curtis hannah

randominternetperson said:

Perhaps they wanted to prevent complaints from users who mistakenly try to use a USB 3.1 cable rather than a Thunderbolt cable.  That would be a problem, right?

That is most certainly the point. Of course they would ship the cable anyway, but the Thunderbolt various cables and reliability and the various versions of USB 3.1 cords means that removing the ability to lose the cord ends that issue.

Mike Wuerthele said:

lorin schultz said:

commentzilla said:

Why are enclosures so expensive? The chipsets and cables only cost a few dollars more than USB-C.

Might be economies of scale. USB enclosures likely outsell Thunderbolt twenty to one or more, allowing the manufacturer to spread out the cost of design and tooling over a greater quantity and reducing the amount each individual sale has to contribute to cost recovery.

Or maybe they just use the perception of Thunderbolt being a "premium" interface as an opportunity to increase their margins.

Intel also hasn't yet loosened up its licensing fee structure like it promised yet.

Intel not letting Thunderbolt 3 full open access is holding it back, the more computers that don't have Thunderbolt 3 due to the cost(Its still not built into some newer Intel CPUs yet), the less need for Thunderbolt 3 accessories, and then the resulting few and expensive options in Thunderbolt 3.

canukstorm said:

urashid said:

PaulSelden said:

I love the iPad mini. It fits easily in my pocket, so is good for reading a map when out walking. It is great for reading the newspaper. I just wish Apple would upgrade it to use the stylus.

I don't think the stylus is coming to iPad mini, but I am hoping for a new mini with the same design as the new iPad Pro.  That will be an instant buy for me.

Another avenue Apple can go is give the iPad Pro treatment to the 9.7" screen size => all screen, FaceID, A12X.  This should be small enough to satisfy those wanting an iPad mini.  The current 9.7" iPad form factor can still stick around for those that don't need all the top-end features.  Therefore the lineup would look like;

iPad 9.7" - $329
iPad Pro 9.7" - $599
iPad Pro 11" - $799
iPad Pro 12.9" - $999

I think the point of the Pros is they are larger than 10", so a Mini Pro, even being larger isn't that neccesary. It also would be at a weird price point considering it would haft to be $500-600 ,which I think they should bring back in the 9.7" screen size. It is more likely though they'll make in the next mini, if there is one, it will have the same specs as the 9.7" does when it's updated in its smaller design at maybe $330 while the 9.7" goes up to $400 (assuming they upgrade it next year with the A12 and Face ID or something along those lines).
I assume Apple Pencil support (Gen 1 at least) will be on all new iPads, but that makes me wonder if they'll haft to keep the lightning port on the basic models.

I can’t imagine this not being used in a street view equivalent feature. They may have it separate like google, or they’ll just let zoom in flyover mode go down to street level.

It's good to see the upgrade. Hopefully they will replace the 555X and 560X in the next upgrade cycle(base becomes Vega 16). I know it's also a bit hopeful, but since they now go up to 4TB(16* the current base storage), the base storage becoming 512 GB next generation would be nice too.

I find it hard to believe Apple is really focusing on developing lighting anymore. It's already 6 years old, so presumably in its later half. They also shifter the new iPads to USB C, this will already kill like a fifth of the lighting user base. I sortof don't think it will be next year, but in 2020 or 2021 the iPhone will probably go USB C.