auxio

It's abundantly clear once you understand that Google is an advertising company, not a technology company.

Their bottom line relies on knowing as much about people as possible so that they're the best choice for companies which want to advertise their products online. Their core technologies: online services (search, mail, maps, messaging, YouTube, cloud storage), Android, and Chrome are simply vehicles for that. So of course they're going to continually look for ways to maximize the quantity and quality of that data. The same way Apple continually looks for ways to make their technology products more attractive to their customers.

dutchlord said:

As if there was a performance problem. I never had performance issues with any Intel/M powered mac. Even my 8 year old Macbook Pro still handles any workflow. It reminds me of another Apple obsession making devices thinner. Apple should focus on more usefull features like extended battery life, satellite internet, cloud backup, touch screen MacBooks etc

The ole, "everyone is the same as me" argument.

Are you building machine learning models? Making movies in 8K? Building high resolution 3D models? Then did you consider that perhaps you don't actually need to buy a MacBook Pro? The word "Pro" is unfortunately just a status symbol for a lot of people who don't truly understand what it means.

Graeme000 said:

I still use and enjoy my MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar. Although admittedly, the primary thing I use the Touch Bar for is to scrub forward and skip YouTube ads. 

It does make scrubbing through any videos really easy, but that’s really my main use for it. It’s definitely too inconsistent to know when any other programs use it or not. 

In addition to video scrubbing, I also enjoy the precise sound and brightness level control it affords. But I agree that the inconsistency makes it difficult to know exactly what controls will be presented for a given app (if any). So in that regard it's impossible to develop any sort of muscle memory with it as one does with traditional keyboard controls.

I get so tired of the rhetoric from reactionaries these days. I've just started to assume that they either lack critical thinking skills of any kind or have a hidden agenda to push.

The difference between Apple and Google/Meta is that Apple does actually pay for the content in Apple News+

Unlike Facebook and Google, however, Apple does pay for the news it presents in Apple News+. It's done worldwide and in part via Apple's News Partner Program.

So this change to the legislation will likely have no effect on Apple. It'll simply ensure that all online sources of news are covered by the same legislation.

Apple has long been a company which pays the entry fee for whatever they get into. Unlike Google who have a long history of preferring to go the route of litigation over paying any sort of licensing fees (cloning Java for app development on Android, buying WebM instead of licensing H.264, cloning fonts, etc). And Facebook has long looked to Google for how to run their business, so it's not surprising they choose the same path.

And that's what this is really about: if your business is going to profit from something, be it news content, music, or technology, you ensure that the people producing those things get paid accordingly for them. I have no love for scammers who are simply out to rip others off, or for those who blindly support them. Pay the entry fee to whatever industry you're choosing to do business in or GTFO.

mikethemartian said:

GeorgeBMac said:

I think it's important to remember that neither Jobs not Sculley ever invented anything.   They provided overview, guidance and parameters -- and enabled the Geeks to do their best geeking.

That's fairly obvious with Sculley but near heresy to say about Steve.  But even Gates mocked him for being non-technical.

But, that doesn't mean that both were not geniuses in their own right.   Geeks need geniuses like that to lead and guide and enable and to see the bigger, longer picture.

Jobs wasn’t a true engineer but he did have an uncanny sense of how a user would want to interact with a device.

Don't forget the ability to create a compelling story about why the device matters to the average person. And since 90% of running a tech company is convincing non-technical people to shell out for your product, those are arguably the more important roles.