tjwolf

Advanced apologies for this ignorant question: what, besides songs and apps/games, can you buy with this credit?  Can I use it on my Apple TV to rent or buy a movie?  Can I use it wherever I'd use ApplePay?  Been using an iPhone since 2010 but never used any iTunes cards, etc.

Latko said:

Cook should have better followed Jobs’ track and leave finance to the many professionals Apple has. His companies’ interests are institutionally different from Berkshire Hataways’

Buffet's advice has nothing to do with any particular industry.  A CEO's job is to allocate capital effectively.  If a company has more cash than is necessary to fund current needs and R&D, then the CEO needs to invest that money elsewhere.  A share buy-back is no different from investing in other companies' stocks: you do it if you think that company is undervalued and/or has great growth potential.

I've had both generation AirPods.  I don't try to connect my AirPods to many different devices, but any improvement in connecting to my iPhone is negligible - the first pair connected almost instantaneously and the new ones do as well.  The only real notable new feature AFAIC is the addition of "Hey Siri".  Not having to double-tap the AirPods to give commands is surprisingly useful (e.g. when you're hands are full/busy).  And there's room for improvement in this very area: after you say 'hey Siri', there's no immediate feedback that you were heard (as there was when you double-tapped) - if you wait a second or two, Siri will eventually say "Mhm?" or "How can I help?".  But since Siri's volume is also noticeably lower than whatever you're listening to, sometimes you don't hear the "Mhm?" - especially when in a noisy environment - and you end up repeating your command, louder.

I think the piece adequately defends Apple’s approach to voice assistant direction from an economic/tactical perspective: clearly Apple has made money on hardware that had its voice assistant whereas the competition has not.  But it’s kind of ignoring Siri’s strategic weakness: whereas Apple seems content to make Siri an ever more talented id1ot savant, Google and Amazon are aiming at making their assistants conversationally capable servants.

I’m a big Apple fan - have nearly every one of their devices.  But to be honest, I’d much rather be using Google Assistant than Siri.  The only reason I stay with Siri are my concerns for privacy and Siri’s deeper integration with my phone and other Apple services/devices.

Siri shortcuts are a joke - nobody, except Apple geeks, even know about them.  Heck, even though I know about them and have 2 computer science degrees, I don’t even use them.  People shouldn’t have to “program” a voice assistant to make it more useful - that should be the job of the Siri engineering team!  As the author continually points out, Apple is making heaps of money - how about using some of that to light a fire under the Siri team’s a$$?  

tokyojimu said:

Dave Kap said:

Why would anybody stream Netflix from their device to their Apple TV?  Why not just use the Apple TV app or the Netflix app on their TV?

Because it's easier to type in searches on your phone, and then AirPlay2 it to your Apple TV (or other device).

(1) Just do your search on your phone & add it to your list - then go to Apple TV and play from list.  Pretty much just as easy and doesn’t clog your wifi.
(2) When you do searches on Apple TV, your phone brings up a notification to let you type there (but I’ve found that to be flakey as he11)