jdw

TikTok annoys the heck out of me, not because I use it (I've seen it and dislike like it, so of course I don't use it), but because it has influenced the creation of stupid Reels on FaceBook (which show nothing but skinny Chinese girls doing who knows what) and Shorts on YouTube (more varied than Reels, but still annoying).  It's like a plague.  Creates more mindless young people than we ever had before.  You sit, and scroll through video clips so short they are utterly worthless.  I can't help but think the same mindset applies to people who are addicted to drugs.  Meaning, it all mindlessness.  No thought involved.  It's all in how it makes you FEEL.  I fail to see why any educated mind would care for any of that.  (Full Disclosure: I don't smoke, drink alcohol of any kind, and I detest coffee; and no, I'm not Mormon.)

So what is "mindful" and the inverse opposite of all that?  Why, ready AppleInsider articles, of course!  What else?!

And there you have it.

Why do governments waste both time and taxpayer money on frivolous matters like this when there are far more pressing matters that require their attention?

I've lived in Japan 30 years and have seen the stupidity first hand.  Every time they raise the consumption tax, things only get worse.  New regulations make products more expensive and less popular as a result. Tax and spend is the norm here.  There are many good things about Japan, but most of that stems from the way common people think and act, not policies by the elected leadership.

Right now, the Japanese consumer is dealing with a super weak Yen along the lines of US$1 to ¥154, which makes things more expensive, and all companies which import (and there are many) must pay much more for their imported goods, passing that along to the consumer.  (FYI, the ideal rate is about $1 to ¥110.)  We therefore need a stronger Yen than now, not governmental intervention about silly app stores!  This is sheer madness.  It's as crazy as the government demanding companies raise salaries, when they are doing all they can do right now just to stay afloat!  Sadly, populations like Japan remain silent and just allow their government to do as they like.  This is nothing exclusive to Japan, of course.  But since I live in Japan, what goes on here matters to me.

Leave easy targets like big tech alone and focus on the most pressing matters that affect most people. App store policies and who's a "monopoly" today don't matter a hill of beans!

auxio said:

jdw said:

Sorry, but all the defenses of Apple on this are total poppycock.  I'm a huge defender of Apple, and have been since 1984.  People who go around doing nothing but trashing Apple are trash themselves.  But let's face it, folks, RAM is one area Apple has ALWAYS failed the consumer on.  Apple Silicon and RAM efficiency talk is garbage.  What matters is PRACTICAL USABILITY.  Does somebody online talking about efficiency magically make 8GB good enough for YOU?  No.  No, it does not.

...hey, stick with the "magical" thinking because you can't comprehend the actual engineering details.

The big problem is that every application you use is web, web, web these days. ...it leads to all the bloat and overhead which requires more memory and CPU power.

I guarantee that if you can stick to native applications outside of a web browser, you'll find you'll rarely (if ever) hit the limits of the average computer...

You, sir, are the very type of person my previous post addresses.  You (1) trashed me by saying I cannot comprehend engineering details, (2) you somewhat admit the problem is not me but rather software requiring something beyond my control which is amusing because you just trashed me, and (3) you then give me a totally worthless guarantee.

Folks, as I said in my previous post, people like "auxio" are spewing poppycock.  My understanding of engineering details or lack thereof does NOT magically make my daughter stop calling me for support of her 8GB RAM M1 MBP because "magically' after reading the magical post by auxio, she now has a usable machine.  No, it's not a matter of "she's holding it wrong!"  It's only after talking to me and hearing my advice about running only a single app at a time, like we did in 1984, does she have a usable machine.  And no, she's not running Chome or "web, web, web" either.  She DOES indeed "hit the limits of the average BASELINE RAM computer from Apple because that RAM is only 8GB."  ENGINEERING DETAILS matter nothing.  What matters is PRACTICAL USABILITY FOR THE USER!  If you are satisfied with 8GB of RAM, great for YOU!  But your great experience doesn't magically translate into a great experience for others.  And to suggest we "hold it like you're holding it" (a throwback to the iPhone 4 days), is ridiculous.

We should all be able to buy the baseline RAM and STORAGE and get practical usability out of the machine for at least a year without running up against out of memory errors, serious slowdowns or the inability to run apps.  And to say the consumer is the one in the wrong because they didn't pay extra (above their budget) for overpriced extra RAM and overpriced extra STORAGE is, as I said in my earlier post, nothing more than a Cupertino-worshipper talking, not your friend.

