mknelson

"The Apple subreddit has reopened under duress after a protest about API fees was squashed by threats from the company's CEO to remove the moderation teams of closed subreddits."

Did anybody else read that sentence and have to stop and think: "Do they mean Tim Cook?" as Apple is the only company explicitly named by that point in the article.

Japhey said:

You go into great detail describing the new note overlay windows, but only a brief mention of the acceleration Mac users can expect. Why even mention it in the title if you weren’t going to explain it with more detail? You do know that’s the reason most people on an Apple News site are going to click on the article, right?

"The technical work in this update makes it possible to enable hardware acceleration for the Mac & Linux versions of Steam, bringing them up to par with Windows. You should see snappier animations, scrolling and more responsive UI." This is for the Steam application, not games installed by Steam.

JP234 said:

This case is mystifying to me. Apple is selling the new 14" M2 MacBook Pro (16GB/512GB) direct for $1,999. AppleCare+ is $299 extra.

I just bought that same computer on Amazon for $1749. And Applecare+ was $279.

How is that a conspiracy or price rigging? Because B&H AND Adorama had it for the same price as Amazon.

The lawsuit seems to be focused on refurbished/second hand Macs rather than pristine new in box models.

"The prices were sometimes lower than retail, but the devices were not always in perfect condition."

" Apple's new agreement now limits the sale of their products to authorized resellers or those who purchase $2.5 million worth of refurbished inventory every 90 days."

Just reading the ArsTechnica article: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/judge-allows-apple-and-amazon-price-fixing-lawsuit-to-move-forward/

"The original complaint, filed by Seattle law firm Hagens Berman on behalf of Pennsylvania resident Steven Floyd and a wider class, suggests that Apple and Amazon's agreement, originally framed as a way of removing counterfeit or low-quality Apple products from the store, denies customers competitive pricing on iPhones and iPads. The suit claimed that the agreement essentially killed the market for refurbished Apple goods on Amazon while giving Amazon a discount of up to 10 percent on its own sales of Apple goods. The suit notably claimed that there were more than 600 vendors of Apple goods on Amazon in early 2018 but only seven by mid-2019."

quakerotis said:

Simply a bunch of BS. There are two independent repair shops in my city that will perform most common repairs for phones in a half day. They stock most common parts.
…

I agree with your naive comment, but everything else in the article is accurate. Some common parts like iPhone screens and batteries, perhaps top cases for recent MacBooks, but the normal repair process is exactly as described, with the majority of parts only ordered if required for a repair (too much dead stock otherwise), as is the low margins if you try to compete with Apple's repairs on cost. Don't forget: Apple has margin on the parts as well as the repair shop.

"Apple intends to release what it calls the "next-generation" of CarPlay sometime in 2023, and will likely announce it at this year's WWDC. It will take over the car's instrument cluster to display gauges for stats like fuel and oil, engine temperature, and miles per gallon."

Should be "It could take over…" if the vehicles manufacturer allows it.

As for GM, I can see them backing off this at some point. Enabling Android Auto and CarPlay in Android Automotive shouldn't be difficult.

Otherwise, I expect somebody to hack Android Automotive to enable those services.

The strange thing about GMs original announcement is that the services they discuss are free for 8 years so I don't see where that revenue stream is coming from unless it's for a data plan. Their current Essentials plan (no data for WiFi) is pretty sensible with OnStar, remote settings and vehicle monitoring including location tracking.