AppleZulu

It was an interesting choice to leave this out of the article, but here's the link: https://www.apple.com/iphone/why-upgrade/ 

It's interesting to note that the page only compares iPhone 11 and 12 models (but not iPhone 13 or 14 models) to the iPhone 15. 

Perhaps this link should be offered without comment as the stock response to the annual whinging about "incrementalism" when new iPhone models come out. 

avon b7 said:

AppleZulu said:

avon b7 said:

AppleZulu said:

discountopinion said:

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.

I thought at their initial introduction that HomePods would also be mesh routers. They weren’t, of course, and on further thought it probably isn’t a great idea. HomePod placement will always be about the best place for music playback and the best place for issuing Siri voice commands. 

Mesh router placement is about maximizing backhaul to the primary router while also maximizing WiFi coverage. 

If HomePods were also mesh routers, users would still prioritize audio for placing them and then complain about spotty WiFi coverage. A combo device just isn’t ideal. 

I don't think that would be a problem. Anything with a cable on it isn't likely to be in an open space, so a router/mesh and HomePod combo could work well.

Even better would be a stackable solution where users could decide which elements to stack and allow for futureproofing by replacing them for upgraded versions, leaving the main audio hardware in place. 

It’s not about being in an open space. It’s about placing theoretical combo HomePods/mesh routers on the furthest wall of the furthest room from the primary router, because that’s the ideal place for audio in that room, but entirely suboptimal for the purposes of providing effective WiFi coverage for everything else. 

Also, stackable, swappable components? You know this is in reference to Apple devices, right?

I actually have two mesh systems running off two routers. The mesh satellites are in what you would describe as 'bad places' but my management app has a floor plan of my flat which shows a map of the signal strength in each room. My entire flat shows up in green with an signal connection described as 'excellent'. And that is with running the entire mesh on 'medium' power. I can choose between three signal strength options.

There is no reason Apple couldn't develop a stackable ring setup with different rings for different features sitting under a HomePod. Air quality sensors, networking, lighting, storage, IoT uses etc and let the user mix and match. 

If your flat is truly a flat, it’s likely not challenging for much of any WiFi configuration, so your personal anecdotal observations don’t say much. 

foregoneconclusion said:

"I would think of it as unwise to say that the services are not safe to use, because that has nothing to do with the DMA," Vestager said about the warnings. "The DMA is there to open the market for other service providers to get to you and how your service provider of your operating system, how they will make sure that it is safe is for them to decide."

Uhhhhh...if the other service providers get to decide how "safe it is" then why wouldn't Apple be allowed to say there are risks? Vestager just admitted that the DMA doesn't have security standards. Didn't the EU previously claim that App Store users would have no idea that they could pay for things on the internet unless a message inside the app told them they could do it? But now Apple isn't allowed to communicate that the security standards will be different...which is definitely true according to Vestager herself.

Bingo.

Apple offers a number of consumer protection benefits for users of third-party apps downloaded through the App Store, and in-app subscriptions and purchases handled through the App Store. Apps are reviewed for compatibility and compliance with consumer data collection standards, including required transparency and permissions for collection and use of certain user data. In-app subscriptions can be stopped as easily as they are started. The list goes on. 

For third-party app stores, these things - by definition - will not be handled by Apple, and Apple can't guarantee that similar standards will be maintained by operators of third-party app stores. They not only should be allowed to communicate this, an actual consumer protection law should probably require that this be communicated.

As much as the EU seems to be actively pretending it's not the case, the primary reason that some app developers want to have access to the iOS platform outside the App Store, is specifically because they want to defy Apple's standards for security, privacy and consumer protections. They want to collect and sell user data and they want to implement in-app sales and subscription practices that don't meet Apple's standards. 

Tile had been out there for years with zero anti-stalking features. Then AirTags came on the market - with anti stalking protections - and Tile panicked, and added them to their devices. Soon after, Tile added a feature to their feature that lets their users pinky-promise they won’t use Tile for stalking (or at least won’t get caught), and then they can turn off the anti-stalking protections. 

How can they push back the date of something that's never going to happen?