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  • First look: Master & Dynamic Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable with DAC, mic

    vmarksvmarks
    chasm said:
    The fact that the cables are woven is nice, and worth a few extra bucks I guess, but I call BS on the supposition that these are **TWENTY DOLLARS** pricier than USB-C cables due to MfI licensing fees. The licensing fees on this are probably less than a dollar (indeed, probably less than a quarter!). That's just a gouge-y move by M&D because they know Apple buyers tend to make/have more money.

    Aside from that, why would I expect these cables to be any better or worse in functionality than any other MfI-certified cable?
    You do know that there's a little arm chip in the lightning connector - a computer. The MFI cost is two-fold, the cost of the connector from avnet with the arm chip inside, and the royalty fee on top of that. All told, it's not less than a dollar. https://appleinsider.com/articles/14/02/07/apple-lowers-mfi-lightening-licensing-fees-paving-way-for-more-affordable-ios-accessories- indicates that it's a $4 fee per connector. Then you add that in with the cost of goods in the bill of materials, run it through the cost calculation (how much margin is in the product for retailers, distributors, getting it landed from the mfr freight on board, and profit for the brand) and that 4 dollars becomes 16-20 bucks at retail.
    doozydozenwatto_cobra

  • Editorial: Will Apple's 1990's "Golden Age" collapse repeat itself?

    vmarksvmarks

    As for the future... I think that a lot of people are paid an awful lot of money to do nothing but spread negativity about certain companies.

    Who is it making these payments? Where do people sign up?
    pscooter63

  • The best alternatives to Apple's discontinued AirPort routers

    vmarksvmarks
    Erich's tiny studio said:
    I'm using a $150-ish Netgear router that works flawlessly with my slowest grade Comcast (directly, no additional gear needed) and around 5 Macs, Xbox, Roku, Wii (the original one), 2 Wintendos and a total of around 8 iPod Touches, iPads, iPhones, Android phones and my Android car stereo when I'm parked in the driveway (to download updates and apps when I don't want to use my cell modem). It covers my 2200 sq foot house, InLaw unit (my music studio) and back to the hot tub in the back yard. I'm unclear on what the AirPort routers brought to the table that a generic WiFi router doesn't.... maybe other than Time Machine-over-WiFi support. I just have a few backup drives for various machines I care about, and manually plug them in once a week or so. "Get what you paid for" is mostly BS, as far as I can tell... at least if you don't buy the cheapest of the cheap, and buy a well established brand.
    Bonjour printer sharing. AirPlay with analog and optical out. Time Machine. Easy config from both Mac and iOS. The first simple wifi extending that didn't require WPS and entering MAC addresses into two routers to get it to work.
    fastasleepredgeminiparare comment

  • Apple's AirPort base stations are gone, and we wish they weren't

    vmarksvmarks
    I remember when Apple discontinued laser and inkjet printers! I also remember when they discontinued digital cameras, and Newton and eMate PDAs. Things come to an end. Apple could do a lot better about communicating -why- things are coming to an end, and what to do about supporting those products that are out there, but it's not impossible for Apple to EOL a product.
    GeorgeBMacwatto_cobra

  • Libratone Zipp: Can this AirPlay speaker best Apple's HomePod?

    vmarksvmarks
    Andrew_OSU said:
    Soli said:
    wigby said:
    Why did I have to read all the way to end to find out that this speaker doesn’t even listen for commands? There is some mention of Alexa integration but this speaker should not be conpared to any smart speakers because I don’t see how it’s even smart. It is simply another airplay speaker that borrows a few features from HomePod but not the good ones. Even the greatest sound in the world doesn’t appeal to me if I have to use a dedicated app instead of my voice.
    1) This is a speaker review which states it's an AirPlay speaker in the title, but if you want to compare intelligence and capabilities then HomePod can't really be compared to smart speakers when it's only reasonable voice activation option is music playback. On top of that, being a BT capable speaker as well as having an audio-in port it can easily be connected to any Echo, Google Home, or other full service smart speakers.

    2) It's hard to take any comment that starts with "why did I have to read all the way to end" seriously when you quote the entire article in your reply.
    Good question!

    1) You're totally right that something like an Echo DOT can be connected to the Aux port. Know what is even better? Full on Amazon Alexa built in. And that is coming in a future update. I just delve into it into the article. I got to briefly test this out and it worked really well. Alexa and Google Home are both far smarter speakers than Siri is at this point. So if you are looking to compare smarts, Libratone will have Alexa built in, just like an Echo, and HomePod still has Siri.

    We can't compare things based on what they "will have" in the future, only on the functionality it has today. There's no guarantee that Zipp will gain the ability to use Alexa via the wake word.

    watto_cobra