dpkroh

Every comment here seems to miss the point.

The App Store is NOT just another business, Even Walmart and Costco have far more competitors than does the App Store.  The app store is the ONLY choice for people with iPhones. The only quasi alternative here would be an Android App Store.  Are those very similar choices ?  Practically every Apple lover here would argue “no, the Apple experience is far superior”.  This is much different than being able to buy the very same identical TV at a large number of different retailers, as some have suggested.

The ultimate goal of capitalism is to become so successful, as to destroy the free market by eliminating and preventing all competition. Let that sink in because most people can’t grasp that at first,  Once again, the end goal of capitalism is to destroy free markets, and create an all powerful, monopoly or all powerful, duopoly. That destroys consumer choice, which is the very goal of a free market, People often assume capitalism and free markets go hand in hand, and generally they do.... until a business grows so big that it is no longer subject to competition because it can or has effectively destroyed it,

That’s the very point of anti-trust law.  To prevent the destruction of free markets,

There is a price to be paid for total success and rightly so. Once a company becomes so successful that it has essentially destroyed competition, the checks and balances of a free market are destroyed. Either the company is forcibly broken up in a way that restores a level of free market control or it becomes subject to regulations as a substitute for the loss of free market checks and balances.

is the App Store a monopoly or even just a duopoly? The argument for the latter is strong, and for the latter is almost certain,

The real question here is do you support free markets, defined as markets that encourage healthy competition for the benefit of consumers ?  If so, you can’t argue that Apple should be allowed to do whatever it wants, because Apple created the App Store. As you cheer on Apple becoming a 2 trillion dollar company, remember that you are also cheering the end of a truly functional free market for mobile apps.

The United States has become a poster child for massive inequality in developed countries and is getting worse.  That “American Dream” that is all but gone, was strong after world war 2.  The reason the American dream was reborn was the Sherman Act.... powerful anti trust law that broke up large corporate Robber Barons, like Rockefeller.  Forcing the breakup of too large and powerful corporations after world war 2 is what brought back the American dream and decades of shared prosperity.

So the larger question here is do you want to worship the control of monopolistic corporations that have grown to destroy free markets, or do you want to see the American dream restored, where the free market ensures maximum productivity and a fair chance for everyone to share in that prosperity ?

The update did not immediately brick my HomePod.

I own the 3rd generation iPad Pro 12.9 and the new iPad mini 5 and also the iPhone XS Max.  Having all 3 is the only “no-compromise” iOS choice for me.

Hardly a toy - the new mini 5 which I recently bought, it is the ultimate consumption device.  Unlike all the larger iPads, the mini is just the right size for holding.  For the same reason practically all e-readers are similar in size to an iPad mini and not larger.  When I am at home, the mini is my primary go-to device.

With Apple pencil support, and a folding keyboard, it is by far the most capable productivity solution that fits into a coat pocket or purse.  For most productivity tasks my iPhone XS Max, even with the same folding keyboard and a decent stylus, is a PITA.  The iPhone XS Max is great for a camera and some basics tasks, but it’s far behind the iPad mini 5 in terms of both a decent consumption and productivity device. Just today using my iPad mini and Apple pencil on the go, I received a document that I marked up with my Apple pencil, and then sent back.  Not as ideal as doing it on the 12.9 iPad Pro, but still a near hassle free experience.  Apple pencil support on the iPad mini is a productivity game changer.

For getting real work done - I tend to do that in coffee shops, I bring along my 12.9 iPad Prom with Apple Pencil V2, and an Apple magic Keyboard.  Even the 11 inch iPad Pro doesn’t come close for productivity.  It’s still too small.  I have used the 9.7, and 10.5 sizes for years, and the 11 inch iPad Pro is not large enough it make a difference.  The experience doing work on anyone these iPads always felt constrained.

The 12.9 iPad is for me the ONLY iPad that makes for a truly effective productivity device.  Large enough for practical split screen, triple columns in the mail app, and extra on screen tools that just don’t fit on an iPad 11.  The latest 12.9 inch iPad Pro is also almost exactly the size of an 8.5x11 inch letter size paper, and very similar to European A4 paper sizes.  Working on documents with a smaller iPad is always a compromise because they cant match “real life” size like the 12.9 iPad can.

Even the larger iPad is not ridiculous to use as a handheld device - something I would not say about the first 2 generations with their large bezels. For Apple News and magazines, pages can be “real-life” size, no need to zoom in on parts of a page.

My MacBook Pro and my iMac at home get very little use.  To me they both feel like outdated computing forms.  There are a very small subset of tasks they can do which they iPads can’t.  Still I rarely use my Macs at all.  They are a much greater pain to maintain to - with needless complexity.  Even with Apple’s help I have yet to get my SSD on the iMac to correctly report free space.  Every since copying over a large folder from iCloud, it has been messed up.  None of the typical solutions have worked. I’m probably going to have to wipe the iMac and restore it.

There is no one size fits all device - not for all people - not even for an individual.

If I had to pick just one iPad - it would be the 2018 12.9 inch pro, but having the new mini 5 allows me to grab the best device for the task,

I likely own more personal Apple products than 99% of AI readers***.  That doesn’t keep me from being objective.  Your last condescending line about how CBC apparently can’t be relied on for complete reporting, is ironic at best.

Even given your above reply that you have had Apple staff tell you alternative recovery options is suspect, especially after your above comment regarding the CBC. It’s a little late to say “oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out”.  You accuse CBC of incomplete reporting yet you fail to address this obvious issue in your article until a reader points it out?  A little convenient I think, and coming after the article seems suspect without being able to prove it.

In the article you also gloss over and dismiss Apple apparently deleting references in its forums to alternative recovery options.You make some weak excuse of legal quagmires of referencing 3rd parties, and then you completely castrate your own argument by trumpeting how it is absurd for someone to confuse Apple users in Apple forums with Apple employees. This in addition to claiming in your comment reply above that you have been told by Apple staff in service situations that there are other options.

Your fail to take Apple to task for deleting this information with the weakest non-sene I have ever read... “well this is Apple’s house, so well we can’t say anything about that”.... seriously.... ? Isn’t that the whole point of the article?

Do you actually believe your article is objective and balanced?

It’s definitely not IMO helping dispel the Apple people as sheep stereotype.

***my personal current Apple products include an iPhone Xs Max, Apple Watch series 4, iPad Mini 5, 3rd gen 12.9 iPad Pro, Apple pencil 1 and 2, multiple Apple TV HD and 4K, MacBook Pro, iMac, and more.......  that doesn’t the numerous additional Apple products that I have purchased for other members of my household or other mostly retired Apple products I still own and have not sold.....