citpeks

About

Username
citpeks
Joined
Visits
334
Last Active
Roles
member
Points
1,007
Badges
1
Posts
271

Reactions

502Like17Dislike85Informative

  • Apple will buy US-made chips from TSMC, confirms Tim Cook

    citpekscitpeks
    tht said:
    Won't be the first time Apple buys iPhone SoC chips that are made in the USA.
    People seem to have forgotten that Samsung was Apple's primary supplier, via its plant in Texas, before TSMC started to take more of Apple's business.

    mfryd said:
    Taiwan doesn't want factories outside of Taiwan to succeed.  

    Right now, a major factor in why the US protects Taiwan, is that much of our electronics infrastructure depends on chips made in Taiwan.  If mainland China takes over Taiwan, China gains the ability to easily disrupt the US economy.  Furthermore, China gains the ability to build backdoors into various chips, bypassing security.

    If the US gains the ability to meet our own chip demand, a threat to Taiwan is no longer a threat to our economy.  Therefore we have less incentive to protect Taiwan.

    China gains the ability to build backdoors into various chips, bypassing security.
    Very stupid statement.

    Why does US has to depend a Taiwanese company for chips manufacturing? That is also stupid. Chips manufacturing is not highly complicated technology. Apple originally contracted TSMC to fabricate chips primarily because it is cheap. 
    Wow, such an ignorant statement.  If chip manufacturing is so simple, then why is the U.S. government scrambling to impose export controls, and pressuring companies like ASML (ever heard or them?) to cancel the deals they have with China?  Or Congress passing massive incentive packages to entice companies like TSMC to build fabs in the U.S.?

    Chip fabs are capital intensive to build, the most advanced processes are very high tech, and a hard business, which is why companies like AMD and IBM spun off their foundries, or went entirely fabless, years ago.

    It's the one large strategic advantage that China does not possess, and is scrambling to build up internally, by propping up its domestic chip industry, and poaching personnel from TSMC.  The ball bearing factories of any WW III, if you will.
    watto_cobrajony0

  • Samsung tries adding Apple-style Back Tap to Galaxy S and Flip devices

    citpekscitpeks
    I have set it to invoke Control Center.

    Never been a fan of gestures that require reaching to the top of the screen and pulling down, or reaching up to the top of the screen in general.
    watto_cobra

  • Lufthansa flip-flops, AirTags now allowed on flights

    citpekscitpeks
    There was no flip-flopping. 
    If you read the original information carefully, it clearly said that LH was referring to other regulations, but did not state how they as airline would interprete this. There was also a misleading tweet pouring oil into the fire. LH never at any point officially banned AirTags. Therefore, there is no flip-flopping involved. Click-bait on the other ends, maybe? 

    "Hi David, Lufthansa is banning activated AirTags from luggage as they are classified as dangerous and need to be turned off./Mony"

    Perhaps in your mind.  The LH employee, tweeting from an official, verified company Twitter account, was clear and unambiguous.  The tweet cited above, from a different employee through the same account, doubled down on the original tweet, and offered justification for that position.

    Today's tweet, coming via a different verified company account from the larger company as a whole, only reinforces that internal conflicts existed, and lines of communication, as well as responsibility, were lacking.

    Mony and Ana may be polishing their CVs now, or at least were the receiving end of a stern memo from above.  Not unlike what their cabin crews deliver (note--when the pilot advises passengers to stay seated until the gate has been reached, and the seat belt sign extinguished, they mean it).

    This brouhaha is entirely of Lufthansa's own making.
    macguiigorskydarkvaderStrangeDayslordjohnwhorfincharlesatlaswatto_cobraFileMakerFeller

  • Mozilla rampages over a lack of browser choice

    citpekscitpeks
    CheeseFreeze said:
    Madbum said:
    So whenever a business is doing badly, just complain about the people who are successful?

    how did this country get here?
    It’s not about that. It’s about a fair playing field. When companies become too powerful, they become the economy instead of operating in the economy. Ironically it then is no longer a free market.


    I'm glad at least one person gets it.

    A Chrome hegemony is no better than an IE hegemony, or a Safari hegemony.

    I guess a lot of people either weren't around, or don't remember when not being an IE-user meant being a second class user, and being a Mac user, that was assured, and a double slap.  Same could apply to Flash, and RealPlayer.

    Web developers will deny it, but a lot of them are lazy, and don't want to do the work to develop and test against anything but the dominant browser, and that leads to situations where support for anything but suffers, and that's not beneficial to users, or the open principles on which the Web was founded.

    Sadly, most users aren't discriminating, never mind demanding, about their browsers, and will accept the bundled default without a second thought.

    Try to inform them of the principles involved, and they only burrow their heads deeper into the sand.
    Alex1N

  • iPhone 14 review: Apple's curve ball to iPhone upgraders

    citpekscitpeks
    kmarei said:
    no sim card slot is a deal breaker
    this sucks for any one who travels internationally and has SIM cards from other countries
    i am dying to know why they did this (this also means i have to pay roaming anytime i travel, whether i like it or not, if i want to have phone service that is)
    its not to save internal space, as the phones sold outside the US have the SIM card slot

    If Apple had any pragmatic sense, it would offer models with SIM slots in the U.S. as a special order option, like the SIM-free models used to be, before it became a standard option.

    But, I wouldn't count on it, as the company has no problems exerting its influence to effect broader change, while putting a smaller group, and some not so small, of users through some pain in the process.

    Ironically, as a company that purports to empower users, and helped blunt the hegemony of the carriers when the iPhone arrived, this move cedes some control back to the those carriers.  Longer term, the American MVNOs may catch up and offer e-SIM support, but that won't help the travelers to countries with restrictive carrier policies that require proof of local residence or other documentation.

    The ability to pick up a local SIM upon arrival at an EU entry point, and then enjoy free roaming throughout the member states is both better value, and less hassle than an overpriced roaming plan from a home carrier, or a pre-paid international specialist provider.  The unavoidable net effect is fewer choices for the user.

    Plus, with some research, it was also easier to choose the local carrier that provided the best service, or had the most coverage at the destination.
    dewmewatto_cobra