Spitbath

It would have been nice if the featured image and excerpt of this article didn't reveal the winner for those who aren't fully caught up on all the episodes.

darkvader said:

iOS_Guy80 said:

Their loss and mistake.

Hardly.  Amazon Prime is worth it for the shipping, Prime Video is essentially a freebie that they throw in.  And it's still got a lot more content than Apple, and it's generally better content.

I'm gonna bet there are a LOT more people with Amazon Prime than with Apple TV+, and it's probably going to stay that way.

Apple's big thing is apparently some show about a sportsball coach.  Yawn.

I'm gonna bet that if Prime Video wasn't included free with Prime the subscriber numbers would be very similar to tv+. Yes, Prime has a lot more content but how much of that is original content and how does that amount compare to Apple original content? I've watched maybe a handful of Amazon originals which works out to maybe one show a year. I would almost certainly cancel my membership for the rest of the year if it weren't for the Prime benefits.

entropys said:

Leaving aside that I would question the business model of targeting AirPods Max, as scarcity would be a big problem for it,
but yes, large American cities have become worse. I only drop in to the US every five years or so from OS, and have been doing so for more than thirty years. NewYork was a dangerous place in the late eighties, but by the mid nineties seemed quite safe and I loved visiting. Now it seems outright scary at night.
SF (I am more familiar with Berkeley) has always had its vagrants, but it is also comparatively pretty bad these days. I would avoid either city altogether these days. That just the way it is, and I don’t need to visit them anymore.

Bullshit!

In 1990, when the population of NYC was 14% smaller than it is now, there were nearly 530,000 crimes that fell into the most violent categories including 2,200 murders. Through the end of November 2022 there were 115,000 crimes in those same categories including 391 murders. 

Also, I visit San Francisco at least once a month. Is homelessness a serious problem? Yes. Am I terrified to walk down the street? No. Does shit happen occasionally no matter where you live? Absolutely!

The Overblown, Heavily Politcal Fear of American Cities

Calvin_H said:

Spitbath said:

Has society really changed that much?

Are these cities the same as 20 years ago (much less 10)? SF, SD, LA, Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, etc. etc. etc. I can't believe you asked that question.

Of course they aren't the same... hence why I said "...changed that much" instead of "...changed at all." My point was that crimes like these have always existed. iPod users were getting mugged in 2003 at a rate alarming enough for the NYPD to recommend not using white headphones, just like AirPods Max users are getting them stolen from their heads in 2023. Explain to me how, other that the particular device getting stolen, that is much different? My hometown has always been known for meth-heads stealing bikes... a lot of things have changed in that city over the years but one thing that's been a constant since I was a kid in the 80's is bike theft. Suggesting that these crimes are a new phenomenon is just kind of foolish.

lkrupp said:

I read an article about Los Angeles in which the LAPD is now recommending people leave their fancy cars and jewelry at home when they go out. This is what our society has descended into? Is lawlessness now the norm? Is this what “defund the police” means? Should we leave our iPhones and AirPods home too?

https://nypost.com/2022/07/19/lapd-warns-against-flashing-jewelry-as-robberies-rise/

So I guess the message is buy an old Datsun beater to use when you go out on the town and wear plastic beads from Walmart, ladies.

When I lived in New York City over 20 years ago (this was immediately after 9/11 when the city was considered the safest it had ever been and police presence was more often a military presence) the NYPD was recommending that people not use white headphones because it indicated you had an iPod in your pocket and people were getting mugged for them. Has society really changed that much?