Xed

melgross said:

About the price. We read and head a lot of protests over how expensive it is. There are two ways of looking at this (no pun intended). One way is from the cheapest, looking up, and the other is looking at the most expensive, looking down. We can do this with anything. The most expensive new car is a Rolls-Royce. Estimated price? Between 20 to 30 million US dollars. That’s a lot. The cheapest is somewhere around $7,000, but only available in several developing countries. So is a $50,000 car cheap or expensive? It’s a lot closer to the cheapest car, so the first thought would be that it’s cheap. But to most people, it’s not. But an awful lot of people do buy $50,000 cars and trucks, so it’s not really expensive either.

Apple’s headset it pretty cheap compared to many other industrial models, especially if the tethered computers are added in. And we know Apple is very interested in industry. In an interview with Jon Gruber after the introduction, he said that they were getting many calls from enterprise. That’s really not surprising as they would look at this as a high performance unit at a fairly low price. Mike’s experience with this was with someone developing an industrial software suite. I think Apple would be very happy if much of early development was with these customers. It would validate what Apple is doing.

then, as has been pointed out by various people, a consumer version would be available at a much lower, but still not cheap price. By seeing what has been done with it in a high level, consumers will be more motivated to spend more than they would for the inferiors other consumer headsets out there. I’ve tried several consumer headsets as well. They are not good, folks. Are they acceptable? For people who really want them and are willing to put up with the deficiencies, sure.

A one-off build like the Boat Tail for an estimated $28 million shouldn't be part of this comparison, or you may as well as add anything that is a one-off, like any piece or art of some gaudy gold-plated CE that we see from time to time.

 And there are many hand-built autos that produce in numbers that are considerably more expensive than the RR, but none are at $30 million.

https://carbuzz.com/cars/rolls-royce/ghost/specs-and-trims
https://www.motor1.com/features/308149/most-expensive-new-cars-ever/

designr said:

Has Apple ever done a Wednesday? It seems like it's always Tuesdays except for WWDC keynotes which are on Mondays.

Many times, when Monday is a holiday in the US. Labor Day being the common, IIRC.

edit: A quick and dirty look found Wednesdays for:

• 07 September 2022
• 12 September 2018
• 12 September 2012
• 02 March 2011
• 01 September 2010
• 20 October 2010
• 09 September 2009
• 16 January 2008

I'm sure there are others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_Inc._media_events

PS: ChatGPT was not helpful. I figured it would excel in this sort of search.

doggone said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

gatorguy said:

AppleInsider said:

Apple has continuously been buying back stock for the last seven years, and

retiring most of it...

Read on AppleInsider

Hasn't every share acquired under the repurchase program been retired? They can, of course, create new shares someday and sell them, but AFAIK every share in Apple's Repurchase Program has been effectively burned, it no longer exists. 

In the early days of the buy-back they did some other things with a small portion of the shares they re-acquired. For the last four years, as far as I can tell, every share has been completely retired.

When I say "most of it," that's like conservatively 96% have been retired.

Buybacks do retire shares.  But also remember Apple employees have a share option program. Those shares have to be reserved somehow particularly for the bonus programs for executives.  I remember reading a while ago that Apple will announce when they carve out a portion of the shares for this. I don’t know if they create new shares or simply buy existing ones on the open market.  

Not inherently. A company buying back the shares has to choose to retire them v reallocating them. As Mike previously mentioned and later state in your comment, Apple has taken some of the shares it repurchased to distribute to employees as options.

hexclock said:

mayfly said:

waveparticle said:

mayfly said:

What a great way to drive the use of bicycles for everyday commuting, instead of automobiles. While the Netherlands have always been far ahead of anyone else in bike usage, there's always room to improve. They get a lot of rainy days, so being able to park inside has at least two advantages. You don't get soaked while unlocking your bike, and you don't have to sit on a soaking wet saddle.

Bike use benefits the planet's ecosystem, too. And it benefits people, too, as they get more and more fit and healthy.

It's just too bad that America, which overall is moving in the right direction in some cities, political divisions have created anti-bike sentiment in other cities, creating a hazadous climate for cyclists.

It's only a garage, but making it look stylish and hip worth the extra effort.

Have you been to Amsterdam? LOL Its land area is 64.00 sq mi, or 8 mi across. Most of the 921,402 people probably live inside the city. Is it practical to drive auto daily? 

