entropys

nunzy said:

mike54 said:

What a waste. Oprah no doubt talked her way in for Tim Cook to give her huge sums of money. That must of been easy, as Tim is not interested in mac mini, mac pros, reliable laptops, routers, monitors, etc anymore. These products are sold to the world, but the mind boggling amount of money she must be getting is aimed for the US market only, an even then she is now polarising figure. Hope its a flop, but it will never be admitted to even if it was.

Apple knows what it is doing. It's not like it's an either/or kind of a thing. Apple is hedging and choosing where to invest and where not to invest. One investment doea not mean that they can't help but scrimp elsewhere. They choose based on the individual merits of the available choices.

This ia just part of a bigger plan. And given what Oprah costs, it might be part of a very big plan indeed.

I agree that it is part of a plan. But it isn’t about limited resources and choosing where to invest. Decisions on whether to choose oprah or Ellen is just not a strategic level decision. It’s just operational.

Apple is the biggest company in the world with an enormous cash war chest. Strategic decisions in what type of activity to undertake are not resource limited. It doesn’t have to make either/or decisions for the most part.  For example the Mac business is an FT500 company on its own and it doesn’t take all the resources of Apple to update the processor whenever intel releases a new one. The sad state of the Mac is the result of strategic decisions made years ago. Probably (and I don’t know this) a belief the iPad would replace laptops within five years, and that the Mac should be as disposable an appliance as an iOS device. Those things didn’t happen.  

I think (hope) Apple realises that management royally fucked up and is seeking to correct it. Trouble is, there is a lot of ruin in a global corporation, and like an ocean liner, course corrections take a while.

nunzy said:

I for one thank Apple for this. I am glad that Apple will not allow me to use their devices in this manner. If I were to run these apps, I would probably get myself in all sorts of trouble. Thanks Apple!

The point is unscrupulous developers have hidden code in their apps so *they* use your phone to mine bitcoins. Over many phones it would add up. Meanwhile, you user experienced is degraded.

nunzy said:

I've never had problem with Apple Maps.

There is no doubt when Apple maps was first released it wasn’t ready. It created the meme that would not die. But now it is pretty good. I use nav apps all the time, and it is just as reliable, if not easier to use as google maps. Generally, I go to google maps these days rather than just asking via Siri if I need to insert a number of waypoints.  Apple maps still lacks there.

Did it have side by side navigation and Apple Music? That would be awesome.

All you people criticising bias training as ineffective miss the point. This kind of training is a political statement and signal of Starbucks’ virtue. Look how much free advertising it’s getting. That they are buying iPads to do it just means more media attention. Cheap! They don’t care if the only thing a worker learns is not to get Starbucks into trouble.  

My work has a similar, anti domestic violence campaign. Clearly a major political campaign.  It’s bigger than Ben Hur! There is unconscious bias training, compulsory surveys where it is clear what answers are expected (men are clearly ‘orrible people as a rule), and a public media campaign! I guess it’s so easy to do this with Other Peoples’ Money.

And the worst is it is expected people, at the very least all managers, wear a white ribbon. A stylised white ribbon made into a gold edged badge.  I was at an all exec meeting the other day (about eighty people) and I was just about the only one not wearing the ribbon badge.  I just said “I’m just like Kramer, I don’t want to wear the ribbon”.  It was a bit scary to tell the truth. I felt just like an aristocrat must have felt fronting up to the Committee of Public Safety back in revolutionary France. I was the other. Some people thought I was crazy, especially those on the make, some thought I was painting a target on my back. Most said nothing, some maybe wondering if I was a wife basher, others maybe looked a little shamefaced. I was wondering if someone would stand up to denounce me.

I don’t expect a promotion under current management.