FileMakerFeller

Another acceptable abbreviation is GBP

entropys said:

You could not open the business section of a newspaper anywhere in the world in 1995-1997 without a story about “beleaguered Apple computer”. In fact, just about any article with Apple in it back then, regardless of publication, would adverbalise “beleaguered” as if it was part of the company’s name. It became a running gag.

Its value in stock was not too different to its cash holdings. Beleaguered Apple was expected to either die or be bought out by Larry Ellison. 

Then came the Macworld featuring Bill Gates as Big Brother, and the release of the Bondi blue iMac. Those two things symbolically represented the resurrection of Apple. Behind the scenes the reality was the fear of death, and the surgery of aggressive, dictatorial cost cutting and production line simplification and product realignment. Apple’s balance of design and engineering fully returned. And all those things combined, worked.

In the immortal words of the great Jack Miller: "Who's beleaguered now, punk?"

tht said:

clexman said:

I love the honest and accurate headline.

They are right to milk it for everything they can. It’s not often there are opportunities to make big money off of men’s soccer in the US. 

Milking it is step 1. For big success, MLS has to be entertaining enough to maintain subscribers, get more subscribers, and to grow ancillary revenue. Apple has some ducks in a row here. MLB fans are aging out. Soccer is the 2nd most popular sport for 30yo and younger. So, this 10 year deal with MLB has a chance to be something pretty big revenue wise if Apple plays it right. It probably can't overtake the NBA and NFL business, but I can see it overtaking MLB as the sport everyone watches during the summer.

Look at the impact "Drive to Survive" has had on the number of new fans for Formula1. I think the documentary is a smart move.

StrangeDays said:

I challenge his and the industry’s assertion that “services” are their prime distinguishers. Nope. It’s the car. Services aren’t a thought on my mind when looking for a car. 

But they qualify as part of the user experience. I think the services are differentiators but I don't see myself owning a car where there are subscription fees for those services.

I wonder if Apple's attitude here is being affected by the rule they reportedly have about older bugs, where they only apply resources to fixing "new" issues - if a bug falls far enough down the priority list it will effectively never get fixed.

I'm glad Patrick and other security researchers keep investigating; hopefully the increased attention will help shift Apple's priorities. I like to think that Apple's decision to keep this system in its current imperfect state is an unusual occurrence, but it's a sign of quality standards being lowered and I fear that it's an ongoing trend.