mbenz1962

KTR said:

The EU DOES NOT LIKE AMERICANS, they are using the legal system as a bullying tactic to gain the upper hand to gouge money.  If Steve Jobs was still alive, he would stop all operations in the EU, and every one in the EU will lose out.  They will have to find alternatives.  Shut down the EU App Store.   If it goes to trial.  I hope apple wins…..  there aren’t that many mobile OS’s out there.  With the exception of Linux.

I think you need to broaden your horizons a little bit.  Most of the EU's behavior can best be described by Hanlon's Razor . If you look at many of the laws that the EU has passed in the last 10 years and the [self-created] problems that we have seen in the last few years (Corona, Energy crises, Immigration, Brexit, etc.) the main driver for such action is clear.

The statement that SJ would leave the EU merits no further comment.

jcc said:

slurpy said:

40 BILLION? That's fucking insane. How much money does Apple Pay even make Apple? I think it's almost negligent. It's more of a value added feature for their ecosystem. 

Pure insanity. Meanwhile companies that engage in actual egregious shit get no punishments, or pathetic slaps on the wrist. 

In return for Apple paying $40 billion, we should tell Europe to pay us $4 trillion for NATO or else we let Putin roll his tanks into Paris. 

Equally short sighted and blindly 'Murica First as a bonus.

humbug1873 said:

dolfke said:

So many companies have shameless copied the iPhone, now Apple is accused to setup a system for only themselves ???

Irony, they name is Governments.

Let's face it. Apple Pay is just an implementation of a common standard (Google pay ist Googles implementation of that same standard). So it's not really copying anything from Apple in that case.
In this case it needs to use a piece of iPhone hardware that has been limited by Apple. There is merit in that complaint.

Apple has implemented ApplePay in a way that dictates that NFC payment activity needs to go through it. Banks want to save a few percent by using their own payment systems with Apple's NFC chip. They want this chip to be agnostic. There is likely some merit as @humbug1873 writes.  How much and what changes will have to take place to lower the bar for competitors will have to be decided.  Likely this EU court will err on the side of letting local competition dance on a foreign company's IP, but this is again likely not malicious, just short sighted and poorly executed like many EU laws.

In the end the fine likely won't be so large and Apple will agree to make some minor adjustments in the next 5 years. See the Apple involved Ireland v Commission from just a few years ago.

AppleInsider said:

Apple may have announced the second-generation HomePod today, but there's plenty of new features coming to existing models with software version 16.3 soon.

The HomePod mini and new HomePod have built-in temperature and humidity sensors that'll be activated by the update. Users with multiple HomePods across their home will be able to see the current temperature and humidity of each room within the Apple Home app.

Apple has remastered the ambient sounds to be more immersive on HomePod. They're also discoverable when building automations or setting alarms in the Home app.

It will be nice to have these additional sensors in the Home App. I will have to find a new use for my Eve Room in the Bedroom now. Also, I will likely have to change the room that my Eve Weather shows in in the Home App. I have it outside the Kitchen window and always ask Siri, “What is the temperature in the Kitchen”. With 16.3 there might be some confusion due to my HP mini in the Kitchen.  I’ll just place the Eve Weather in the Garage room in the Home App when this goes live I guess.

I can’t tell you how much I have been looking forward to having the ambiance sounds being available for automations.  I have a goodnight scene that plays white noise from the iPad on the night table.  The best I have been able to do is play a playlist from Apple Sleep, but there are gaps and big volume differences between the tracks. The ambient sounds are really well done and offer endless, seamless playback which is ideal for sleeping.

sflocal said:

melgross said:

sevenfeet said:

But for me, the biggest "Holy Crap" moment was that they went ahead and built a proper dive computer watch. As someone who has been scuba diving for 25 years and my wife and teenage daughter also dive, this is a game changer. I've been looking to buy a new dive computer to replace one I've been carrying for two decades. I think I finally have the one I want. But there are some questions I have. Will it account for Nitrox or Tri-ox diving? Can you attach a radio control to determine the amount of air in your tanks (some of the better dive computers have this)? 

Since most divers don’t use Nitrox or Tri-ox, I don’t think Apple is thinking about that. I haven’t dived for years, but this should serve for most divers.

In the keynote video while they were showing the watch during a dive, the display showed "Dive - Air" which to me implies that alternate O2 selections are available which I would think includes different O2 variations.  If it didn't, then there would be no need to display "Dive - Air" if "air" was the only option.

I'm a scuba instructor (20+ years) and if this has the option of wireless air integration then many of us divers will go the Apple route.  As Oceanic was involved, their official response on that subject in their support forum was "not at the moment".  I think Oceanic has a transmitter that is compatible with the Ultra and is just waiting for the right time to drop that bomb.

