pdnoble

The other content consumption category with great spacial potential is live sports. I would predict that this will prove to be a big AVP demand driver and that it has been a key motivation for Apple's move into sports streaming rights. They are already experimenting with capturing soccer (MLS) and basketball, from what I have read. Being Apple they are no doubt refining production techniques and other aspects of live spacial content creation, distribution and consumption before introducing a polished platform. Also the acquisition of secondary spacial streaming rights, e.g., market speculation re collaboration with Disney or outright purchase of ESPN.

I can't think of a sport that wouldn't benefit from spatial consumption: from field games to X Games, from golf to FI, with basketball an obvious early candidate in terms of simplicity of production: a single court-side camera would allow a viewer to experience the game from the best seat in the arena (and yes, we have all seen the photos of the court-side Apple spacial camera(s)). 

The Lightening cable works 100% with its positive lock design.  If my succession of MacBooks is anything to go by, USB-C is a sometimes-connection. Truly second rate, mechanically speaking. 

30 million more subscribers, not subscriptions: 30 million Apple device owners buying services for the first time this quarter.

30 million new subscriptions would be inconsequential considering there are more than 1 billion discrete Apple customers: would mean less than 3% of Apple customers purchased new services. 

On an aesthetic note: I had immediately ordered a midnight blue custom configuration, which looks terrific in marketing photos, despite warnings re fingerprints by those at the introduction. THEY WERE, OF COURSE, ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! I just went to the Apple Store and the Midnight Blue display unit, on display for just one hour, looked absolutely awful. Covered in fingerprints. By far the worst affected color. Even space gray seems unaffected. I immediately cancelled the order and reordered in the traditional Silver. The good news: my delivery is unaffected: August 1-8. The traditional silver anyhow still looks, to my eye, the best by far, putting fingerprints aside.

StrangeDays said:

pdnoble said:

From the Apple support doc:

When charging on the go, your MagSafe Battery Pack can charge your iPhone with up to 5W of power. If connected to a 20W or higher power source, it can charge with up to 15W of power. 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212174

So it does work as a full performance substitute to the 15w desktop MagSafe charger, but ‘on the go’ - why else would one pay $99 for a battery pack - it is rather underwhelming in both power and performance. 

Apple's is certainly better looking than any of the above. It appears smarter with no need for on/off buttons. It reverse charges. And I see no indicators that the others charge any faster. 

Can you clarify the value proposition that is appealing to you?

I had read widely, though maybe speculatively, that other MagSafe compatible battery packs were limited to 5w charging due to Apple imposed licensing or other constraints. There seemed an expectation that Apple would eventually introduce a battery pack that offered greater or full 15w charging.