AppleSince1976

bobroo said:

I hope Musk teams with Berkshire Hathaway and they buy out Apple.

They couldn't do that, even if they teamed with Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunai.

tht said:

You have to hand it to him. He is good at getting people to give him money. They are many Tesla vehicle buyers that paid $5000 to $8000 for Full Self Driving, a feature that has not be available since its inception in 2017. It’s essentially an in-app purchase today or an upgrade option at time of purchase. 

It’s crazy, these buyers were expecting FSD to come to their cars any day now, for up to 5 years. That’s $5000 to $8000 for nothing. Don’t understand why there hasn’t been a shit storm over it yet. 

FSD is a $200 per month Subscription now. For a Software Only Feature!

Yet, Apple is being greedy...

Paul_B said:

mknelson said:

crowley said:

radarthekat said:

crowley said:

Trust Apple to make it way more complicated than it needs to be.

When is the last time you performed ignition timing on your vehicle.  Or swapped out a bad wrist pin on a piston?  Some folks have the tools to do these jobs at home, but they aren’t free or cheap.  Nor are the instructions simple. 

Do those folks rent them a week at a time, with the replacement cost up front, and “a fee and a tax” if they need them any longer than a week?

As I said, more complicated than it needs to be, to fuel Apple’s control freakery and Nicole and diming.

Nicole? Yes, that's pretty much how it goes if you rent automotive repair tools… Checks a few sites… deposit = purchase price.

Who Rents Automotive repair tools?  You either own them and don't need a manual to fix the automobile, because you've either been taught, or a mechanic friend helps.  I don't know of a single place that rents a lift, and you have to be a ticketed mechanic to buy the diagnostic computer or get one on the black market.  My brakes on my Challenger Skat Pack are worth more that 4 iPhones, my Bridgestone tires are worth 2 iPhones.  iPhones are pennies compared to most useful products.  My Tenor Selmar Sax is worth six iPhones.  Are we talking pennies or Dollars?

Who rents automotive tools?

Me, from my local AutoZone; when I have to pull a Flywheel or Main Pulley once every 20 years.

And I don't even play Sax; but I know it's Selmer; not Selmar!

I can barely believe it in a phone; but in a Watch? Directly?

Sure, if you want battery life measured in single-digit minutes.

It is true that you can always trade bandwidth for power in RF communications; so a very low bit-rate text messaging system, with ridiculous amounts of auto-correlation, might be able to send an SOS-type signal along with GPS coordinates.

Perhaps just a "pick an emergency" type thing; so that just a "message-type code", DeviceID, and GPS coordinates (or perhaps the satellite Mesh Network could determine location, like "reverse GPS") could be transmitted at an ultra-low bitrate, likely just using Carrier on/off signaling, with Reed-Solomon or similar error-correction.

the satellites would have power to burn, relatively-speaking; so getting an acknowledgement, ETA, etc, back to the Device would be much less challenging.

But that's just a guess; IANARFE (I Am Not An RF Engineer) ;-)

StrangeDays said:

DavidEsrati said:

Still not upgradeable- no slots- while every PC in this price range can and does do both.

I'm waiting on one. We'll see what it runs like when it shows up.

Slots, you say?

https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Diagnostic_Port.txt&topic=Hardware%20Design&detail=medium

Later reincarnated as the “Processor Direct Slot” (PDS Slot), in some of the 68k-based “Performa” Macs, e.g., Performa 550 & 575, I would imagine.

The coolest thing Apple did with that slot was the legendary Apple //e Card.