analogjack

avon b7 said:

This was also in the news recently but not picked up here. LOL:

uk.businessinsider.com/huawei-could-overtake-apple-second-biggest-smartphone-canalys-data-2017-8

I personally think there will be a supercycle and that is great because, if there is one, it shows at the very least, Apple is not losing users...

...Competition is good.

Apple does not compete at the bottom end. Those who make or sell the most smartphones and those who make the most profitable and high end smartphones are two entirely separate entities.

The above article could be posted straight to The Onion and it would still work.

Flyswatter said:

...and don't necessarily improve on them...

I'm in Brisbane and I dislike the look of Googlemaps with their clunky thick lines. Usually I would use Translink on the the Mac or iPod to get my routes and options clear, this would necessitate me having to then jot down the information into notes because it was f%$#ing impossible to follow Translink or Google, I'd click on a bus station for more information and suddenly I'd be at a page with every frikken bus stop, it was absolutely  maddening design. This is why the use of Notes, or more often I had to resort to plain old pen and paper.

I was curious to see how Apple maps implemented the transport integration, I wasn't really expecting much but what I saw completely blew me away. It appears that Google has simply plugged into Translink's API and displays the same confusing images, the same rabbit warren, the same needing flip back and forth between different pages and keeping what you've just seen in your mind. A total dog's dinner.

Apple on the other hand appears to somehow have worked out how to dissect Translink's supplied information and turned it into not just a work of art on my 4" iPod screen, but they have put everything I want to know on one page, and they've done it with less clutter! 

You trollishly say Apple seems to just be playing 'catch up' so what's the point. The point is this, that both Translink and Google even after having many years head start cannot make an interface that actually works. Apple comes into the picture and instantly turns the Translink pile of garbage, into how it should have been right from the beginning. This is what Apple does, they take stuff that others have already been working on for years, and then show how to do it right. I post below two screenshots from a typical thing I'd want to know. 

On the Translink or Google maps, I'd get off the train and have to try and work out where the bus was. Am I supposed to walk through the building! There'll often be multiple exits and I won't be able to tell which is best, I'd then inevitably go out the wrong exit then I'd have to try and work out where I was, what side of the street I'm on. On Apple maps, it's crystal clear what I need to do, which exit I need to go out and exactly where I'll be when I leave that particular exit. It may be difficult for you to appreciate the difference Apple maps makes until you've been driven to distraction as many times as I have with Translink, which is what Google reproduces. I mean look at the bottom of the google maps image, it's got an icon of the 690 bus and a train then another bus Why? The bus is in green but the green line in their map is NOT the 690 bus the 690 only goes to Sandgate it's completely weird! The 690 is the bus I used to get to the train that took me to this station, I don't need that information any longer, I'm at the station already. FFS.

Further look how Apple maps shows me the river and the precise side the train tracks are on so that I can already locate which way I need to go without even needing to consult the map any longer. Google maps on the other hand use the whole screen yet they give less information, they completely disorient me by not providing any local context. Google maps reminds of people who write pages of A4 size writing using 24pt text thinking it will be easier to read than 12pt.

Not only are the Apple maps more precise, clear and accurate, but I can scroll left and right at the top and instantly check other aspects of the route. If the world was the way you'd like it, we'd still be using keyboards on phones.

repressthis said:

Sooo...what exactly makes the 7nm chip from TSMC better than Samsung's?

It hits Samsung where it hurts the most. It doesn't need to be better, it only needs to not be worse.

This is so obviously absurd for reasons I don't need to repeat that one has to wonder if these are planted stories or stories somehow funded by Samsung or others with vested interests.

Can any company on Earth manufacture any electrical product in the tens or hundreds of millions with an absolute guarantee that there will not be one that can cause a catastrophic failure and isn't that the reason that one has insurance in the first place.