narwhal

I was an Epson user for maybe 20 years, but recently dumped them for a Brother inkjet, which has given us no troubles. Epson cartridges and their new refillable ink tanks were always drying up, requiring cleaning between every print job. Also, Epson's paper handling mechanisms are so flimsy the past 10 years, you can't print on card stock. And for photos, I'm using the drug store down the street. I can send the photos via their web site, then just drive a mile to pick them up. A lot easier than printing photos at home.

I can understand China wanting to cut down on hours kids play video games; but shutting down game licenses (which hurts developers) is baffling.

GeorgeBMac said:

"For All Mankind" -- Haven't watched it and don't plan to.

No, rewrite of that history can improve on what was accomplished there.

That's too bad, George. The show is TOTAL fiction, not a rewrite of history. It takes the premise "What if <spoiler> had landed on the moon first?" and runs with it.

I don't know that Apple would have bought Disney, but Steve Jobs WAS the largest Disney shareholder. I wonder if Steve might have considered taking Apple private and subsuming Disney too. I could see Disney parks switching to all Apple devices and Disney TV shows and movies showing exclusively Apple product. (Well, not the villains.)

It's fun to imagine what Steve would have done. We would have seen some really out-there devices by now. I doubt HomeKit and the speakers would have floundered like they have -- they would have either been totally re-worked or abandoned. I have a feeling Steve would have liked Apple's health initiatives, maybe gone all in with more medical devices.

Well, I had Tiles for a couple years -- but they were expensive and not great. Seemed nobody was running the Tile app, so your lost stuff stayed lost. I bought a bunch of Apple's AirTags when they came out and they work better and are cheaper. Tile and now Life360 are a business with no future. And to hear that Life360 sells customer data -- they've slit their own throat.

I get that Epic doesn't like to pay 30% commission to Apple, but Amazon and Netflix didn't want to either and they found a solution that works for them. I'm thinking Epic would be better off negotiating with Google and Apple, not suing them. Make some money while their product is hot. By the time the Epic trial is over, they may not have a product anyone wants. Or more likely they'll get bought out by someone, someone who doesn't want to participate in a multi-year lawsuit.

As for Spotify, I think they have a case. Since Apple competes in music streaming, Spotify should NOT be charged a commission. It gives Apple an unfair advantage. Same with other categories. If the host OS competes, they need to eliminate commissions for competitors in that product category. Probably should do the same for video streaming and audiobooks. Apple's not making money from Netflix and Audible anyway.