spheric

About

Username
spheric
Joined
Visits
255
Last Active
Roles
member
Points
3,377
Badges
1
Posts
2,564

Reactions

2.1KLike259Informative

  • Apple buys Intel modem business in $1B deal

    sphericspheric
    Soli said:
    Have those Nortel patents for LTE that Apple bought amounted to anything yet? I ask because I wonder if this is about Apple investing in their cellular radios or using it as a investment to stave off future patent trolls.
    Gruber points out that the executive quoted in Apple's Press Release is Johny Srouji, senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. 

    This is not about patent trolling. They intend to build this stuff. 
    Soliwatto_cobra

  • Apple 'Privacy. That's iPhone' campaign billboards reach Germany

    sphericspheric
    "Amerikaner": 




    Berliner (called "Pfannkuchen" — pancake — in Berlin): 




    Wiener (NOT "Weiner"!), called "Frankfurter" in Vienna:



    Krakauer: 




    This has been a food safety PSA for your information.
    SoliGG1WTimberman

  • Review: Apple's 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro is an excellent, inexpensive workhorse

    sphericspheric
    GeorgeBMac said:
    StrangeDays said:
    bobolicious said:
    ...non-upgradable = unappealing from this camp...
    I suspect (and have read educated guesses from writers here) that the vast majority of Apple laptop customers didn’t perform DIY upgrades. You’re confusing yourself as a DIY tinkerer with the mass market. 
    Quite the contrary.   These AI pages have been filled over recent years with reports of Mac users upgrading both memory and storage.   And, it certainly doesn't have to be done by a "tinkerer" -- I can pop a drive out of my Lenovo in literally seconds (remove ONE screw and pull out the tray) and upgrading memory isn't much harder.   But, if Apple or the user chooses, it could be like changing an iPhone battery -- not a user replaceable part, just take it to the Apple Store.

    I'm not buying the "nobody does it" argument.
    I am. I was in Apple sales (reseller) for eight years and did support for a while longer. "People" don't upgrade. RAM was occasionally upgraded, but only ever once on any laptop. Often enough done by our service guys — mostly when the machine was purchased. Hard drives were usually only replaced when they broke or upgraded when the machine was purchased (or ordered BTO in the first place). 
    We had a service where we'd replace the optical drive with an SSD. Hardly ever done, but available.

    In mentioning that "these AI pages have been filled […] with reports of Mac users upgrading", you forget that "the vast majority" of Mac users never post on troubleshooting forums on the internet. Ever. 
    The people who are talking on here are by definition total dweebs, not "regular users". 
    There's what — probably a couple hundred semi-regular active users here, and probably about 50 to 100 or so accounts that do 90% of the posting. 

    There are two BILLION active iOS devices.
    There were 100 MILLION active Macs in use as of 2018. 
    The vast majority of Macs sold have been laptops, for at least a decade. 
    No Mac laptop has been upgradeable in any meaningful sense since 2016 (and even before then, the aftermarket SSDs were kind of spotty, unreasonably expensive, and certainly nothing ever approaching a mass market). 

    You do the math. 

    Nobody* does it. 



    *) obviously the proverbial, slightly hyperbolic, "nobody".
    macpluspluschiafastasleep

  • Developers talk about being 'Sherlocked' as Apple uses them 'for market research'

    sphericspheric
    StrangeDays said:
    It happens. Ask the developers of Netscape. 
    When Apple built Safari, Netscape had already been displaced by Microsoft Internet Explorer. 

    And Netscape did a job of killing NCSA Mosaic before that.

    I remember well the first time I used Netscape on a demo Mac at a consumer fair — "Wow! INLINE GRAPHICS! Holy Carp!"
    IreneWwatto_cobraciva

  • First look: Mac Pro and Apple Pro Display XDR [u]

    sphericspheric
    mr lizard said:
    The Pro Stand resembles the iMac G4 display arm in functionality, with the addition of rotation, and is an additional $999 purchase. A VESA adapter is $199. The display does come with a basic stand.
    The display comes with a basic stand? That hasn’t been mentioned anywhere else, including Apple. Is there a source for this info?
    Looks like misinformation. 

    The techspecs page lists the VESA mount and the Pro Stand, and under "what's included" it only mentions the display itself, a power cable, and a Thunderbold 3 Pro cable. No mention of a basic stand.

    https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/specs/
    dysamoriafastasleeph2p