flydog

Xed said:

gregoriusm said:

Or pay Masimo licensing fees. 

1) Masimo's patents have been shown to be invalid and except for one juror holding out this would've been settled long ago.

2) How exactly does Apple paying a company for invalid patents for O2 monitoring somehow invent noninvasive glucose monitoring or engineer sleep apnea monitoring via a wristwork device? 

3) With that kind of logic you could be a lawyer for Masimo.

Complete bullshit. The Massimo patent that prevents Apple from measuring blood oxygen saturation was not invalidated. 

tht said:

Yes. Very nice.

In the back of my mind, I'm troubled that a set of chipmaking facilities is in the Phoenix area potentially for the next 20 to 40 years, but hopefully they understand they will need to manage water and climate issues in a good way.

Complete nonsense. Chip factories reuse over 80% of the water they use in manufacturing. All of Intel's fabs put together use less than 1/10th of a percent of all water in Arizona in exchange for a $9B economic impact.

Agriculture uses 70% of all water in exchange for a $30B economic impact. And if you were to close all foreign-owned alfalfa farms that provide zero economic benefit you could provide water to 100 new fabs. 

blastdoor said:

discountopinion said:

Politics aside - having geographic distribution of chip production is essential as to not have a freak natural disaster kick us back into the Stone Age if most chips are manufactured in one small location.

Very true! Taiwan sits on the "ring of fire" and is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis. All else equal, not an ideal location for multi-billion dollar fabs. 

TSMC's factories in Taiwan can withstand an 8.0 earthquake and remain operational. Their fabs are also 60 feet above ground level and are sealed and incorporate pumping systems. So they've thought about that. 

hmlongco said:

Minimalism has its place, but the problem has been that it almost always comes with a loss of functionality. And oddly enough, an increase in complexity.

Having a single button on your phone is minimalist. Having that button perform multiple actions depending on whether or not it's pressed, long-pressed, double-tapped, or triple tapped?

Not so much.

Your premise makes sense, but you gave the worst example possible to support it.  It's like arguing against a wall switch performing both on and off functions, and in favor of separate on and off switches. 

nubus said:

Stabitha_Christie said:

Oliver#65 said:

But will the Quality be there for apple Products being made in India ???

What is even driving this concern?

Facts are. Financial Times did a report (paywall) but part of it is here:

https://observer.com/2023/02/apple-india-manufacturing-defect-rate/

The article states that "about half of the components coming off the production line are in good enough shape to be sent for assembly," which is irrelevant to the quality of the iPhones that are ultimately assembled and then shipped to customers.   Whether the phones are made in China, India, or somewhere else, the same QC standards apply. 

The article is also over 2 years old, and thus not indicative of the what is going on today. 

Apple has been using India for iPhone assembly for 8 years. 

AI keeps recycling the same clickbait about 2nm and 3nm nodes being the only chips that matter. It pushes a misleading narrative that anything older is obsolete, and that these factories are just for show and mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

In fact, over 85% of chips used in phones, laptops, and other devices are built on processes older than 3nm—most commonly in the 5nm to 7nm range. Even TSMC, the leader in advanced manufacturing, still derives three-quarters of its revenue from nodes larger than 3nm:

https://investor.tsmc.com/english/encrypt/files/encrypt_file/reports/2025-01/2d8b2bb6fc3b5887d24ae0635f639c1cdca834f3/4Q24ManagementReport.pdf

There’s still massive demand for chips on these so-called “older” nodes, regardless of what the headlines try to sell.  And these factories are in fact contributing to the local economy via tax revenues, jobs, and business opportunities for local companies.