A Cupertino-worshipper is a largely mindless person who loves Apple and who preaches whatever Cupertino preaches at any given time.  To the worshipper, it's Gospel.  So if Apple is preaching butterfly keyboards, a Cupertino-worshipper defends that choice and bashes anyone who doesn't love butterfly key switches, playing down all problems associated with the tech.  When Apple removed the SD card slot, those same worshippers ran in droves to this very forum to defended that stupid choice.  Then when Apple changed out the keyboard and restored the slot, those worshippers fell silent on those issues, but they now have come roaring back defending 8GB of baseline RAM.  

Cupertino-worshippers are crazy, and sadly, they are perpetually founding in forums like this one.  So just be on your guard when you come across them.  They are in greater numbers than you think.   And even though they are "crazy ones," they do not change the world, as the Apple slogan goes.  If anything, they fight against change, and that's the very problem that keeps 8GB as the baseline RAM in current Macs, even now in 2024.

Sorry, but all the defenses of Apple on this are total poppycock.  I'm a huge defender of Apple, and have been since 1984.  People who go around doing nothing but trashing Apple are trash themselves.  But let's face it, folks, RAM is one area Apple has ALWAYS failed the consumer on.  Apple Silicon and RAM efficiency talk is garbage.  What matters is PRACTICAL USABILITY.  Does somebody online talking about efficiency magically make 8GB good enough for YOU?  No.  No, it does not.

I purchased an M1 MacBook Air with that "efficient" 8GB of RAM for my daughter as she entered college 3 years ago.  (I knew she would need more storage space than the default too, so I ordered 512GB of SSD space.)  I based that 8GB decision largely on what others were saying and based on my own online research about have special "unified memory" is.  Skip forward a few months and one of the biggest issues she's had is with inadequate RAM, and I've had to spend a lot of time with her to bring her so-called "modern" Mac back to 1984 days.  That's right, I've had to tell her to launch only a single app at a time.  Remember those days when you could only do that with System 1.0 all the way up to MultiFinder?  Well, it's back in a different form today.  When your 8GB Mac slows to a crawl or has apps that exit due to inadequate RAM, you have to quit all apps but the RAM hungry one you need to run, and then and only then your 8GB RAM-constrained M1 Mac starts to work well.

Having had that ridiculous experience with my daughter's M1 MBA, when my son needed a new Mac for school, I purchase him the current Air out at the time, which was an M2 13" MBA, but this time I didn't play the idiot consumer.  I spent extra money so it would come with 16GB RAM, and I also ordered the more reasonable 512GB storage too.  Guess what?  Not a single memory issue, and he uses pretty much the same apps his older sister does.  That practical experiences takes everyone who defends 8GB of RAM and kicks them square in the fanny.

Moral of the story? Don't listen to Apple.  Don't listen to Cupertino-worshippers in Apple-centric forums like this one.  Listen to practical experiences from people like myself who have loved and known Macs for years.  And consider well you will likely need more RAM than you think, either immediately or soon down the line.  And that more RAM means anything more than 8GB.

Full disclosure, I am against all these crazy and pathetic lawsuits against Apple, especially because I am an AAPL investor.  I want to see Apple succeed because I believe in Tim Cook, Apple engineers, their design team, and their great products. I laugh every single time I hear the name EPIC or Merrick Garland because these idiots are seeking to trash Apple and force it to do things that really don't positive impact me as a consumer much at all.  However, nobody is trying to force Apple to put more usable amounts of RAM and storage in its baseline products.  I guess you can argue it's impossible to do that in a free market society, so oh well.  But let's face it, too little RAM is what we've been faced with since the 128K Mac, and it needs to change.  And while not as important, I think the same is true of baseline storage too.  The manufacturing cost differential between 8GB vs. 16GB RAM and 256GB vs. 512GB of storage in 2024 is so insignificant that Apple is totally insane for charging all the money it does for those RAM and storage upgrades, especially so on machines that cannot be consumer-upgraded after purchase.  Yes, my friends, Apple can still be a wildly profitable company even if they start offering 16GB of baseline RAM and 512GB of storage, and nothing less than that.

I love Apple and its products, but RAM and STORAGE amounts are as infuriating as the mindless people who defend "8GB is enough." But I say, efficiency be darned!  Give us more RAM and STORAGE in baseline product models!  And bump baseline iCloud storage from 5GB to at least 15GB too.  It's 2024 for crying out loud!

"Why is it a bad thing," Ternus?  Because you aren't considering the long term implications of what happens when a device gets so old Apple stops making parts for it.  And while one can argue that for an iPhone, it matters less than a Mac, the fact remains that your are effectively killing off old devices that cannot get official parts anymore after a certain number of years.  Nobody is talking about that and they should. Ternus arguments are only sound when you consider a device that still is young enough for Apple to still offer parts for it.