ike17055

Dark mode. Awesomely good. Even better on the big screen. 

Nothing new here. The social welfare states need the money, and will find any excuse to confiscate it from whoever has deep pockets. Plus, it is their standard routine to punish any player who sets the bar high with innovation, and thus makes the socialist-minded least-common-denominator mindset feel disrupted. Europe is all about “stability” at any cost, which generally leads to stagnation. 

macxpress said:

I would love to see a true a-la-carte service. Honestly, we're still not there. We still have to choose a package and get channels we may or may not want. I really only watch 3 channels. Why can't I just subscribe to just the 3 channels I want without paying for 20 other channels I don't watch?

A true a la carte experience is most closely matched by simply purchasing episodes from iTunes or Google Play and perhaps Amazon. If you only watch a handful of programs, it is cheaper than these subscription plans, and generally very good quality transmission or download. And no commercials.  This seems to be an often overlooked option, but after first cutting the cird some years ago, we used downloads almost exclusively, (plus some over-the-air via antennnae) and it was a very good, true VoD option. We later added netflix streaming to our disk rental (which is still a great service btw) and My music streaming subscription with Google added ad-free Youtube, so more than enough to watch. 

While certainly not intended, the message i nearly take away from this is “don’t buy first generation of anything from Apple because it will dramatically improve soon enough” (and Apple will of course treat the “old” version and its users disdainfully.) Fair or unfair, that is the feeling many folks already have, based on experiences like the one profiled here, and the subsequent editorial appearing here. 

I had the first generation mini, and liked it well enough that i couldn’t wait for them to smooth off the rough edges. The mini 4 now is, for me, as perfect a device I will ever find. They don’t need to change anything except maybe processor and ram as time goes on — the iOS upgrades can do the heavy lifting of moderning it. (But I also felt the same about the last generation of iPod Classic — perfected, and subsequently forgotten.) The combination of versatility and portability in the Mini 4 is not found in the smaller or larger options.

Of course, now the expectation is that it will never be refreshed and may be due for phase out because Apple feels they can squeeze more out of us by forcing us to buy an iPhone next time to stay in the eco-system.  

If this prediction pans out, I personally believe Apple is making a big mistake, but it it remains to be seen, of course. I for one, won’t migrate to iPhone. I enjoy the bigger screen as it allows me to use the full web versions, rather than apps. They work on iPhone, but not well. 

And since there is like ZERO media attention paid to Mini anymore, I have to use the opportunity this article affords to say just how much I love the Mini form factor and functionality.  Apple, please keep this device. 

Hiw does one “secretly” file for an IPO? The middle word is “Public”.