GeorgeBMac

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GeorgeBMac
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  • Bill payment app doxo adds Apple Pay option to pay 45,000 services

    I use the bill pay service from my bank -- I don't know which payment processor they use.   But (knock on wood) it works!

    A major benefit is that I can schedule payments to happen automatically whenever I want them.  Initially I used it for recurring payments that don't change -- like my cable bill.   But eventually I added all of my bills - including utilities.   So, now I just send the gas company $75 a month all year round -- so that even helps with budgeting.   All I do when the bill comes is open it and check it to make sure everything is in order.  The only bills not fully automated are my credit cards -- but I even have it sending them a a few dollars on the first of each month just to eliminate late charges in case I screw up paying their actual bill.

    A side benefit is:  If I get sick or hurt and can't pay bills for a few months, I have no real worries.  Except for a handful few (like doctor's bill's that I can't predict) everything is pretty well covered and paid automatically.

    This service is free to me -- and the bank makes out because they send most payments as ACH transactions which is far cheaper for them than processing checks.
    chasm
  • The Wall Street Journal reportedly joins Apple News service, NYT and Washington Post decli...

    78Bandit said:
    I do subscribe to both the NYT and WP.  One thing I have noticed is they very frequently intersperse their opinion pieces among their journalism pieces.  Their legitimate news tends to be well researched and well presented.  Their opinion pieces are almost totally liberally biased with a few token conservative commentators thrown in (apparently just to generate forum arguments).

    That's the one area I think news can be improved.  Move the opinion pieces off the front page to a separate section.  Make it very clear the news is independent and generally fair, even though how a news article is written can still be biased. We need more news outlets that we can trust to dig deep and give us all the facts.  Save the political hit pieces for somewhere else.  Every editorial board is going to have its opinion, and it is well within their rights to write about it, but it should never be given as much publicity and credibility as a news article that is held to the journalistic ethical standards.

    For example, the NYT article digging into how Trump's real estate empire used related shell corporations to artificially inflate the cost of rental unit repairs and justify rent rate increases was very well written.  The followup opinion pieces calling for Trump's head, investigations by every possible agency that could have jurisdiction, outlining every way they could think of to get every person to flip on Trump, etc. were way over the top and designed to elicit a particular emotional response rather than letting the reader figure out what they thought based on the facts.
    Totally, absolutely agree!   I was taught that in school 50-60 years ago:   News goes here.   Opinion goes there.

    But, at least for WP (I don't bother with NYT), I have no trouble distinguishing their opinion pieces from their news pieces.  

    But, cable news has totally intermixed the the two.  They not only intermix news & opinion pieces, but opinion is threaded through and into their news pieces.  In their defense, they seem to think of it more as "analysis" -- but there's a real thin line between analysis and opinion.
    n2itivguy
  • Editorial: The iPad Air and the iPad mini have always been Apple's best tablets

    This release changed something else not mentioned here:   Whether it was propagated by the media or by Apple, the Mini has always had the reputation as being "The budget iPad".  And, much like the iPhone SE, it was both the smallest and the cheapest (at least until they increased the minimum storage to 128Gb and released the 9.7' iPad Gen6).

    This seems to change that:  It seems to be priced commensurately with the new iPad Air in the 'moderate' range -- neither super cheap nor super expensive.   I think that shows the value of its smaller form factor -- it's just a lot easier to hold and manage.

    But, that also opens the door to the next step:   An update using the same external form factor but with a larger bezeless screen -- which will make the Mini screen almost the same size as that in the current 9.7" iPads.
    cgWerks
  • The Wall Street Journal reportedly joins Apple News service, NYT and Washington Post decli...

    stevenoz said:

    The New York Times is worth every penny you pay it... for top-level news coverage. Thank God for them.

    Too bad Bezos won't give up his love of  profit, but that's that.

    I'll definitely subscribe to Apple News Service long enough to see if it is worth it to me... and if I have enough time to also read the NYT, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, and The Nation, that I subscribe to.

    All Americans _need_ to be informed in these dark days of Donald. It's your civic duty.

    I don’t like Donald very much, but dark days? Where were these truth tellers in Obama years?
    He wasn’t fucking up the country every week while lining his pockets and those of family members while also banging porn stars and bribing them to keep quiet about it. Oh and sucking up to dictators who he believes are “good guys”. None of this is normal presidential behavior. We didn’t have to talk about it during the Obama years because none of that happened. This isn’t rocket science. 
    You can always tell when a Trumper lost an argument -- they resort to "WhatAboutIsm".
    lordjohnwhorfin
  • The Wall Street Journal reportedly joins Apple News service, NYT and Washington Post decli...

    chadbag said:
    The NYT ceased being objective journalism and new reporters years ago.   Even if articles contain lots of actual facts, the headlines and ways those facts are reported are biased to push the liberal progressive or sometimes just the Democrat view.  They've long been a joke. 
    Only if you believe Trump and his official propaganda outlet:  FauxNews.  I prefer reality.
    lordjohnwhorfin