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from the discontinued watch 5 and makes it run tvOS(?), but then again, they powered the original HomePod with the outdated and discontinued A8.  Even worse, they are using an outdated Wi-Fi protocol because the mini only supports 802.11n!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  It is like they are making these things from their own bargain bin of leftover and outdated parts.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.

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:

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.

ArielBar_17 said:

Does that mean that the next big fall update will be called macos 12 instead of macos 11.1?

Not necessarily.  Apple quickly replaced 10.0 with 10.1 during the same year with major bug fixes and features restored from OS 9, like DVD Playback and CD burning.  Then we had 10.1 to 10.1.5 and then 10.2 to 10.2.8 and so on.  Big Sur is really 10.16 with eye candy.  The only reason they called it 11 is because of Apple Silicon.  It is still the same core OS X underneath, with fresh paint like Yosemite.

williamlondon said:

entropys said:

The Mac Pro wheel of charging solutions.
It’s a joke.

Are you kidding? This will be a huge hit.

Are you kidding?  Not for $129 plus the cost of a charger, that is not included.  It is a joke.  So is the leather sleeve for the same price.  No one needs this cheaply made product.  Early reviews basically call it a joke.  You need two hands or manipulate your fingers to get the phone off the pad because the pad remains stuck to the phone, risking damage to your watch if it falls off.  Reviews said the lack of a hinge makes it very cheap as well as the materials used to make it.  They agreed it was grossly overpriced and felt more like a $79 product, not $129.  You can charge better with the $19 USB-C 20W charger, and charge much faster too.  Most people charge their watch with the included cable and a 5w charger because the battery in the watch is so small.