a company which prides itself on its connection with the arts, that has built itself on the back of the arts, and artists, for a company like that to *barter* with those very people... it tells me that they don’t value artists nearly as much as they think they do.

The person who designed the 5th ave Apple store wasn’t paid in iMacs or ‘exposure’, why should an artist be treated any differently?

apple jockey said:

Or how about, "Thank you for the TShirt and the Apple Credo". Also, "thank you for reminding me that I work for a wonderful company, with good ethics and that cares about all its employees. Thanks for all the other perks I get throughout the year. And, Apple I understand that you can't get extravagant with the gifts, considering you have tens of thousands of employees and a fiduciary responsibility to the investor/owners.
And, especially, thanks for the job!".

that would be my approach.

If you're going to give give gifts for Christmas, give gifts that have meaning. This is really insincere.

I got a gift voucher which got me a really nice pair of shoes, a highly rated bottle of red wine and and a degustation at a highly regarded restaurant. Give gifts by all means, but a t shirt and a christmas card?

macguy85 said:

loopless said:

The current conservative government in Australia is self-destructing just like the Republicans in the US, hopefully the next government will change this stupid law. 
And don't knock Australia's democracy, it is a far more democratic country that the US. No gerrymandering, no dis-enfranchisment of minorities, and a far greater percentage of eligible voters actually get out and vote (on a weekend!) And far, far fewer guns. Oh, and universal healthcare. But I digress...

You obviously do not understand Australia Law.  Australian, by law, have to vote.  If they do not show up at the polls they receive a fine from the government.  That's why it's held on a weekend.  In fact, it unfortunately throws of their economy within the country leading up to an election because Australians will typically not travel at that time so they can vote without a fine.

Australia is a fantastic country, but to think they don't have their own issues is a gross assumption.

I’ve never heard of this criticism of compulsory voting. I think there are two points to make.

1. You have to turn up at a polling place and have your name marked off the roll. You then get a ballot paper and you get to vote in secret. Hint: who said you had to mark the paper A good percentage of votes are informal, deliberate or otherwise

2. If you know you are travelling you can do two things: pre-poll ballot, they’re available for a period of time before the poll date. Or you just turn up at a polling booth where you are and get the form for your electorate. In any event, the fine is $20 and can be waived.

This legislation passed because there were two bills before the parliament (specifically the senate) on the last sitting day of the year. One was to compel the government to treat sick asylum seeking children in Australia based on doctor’s advice (rather than at the discretion of the minister responsible for immigration), the other was this piece of shit. Both of these bills had to be discussed in the Senate.

The opposition and the government were both playing games.

The opposition had agreed in principle to this encryption bill but had wished to make amendments. These had to be debated in the senate before they became law.

The government did not want to have to deal with the refugee bill because passing in the senate would send it to the lower house, where it would have lost a vote - it would then become law. This would have signalled a loss in the confidence of the government. In a traditional situation, a government would dissolve parliament and cause an election. This is because the government has lost the power of a significant piece of legislation. A significant party of the ruling party’s platform is based on managing refugees, if you want to use a term loosely.

So the government filibustered the vote on the refugee bill until the lower house shut down for the year. In the ordinary course of events, and it happens often, a movement is made to the extend the hours of the lower house. No such movement was made. The government would rather not deal with refugees, or their loss of confidence that would ensue, and as a consequence, they were prepared to risk not passing the encryption bill.   

In the meantime, the government wedged the opposition on the encryption bill, claiming terrorists and pedophiles were going to run riot on whatsapp over Christmas. So the opposition crumbled and waved the bill through without considering the amendments.

So that’s why we can read your messages. It seems like a bit of a Trojan horse to be honest. It allows us to provide state aid to those other states who seek it. Including those states whose maximum penalties for offences is death. This is also at odds with australia’s Moral stance on capital punishment.

All in all, a really poor showing by our government and opposition. 

Mike Wuerthele said:

indiekiduk said:

"Several people have started threads on Apple's support site but had them deleted, iFixit said." if that is true then that is shocking behaviour by Apple's forum team. Is there any evidence like screenshots?

We didn’t have any problems finding forum threads about it.

Yeah, but did you find the deleted ones? One statement does not disprove the other :-)

Not so sure it’s shocking behaviour in any event, those threads might have violated other site standards, like ad hominem (which is forbidden here too but not heavily policed).

StrangeDays said:

DESI DAAM said:

I am an Indian and I can tell you why Apple will never reach a double digit Market Share in India.

[...]

3. When I can buy a Monster with 3 GB RAM, massive 5.5 Inch screen, 32GB Internal and 128GB expandable storage, carved out of high grade Aluminium, having the latest processor and running the latest Nougat or Oreo at 1/3rd the Price(Rs 8000 or $116) of an Iphone(Rs 25000 or $365), Why should I buy an iphone which has 1GB Ram, is almost 3 years old, 4.7" screen with 32GB Storage and No external Storage at all?

Oh, specs! Sorry, but you don’t understand Apple at all or the product it’s selling. Hint, it has almost nothing to do with spec wars or keeping up with the Jones’ RAM. 

I do think you’ve possibly missed the point. OP gave you some insight into the way Indians think. Its in the part you redacted and they seem to absolutely perceive these things in terms of spacs rather than experiences. 

The real challenge is to get these potential users to think behind the spec wars and understand how APple adds value rather than cost to peoples lives. 

It was an impressive display but the iPad was fatter and slower and charged more slowly (and almost not at all in use) than the iPad before it. 

ericthehalfbee said:

k2kw said:

anantksundaram said:

In fairness, DED, we’ve seen a ~40% drop (from $232 to $142 in price per share) in the market cap of the most successful company in the world, the first one to hit a trillion dollar mark. Nearly $475B is market value has been wiped out.

Surely, some of the hyperventilation is justified?

I find this whole article hilarious because DED did not predict the collapse in revenue before it was disclosed.   I think it would be great if AppleInsider hired a writer based in HongKong to Cover China and Asia.   Might have provided clues that this was coming.   It’s called getting a scoop something that DED has never done because he’s too busy attacking other writers.   For what it’s worth I’m predicting Apple shipped 65 million phones for $52 Billion in revenue out of the 84 Billion in revenue stated by Tim Cook.  I don’t believe the entire down turn in Phones is due to China - probably two-thirds.   But if people aren’t buying phones many are buying watches, AirPods, and HomePods.

Are HomePods a success?   On one hand there were a ton of $100 off sales for the HomePod , a product still in its first year.  On the other hand most of those people picking up HP probably have Apple Music and this will turn into continuing services revenue.   I await the DED article?

Now that’s rich. You think predicting Apples future is as simple as “hiring a writer”?

The thing that was different this time, as opposed to all the other times the naysayers were crying wolf, was that Apple's behaviour itself changed.

Firstly, there were push notifications flogging new phones, then the upgraded trade in program, and the change in language on its web presence to promote actual features of the phone rather than some byline like, "All the power. All the time".

If this wasn't enough to pique interest.... but then those like DED simply dismissed this change in behaviour in favour of the rolling Apple juggernaut narrative, rather than trying to understand why this was happening. 

Didn’t know that our cricket team was doing this. The feature set for Apple is still not complete in Australia though, we are nearly at the release of the next Apple Watch and ECG still no available afaik 

looking at the dial readout, seems similar to watch Garmin offer from a running perspective. 

Just think of it as 1tb of storage for 10 bucks a month. and you get a bunch of apps for free. Cheaper than just the storage on icloud.