paulmacintosh

Apple is still also selling its first generation Apple Pencil as an optional accessory with this new 10th gen (11th gen) iPad. The first gen Apple Pencil pairs and charges via a lightning connector, but this iPad has USB C - so nobody will be able to pair it with this 2025 iPad! The second gen Apple Pencil with USB C, which is cheaper than the OG Apple Pencil, is the only viable pencil accessory. Sometimes, you must wonder what is going on in the minds of Apple’s product teams. 😆

I won’t be rushing to upgrade my iPhone SE anytime soon. The 16e was launched with an identity crisis, it may share the A18 processor but it doesn’t resemble a 16 in the slightest (the butt ugly notch is back and MagSafe charging is missing). Honestly, they would’ve been better off retaining the SE branding rather than besmirching the good name of the 16 (and future models). Apple was on a winner with the iPhone SE - it had a niche of devotees - but now it’s squandered that goodwill. Here’s hoping this particular iPhone goes the way of the G4 Cube, iPod HiFi, cylindrical Mac Pro, and other disastrous products Apple has launched over the years.

Steve wouldn’t’ve launched this iPhone, it’s terrible!

It’s not just the iPhone 16s, I’ve been experiencing these touch screen sensitivity issues on my iPhone SE (2022) - the screen won’t respond to touches (particularly in Messages and particularly if a text selection menu is open) and the only way to get around it seems to be closing and reopening the app or locking and unlocking the iPhone.

You wouldn't be having this conversation again if the assailant didn't have a gun! America's problem is guns, not encryption. Unlike every other developed country in the world - Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada and the countries of Europe, to name a few, America finds it impossible to do universal public healthcare and gun control. Less guns = less gun crime and no guns = no gun crime (obvs, leaving aside for a moment the issue of any illegal arms trading; but that's why police and customs exist). Y'all can argue about things like knife crime but it's easier to shoot someone from hundreds of metres away rather than stab them (where you'd have to be up close and they could more easily take up the fight).

Since 1996, when we had our last mass shooting event, Australia implemented a comprehensive programme of gun confiscation (yes, the government took our guns from us by force; but paid us for them because it was a compulsory acquisition of property) and gun control (practically nobody can get a gun licence, save for game hunters). Guess what! We've had no mass shootings and no political assassinations since then. The other side of the coin is that political assassinations aren't part of our political history or culture because our politicians don't turn up the temperature the way America's Republicans do; although the Libs (our conservatives) here try sometimes.

Y'all can argue the toss and try on all the counterpoints you like, but the empirical evidence from Australia is that gun control works - so stop with the faux arguments about encryption and what you can learn about the shooter in hindsight (what he had on his phone doesn't matter now, because he carried out his attack - he was allowed to sneak onto a roof, within a couple hundred metres of the oompa loompa, with a rifle in hand).

America needs gun control, not encryption hacks or backdoors.