jdw

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jdw
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  • Apple's Education Store is down ahead of Back to School offers

    And just to clarify... AGAIN...  these student discounts are somewhat misleading insofar as most students who want Apple products have a new iPhone atop their shopping list, but there are no Apple student discounts for iPhones.  These discounts apply to Macs and iPads.  

    It's Apple Marketing at work, which benefits Apple instead of considering the needs of most students.  A more student-focused discount program would basically apply the Student Discount to ALL Apple products, not just a tiny slice of them.

    Yes, yes... This is the way it has always been, but that doesn't mean there's never room for change. 
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Apple plans slimmest iPhone 17 & MacBook Pro designs following iPad Pro success

    mpantone said:
    Guys, we are being trolled by some AI 'bots in this discussion.
    The biggest problem I have with anything labeled "AI" is that I often don't know when people mean Artificial Intelligence or Apple Insider.

    But maybe we are getting bots from both. ;-) 
    watto_cobra
  • How Apple will label AI-generated images made with Image Playground

    Keeping stupid "adult" (porno) imagery away from our eyes is always a good thing, but there are times when a photorealistic image of say a building or landscape would be a very nice thing to have.  I'd even love to have the freedom to tell it to modify artworks in a photorealistic way, like say, "recreate the Mona Lisa wearing a ladies hat."  (It's just an example.)  Sure there's all that silly copyright mess when it comes to more modern artworks or copyrighted items, but I think you all know what I mean.  

    So hopefully this is just a small start and later we can get some more photorealistic features.  I think it can be done without offending everyone, which is admittedly hard these days when most people are offending at the least little thing.
    watto_cobra
  • Apple plans slimmest iPhone 17 & MacBook Pro designs following iPad Pro success

    The last time Apple got on the Thinner-is-better bandwagon was when the Butterfly keyboard existed.  Remember the super thin MacBook with only a single USB-C port?  That wasn't the best of times, despite Apple still making profits hand over fist.

    Thinnest In Its Class is nothing more than Marketing fluff.  It doesn't bring tangible benefits to me or any other consumer.  All it does is maintain the same battery life while making it harder to get good audio out of the device.  

    I currently have a 16" M1 Max MBP and love it.  To become thinner would mean (1) certainly no increased battery life, (2) more difficulty keeping it cool (while also maintaining the highest clock speeds), and (3) more difficulty getting good sound with decent low end (bass) response.

    Sure, sure...  Thinness has some visual wow factor and I will admit I've been an Apple fan so long because it always comes out with aesthetically pleasing machines.  But we Apple lovers are practical people too.  We aren't stupid.  The old you are, the more you know how important the features are, over and above "the looks."

    Now if Apple wants to keep thinning out the fanless MacBook Air, that's fine, because I don't buy that class of machine.  Keep the Pro line robust!
    9secondkox2
  • Don't toss your Apple Watch away if you get a hard fall warning, like Steven Spielberg did...

    Having too much money makes some people really stupid.  That's true of anyone who takes their expensive and not indestructible bauble and, without a second thought, casts it to the ground!  Incredible.

    With that said, I look forward to seeing more AI in our life in terms of greater intelligence that prevents such things from happening in the first place.  In other words, a watch that can actually observe the situation (not merely shock and orientation) to determine if someone is truly in jeopardy or just aggressively giving a speech.  To me, this is the promise of AI that we should all be looking forward to.
    Anilu_777watto_cobra