theothergeoff

bloggerblog said:

Btw, Microsoft was never a monopoly, they tried to be one but obviously couldn't. They just knew how to market their products through the right channels. They bested out Solaris, UNIX, MacOS, IRIX, NeXT, AmigaOS, BeOS and others in 5 short years.

Case Law disagrees with you.

United States V. Microsoft (1998) [Wikipedia]
  "Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his findings of fact on November 5, 1999, which stated that Microsoft's dominance of the x86-based personal computer operating systems market constituted a monopoly"

timborama said:

2x is virtually useless anyways.  Digital zoom can do a decent 2x anyways.  They should have had the courage to do least 3x-4x.  

so now you get 4X (2X optical plus decent 2X digital).  Your point?

Courage can't change the laws of optics

saarek said:

I don't understand how they let the Mac lineup get in the state it's in.

With their money they could easily have upgraded the line up with new internals whilst they finished off any innovations that they wanted to roll out.

Piss poor management, very unusual.

non sequitur.  The Mac Lineup is not the reason they made less money last year.

and it's quite simple:  the Mac Lineup is in the state it's in due to 1) the iPhone is the product that drives the company; 2) Apple's commitment to reduce churn in products (to avoid rapid obsolescence / devaluation); 3) their dependence on Intel to provide 'compelling' upgrades to the x64 computational platform  4) Apple's view that the world [read: the 99% of the buying public that doesn't write code, play computer games, or crashes molecules, planets, or TB databases together] wants lighter more portable products.

I [hopefully] think this is the same conundrum as in 1997-2004 where they had to 'dance with who brung ya' [GSeries chip], until they could get 1) the NeXTSTEP->MacOSX migration reasonably complete, AND the Intel Core/Xeon Chips were Price/Performance competitive with the PowerChips.

I do think that the A series chips will go to the MacOS line... but it's still 4-5 years out, not so much for the Ax chips, but for supporting chip set that provides all the stuff that iDevices don't have to deal with at the performance levels a 'real computer' has to.

I do think the Apple Execs take a very long view in their product pipeline [3+ years], and are compensated such that a couple million a year off the top is a 'pinch' and not a 'penalty'  (If I have a x0,000 shares at 2010 $70 RSUs, the real benefit is still to grow stock price 20% over 3 years [remember this is the friction' highest capitalized public company in the free world 5% YoY is serious growth]).

Nothing to see here, business as usual.

  gatorguy said:

It can absolutely be done if they want to and no "bionic" chip needed. There's even a current system that if a potential scam call is detected asks the caller to state what they're calling about before passing the call on to the user. 

Well, if it's software, roll it out in beta now... at least flashing 'potential scam' on the screen on the phone with a 'screen' and a 'block/report' button to the carrier

I can't believe all the 'you qualify for lower interest calls from 'my card issuer, VisaMaster Card Services' who then proceed to ask me for my credit card number, and then tell me that 'it's secure because they don't ask me for the CCV number'   (yeah, I answered  about 1 a day to ask them to stop)  I've been blocking all of them after the fact, and it's now down to about 3 a week vs 5 a day.  

(Thank you, EquiFax)

In a related note... I got a call from another user in my exchange (XXX-XXX-nnnn) who said I called them... I'm wondering if you start 'blocking' calls if the robocallers start using YOUR phone number (thinking it's dead/disconnected, and a good candidate for spoofed robocalling).  [If I were evil... I would].  Anyone else hearing that condition happening?

tbornot said:

Walmart is all in using Windows as their internal systems.  It’s only a matter of time until their systems are hacked and they slide down the Target slippery slope into fourth place...

well... TGT stock is up 98% from Oct 2008 (they were hacked 11/08). WMT stock is up only 75%.   Such slippery slopes I wish my stock portfolio had.

and 'it's only a matter of time....' is a a wonderful basis for 'winning' an argument... 

 'yeah, the Dutch East India Company is the largest corporation in the world, but it 'was only a matter of time' [150 years] before cheap brazilian sugar and greedy investors wanting huge dividends knocked it out of the global #1 corpo-nation status.'

