mjtomlin

mretondo said:

One of my best decisions I ever made was buying a Mac II in 1987 for $5000 (inflation adjusted $11,000). I'm very temped to buy the $5000 iMac Pro. I don't need the speed but I like getting a Mac that lasts a long time. I could get 7 years out of this one.

I agree with this sentiment, mostly. The problem with buying a higher end system that gives you the power you’ll need for a long time, is the fact that other parts of the systems will become dated. That’s the argument against all-in-ones, if you can’t do the upgrades yourself.

I bought the highest end 27” iMac core i7 back at the beginning of 2010 (it was the late 2009 model) - I spent $2700. After 8 years, It still chugs along just fine. I have no complaints about the performance of it. But over the years, I had to upgrade the Bluetooth/WiFi module, to get Handoff/continuity features. I removed the DVD drive and installed a small SSD to make a Fusion drive (which gave me a huge performance boost). And also upgraded memory.

But I am however, stuck with FW800 and USB 2.0, with no option of ever upgrading to something newer. And honestly, it’s NOT that bad, but I do keep my iTunes library on an external HD. And by today’s standards, those buses are SLOW.

arthurba said:

In Europe we get Windows N - which is windows without Windows Media Player.  It's required under European rules.  I don't use nor want Apple Music - it needs unbundling from iOS.  

And yes - internally to Apple when people download and subscribe then the 'Apple Music' company should pay the same fees to 'Apple Corp.' as other App vendors do - then it's a level playing field. 

I dont want Apple Music on my iPhone because it's bloat - but I can see the argument that if Microsoft has to unbundle Media Player from Windows that Apple should be required to unbundle Apple Music from iOS. 

Apple Music is a service, not an app. It is not bundled with iOS. There is a music player though, but it's there because it is part of the core functionality of the device; "a touch screen iPod"

Microsoft had to unbundle Media Player because it was purposefully and actively stepping all over competing music players, just as Internet Explorer did. Furthermore, Microsoft was subject to further scrutiny because they were a monopoly in the desktop OS market and tried to leverage that to squash competition in other areas.

gunner1954 said:

So, yes,, this could cause embarrassment, and yes, Apple should scan for this misuse of code during the app approval/update process.

This is the main problem I have with this engineer's findings - he failed to mention (or maybe doesn't know) that Apple does look for this misuse, in fact, it's in the damned developer license agreement...

3.3.8 If Your Application makes recordings (including but not limited to an image, picture or voice capture or recording) (collectively “Recordings”), a reasonably conspicuous audio, visual or other indicator must be displayed to the user as part of the Application to indicate that a Recording is taking place.

People who use Siri a lot have a much different experience than those who have just "tried it". It is a learning system. If it doesn't understand something you said, you can in fact teach it. Most just assume verbal is as clear as typed text, when it is not; different accent, tone, inflection, etc.

It's easy for something like Alexa to understand you more clearly because it uses a finite database of commands. And can pick the closest match of what it thinks you said.

Siri is a natural language processor and as such doesn't have pre-set commands to follow - it only has a set of known subjects/domains to refer to. And since the same thing can be said in many, many different ways, Siri has to be able to understand and interpret YOUR voice. It can only do that if you use it a lot.

christopher126 said:

I like it..Apple has a flair for things like this.

Apple's manufacturing plant in Fremont, CA used to a giant rainbow Apple logo on the roof - only visible from an airplane flying over.