poisednoise

macxpress said:

I'll stick with HomePod thank you very much! Worth every penny!

Except that Apple do something very similar, as outlined in the article above, and also expanded upon here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47893082

kingofsomewherehot said:
Software is not required to ensure it remains in the air. (That statement would be valid for an Airbus.... you should avoid flying on them.) 

Would you care to provide citation? Stating that all Airbus aircraft will crash without computer control is quite a sweeping statement. If you’re referring to fly by wire, my understanding is that the 320 has mechanical backup, all others have electrical (not electronic) backups in the case of multiple computer failures. If you’re suggesting that no Airbus aircraft would have the potential to survive a “Gimli glider”-like incident, I’d be interested to see your source.

[edit] Guess what I just found: an Air Transat A330 landed safely after travelling 75 miles without any power  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/can-a-plane-fly-with-no-one-engines/

And of course the “Miracle on the Hudson” was an A320, so I’m really not sure what you’re on about. 

An excellent explanation of the potential problems with this design here: https://youtu.be/8h5hniSM7LQ.

poisednoise said:

I'm currently booked on a return flight on a 737-8 in July, and I really hope by that point the decision's been made that they all need to be scrapped and start again.

You hope that a plane is "scrapped" rather than "fixed"?

Obviously I’d prefer it to be fixed, however I dont want to fly on a plane that is inherently unstable by design, as this one is, and requires software to ensure it remains in the air. Given the fundamental issues with the design, short of putting new smaller engines on the plane (basically turning it into one of the earliers generations of 737) I’m not sure what can be done, and even that fix might not be feasible.

MCAS is a system that’s common on fighter aircraft where unstable designs can lead to greater manoeuvrability: I believe however that it doesn’t have any place on a passenger aircraft, where safety should surely come before any other consideration. If you’re needing to design software just to keep your plane in the air, then hiding its existence from the pilots (it wasn’t mentioned in the original manual apparently) and additonally changing its specs radically after FAA approval, without telling the FAA (they approved a system which could move the tail fin by 0.6 degres maximum, whereas the system as installed can move it by 2.5 degrees) something is seriously wrong. 

To all those asking about the 3.5mm jack:
Anything aimed at the education market needs to retain the audio jack, as the alternatives are far too costly for a school.

• Lightning headphones: still so much more expensive than their 3.5mm counterparts, and students are unlikely to have their own, whereas they will have their own 3.5mm headphones. 
• Lightning adaptors: not cheap, breakable, and prone to disappear into student’s pockets. 
• Wireless headphones: again, expensive, and more prone to breaking than 3.5mm alternatives. 

The problem here is that he was talking about Syria. There only needs to be an "a" in front of it (such as "A Syrian solution" etc) to almost certainly trigger Siri...