FileMakerFeller

That part about Dysarthric speech is interesting; I'd like to see a larger sample size to be sure it's a meaningful result but given the possible applications to stroke survivors I'm excited by this development.

AppleInsider said:

In its own submission, the CBA doesn't want "free riders and loopholes that could be disproportionately exploited by overseas technology companies,"

...but anything that could be exploited by local companies is just fine, right?

Toortog said:

Still the Steve Jobs BS attitude of I control everything and how you use it.   That attitude Jobs Next computer and it continues and other companies have decided Apple gets away with it so we'll do it too.    Storage and RAM should be user upgradable it helps lengthen the life of aging computer to add more.   I think Apple doesn't want a market for used Mac that users can buy invest a little in some RAM have a nice computer.   Apple see a used Macs sold as a lost sale of a new Mac.   Apple does as much as they can to control the user experience from not only how they can use their computer, but try to control how often you replace it.   

It's worth considering that Steve's attitude also included a much higher bar for acceptable quality. One consequence of insisting on repairability is that overall quality can drop - if replacing a part is "no big deal" then where's the impetus to ensure the failure doesn't happen in the first place?

IF:
     the cost of a failure is [chance of failure] x [cost of repair] + [time cost of device unavailable]
AND:
    the aim is to minimise the cost of a failure
THEN:
    it's just as valid to reduce the chance of a failure as it is to reduce the cost of repair


It's also worth considering that the reinvention of computer timesharing (a.k.a. renting a virtual machine in the cloud) has a significant impact in the longevity of a device that you own. It allows one to ask the question "should I spend $X and Y minutes on upgrading hardware components, or just rent computing capacity for $Z/month and essentially zero minutes?" and there are certain situations where renting is not only an acceptable option but a superior option to upgrading one's own device.

bloggerblog said:

Hmm am I the only one who frequents Trailers!?

I doubt it. Apparently there's a meaningful portion of the US population that live in the things.

Apparently the profits available from ad-supported services are higher than those of ad-free services, even with the higher price charged for the latter. Once that information was revealed it was only a matter of time before the ad-free prices were raised.

But given the entertainment industry's strike action we know there's a limited supply of new shows and movies in the near future. Services with a large collection of content worth watching are probably going to survive, same for sports providers. Everyone else is going to end up on the wrong side of a cost/benefit analysis.