applemagic

Don't the Apple stores lose business when such protests happen? And, isn't that legal enough reason to disallow them?

I can understand protesting outside the stores, but inside?

macseeker said:

In reality it gets even worse for facebook (the article mentions that facebook's 2 billion users are affected):

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-04/facebook-says-data-on-87-million-people-may-have-been-shared

John Gruber seems to think that this revised estimate is part of the age-old drip-drip-drip PR strategy and also links to the Washington Post article that suggests that most of its 2 billion users worldwide have had their public profiles scraped without explicit permission.

He also makes this astute observation that Facebook's users are different from their customers and how this affects Facebook's policies. There's also the fact that Facebook won't extend the new European privacy law globally. All in all, a slimeball of a company.

Looking to fend off devices like the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7, Apple simultaneously announced the iPad mini, a tablet with specs similar to the iPad 2 but in a smaller and lighter 7.9-inch format.

Did Apple really roll out the iPad mini as a knee-jerk response to the success (??) of Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7? Or, was it actually a well thought-out and planned evolution of the iPad portfolio despite whatever misgivings it might have previously had about the smaller size? 

The Kindle Fire was released on 28th September, 2011 and the original Google Nexus 7 on July 13, 2012. The first rumour of a smaller iPad was attributed to the Wall Street Journal in February, 2012 where it said Apple was already testing a prototype with potential suppliers. According to The Verge, this was also confirmed by John Gruber in a podcast in April 2012. 

It's a bit of a stretch to think that Apple could have conjured up a prototype for testing between 28th September, 2011 and February 2012. Not that it would be a question of resources, just that it would be very un Apple-like to rush out a product in that manner. Also, the iPad mini was not announced at the release of iPad 3 on March 7, 2012, but in October, 2012, with the shipments starting in November 2012.

Apple's collusion with publishers to fight Amazon's dominance of e-books would eventually result in severe legal reprimands.

This is slightly off-topic, but, "collusion"? I thought it was generally the opinion of most people that the DoJ did a hit piece on Apple and that it was Amazon that was the real monopolist in this market.

I would hazard a guess that a hire of this calibre and at this level would have taken anywhere from 6-12 months - just the process of shortlisting potential candidates would have probably taken months.

So, it means that Apple has been on the ball all the time about its AI initiatives. Yet, naysayers on this forum have been berating Apple about its supposed lack of foresight and planning in improving its AI/voice assistant capabilities.

canukstorm said:

applemagic said:

And, for those who think the Chromebook is winning against the iPad or is better than the iPad, here's some food for thought from an Apple Distinguished Educator:
https://www.swiftteacher.org/swift-teacher/2017/4/24/uh-oh-chromebook-meet-the-new-ipad

Here's another viewpoint from a someone with extensive experience deploying iPads & Chromebooks in the UK:

1.  

https://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/status/977301922049818624

2.  

https://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/status/977302114094452737

3.  

https://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/status/977302220499836928

4.   

https://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/status/977303375535640577

5.  

https://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/status/977304105700986880

I am quite sure no one here was making a case for an iOS laptop, better typing, cheaper iPad or a more rugged iPad, so not sure about the relevance of those comments for this discussion.

But, his other thoughts are probably spot on. I sometimes wonder why Apple doesn't simply buy JAMF or work out some agreement with them - those guys do a great job with deploying and managing Apple devices in the enterprise, which would easily solve one of the major problems schools seem to be having. Or, may it's a lot more nuanced than just that.

Oh, well, I guess we will know what Apple has up its sleeve, come Tuesday.