'yeah, gorillas ruled the Serengeti 200,000 years ago, but was only a matter of time [190,000 years] before homo sapiens used their advanced communication and problem-solving skills to evolve beyond tribal units and into socio economic alliances, and eventually take over the world....'

lkrupp said:

Meanwhile we sit here with no iMac refresh/update in over a year. Sure, I have a late 2013 iMac 14,2 that’s running Mojave just fine but its beginning to show its age a bit. How long do I wait for the hardware to go along with the fancy services coming out? What about the Mac Pro? The MacBook category? Will there ever be a Mac oriented Apple Event? Is it all iOS from here on? 

I would think your list of wants is usually addressed at WWDC, where the Mac power users congregate.  AndRemember, part of this is Mac's are subject to the Whims of Intel's chip release schedule, iDevices and content aren't.   There isn't any major new intel chip sets that will magically enable fancy services (at least none that aren't already on the current top-o-tho-line iMac/MBPs).

well, if you know about it and manage it, it's a great thing... (the 'lost airpod' problem goes away).

but this now becomes another privacy issue in that every headphone, watch,  key fob, car linkage system can be crowd-tracked... the sort of thing the Batman Dark Knight cell phone sonar thing could do.    All it would take is a popular app to be code compromised to turn on monitoring for things close, and another to enable 'always on mode' in the remote configuration of items connecting via bluetooth to that device.   Or just hacking into Tile's central device tracking, and forwarding tracking on everything to a stealth party.  

It's one thing that my phone is trackable (I can mylar bag it.)  but think of 'enemy of the state' being able to just use your phone to enable tracking all the devices it pairs too,  all the state has to do is place devices to 'ping' BT devices and forward their info upstream.

I'd like to see how this is secured.

maciekskontakt said:

Will discover how irritated I am by the fact how they hurt my ears? No thank you. I also prefer no devices that monitor... anything on me. Sell those to retirement houses maybe.

There's a difference between monitoring, 'storing,' and 'transmitting.'  My guess is you want monitoring, but no retention of what is being monitored.

The watch use cases for 'storage' and  'transmission'  exist beyond retirement houses, and for many help drive lifestyle modification.   

And... you can choose not to buy them... 

hentaiboy said:

AppleInsider said:

Apple is rumored to be replacing its 9.7-inch "budget" iPad with a 10.2-inch model

So is it a 10.2” or a refreshed 9.7” as reported a couple of days ago?

repressthis said:

Do not give us another pricing tier for new iPads.

Yes please do. $499 like we’ve always paid. A 9.7” with no bezels. Thanks. 

aren't we paying $329 now?

so if it's 10.2...I think it's to retire the Ipad pro 10.5 and the 9.7 AND lightning AND Pencil 1.
(and likely either a A12Fusion or A12/A11 chip to get a neural engine)
My guess is FaceID is 'cheaper' to deploy than touchID . (less home button breakage).

to 'NonPro-ify' it... they keep it at 32GB and lower RAM.  Keep 2 speaker (maybe 3 speaker for landscape?).

Price: Less than $499 (either $429 or $399)


as for a 10.5" That looks like a false flag...  I can't see a 'cheaper' (less than $399) big iPad that isn't the biggest (like the iPhone XR).
Too many options in the 10.2 11 and 12.9 range now (especially if they keep selling the 10.5 and 9.7 for a few months to get rid of inventory).

- Geoff

freediverx said:

I would never accept anything as big as an iPhone Plus, and I'm annoyed by the notion of being forced to settle for a lower end product in order to get the form factor I want. Though I doubt the credibility of this rumor, if true it would totally sour my interest in iPhones in general. 

It would be about the same size as the current iPhone+... what form factor do you want if not the iPhone X current form factor?

I would see 'maxing' the size to have a 6.5" screen as the likely replacement of the iPad Mini as a SKU, Higher ASP.  a notch smaller size.

2018
===
12pro    OLED + FaceID, slightly smaller footprint, (home button?)
10.5pro  Spring update (iPhone 8 parity)
(New) mini bezeled  OLED iPad [no home button, FaceID]

The iPads will get OLED, but given their mass, will still need larger bezels... the questions being how much, bezel, will the home button disappear, and will the notch appear?
One could argue the the 10 and the 12 may stay approx same physical size but increase the screen to 11 and 13, or they shrink with the same size screen and tighter bezels.
====
6.5 (X+)  FaceID
5.8 (X)  FaceID
5.5 (7+)  no faceID [last year of sales]
5.2 (XSE)  OLED FaceID in a roughly iPhone SE footprint
4.7 (7)    no faceID [last year of sales]

And at that point the question will be more about cannibalization of the MacBook Air and MacBook.