MplsP

macgui said:

MplsP said:

Why does it matter? Mastercard is accepted in a few more countries but they’re virtually identical and the card benefits are usually determined by the issuing bank, not the platform.

Um, I'm US centric, so any benefits outside the country don't matter to me.

MasterCard is not excepted everywhere in the US as is or as much as Visa. This is the function of the retailer, not the platform or the issuing bank.

An individual customer can probably request either card from Chase but the Apple Card will be assigned one or the other.

Blaurieter said:

I wonder how this will effect the Apple Savings? That has been a major attraction for many people.

I got the Card on Day One when there wasn't the Apple Savings feature just Daily Cash. I shifted that money into Apple Savings and the amount grows very quickly. I would miss Daily Cash and Apple Savings big time.

macgui said:

AI said:
When JPMorgan takes over, however, it will likely drop CoreCard as the Apple Card's processor in favor of its own in-house payment processing. Before it got the Apple account and its estimated 12 million users, CoreCard was considered a niche processor.
CoreCard currently manages the day-to-day functioning of the Apple Card, ensuring that transactions are completed and handling the billing of users. It is also CoreCard that has been responsible for developing some of the distinctive features of the card alongside Apple, like its first-of-the-month billing cycle.
CoreCard also developed the "payment wheel" graphic on its bills that show cardholders their projected interest costs, widely seen as consumer-friendly and educational. JPMorgan Chase will be responsible for the Apple Card once Goldman Sachs exits the consumer market.  

The "payment" wheel is one of my favorite features of the Apple Card. It greatly simplifies keeping track of payments and facilitating adjustments should the need arise. There are other features unique to the Card that I like. They may survive for a bit after the transition but I don't expect them to last. I foresee Chase saying "keep your payment wheel - we're not buying it from you".

My next concern is whether or not Chase keeps the Card a MasterCard or makes it a Visa card. I have no idea how costly it would be to swap them, or if it's at all feasible to Chase to do so. I'd prefer it to be a Visa card.

Xed said:

cia said:

I had an ink jet printer for years, it worked ok, but as time went on I was printing less and less, and it seemed like every time I did want to finally print something, the ink had dried up, or was blotched or whatever.  The cost to replace was high, and then next time I needed it, it had dried up again.  So since I never print photos anymore I got a cheap B&W HP laser printer off Amazon Renewed for $75.  It came with a "starter" toner cartridge that is only good for a few pages, and then you have to buy a normal one.  That was 8 years ago, & I'm still on the "starter" toner cartridge. Thing prints fine every time I (rarely) do need something printed.

If you are like me and rarely need to print, check out renewed printers, they are super cheap.  Be sure to check if the one you are getting is MacOS compatible, most are but you never know.

That mirrors my switch from ink jet to laser. It was a great printers but I printed so infrequently it dried up. I've had some luck helping others save ink jet printers by doing the head cleaning (sometimes up to 3 to 5 times to get it working again), but for me that didn't do anything and I didn't want to spend over $100 for ink that may simply dry up again. Ironically I'm now printing a lot these days for various reasons.

mpantone said:

M68000 said:

mpantone said:

At last it looks like I'll finally be upgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 18 in the next few days. Same with migrating from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 as well as macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia.

As usual I will wait until at least June 2026 to install iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe.

Totally up to you. But I have no idea what you are waiting for. 

I'm waiting for Apple to clean up their Cupertino dogchow.

Apple's software QA has markedly and steadily declined over the years. Ten years ago, yes, I would install the newest release the same week it came out (September usually). But as their release quality noticeably worsened, I started delaying this to a point release. Over years, this just drifted to later point releases until a few years ago I just waited until the week of WWDC in June to date. For sure Apple would not be adding any features, it would all be bug fixes by the time they previewed the next gen OSes.

But now most of Apple's operating systems still have significant bugs in the x.5 releases. Hence, waiting until this year's x.6 releases. This ensures a smoother user experience since I simply don't see nine months worth of bugs (typically the most serious ones). I just don't have the interest/energy to deal with that garbage anymore. I will wait for the features when the software is fully baked: July or August.

Note that I have skipped some releases altogether like macOS Crapalina (I upgraded directly from Mojave to Big Sur sometime in the spring of 2021, six months after that latter's release).

Note that Apple themselves are aware that their software quality is going downhill. They even took a week pause in December 2023 to tackle bugs which delayed a point release. And yes, Siri with Apple Intelligence is another example of how Apple determined that a particular feature wasn't ready for primetime. They have also removed and reintroduced some features like AI-powered summary notifications.

Note that since Apple releases security patches for the previous two operating systems, my devices are still safe and well supported.

Note that I do the same thing with Windows. I'm running Windows 11 23H2 on several machines with one system upgraded to 24H2 in the past month. Redmond dogchow certainly isn't better than Cupertino dogchow.

chasm said:

Rogue01 said:

The article should point out that this low price is the worthless 8/256 configuration.  This is not a 'steal'. 

Apple's idea of 'low cost' is $100 less, and it would be a configuration no one wants.  Add memory and SSD, then you will be better off buying the higher performance model.

The article does point this out. Quoting: "It would be great for Apple to start selling this new machine at the same $699 price point through all of its traditional distribution channels."

If someone is buying the cheapest option of a given Mac line, they know perfectly well that they are getting the base spec. That's why Apple offers other configurations for more money.

At this point, if someone doesn't understand that a lowest retail price = shorter useful lifespan, that's on them.

Should such a machine actually appear, especially in those colours, I think even the unwashed masses of the general public would understand that this is a computer for their school-age kids, not them.