ihatescreennames

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ihatescreennames
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  • Apple doubled its smart speaker market share in 2021 thanks to HomePod mini

    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames
    I might consider a HomePod with a screen on it, depending on what the screen does. If its primary function is to serve ads all day long, like my friend’s Echo Show, then I’ll pass. 

    My friend uses her ES in the kitchen mostly as a device to tell her the weather and set timers, something her Echo dot down the hall does just as well. I don’t get the appeal in viewing ads on it 24/7. 
    mike54baconstangentropyswatto_cobra

  • Apple hires new HomePod Software Head to boost lackluster speaker sales

    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames
    elijahg said:
    What that tech media  never mentions in these comparisons: Amazon viewed the smart speaker as a way to increase impulse purchasing by their customers. Did that happen? Nope. 
    How is that remotely relevant to the HP flop? Amazon sells all of their smart speakers for less than the HP mini. The initial justification used here for the price gap was privacy, but since Apple was caught sending voice clips to be reviewed by humans that argument somewhat evaporated, with no further excuses for the price.
    Echos are a flop if you consider why they are sold and not just worshipping at the church of market share. 

    As @foregoneconclusion mentioned, they were introduced to facilitate impulse purchases from Amazon. The last time I saw an article about that, which was a couple of years ago, admittedly, it was something like less than 2% of Echo owners had used it to buy products from Amazon, and even fewer had tried more than once or twice. 

    There’s a lot of talk about how bad Siri is but Alexa is worse from what I’ve seen. Echos seemingly can’t hear very well if there is any other sound present, like a TV in the next room, and require yelling to be heard. 

    A couple weeks ago I got to witness my friend repeatedly ask for the hourly weather at 1:00 only for Alexa to respond with “the hourly weather at 9:00 is…” That sort of thing happened frequently. Same thing for Alexa giving an answer that completely didn’t match the question or randomly starting to talk when nobody was addressing it. 

    Those examples do not support the wonderful utopia Alexa is on the internet. 
    williamlondonpscooter63Solomon_GrundyJWSCStrangeDayswatto_cobra

  • Thieves used Apple's own devices to steal millions in gift cards

    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames
    lkrupp said:
    Many thieves are very smart and clever... until they get caught. I’ve often wondered why they turn to crime when they apparently have the talent to actually contribute to society in a positive way. Human nature I guess.
    I knew a guy, who is now deceased, who was a life long criminal. Before I knew him he was a drug smuggler and had done a decent turn in federal prison. After that he stayed away from the drug trade for a while but he was always scheming. 

    When I met him he owned a business that sold vacuum cleaners “door-to-door” and he was moderately successful. Clearly that wasn’t enough for him. 

    One time he bought an A/C unit at The Home Depot. He carried it out to his car and realized nobody stopped him to check his receipt. After loading it he immediately walked back into the store, the receipt in his pocket, picked up another unit and walked out with his receipt visible. Nobody stopped him. After that “success” he tried the same basic thing but with TVs at K-Mart (I think). That time he got busted. 

    He was always doing that sort of thing. I can’t say for sure but I think, for him at least, it was trying to see how much he could get away with, always pushing the limit. 

    Similarly, he also cheated on his wife quite a bit. Sometimes he was caught, others not. She finally had enough and left him a few years before he had a heart attack while playing racquetball with his son.

    it’s just the way some people are, I guess. 
    StrangeDayswatto_cobra

  • Apple's 'loss' is the best result for users, developers, Apple, and Epic

    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames
    tylersdad said:
    I believe this can be appealed, no? We may not have heard the end of this. But it's a good ruling that at least shuts down the ridiculous 'monopoly' argument. For now...
    I don't see how claims of the App Store being a monopoly are ridiculous. If I own an iPhone, I have one place and one place only to buy the apps for my phone: the App Store. Can I buy a phone from a different manufacturer? Sure. But that was the case years ago as well when Microsoft was forced to remove Internet Explorer from Windows because their position in the market essentially gave them an unfair advantage in the browser wars. People had the opportunity to buy Linux and Apple machines. There were alternative operating systems for those who didn't want Internet Explorer, but EU regulators still made MS remove IE from Windows. 
    Microsoft wasn't forced to remove Internet Explorer from Windows due to their position giving them an unfair advantage. Microsoft was shown to have been exhibiting monopolistic behavior, that is, they were using their position in the OS market to give their browser an unfair advantage. In other words, Micrsoft wasn't forced to make changes simply due to their position, it was their behavior that brought on the forced changes. Epic was unable to show that Apple was exhibiting monopolistic behavior.
    williamlondonhlee1169aderutterj2fusionsireofsethwatto_cobra

  • Apple squashes employee surveys on pay equity

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    Xed said:
    This is a bad look for Apple and could be illegal. I expect better from Apple.
    It’s likely the opposite. Apple could probably be sued for allowing it. That’s why they probably won’t care about the survey that wasn’t hosted on their equipment and using their accounts. 

    Companies have to be careful what they ask employees when it comes to gender, age, ethnicity, etc. If they knowingly let that sort of survey exist on company owned or hosted services used for internal communications they could be walking a thin line. 

    By the way, in my state and the neighboring state (where my wife works) it is unlawful for a company to tell employees they cannot discuss what they earn amongst each other. Years ago at my annual reviews I was always told not to discuss what my increase was or how much I earned with my coworkers. One year a law was passed prohibiting companies from muzzling employees in that regard. From then on those messages at review time were no more. 
    dysamoria