noivad

sflocal said:

Mr_Grey said:

It's funny how Apple accessories made by other companies are always so much fairer priced than Apple's own accessories.  I'm going to pick up one of these tomorrow.   

And what's your point?  Just about all the non-Apple accessories I've ever purchased for use with my Apple devices crapped-out, broke, constantly-replaced under warranty, etc.. 

I don't harp (or brag like you do) about it simply because just about everyone knows that when you buy Apple, you're buying more than just the product.  You're buying quality, durability, and support.  Everyone knows 3rd-party stuff is a roll of the dice and accept it.

I wish I could back you up on that. While their core products like the AppleTV, iOS devices and Laptops (unless you need more than a TB) are great, their accessories are often feature deficient to competitors that offer devices just as reliable. Their cable strain relief deficiency on both lightning and magsafe cables is well known. I’ve replaced 2 MagSafe power adapters and at least 5 or 6 iPhone cables (and countless friend’s broken iPhone cables) going all the way back to the 30-pin dock cables. Their Airports (which I’ve had to replaced 4 for myself and others), lack important traffic control such as QoS and advanced features like SNMP other companies have in routers that last just as long as — and with greater range — than Airport routers. Their iPad cases look good, but lack the stability of other cases that are just as protective, stylish & durable. The phone cases are very basic and provide no more protection than a TPU case that looks just as good and are just as thin at ⅓ the price.

I’ve used Apple products for over 30 years, so I’m neither an Apple Hater nor an Apple FanBoi because I still use other platforms, and look for superior products (Apple’s OSes win this because their UX, consistency & reliability). I’ve often said I’ll use the best tool for the job, and for the job of computer or mobile accessories, but Apple’s quality, durability, flexibility and attention to detail does not make it into their accessories.

Accessories are kind of like things they know they can make an easy add on sale. It’s like buying HDMI cables for $30 when you buy a new HDTV. If you looked around, you could find first rate HDMI cables for not even ½ the cost. Or it’s like buying the combo meal instead of just the burger at a drive thru. Many people, when their lightning cable breaks don’t even look around, and just buy another one from an Apple because it’s easy. The same for their higher priced accessories as well. I but you have to be willing to look. Convenience comes at a higher cost, but you have to weigh where convenience matters (like daily computing) and when it doesn’t so you can save money.

I tried out the VR tech in the 90s and it was cool even then, despite the very basic realtime 3D rendering of its day. The biggest roadblocks aside from current tech limits & price, are perceptual. It will take time.

Most people haven’t read the fiction that @dysamoria talks about (I have and love the ideas, but we are in the minority), and few want direct brain interfaces because how fearful most people are of tech they don’t understand. So, while it might one day be possible, it will take a lot longer to catch on if at all. He is right though, 3D TV simply isn’t compelling enough to buy into considering its limited uses. But hey, it has made regular HDTVs a lot less expensive. So that’s about the best thing that’s happened for consumers with the glut of 3D HDTVs.

I agree with @cnocbui that VR needs a killer app, or at least one that inspires others to improve on their design. I think aside from gaming which is the most promising, the other use would be immersive 3D modeling where artists could sculpt models in 1:1 scale. But I think VR can be surpassed by 3D AR for some applications. AR also has a lot more useful applications outside of gaming. However they can complement each other (add an electronically controlled visor on the outside that can turn opaque and an AR headset becomes a VR headset).

While the phones and initial headsets are a good start, the technology will have to become a lot higher res, cheaper and lighter by removing the guts of the phones and simply making the headsets an AV combo w/graphics card, battery, optional camera & essential parts (actually not much less tech, but simply rearranged for balance and aesthetics. Who knows perhaps high speed 802.11ad or its successor will be fast enough to make them as convenient as decent bluetooth audio headsets are now. But at this point this sort of tech is probably something that’ll come out in the 2020s and not the 2010s. I’m basing this guess on current tech in lab and early versions in the wild. I could be completely off, but if I were implementing AR/VR it, this is probably what I would go for.

So, whether or not people think its cool or everyone has their own idea of where it might go (or not go), people will still hammer away at it. Now, consider Cooks comments remind me of his comments about Google Glass a bit. When asked about it, he said Apple was interested in wearables but alluded to other places to wear them. Now we see what he meant.

So, while I am guessing here, I think Apple will do what it has done the last 15 years: let other trail blaze the portable sector and learn from their shortcomings. Then Apple will develop their own device that surpasses everyone else, just like they did with the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad and Apple Watch. I’m only drawing from history though, so take it for what that’s worth.

Mark my words: the drawing is a smoke screen for a wrist mounted iDevice bracelet. More surface (display) area than an iPhone & all the convenience of the Apple Watch. Will you have to turn your wrist to use it the extended surface? Yes. Will that be leveraged to make interacting with it even easier? Yup.

The Paris terrorists didn’t even use encryption.They used SMS to simply text “We’re started now” (or something to that effect). They carried out all the planning using unencrypted means—a news report mentioned them meeting in-person. The SB terrorist woman posted of Facebook her allegiance to ISIS right before the attack. The 9/11 hijackers’ activity alarmed the flight school instructors, who reported it to the government, but it was never investigated.

3 cases where the information was available but never acted on, out of many, and none had anything to do with access to encryption. The Police can’t justify access to encrypted channels if they can’t even handle red flags. They already know when people buy an excessive amount of any substance. They already know when transfers exceed $10K. They have access to many non-encrypted channels and giving them the keys to everyone’s info will just lead to more cases of officers illegally accessing user data.

Meanwhile, there have been literally the hundreds of cases where government agents have accessed private info using their clearance illegally to spy on spouses, exes and people they know or are interested in for non-official reason— cyberstalking love interests to tracking down exes new SOs to harass or threaten them. Out of these hundreds of cases, few are investigated, few lose their job or are even prosecuted for breach of trust and even fewer make the news.

sog35 said:

ericthehalfbee said:

LOL, I literally just posted this in the other article.

Apple needs to bring this to regular users, not just education. Having multiple users would be a great idea.

Why? Are you hiding something from other users honey?

The reason many users want this is not because they are hiding anything. It is because devices like iPads lend themselves to multiple family/household members using them. With everyone having different preferences for App Home rows & not wanting to wade through other’s apps to find their own, or—even worse—have others to accidentally purchase things charged to their account, it makes perfect sense. Aside from that, there is security to consider: with full access to a device, any deletion affects all users, not just the logged in user. These are most of reasons OS X and Windows has had multiple logins for decades. While iPads & iPhones are probably less often shared, they are shared enough to have stories popping up of kids racking up tons in charges because their parents allowed them unrestricted access to their iDevice & App Store Account.

Having this will allow parents and others to share devices without worrying about their kids or others racking up bills, deleting apps & their associated files & access data they shouldn’t have. I realize most people will not bother to do this, but for those that would use it and if Apple rolled this out with free in-store setup, I’m sure we’d be less likely to hear “my kid got a hold of my iPad & now my iCloud contacts are gone” horror stories. As I always say, “Options are a good thing.” Pointless negativity does nothing to move computing forward, BTW.