Aloysius

SpamSandwich said:

bdonovanw said:

SpamSandwich said:

linkman said:

To counter those that are saying that Apple should make most of the store employees salaried: in the US they are covered by federal labor and wage laws and because of the nature of the tasks the employees do most of them must be paid hourly. See https://www.flsa.com/coverage.html

Nonsense. All store employees could be fired and rehired under salaried compensation.

No. You're wrong. Re-read the information provided at the link. Most Apple Store employees do not meet the requirements to be classified as exempt.

I live in California. The State is terrible for businesses because the progressive Leftists who control the state are all union puppets. It’s really no wonder why businesses continue to flee the state in record numbers.

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2018/12/13/1-800-companies-left-california-in-a-year-with.html

And if Tim and Apple are paying attention to the way the state is going they have a plan in place to move Apple out of the state also.

You're switching gears here. This post was about FLSA coverage on salaried employees. You stated (wrongly) that Apple could simply categorize employees as salaried and not pay overtime. To do this, they would need to claim they are exempt employees, which they are not. This is not a California thing, this is a Federal thing. Unless an employee is exempt, they are paid overtime even if they are salaried. Exempt salaried employees are typically management or make over a certain threshold (and I believe they just narrowed the exempts this year). 

So they *can* be salaried, but they would still be entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week. That's Federal law.

Of course, Apple certainly could do this the same as other companies try to dodge taxes by classifying employees as independent contractors, but Apple would clearly lose when challenged about it. It's not even a grey area like independent contractors; it's pretty cut and dry as to who can be exempt.

mike54 said:

I would buy this if only it came in a 5in size, had 4gb ram and 3D touch.

Considering the X has 3GB of RAM and is still one of the fastest phones available, why is the RAM a hangup?

And 3D Touch is simulated in the XR, so why is this a hangup?

P.S. they're never going smaller, so don't hold your breath.

dysamoria said:

I'd rather see a comparison against iOS 10, not the "unbearable" iOS 11.

...and people wonder why I didn't update to iOS 11...

My iPad mini 2 was pretty much unusable even on iOS 10. iOS 12 makes it feel several years newer. It's still a bit laggy, but it's definitely usable now. Before it was just collecting dust.

zroger73 said:

Here's an idea: How about fixing what's broken before adding new features?

1. When using the HomePod as an AirPlay speaker, not all apps use it as an audio output even when the HomePod is set to the audio output device in the settings.

2. Every time the Apple TV goes to sleep, it disconnects from the HomePod and defaults the audio output back to the TV.

3. After playing audio to the HomePod using the Apple TV, the HomePod will no longer fulfill requests such as "Hey Siri, play smooth jazz". Instead, Siri says, "Hmm. I'm having trouble..." However, if I play then stop music from my iPhone, the HomePod will work properly.

I've stopped using the HomePod as an Apple TV speaker because of these issues and reverted back to my Bose SoundLink via a Bluetooth connection. The connection is maintained and all the Apple TV's audio is output properly.

As someone who routinely uses paired HomePods as the audio output of my AppleTV...

1. This is annoying. Most big apps works fine (Netflix, etc) but some third party apps don’t work right. I’m guessing the developer isn’t checking some box, but Apple should just make it force it. 

2. I don’t have this issue. The AppleTV and HomePod stay connected until I use my HomePod for something else. Which happens a lot, so I do have to reconnect a lot. It’s pretty simple but could be easier. Wish I could just use Siri to change audio output. 

3. When I have my AppleTV and HomePod “paired”, and I say “Play...” it will play it through the AppleTV, routed to the HomePod (kinda backwards imo). If my AppleTV is off, it turns on my TV, since it is plugged into the HDMI-CEC connection. Maybe yours isn’t? 

All that said, what I’ve read is that the latest beta allows you to more permanently set the HomePod as the default audio, but it will still have to be selected if you use your HomePod for something else. 

Imo, it should be an easy fix. Instead of permanently pairing an AppleTV and HomePod, you should be able to tell the AppleTV to “look for” and connect to the specified homepod when you play content. If it can’t connect, it should have a dialog message. It would replace whatever is currently playing, just like airplay does currently.