nolamacguy

misa said:

AppleInsider said:

For iOS devices, USB-C offers less of an attraction, given that they can't support Thunderbolt 3 connectivity (which requires an Intel processor) and don't need DisplayPort video output to external displays.

The fact that basic USB 3.0 connectivity can be supported on existing Lightning connectors and legacy USB ports suggests that iOS devices might not make the switch as quick, requiring a longer transition period of using adapters. At the same time, there's a lot you can now do wirelessly rather than needing to plug in a cable.

WiFi sync, AirDrop photo and file transfers and iCloud based sharing are all more convenient than plugging in a cable. That leaves power charging as the biggest reason for plugging a cable into an iOS device, and that issue may be solved by induction or truly wireless charging before USB-C becomes completely and universally adopted.

Whoa there.

I want to be able to connect my iPad and iPhone to a HDMI, Thunderbolt/DisplayPort or USB-C display without any ridiculous compression artifacts. An iOS device should be able to do this.

Likewise with wireless, nothing should be done "wirelessly" if you want to retain security and conserve power. Wireless networking, charging and audio is all good when you don't leave your home, but when you go outside, you are at the whim of all the other wireless junk out there. That Wireless access point that says it's AT&T, are you sure that's AT&T?, If you are listening to a phone call on your wireless headset, how do you know someone else isn't listening? Then there is wireless charging that is just a super-bad idea since it pushes the charging efficiency below 30%. You want the induction charging only for devices that are impractical to charge any other way. The Apple Watch is a great example of a product that is half baked, because charging it doesn't give you the battery life that anyone would reasonably use it.  This also applies to the iPhone, but at least the iPhone has the ability to be plugged into a battery pack. 

Now put this all together? Are we going to start having to lug around 8lb battery pack+USB-C hubs because our consumer electronics are trying to be cute and light, and useless for all day use.

dewme said:

I admire Steve Jobs' candor in telling President Obama that the type of jobs related to making most iProduct thingies are never coming back to the USA. He wasn't blowing smoke, he was telling it like it is with brutal honesty. It's not even the labor rates, it's supply chain proximity, production scalability and elasticity, time to market, skills mix, and of course automation just to name a few non labor factors. The saving grace for the US, Germany, and other western countries today is the fact that the majority of automation machinery and system suppliers are still in high wage / high standard of living countries so they capture the high margin influence of automation. This could change. Manufacturing industry initiatives such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIot) and Industrie 4.0 are primarily geared towards keeping the high margin parts of the automation machinery design and manufacturing processes in the high wage / high standard of living countries while recognizing that lower cost suppliers will continue to drive machinery and component costs down. 

Another factor in manufacturing that's weak and nearly missing in the US but more healthy in countries like Germany is the education and training programs in place for high-skill and hard-skill workers that don't have college degrees. The US has no shortage at all of highly credentialed and degreed graduates who basically have little or no hard skills that can be directly applied to job requirements in modern manufacturing. Just how many art history, communications, political science, and Celtic history graduates does a maker of packaging machines, robotics, or CNC milling machines need? About the only dedicated, large scale high-skills and hard-skills training programs in the US are the military enlisted training programs.

The impact of seeking low cost labor for low skills jobs has been going on for the past half century so it's not like the manufacturing companies suddenly got a whiff of cheap Chinese labor and packed up all of their factories on boats and shipped them to China just in the past 5 years. That's been going on for decades. All those jobs are 20-30 years removed from ever coming back to the US. Heck, those jobs aren't even in China anymore, they've moved to Viet Nam, Philippines, and Bangladesh. The more recent trend however is that in some places where the manufacturing migration passed through, and most evident starting in Japan, is that they actually invested in modern manufacturing and skills attainment that matches the requirements of the tasks at hand in the modern global economy. The key behavior here is investment. Other companies invested in building out a full-stack modern manufacturing capability and the US did not. The US just wants to skim the highest margins from the top of the food chain and not get its hands dirty in low level details. No investment = no payback. 

The current state of manufacturing in the US is an equal opportunity problem with plenty of blame to go around. You can't simply pin it on politicians or businessmen. The will of the people is as big a factor as anything. Behaviors almost always follow rewards. We got what we have because this is what we wanted and voted for. We lost our sense of purpose and replaced it with endless blaming and finger pointing. A nation of participants got replaced by a nation of spectators. When's the last time you heard of a German, Singaporean, or Japanese college athletic coach earning two or three orders of magnitude higher salary than a tenured science or engineering professor at the same university? I guess this tells you what really matters to Americans. 

mwhite said:

sog35 said:

Do you hear that knocking at your back door it’s the Swat team I hope you are as big loud mouth and ass to them as you are here…

Nachin said:

Apple is lost, get rid of Tim Cookie. No innovation, he is just numbers guy that is pleasing the board and shareholders.

A book, with photos!! Give me a break!!!!

Focus, innovate!!

The new MacBook Pro is a joke!!!!!