dewme

Tim will likely be asked about how long it will take to reopen the Apple Stores in Russia. He’ll then be given a deadline to make it happen. No, I’m not joking. 

I think Apple made some reasonable choices to bring down the price, but the lack of MagSafe seems rather silly considering they can put MagSafe in much lower cost products like AirPods Pro charging cases. They were probably down to the point of shaving nickels and dimes off of component and assembly costs to hit their target margins and MagSafe was one of those nickels, dimes, or maybe a quarter. That's all a part of product development when building products like this at scale.

I use MagSafe probably 95% of the time with my iPhone. Some of this time is simply on MagSafe mounts like a camera tripod or dash mounting location while using Bluetooth connectivity to my infotainment system. I have MagSafe charging stations at all of my computers, workbench, nightside table, bathroom vanity, etc. There's probably a ball of lint filling my charging port on my iPhone because I use it so infrequently. 

I also have portable charger bricks that support MagSafe charging. These are obviously not as efficient as wired chargers, but there is an advantage of not having to dig around for a cable just to top-up your phone every now and then. 

Is the lack of MagSafe a showstopper? For me, yes, it would be, but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that don't really care. There are iPhone users who use cases or adhesive attachments with the little pop-up knob that interferes with MagSafe capability even if the phone supports it. Those folks may be okay with no MagSafe.

I also think that a number of people who are attracted to the Good-Better-Best (GBB) product line pricing strategy who see the $200 step from Good (iPhone 16e) to Better (iPhone 16) will seriously consider making the jump up to the iPhone 16 when they see a couple of obviously missing features like no MagSafe, fewer camera lenses, and fewer color choices. Things like restricted 5G bands, no Ultra Wideband, fewer cores, etc., not so much of a concern. I can only speak for myself, but when I'm faced with the GBB strategy and don't want to go overboard, I tend to go with the Better option. After all, this is an Apple iPhone we're talking about. If I really needed to cheap out I wouldn't be looking at the newest model iPhones or any iPhone. Apple is obviously banking on the attraction of Apple Intelligence to pull in sales on the 16e. I hope it all works out in Apple's favor.

Useless distraction to keep us minions focused on stuff that doesn’t matter while the basic fabric of American Democracy and things that do matter are transformed by blatant corruption. 

Xed said:

dewme said:

JohnDinEU said:

The damage done by Tim Trump paying a million bucks and attending the inauguration of the felon should be criticised way harder than internal investigators trying to unmask those who shared the next iPhone’s glass or battery life..

One could argue that Tim Cook’s (and all of the big tech titans to a greater degree) caused reputational damage to themselves and their organizations in some people’s eyes. However, none of them took actions that were intended to harm the business interests of the companies they are responsible for as CEOs. If you are interested in the historical aspects of CEOs and business owners submitting to the will of authoritarian and dictatorial leaders you will find that there is no limit to how far they will go to save their companies. Survival instincts don’t always involve consideration for what is right or what is wrong.

These companies have rebounded nicely after supporting Nazi Germany so they'll probably be OK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust

You are absolutely correct. Their ability to survive through the worst possible set of circumstances is the reason they are still around today. If everyone who had to choose between being a survivor or a being a martyr chose the latter, humankind may have already gone extinct.  

This app sounds redundant and needlessly complex compared to just sending out invitations using Calendar. I’ve tried different apps and services, e.g., Slack, for coordinating and collaborating informal groups. The tools can be fabulous and seem ideal for the purpose, at least from my perspective, but a lot of non-tech-enthusiasts and regular users simply don’t want to or don’t see the need to learn yet another tool or way to do something they are already doing using tools they already know, even if they suck, e.g., Facebook. The devil you know …

Perhaps in a corporate environment this app would be more useful, but again, there are plenty of tools and processes already out there in use for event planning. Time will tell, and who knows what other users may see in this app that I don’t see … yet. The “yet” word seems to be applicable to a lot of what Apple is springing on us now that the basics are pretty much covered.