MacQuadra840av

This review makes no sense at all.  The majority of the article identifies all the flaws of the mini, and carries over all the flaws from the first failed HomePod, yet somehow they give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Apple cannot even clear them out at $199 on sale, yet they come out with another severely compromised product and overprice it at $99.  AI forgot to bring up the failed Wi-Fi issue with the mini.  Many reports coming in of the mini's Wi-Fi failing constantly, and rebooting it only fixes it for a few minutes before Wi-Fi fails again.  Wi-Fi is required for the product to function, so basically people are left with a round ball that does nothing.  It is odd that Apple now powers the mini with the silicon from the discontinued watch 5 and makes it run tvOS(?), but then again, they powered the original HomePod with the outdated and discontinued A8.  Even worse, they are using an outdated Wi-Fi protocol because the mini only supports 802.11n!  Even their discontinued AirPort Extreme from 2013 supported 802.11ac!  No wonder it is failing on Wi-Fi networks.  It is like they are making these things from their own bargain bin of leftover and outdated parts.  (Remember when Apple made lousy PowerPC 603e computers by jamming a 64-bit processor onto a leftover Quadra 32-bit board?  That is how they are building these HomePod products).

I honestly don't know why people think the HomePod sounds good.  It is far too heavy on the bass and too boomy, and Apple refuses to incorporate tone/EQ controls so people can tailor the sound to their own liking.  It is Apple's way, or no way.  Too many restrictions on a speaker that take away the enjoyment of its sole purpose - to listen to music.  Sorry, but the 4.5 rating is a joke.

GeeAye said:

As a vegetarian - which is not a rare thing in this world - my issue is the leather. I can understand the issue with silicon being grippy but I'd buy a knock off faux leather one even if it had a limited life span. I still like the wallets which cover the screen as my experience is that my screen stays mark free and it survives face first drops. They fold back behind the phone so I'm not sure about why that would make one feel silly using it.

No one is forcing you to buy it.  

Hmmm...people get upset when Apple solders the RAM, SSDs, uses glue to seal batteries or access inside, yet here they are apparently upset about the right to do your own repairs out of warranty.  You can't have it both ways.  People have a right to do their own repairs out of warranty and should have access to the same replacement parts.  Having an excellent guide makes it easy to do.  Why do you people have such a problem with this?  Parents with kids that constantly break their phones are not paying Apple full price for repairs.  They are going to a mall kiosk to pay for an inexpensive repair, something they could actually do on their own.  I replaced my iPhone X display for $59 because I was not about to pay Apple $275 for their ridiculous mark up!  

So if you hate iFixit and the right to repair your own computer, then don't complain about Apple soldering everything to the board because you somehow want to claim it is innovation.  And the first complaint with the M1 MacBooks...the RAM and storage is not-upgradable and you must pay Apple's grossly overpriced fees to get more RAM and storage.  Same with the iMac 21.5" and iMac Pro...everyone whining about the sealed RAM...but hey, that's innovation, so stop complaining.

lkrupp said:

iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.

Why are you so hell bent on not being allowed to do your own repairs when the warranty expires?  You are so full of BS.  Repairability is the ease to repair the item yourself with access to the same parts, without paying Apple a fortune to do what you have every right to do on your own.  It is not stopping innovation.  Your argument makes you sound ridiculous.  How about if you were not allowed to work on your own car, like changing your own oil?  How would you feel about that?  I have saved a ton of money by being able to do my own repairs on Macs that are well out of warranty because the parts were not cemented in with heavy glue.

melgross said:

MacQuadra840av said:

melgross said:

Dan_Dilger said:

The people who hate Touch Bar are the same who think Macs need touch screens. They constantly talk about how great Surface is. They're PC people; they should buy PCs. If Touch Bar wasn't helping to sell Macs, the most data-driven marketing in the world would have figured that out by now. What Touch Bar does is differentiate Apple's machines from basic PCs. And if you haven't yet noticed, Surface isn't exactly selling on the same level as MacBooks. 

What gives you the right to characterize people that way? I happen to like the touch bar—AND I think Apple should have a touchscreen, just like millions of other Mac users. I know how you follow the Apple line, but Apple is often wrong. This is one of those things where they’re wrong. And I’ll bet that at some point, we will have a touchscreen.

You mean the 5 people in tech message forums that want a touchscreen Mac.  No one wants a touchscreen Mac.  Who wants dirty fingerprints on their screen?  So you want to bang on a keyboard, then have to reach up and touch the screen every time?  Talk about the most inefficient way to get work done.

No. I mean pretty much everyone I know. I’ve read article after article about this. There is a very large nu7mber of people who want one. Don’t be a smart ass. Apple doesn’t want to do it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want it.

Then maybe you should not claim that 'millions of people want it' and then suddenly claim that only the people you know want it.  Big difference.  Don't exaggerate what you think people want and don't want.  I wasn't being a smart ass.  Only people making comments in tech forums claim to want a touchscreen...and that is only a few hundred.