discountopinion

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  • Family trapped on Mt. Hood rescued via Emergency SOS via Satellite

    discountopiniondiscountopinion
    This tech is just outstanding and I keep seeing more and more stories about how Apple saved lives or made a significant health difference in peoples lives.

    This is the way. I hope that Apple feels encouraged by all the success stories and triples down on efforts to accelerate evolution of their tech.

    Here is wishing the tech evolves to be usable for earthquake victims and people trapped under rubble so rescue teams can find them quicker. 
    danoxwatto_cobra

  • Apple has effectively abandoned HomeKit Secure Routers

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    Apple has a natural mesh wifi option which would be to take a page out of Amazons book for their Echo smart speakers that can act as wifi extenders. 

    Eero and other mesh wifi devices are slowly encroaching on smart home connectivity such as being thread hubs or zigbee hubs. This is a slow constriction of Apples home aspirations and I see no gameplan to remain relevant.

    Why not have the HomePods act as mesh wifi? Clearly the trend is to have the computational horsepower and add some augmented wifi circuitry and antennas. Not ideal likely but could potentially work.

    Apple with its gross margin targets will unlikely compete successfully with dedicated mass market mesh wifi.
    dewmewatto_cobra

  • March iPad & Mac releases may not get a flashy event after all

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    Personally I am hoping that MacBook and iPad get a muted announcement and i hope that Apple is instead spending their fanfare gunpowder on a splash on Home and Wearables related products.

    MacBook updates are pretty foreseeable and iPad updates are useful, but incremental these days. Overall the iPad product mix feels like it could use some cleanup. I feel that people likely rarely upgrade their iPads these days for better features, but likely replace iPads when they stop working or just get too slow. Personally i have no need for iPad or MacBook upgrades this year or likely some years further in the future.

    I am holding out for AirPods Max 2. It is clear that social media has bumped adoption of Max v1 as you see lots of kids running around with them nowadays compared to just a year or two ago. Hopefully Apple leans into this with a massive boost and trumpeted launch of new ones. 

    Apple TV feels like it would massively benefit from a revamp to move HomeKit/Matter forward and also enable multiple users connected to it for Fitness + and enable multiplayer local and remote exercising. Would love to have AppleTV also support USB connected webcams instead of only relying on iPhone or iPad for camera. If Apple is serious about AppleTV as a gaming platform then getting hardware raytracing (A17 or M3) seems like the next step with a price bump. Maybe a GenAI/LLM hub for the home to power local Siri with large models that HomePods cannot handle? Also why no UWB chip in AppleTV?

    HomePod - Love my HomePod 2’s that co-exist in a home with some old HomePods and HomePod Minis. I feel it is time to take it to the next level. Enable people to build large sets of HomePods in a room. Like running 4x HomePod 2’s for home cinema with an AppleTV next gen. As HomePods get more silicon horse power then perhaps it may be an idea to revisit AirPort functionality for the large HomePod.


     
    9secondkox2watto_cobra

  • Apple's 2024 iPad & iPhone chip plan has been detailed in a new leak

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    Apple has finally publicly pivoted towards GenAI instead of keeping it hidden and discreet.

    Extrapolating current trends then n a few years Services will contribute 50% of total gross margin so any hardware strategy will be built around enabling this as Services is 2x gross margin compared to devices.

    I expect that Apple’s silicon choices are guided by unit economics and to provide a broad base of adoption for upcoming services. This may mean that all devices will have a healthy uplift in Neural engine capacity and GPU capacity as a priority. Further it seems that Apples confidence in TMSC process capability is increasing and thus the AS chip may be less of a device category differentiator.

    I can see Apple also ensuring that more devices can do spatial video, so any AS oomph needed to power that will be widely deployed.

    I agree with some other posts saying that upgraded AS is not a selling point for most people. However the services that are then possible will be a selling point for new devices.
    tenthousandthingstmaywilliamlondonChris_Pelham

  • Apple smart ring, glasses, camera-equipped AirPods rumored in wearables push

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    I have no doubt that Apple explores all sorts of concepts and files patents. Some of it may be PsyOps against the competition to occlude their real intent.

    Apple Ring - feels meh if already having a watch.  A better product would be a scaled down Apple Watch that can tell time, health features, cellular, gps and satellite comms with personal attack alarm. Many schools are banning smart phones and smart watches regardless of the software modes for use in school.. a visibly scaled down version would be great for kids.

    A ring would be a pain in the neck to scale to mass volumes since there will be a wide range of finger sizes. Customer variance in size is low cost to manage when having the variance in a rubber loop on the iPhone. I do not see it for a ring unless reaching massive scale.

    Apple smart glasses? Not yet. Need massive uplift of Apples AI chops first.

    AirPods with cameras? Feels like a massive distraction instead of doubling down on the market segment of assisted hearing. 
    williamlondoncg27watto_cobra9secondkox2dewme