On Oceanic's website they have lots of FAQ info and some nice tutorial videos.  They confirm that they offer Nitrox modes. There is also a setting to adjust the units for air pressure (PSI or BAR) so I'd say that @sflocal is probably right in that they will have a sensor available sometime in the future. They are touting a new Smart housing (~$500) that will convert your iPhone into a dive camera and uses the same App to add dive computer functionality.  On that page they list their wireless transmitter as a related accessory.  I'd bet the functionality for tank pressure will come with an App update and separately purchased sensor sometime next year.

sflocal said:

I just read on Oceanic's website that the Oceanic app is subscription only.  That news alone may have me rethinking this watch.  At least with my Suunto D6i watch (with Air Integration) I never have to deal with a stupid subscription in order to actually use it.

That just took all the air out of my sails.  If Oceanic does not offer a one-time fee for lifetime purchase, I most likely not get one.  

 I kind of had the same thought at first. This is the pricing info from their website: 

If you only dive one or two months a year than you are only out $10-20.  That is less than you would pay for your annual battery change on a normal dive computer. A one time purchase would be good for those that go diving more often than I can, but for better or for worse the whole App industry has moved on to subscription models.

Instead of trying to justify the whole $800 cost of the watch vs a new computer, consider that if you are going to buy a watch anyway the Series 8 is $749 for the SS version in 45mm.  Really you are only paying $50 extra for a Titanium case and and you are getting the convenience of not having to take two watches on dive vacations. Purchasing the subscription ad hoc saves the upfront cost of a separate computer and annual service costs of same.

I just bought one of these; it comes Thursday. Which port should I plug it into on my 24” iMac? The Thunderbolt/USB4 ports or the USB 3 ports. Apples spec page just lists the non TB ports as USB 3 not 3.0 or 3.1 etc. but with speeds “up to 10 Gbps”. I don’t want to sacrifice a TB port if I’ll get the same performance for this Hub which uses USB 3.1 according to this article. Belkin’s website only says USB-C with speeds up to 10Gbps. Belkin’s website does depict it plugged into the right most (from the back view) TB port, but that  could just be an aesthetic choice for the product picture. 

wonkothesane said:

oberpongo said:

By far the best lock ( at least here in Europe) is the Nuki. Installed in minutes with no tools. HomeKit support and great design and features. 

YMMV. I was very happy with my DanaLock. Only because I wanted autounlock I switched to Tedee, and I am super happy. Very robust, very small, smart design, full HK compatibility. 

Btw.: The DanaLock that went to another door gave in about four weeks out of warranty. When I contacted customer support, they immediately sent me a replacement unit. No questions asked - Great customer service.

I can only confirm what @oberpongo says.  I have used the Nuki 2.0 lock used in combination with the keypad here in Germany since April 2019 (right at the 3 year mark now). This lock is great.  It works solidly in the Home app and has additional functionality (GPS fencing and Bluetooth confirmation for auto unlock, keypad with muti-code management, fob integration, and more) that works with their app and doesn't affect Homekit compatibility. This lock doesn't have Homekey, but since the Nuki app allows its own flavor of auto-unlock, I don't need it.

Doors here in Germany, much like the US, have the door latch thrown when the door is closed to keep said door closed.  Unlike the US, doors here typically have just a bar on the outside and no way to retract the latch (via turning a handle) short of using the key.  The effect is, that once the door is shut, it is, for all intents and purposes, "locked" from the outside.  This "locking" would not stand up to a clever burglar with 2 minutes of unrestricted access and so isn't really locked.  As your average homeowner from the US however, we have been "locked" out many times, especially when we first moved here, because we had not consciously locked the door and so didn't remember to step outside with our keys.  As soon as smart locks became available here with Homekit (I only buy Homekit smart home products), I started looking into them to alleviate this issue and finally decided on Nuki over DanaLock because if you use Homekit you cannot use the Danapad and the Danalock App's auto-unlock feature (according to Danalock's support pages at the time).

The installation was easy and does not need to be done with tools unless you need to change your lock cylinder.  Set up in the app was easy and connecting external peripherals (keypad) was also easy in the Nuki app. We use the keypad 10+ times a day and the coin-cell battery has lasted these 3 years and the low battery warning still hasn't been triggered.  The lock uses 4 AA cells and these need to be replaced every 3-4 months for us.  I might could squeeze 6 months out if the door were slightly better aligned (slight interference with the deadbolt) and if I just suffered through slow unlocking cycles once the batteries drop below 50% capacity.  As soon as I notice the lock is "chugging", I replace the batteries even though the app assures me that the capacity is sufficient.  Now they even have a rechargeable Powerpack that I will buy once it becomes available on Amazon.

The only negatives for this lock are (1) the large physical size of the lock motor (somewhat better with the 3.0 version). (2) When changing the batteries, the lock turns a full 720 degrees as part of the reinitialization process regardless of how you have the deadbolt throw set.  My particular deadbolt "bottoms out" at like 710 degrees of rotation and this results in the outside lock mechanism straining at the end of initialization cycle. (3) The beta version of the closed door sensor that was included for free with the 2.0 version of the lock throws "door jammed" errors pretty often.  These are easy to clear, but annoying. Even with these minor issues, the Nuki is an absolute, 100% buy recommendation from me for users here in Germany.