charlesn

Cesar Battistini Maziero said:

Why don't they question all the lobby money they get?

Bunch of hypocrites. The reckoning its coming.

You're on point about the hypocrisy. I despise Trump, but I'll say this for him: he isn't secretive about his corruption. He puts it right out there. We all know the quid pro quo here. If you don't bend the knee and show fealty to Trump through financial largesse, he will (mis)use the power of the Presidency and federal government to make life miserable for your company. He pulls no punches about going after his perceived enemies. The Senate and the House both pretend to be operating in good, uncorrupted faith, but we know that's a lie. There are countless millions (billions?) in lobbyist money flowing to Senators and Representatives in different ways, all of it to influence their positions on legislation, but that's kept in the background as if it's not happening. With Trump, who needs lobbyists? People are literally and publicly just sending him a million or millions of dollars "for his inauguration," like money in an envelope at a mafia wedding, and it's just to stay on his good side. 

macxpress said:

Looks like a cheap POS to me. I guess it's okay if you have a PC and don't care about anything. The Apple display is brighter and looks better overall. I'd just rather spend the money for the Apple Display. This just reminds me of the 5K LG display from a few years back. 

I would honestly just wait for an updated version of the 27" Apple Studio Display. 

Oof, harsh! But hey, only you can decide what's "worth it" and why for you. Someone else looking at this monitor and the Apple Display might say, "Hey, if I go with the Asus display over the Apple, I can afford to bump myself from the base Mac Mini to the M4 Pro model for the same money, and that's going to make a much bigger difference for me than better cosmetics on the Studio Display and a few relatively minor improvements in specs." Different strokes, etc, you know? But yeah, if doing cost-no-object shopping, I'd pick the Apple Display, too, but the Asus proposition is about maximum value while compromising little in terms of performance. 

yyzguy said:

 So, please don’t tell me what an iPhone SE consumer is looking for.  You apparently have no idea.  

Wow... ummm, for starters, although I didn't quote you at length, "thanks," I guess, for the completely unnecessary financial story of your life. FWIW, I did give you an "Informative" click because, gosh, how could I not with all that revelation? You must've been waiting to tell that story a LOING time for it to just spill out on a message board about the price of the new iPhone SE. Which, to get back to what this discussion was about...

Actually, it's easy to have a great idea of what the SE customer wants simply by looking at the features and price point that Apple offers to its SE customers. After all, nobody knows better than Apple what its customers want. And what SE customers are currently buying is essentially an iPhone 8 from seven and a half years ago, but with a faster chip and 5G, priced at $429. Listen: you said you could afford to buy "the new fancy stuff" but choose not to because, presumably, the cheaper models you choose to buy have as much of a feature set as you need and are willing to pay for. Fair enough! Nothing wrong with that! So why assume that SE buyers want the new bells and whistles that are rumored to be coming in the new SE at a 17% price hike? More expensive, better featured phones from Apple have been there all along and they've chosen not to buy them. Apple has been very careful not to raise prices on even its priciest Pro models, and this despite Tim Cook's assertion that "people will always be willing to pay more for the best phone." And now it's going to raise prices 17% on its most price-sensitive model? I think not but, as I said, we'll know the answer in a couple of months. 

At least here in the U.S., Apple hasn't raised iPhone prices in a very long time. In fact, when inflation is taken into account, prices have actually dropped significantly over time. Even the $100 jump in the base price of an iPhone Max was accompanied by an increase in base storage that made it the same price as the prior model with the same storage. So, not really a price increase on an apples to apples basis. For this reason, I find it hard to believe that Apple is going to slap a 17% percent price increase on its most price-sensitive model, the SE. The SE buyer isn't interested in and doesn't need bells and whistles--they want a great, basic phone at a great price. They get that with the SE at $429. It's a fantastic and relatively inexpensive (for Apple) gateway drug into the Apple ecosystem. Sure, bigger screen, Face ID, 48MP sensor, blah, blah, blah are all "nice to haves" but not "must haves" for the SE buyer if they necessitate a 17% higher price. I think the price will either stay the same or maybe jump to $449, but I'll be shocked if base price goes to $499. I guess we'll find out soon enough. 

gatorguy said:

charlesn said:

Ironic. All this panic over TikTok because, OMG, "the Chinese threat." Gotta shut it down RIGHT. NOW. Meanwhile, human excrement Zuckerberg proudly announces his plan to run unfiltered poison through the veins of America's internet 24/7, via his Facebook/Instagram/Threads applications, and this in addition to his long-standing practice of abusing consumer privacy any way that he can by monetizing your data. But all THIS isn't a problem apparently because he's on.... our side? Really? I'd rather take my chances with Xi. 

It's not panic driven, nor was the law insisting on "right now". They've had nine months to take care of it.
If anyone is in panic mode it is ByteDance. Their own fault for refusing to take it serious enough until the last minute. 

Of course, you miss the entire point of my post. But sure, whatever. As for Bytedance "refusing to take it serious enough" -- hmmm, the incoming President DID assure his voters throughout the campaign that TikTok wasn't going anywhere on his watch... and he filed a strong brief on behalf of TikTok with SCOTUS...