tommy0guns

$5/mo = $5 + remote rental + streaming fee + viewing surcharge + non-bundle penalty + federal taxes + state taxes + head injury fund = $117.99 for a limited time*

Make you you split Walmart from selling their own store brand. They have an advantage over national brands.

This is so dumb. For tech that is called "wireless", this product makes you more tethered than using a wire. I keep 10 ft cables near my couch so I can use my devices comfortably while charging.

Here's the deal with lower cost iPhones and iPads. Every time a new premium model comes out, the previous models get cheaper. You can simply buy and older gen device for a fraction of the cost. The beauty of Apple is that their devices have staying power, and a model that's 2 years old will still probably be more powerful than other companies latest budget devices...for the same price!

suddenly newton said:

wemclaughlins said:

Please no on the next SE. I'm okay with no home button (though I don't mind it at all, and I don't mind the form factor, bezel and all), BUT, I want Touch ID...on screen is just fine by me. I was excited at hearing the of the possibility of this technology during the rumor stages of the X. As someone who leaves the assistive touch home button on as a supplement to the physical home button, I could see the on screen Touch ID working just like an assistive touch home button. I have no interest whatsoever in another gesture to access the functions that the home button brings like switching between apps, return home etc. I know every time Apple releases a new technology or cuts out old technology they get slammed for being gimmicky, but to me face recognition vs finger print is gimmicky. ...course I still maintain the MBP touch bar and lack of ports as well as the new iPhones' lack of headphone jack as gimmicky. : ).

I remember when the iPhone was slammed for not having a keyboard. It'll never sell to business users, the pundits said. Some startups even tried to sell a physical keyboard accessory. Multitouch is gimmicky, "real smartphones" have keyboards.

I remember when the mouse was slammed for being gimmicky. Graphical user interfaces were called gimmicky. Real computers had function keys. Real users needed them to get work done. There used to be companies that sold keyboard overlays with Microsoft office keyboard shortcuts printed on them.

Touch ID was called gimmicky when it came out. Go back and look in the forums and read the troll posts. Touch ID was introduced not to enable ApplePay (which came later), but to reduce the rash of smartphone thefts, which sometimes included aggravated assault. Oh, but now thieves will cut your finger off, they predicted. But instead, smartphone thefts plummeted and privacy was vastly improved.

64-bit CPUs were called gimmicky. But that didn't stop Samsung from promising a 64-bit "me too" CPU as soon as the Apple A7 was unveiled to the world. Guess it went from "gimmicky" to "essential" as soon as Android had it.

Remember that when Android flagships start promoting some version of Face ID, and everyone expects it as "essential."

People tend to only look at what is right in front of them and compare it to what they are familiar with. It's similar to going to your parents house and upgrading their computer and trying to show them how awesome and easy is it to do things now. But then they complain that they can't find that 1 thing they used to be able to find, so you messed up everything.

That's what I'm reading here in these forums. People complaining about that 1 thing, without being able to step be and see the bigger picture. If Apple didn't force the physical keyboard to go away, we would miss out on so many great features. These came after. Touch ID was initially to unlock your phone. Then more function came after. Bluetooth, cloud storage, virtual assistants...these were all intended for a specific purpose and yet have an infinite amount of potential. 

The same thing will happen to Face ID. Many people see it as a gimmicky way to unlock their phone. Apple knows better. They added extra sensors and more dedicated chips inside the device. They didn't do this to unlock your phone and get quicker Snapchats. There's a much bigger picture. It's just the next step in a new tech chapter. Today it unlocks your phone. Tomorrow, Siri asks you why you look sad. She'll tell your heart rate by looking at your neck veins. Face ID (or whatever iteration) will be in your car and will recognize you and unlock, start, and adjust to you. Apple TV will know if you like a movie by how you look at it. Point your phone at anything and it will tell you everything about it. This is straight up Minority Report tech we are moving into. AI, face/object recognition, location tracking, cloud and device connectivity, energy management, miniature production...these are all parts of the next evolution. Apple is taking the lead in all of these segments.