It's not practical to drive an auto daily anywhere in the world. It's a selfish choice. Either by urban planning which makes commuting by bicycle impossible or dangerous, or geography, or by people who could commute by cycling or mass transportation, but choose to drive.

. 

Not all of us work at home. I work at residential and commercial job sites, and various entertainment venues. Should I pack all my tools into a backpack and ride a bike 15 miles to work? Does that make me selfish?

Yeah, it's unreasonable to say that it's a selfish choice if you use a truck or van for work, or commute a certain distance and have to use the highway to get to and from work. The US is a very spread out nation in most areas, with only a few exceptions where large cities are bogged down with traffic that public transportation, biking, and walking often make more sense, but even those areas have no bearing when you have to cart around hundreds of pounds of equipment for your job.

mayfly said:

This was not a "case" of incompetence. This was a baggage handler hoping to sell some sound equipment he got for free. This happens thousands of times every year. And they do it with the collusion of apathetic, incompetent and/or involved customer service agents.

Agent: "No, your bag is not in Newark."
You: "There's an AirTag on it, and here it is, at gate 90."

Agent: "There's nothing I can do. When we find it, we'll return it to you."
You: "Thanks for nothing."

Then you cram your rage down deep inside, because you know the alternative will end up with you in jail. Our luggage has been lost by airlines 7 times! And once it was stolen off the carousel. It's how we discovered the joy (and fun) of domestic train travel. It takes longer, but it's like riding a bicycle instead of driving. You see your country up close. You can get up and walk around any time you please, and there is always coffee hot and ready for you. A first class sleeper has 10 times the room of an economy seat on a plane, costs about the same, and has real food at mealtime, in a dining car with real tablecloths, china and flatware. In addition, you share your table with another couple and get to know someone new, sometimes become friends. The waiting room is spacious (in our Union Station in Chicago) and has comfortable easy chairs and sofas, and snacks and drinks! There is no TSA rifling through your underwear, and Amtrak has never misplaced our bags. Ever.

I accept that it's not suitable for everyone, not even always for us. But if you're traveling in North America for leisure, just try it once. You'll be hooked for life.

1) So you're claiming that the baggage handler went though all the luggage and found one with sound equipment that he wanted to steal so then he put the bag on the tarmac  in plain sight of a giant passenger window so he could then come by at a later time to retrieve said bag in order to steal its contents? Um, no.

2) Based on your first paragraph's logic I have doubts that your luggage has actually been lost and stolen that many times. Additionally, an economy seat on a plane is not the same price as a first class sleeper on a train for the same distance of travel. As someone who has travel extensively around the world, US train travel isn't a great bargain.

Additionally, I've also never encountered as many bathroom issues smelling up a sleeper car as I have with Amtrak... which you can google to find a lot of complaints about this unfortunate issue. For me, it's only about 1:20, but 5% of the time is still far too frequently.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amtrak/comments/70yyh9/why_does_the_stench_from_the_bathrooms_seem_to/

To do some research for you, here's a cross country trip from SF to NYC. $170 for an economy flight with one stop, or $180 nonstop which will take 6 hours, while the cheapest Amtrak option is $335 and will require being on a bus and getting off at multiple stops to change buses and/or trains. That's nearly half the price for economy and at only 6 hours it can be done with ease in a day.  Have you ever sat on a train for 24 hours straight, no sleeper car? I have, and it's quite uncomfortable even if you are in the nicer Business Class seats. Over 3 days in an economy seat while also spending a little more money than a 6 hour flight sounds horrible.

But you said get a sleeper car—which makes sense for being on a train for nearly half a week—but those prices are a lot. What is shown in the screensot are not a private room with your own facilities, but simply the Roomette option with a very small bunk bed and no seats unless you move you and your guest's luggage to the top bunk, fold up the bottom bunk, and then fold down the chairs when you're not in bed.

That's a lot of money and starting at considerably higher prices than even flying First Class (as shown below). Even JetBlue's Mint option which lie-flat seats is only $768 for the same trip. Mint is a real treat, BTW.

In conclusion, the only reason why I can imagine someone trying to talk up a fallacy is that 1) they're afraid to fly, 2) they're on a no-fly list for some reason.