jimh2

avon b7 said:

Be careful with what you wish for. Waiting isn't always the best way forward. 

Apple could have swallowed up Netflix years ago. They waited. 

The TV never came. We got a hobby box instead. 

The car project got canceled as others not only delivered solutions but improved on them. 

They waited on Intel for a 5G modem. 

They are well behind on AI. 

The VP was announced as a way of getting a foot in the door. It isn't a mass market product and there is no better testing ground for future mass market products than the real world. 

That will grate heavily some people who have incessantly claimed Apple only brings fully baked products to market. That was never true but people like to believe it. 

Waiting for Meta to fail would be chancing a lot because Meta isn't alone here. It's an industry march not an initiative by a couple of companies. 

Netflix: maybe
TV: Would have been crazy to get into a commodity item which is updated annually by companies where TV is a prime product and brand matters. Crazy low margins.
Car: Another industry with crazy low margins as well, but adding maintaining massive parts inventories. Tesla was an anomaly. 
Intel Modem: there have been a contractual reason, but no one will ever know
Behind on AI: Can you give us concrete real world examples they should be doing?
VP: Good move to get the market moving and justify to keep developing knowing use cases will go up, the VP will get smaller and run longer, and prices will come down.

Companies have to move forward and accept when there are products that are going nowhere like the car and TV. CarPlay puts you into the licensing game which means skim on every car sold with CarPlay.

I hope that AI on the phone can do more than real time translation the one time I am in a foreign country where no English is spoken to catch a taxi. Apparently this is the only thing Samsung thinks is worth mentioning in their ads. Car commercials are equally bad...showing things drivers will never do.

AI is so overplayed right now with every company grasping for straws to get in the game.

I discount these "studies", but anecdotally I am seeing for Macs in the wild. For @apple4thewin I don't think any of the people who are converting are using games as a reason not to do so. While not a gaming rig, consoles are good enough for most and definitely better than a lot of what gamers play on (unless they have a dedicated gaming rig that always has the best of everything).

Highest quality on Spotify: Maximum bitrate is 320kbps using the Ogg Vorbis codec on desktop and mobile apps. Web player streams at 256kbps using AAC. Keep in mind you have to pay for this for if you are a free-rider you are limited to 128kbps on web player and 160kbps on mobile and desktop apps.

Apple Music: Lossless

Young is dead wrong on this one. If you wanted the highest quality stream Apple Music wins by a long shot. He is the one who created his own streamer called Pono that offered high-res. A noble attempt but in never gained any traction and they are now out of business. Reality is he is on out of touch old guy with music not a lot of people care for and who has made an arbitrary decision to go with Spotify. No loss.

foregoneconclusion said:

AppleInsider said:

Even with its runaway global number one position, though, Spotify has been regularly posting a loss in its quarterly revenue reports. Consequently, Spotify needs to cut expenses and grow its business, both of which it could do if it can persuade the EU to prevent Apple charging it for in-app subscriptions.

Less than 1% of Spotify's iOS subscribers paid via that App Store at the time of their official complaint to the EU. 

You can only run at a loss for so long.