charlesn

"Meta already has a hit with its RayBan smart glasses..."

And Meta recently posted yet another in an endless streak of $1-1.5 billion dollar losses per quarter for Reality Labs. So much winning! Also: how much of an idiot do you have to be to allow Meta--the worst abuser of consumer privacy and data, bar none--to have camera and mic access into your life? 

Google search has sucked out loud ever since they started prioritizing serving up ads instead of useful information in response to queries. That Google still finds it worthwhile to pay Apple $20 billion a year to be the default search engine is a testament to how lazy (or uninformed?) people must be not to switch to a different engine, or to AI/ChatGPT for their searches. So while this Google deal, on the face of it, should no longer be worth $20 billion right now, you can't underestimate the willingness of people to stick with a "default," even when it's bad. Yes, Google search now lists the Gemini answer first, with no advertising, but who could believe that Google won't start trying to monetize Gemini answers in some way, sooner than later? 

Xed said:

paisleydisco said:

'declining' meaning those who want one already have it and see no reason to upgrade every year. 

On top of that, I know many people, myself included, that won't upgrade again until the O2 sensor is reactivated.

Just curious: what is important to you about pulse oximetry? Do you have a medical condition that makes monitoring of your blood oxygen level essential? (And honestly, if that's the case, you should be using a pulse oximeter from Masimo or other hospital grade medical device company.) I have an Ultra 1 with pulse ox and almost never check it. Don't really have a reason to check. There was a moment during Covid when a lower than normal blood ox level could be an early indicator of severe respiratory distress, so monitoring my blood ox had a real purpose. And for that reason, I went out and bought a Masimo because readings through a watch just aren't as accurate or reliable.  

Interesting news about Masimo today: they sold off that high-end audio company that ex-CEO Kiana bought for $1 billion in 2022 and they only got $330 million for it just three years later. Kiani was also the guy who went to war against Apple in court at enormous cost for no payoff. I keep hoping that Masimo's new sane management and Apple can settle their differences and get pulse ox activated again on Apple Watches in the U.S. 

When you think about it, the product name "iPhone" is already silly and out-of-date, since its use as an actual phone is fast-becoming a vestigial capability of 20th century communication. Go ask Gen Z or Alpha how often they call someone. The iPhone's primary uses now are for messaging, apps, a mobile internet connection and visual content creation. So while I can foresee a not too distant future where there is a device not named iPhone that handles those needs, what I don't see and can't imagine is no device at all. How would that work? We can see that while iPhone eliminated the need (for many, but not all) to carry separate devices like iPod, a camera and a videocam, the need for the functionality of those devices remained and simply got incorporated into the device called iPhone. So when Cue says that AI will replace iPhone, I get it if he's talking about a new kind of AI device, but otherwise it makes no sense to me. It's also hard to predict how or if people will embrace future technologies. I remember when everyone thought that "videophones" would be the future tech that would replace communication by voice alone. What no one predicted or saw coming was that typing out text messages would absolutely dwarf videophone usage now that we have both technologies. I don't know about you, but I pretty much only do a FaceTime/video call when I haven't connected with a family member or friend in years. Otherwise, I'm generally annoyed by a spontaneous FaceTime call and try not to do that to others! 

The Orwellian name, "App Store Freedom Act" is actually a denial of my freedom to choose a walled garden app store. For those who don't want to choose it, they have non-walled options by going with Android. Have at it!

Gosh... I guess if Apple's 30% cut is so greedy and onerous, developers must have said, "Screw you, Apple," we're going to focus on developing for Android!" Such a shame that happened! Wait, what's that? Developers ARE still developing for Apple? Oh, that's good!. Wait, and what?!  You say many actually prefer developing for Apple, and either develop iOS versions of apps first, or develop for iOS exclusively? But that makes no sense! Apple is ripping them off with a monopoly that gouges them for a 30% cut! What? They say it's worth it because WHY? Hmmmm... okay, so Apple paid all costs to set up the App Store and pays all costs to operate it. Sure, but.... oh, there's more? Go ahead... so Apple is serving up to developers hundreds of millions of iOS users that are, by far, THE most lucrative app buying customer base in the world? Almost a billion app downloads per WEEK? Wow. Okay, now I get... oh, there's STILL more? So because Apple's hardware and software are so tightly interwoven, and because Apple has done such a great job educating its customer base to download and run the latest free iOS updates, it's actually much easier to develop for iOS than all the different flavors of Android out there, with a user base that's all over the map in terms of how recent or old the version is that they're using. So it takes less time to develop for Apple, time is money, AND the app will work more reliably because the iOS version is recent and consistent. Okay... wow....well, sounds like Apple is providing a helluva lot of value for a 30% cut of sales! If someone was giving my business access to that kind of customer base, I'd happily give them 30% of sales! So what do they want from Apple? Say what?! They still want access to that fantastic customer base, but they want to be able to direct them to another site that cuts Apple out of the purchase?! And Apple is the greedy one if they don't allow this?! Yeah, right.