steveau

Fake U.S. Marshal steals an iPhone, Thailand 'iPhone killers,' and more from the Apple cri...

steveau

April 2018

If someone steals an iPad or iPhone from a store then their inventory records will show the item ID numbers, so, when someone switches the device on, can Apple find the device on "Find my Phone" or whatever? Presumably the person switching it on will have bought it from the criminal, but would be able to give evidence about who they bought it from.

Apple's AirPort base stations are gone, and we wish they weren't

steveau

April 2018

entropys said:

I think it is shortsIghted. A comprehensive Apple digital hub/ecosystem would have to be a great selling point.
A cheap, lower price airport express replacement optimised for third party speakers or just an extender. A puck.
Linked into a router mesh network complete with local backup tailored not only for phones, tablets, computers, speakers and TVs but also HomeKit devices. that a ten year old can set up.
Apple easy configuration of course. Remember that? Thing is, a competitively priced ecosystem would make it more likely people will buy homepods and Apple TVs don’t you think?

it is this sort of neglect that killed off the Thunderbolt Display and the embarrassment that is the Mac mini and the MBA.

Instead of totally discontinuing something (monitors, routers, etc.) why doesn't Apple follow the Claris-FileMaker Pro path? Allow those in the team who want to to set up an semi-independent subsidiary. Apple loses the distraction and risk of a no longer vital product line, but keeps 51% of the profit (or whatever) and the ability to bring the team and the product back into the fold in the future (e.g. ClarisWorks came back as Pages & Numbers). They could call it X-Apple or name it after one of the hundreds of varieties of Apple: Pippin anyone?

Mac mini: What we want to see in an update to Apple's low-cost desktop

steveau

April 2018

The MacMini refresh and the proposed "Modular" will be the same thing. "Modular" means that it will be rackable or stackable in some way. Like you can already do with a couple of MacMinis with a SuperDrive, a multi-Terabyte drive or two and an Airport Extreme, but with the same form factor and a clever way of connecting them so you can stack or rack them together. Notwithstanding the Xserve, a rack would be very non-Apple, so I expect something much more elegant than that. Better too than the RackMac MacMini product. Also the CPU module might be water or oil cooled. I'll wait 12-15 months for that!

Jony Ive talks design, creativity, and Steve Jobs in interview with Naomi Campbell

steveau

April 2018

AppleZulu said:

One of the things I have most appreciated about Apple is their attention to design, both aesthetically and functionally. Computer tech was always the realm of the engineer, of function to the detriment of form, and even function to the detriment of function. One beige box was like the next, and every bit as attractive as an interstate bridge, made to get you across a river while unthinkingly blocking the view, because the journey is only meant to be tolerated on the way to a destination.

I lived mostly in a Microsoft PC world until I bought my first iPhone. I’ve been around computers for a long time, but that iPhone was probably the first thing that I held and looked at as an object, admiring the build and the quality of it.

If you’re old enough, think about it. If you had or worked with a 386 computer, or the first pentium PC, what did it look like? How was it different from the beige box you had before it? The specs were momentarily exciting, but fleeting and unmemorable. While it was also beige, think about the Mac II. If you used one, you remember exactly what it looked like. When Steve Jobs returned from exile, the iMac was the first non-beige machine on the market. You know exactly what that looked like, even if you didn’t have one. What about the contemporaneous PC? Beige. It’s in a landfill and nobody misses it.

Agree! You are describing the difference between products and places created by designers (and their executive leadership) who care and those that are careless, something Jony has talked about before.