Daekwan

I own a Tesla Model Y.. and people who *claim* they DONT want CarPlay is quite possibly the dumbest take I've heard in all of tech.

Why?  Because anybody who has EVER used CarPlay knows it's 100% optional.   If you don't want to use it, you literally never have too.   We've purchased 4 brand new vehicles since 2018 and every one of them came with both CarPlay & Android Auto except my 2021 Model Y.   And while I've used nothing but a iPhone since 2009.. I'm still thrilled that my vehicle has Android Auto because guess what.. Im not the only person who will ever drive my vehicle.   If my sister wants to borrow my car and she has an Android phone.. all she has to do is connect her phone to my car and she instantly has the same infotainment interface that she's been used to using for the past 5 years.   Its because of these reasons.. in my opinion, every 2023 vehicle should come with CarPlay and Android Auto.  Both are 100% optional to use.    I'll never understand the simp standpoint that somehow having fewer options.. is better than having more.   As the customer give me everything reasonably possible and let ME decide what I want to use.. or not use.

As for why CarPlay is still very much viable on a Tesla.. it's because Tesla has done a horrible job rolling out new native streaming apps, updating old native streaming apps, and adding additional capabilities to the Navigation and phone/text message systems.   The Model S has been around for over 10 years now.. and only in the past year Tesla has just rolled out native Apple music and added waypoints to their Navigation.    For several years streaming music in a Tesla meant using Slacker Radio.  Only a few years ago was Spotify finally added and guess what.. even now Spotify still requires a PREMIUM subscription to use.   So that's $10 a month for Spotify premium + $10 more a month for Tesla premium connectivity.. who doesn't want to pay $20 a month to stream music in the car?  Meanwhile CarPlay & Android Auto are both still 100% free to use.. stream in higher quality thanks to a larger bitrate..  use the 5G connection on your smartphone instead of the older 4G/LTE stuff in the car.. and have over 100 streaming apps!   And I promise you those CarPlay apps will get updated 100x quicker than Tesla updates its native apps.   Tesla FINALLY updated the native Spotify app just this month with the latest software update.   Spotify has been buggy as hell for years and finally 3 years later its gets a modern interface.

Tesla now has how many native audio streaming apps... 7?? Seven lol!!!  As far as NAV goes.. I agree Tesla's in-car NAV works well.. but guess what.. it doesn't show me where the police are hiding or speeding/stoplight cameras like Waze.   Or report accidents, road debris, construction, detours, weather, stranded vehicles, or any of the countless other features Waze reports.   Apple Maps is still much better when it comes to actual lane guidance, vocal directions, and overall presentation.. plus it also gives haptic feedback on my Apple Watch for every turn meaning I can mute the voice guidance entirely and STILL get physical prompts when its time to turn.   Meanwhile, Tesla still doesn't have a WatchOS app.  Finally, nothing works better for search, POI, or reviews than Google Maps.   

At the end of the day, I should be able to choose which apps I want to use for audio streaming and navigation in my vehicle.. regardless of which manufacturer's logo is on the steering wheel.   The idea that I should be forced to use only what Tesla allows me to use.. is the lamest excuse possible.   

I'm not surprised at this poll at all.  Everything has a certain pricepoint and experience.  I honestly would expect a person who paid $200 for a Galaxy S7 to be as satisfied with their purchase as a person who paid $600 for their iPhone7.   After all.. some people buy KIA and some people buy BMW.  

What I would not expect.. is someone who paid $600 for their Galaxy S7 to be as satisfied.. as someone who paid $600 for their iPhone7.  If I'm going to pay $50,000 for a brand new luxury car.. then I dont care how features and gimmicks the KIA has.. it is simply not in the same league.  And it definitely does not have the same status, customer service, resale value and overall user experience.

melgross said:

Some of you guys are clearly missing the point of the problem here. I bought online, almost the minute the series 2 went on sale. What's the difference between buying the Watch and band as a unit, and being required to go through the Watch choices, and the going through the band choices before making the purchase? The difference I see would be the horrible inconvenience of forcing me to go through more hoops, taking more time. And with this bracelet, being told that it's "out of stock".

you can always buy more bands later. In fact, it's not smart to buy several bands as you buy the Watch, because you have to get used to the first band before you can have some idea as to what you do, and don't, like about it.

as I was saying, Apple needs to have all the bands in stock in the stores, and online. But they don't. The last time, a few months ago, when I went to my Apple Store to buy a new band, and some other things, they had only about half the places in the display filled. I asked why, and was told that they didn't really know, but that maybe the ones that were pulled didn't sell as well. They only had maybe five of all the bands in stock. Not the one I wanted. This isn't a tiny Apple Store either.

i'm seeing this problem with Apple across the line. Why did they pull the SD card slot from the new Macbook Pro? Because most of their customers didn't use it. What percentage did, according to Apple? 20%. It seems to me that if 20% of your customers are using a feature, you don't pull it, that's a fair percentage.

its what we're seeing with Watch bands. If it's not in the top few, it's pulled. If it's expensive, so it's not a major seller, it's out of stock. They can't do that with these products.

Terrible example.  I find it hard to believe 20% of all Mac users user the SD card slot.  Everyone Mac user that I know, only used the SD card slot for one purpose:  transferring pictures from the DSLR to their Macbook.  As the cameras on phones have significantly improved.. the need for a DSLR has greatly diminished.  Sure no camera phone matches a DSLR in pure quality.. but the difference between the two is so close now that many amatuer DSLR users dont bother toting the huge camera around anymore.  I know I dont.  The last time I carried my Nikon D3100 around was six months ago on vacation in Europe.. and even then.. I never bothered to use it.  The camera iPhone7 Plus running the beta of 10.1 and using Portrait mode.. was so impressive why carry around the extra weight.

And lets be real.  With the SD card slot only having one real purpose these days.. and a ton of USB-C adapters, hubs and cables on the market.. its not like anyone with 2016 Macbook is suddenly all out of luck for using an SD card anymore.  Hell a cheap $9 adapter will give them SD card slot that they will use exactly once every 28 months.  https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Adapter-Micro-USB-Function-USB-C-Silver/dp/B01N0R3ECG

Stop trying to make SD card slot an issue.  Its 2017.. move on.  

bobolicious said:

So the large dock is $500, only a few hundred dollars less than refurbished macbook air ports, complete with computer, monitor, keyboard, trackpad... "http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_air/13" And indeed these docks are marketed with the beautiful monitors Apple also eliminated. I bought a mbp - regrettably to date it has been more of a paperweight spending more time trying to figure out what it might work with than actually working. In theory, should it or could it actually be the reverse? "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_interface#Thunderbolt_3"

I'll trade you straight up for my 2015 MBP retina,for your 2016 MBP.

Let me know if you are serious.. I can ship today.

thedba said:

If this is as good as their Thunderbolt 2 dock sitting at my desk right now, it's a definite buy for new MBP owners who need all that legacy connectivity.
The advantage this one has over the previous generation offering is that with one cable, all data and/or video signals are carried as well as power. 

Which is why Apple went 110% in on TB3.

Why hook all the devices up to a laptop (which biggest priority is to be portable).  When you can hook all of these devices into a dock with alot of different ports or a cheap hub with only the most important ports.. and connect all of your stuff to your laptop with a single cable that will also charge the laptop.

..but..but..but.. my SD card reader is gone lol