s.metcalf

If Elon Musk isn’t happy, I’m happy.

Possum-us said:

So this means their subscription fees for consumers are now 30% "lower", right ?  

No because if they're anything like other streaming services (Paramount and Amazon come to mind) they give you less when you sign up through the App Store in order to cover Apple's 30% cut.  I know for a fact that if you sign up for Paramount through the App Store, you can only stream on Apple devices, not third party devices or a TV's built-in apps.  For Amazon, you pay I think almost the same or the actual same price for Prime Video as a Prime membership but it doesn't include Prime membership, whereas if you buy the Prime membership directly with Amazon it includes Prime Video.

Other services like Tidal in fact do charge more when purchasing in the App Store.

I don't know what the situation was for Disney, because I learnt the hard way that if you can avoid purchasing a subscription through the App Store you probably should.  And as for the security question, many of the services support paying with Apple Pay or PayPal when purchasing directly, so I don't think security is an issue.

b57 said:

Russians… can they do something right for once?

Nope.  No they cannot.  Hilarious that Vadim from Max Tech thinks it’s real.  Lost a lot of respect for him right then and there.  Does he really think factory workers don’t go through a metal detector when leaving a production plant?  Does he really think anyone in China with sufficiently high clearance would risk their job with Apple, not to mention crippling fines and possibly even jail time?  We know how seriously Apple takes security, does he really think someone could pull off a heist on unreleased products?

If anything it shows how desperate the Russians are getting.  There’s no limit to what they’re willing to do to scam people.

They still haven’t beaten that iMac G4’s floating display arm.  That computer got a lot of sales in customer service/kiosks for that reason alone.

plalonde said:

... and it's just the beginning. I would probably also be hidding on my golf course 

Trump spent about 21% of his first term playing golf, with each of his golfing trips costing the taxpayer millions of dollars.  He did so, and continues to do so in his second term at a similar rate, all while having lambasted Obama and Biden for ever going anywhere (even though they did so far less), and sacking thousands of government workers in the name of government efficiency or for not pledging blind loyalty to him.  His hypocrisy is unfathomable, yet millions of Americans refuse to see it, believe it, or care.

He won’t fix the drug epidemic either, because that would involve fixing poverty, disadvantage, declining living standards and increasing inequality, none of which he has any interest in doing.  His only concern is his own wealth, power and ego, and that of his nearest enabling henchmen (and women).

This is just Apple being spiteful.  A temper tantrum, and an attempt to stop DMA-like policies from spreading to other countries’ markets, which there are already signs of it happening.  I support the EU mostly.  We’d still have Lightning if it wasn’t for them.

And Phil, I’m happy to make the judgement call on what I deem safe to install on my devices, thank you.  And I accept the consequences.  It’s not like the App Store hasn’t had its share of security threats and dodgy apps.

You know, disagreeing with something or saying it's bad or a poor choice (which are the majority of negative responses I've seen) doesn't necessarily mean being offended.  I thought that was fairly obvious, but apparently not based on the comments in this thread.  I wouldn't be so quick to judge an entire generation.  It's also a big generalisation.  Maybe your experience is limited.  Certainly what is shown on TV and how younger people are often portrayed in media can give that impression, but unfairly in my opinion.  It might reflect more on who is producing and hosting the media than this so-called generation itself.

JonyArhendts said:

Can you imagine if this generation of easily offended people had seen rock stars smashing their guitars on stage after a good session? They would have called the police on them, they are the same censors who called the police on Jim Morrison and many other artists… this generation is dangerous.

It's the biggest company in the world crushing all opposition.  Apple's entitled to do that of course, so long as they don't break any laws, but it's certainly distasteful to be so egregious about it.  There's a thing called modesty you know.  It's not surprising to me that many Japanese find it so unsavoury.  British culture too doesn't warm to this kind of advertising.  It may work for US (and Chinese) audiences, but Apple is a global company, selling globally, and they posted it online where everyone can access it.

In that sense, the advert is a fail in my view.  Old doesn't necessarily mean bad, and an iPad can certainly be used *alongside* objects like those pictured, without having to crush, destroy and replace them.  It's out of touch.

I don’t think anyone that’s seen space black at a heavily trafficked Apple Store would choose that colour.  Gross!

Mike Wuerthele said:

blastdoor said:

Wesley Hilliard said:

sflocal said:

Sounds like a great time for Apple to do a massive stock buyback.

Mods... get rid of these political BS comments.  If I want that, I'll go to CNN or Fox News.  

Oddly enough we haven't had to delete that much. As if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

I appreciate the greater tolerance for comments being shown at this site relative to the past. Or at least it seems more tolerant to me, anyway -- maybe I'm wrong. 

These are unprecedented times and the idea that we should all restrict ourselves to commenting on technology, even though I obviously understand this is a technology-oriented site and the site owners can clearly moderate as they see fit, just seems tone deaf to me. 

In times of yore, there was the political forum. That was infested by bad actors and worse behavior. We then banned comments of a political nature as things sorted themselves out. Google associated that shitty behavior with the site as a whole, so it got closed down.

The interpersonal behavior has been better over the last few years, so the conversations get to swing wider.

We are always watching, though.

This is a really good approach.  I’ve long said everything is political in one way or another and you can’t ban politics entirely, nor should you in my view.  Attempting to do so  exposes the site to potential bias from those doing the culling.  As long as people aren’t attacking fellow forum posters directly or repeatedly posting wildly inaccurate and blatantly false information I think politics should be allowed, and you’ll probably find it benefits the site.