mpantone

bklynguy999 said:

Those keys are really raised up from the backboard, so using a potential 3rd party keyboard protector (as I always do with Apple's keyboards) seems impossible. So, there's too much exposed area under those keys to collect dirt & grime, imo.

They’re standard Cherry MX style keycaps. Just use a keycap puller to remove them, clean the base gently and press the keycaps back on.The keycaps have big enough gaps to shake/blow out a lot of the debris to start with.

I guess some people need to be reminded that this keycap style dates back to the IBM Selectric days.

Apple’s chiclet style keyboard is more problematic since you can’t easily access the base for cleaning.

rezwits said:

How in the F, does Microsoft pull this off?  Doesn't Xbox have a similar "streaming" service?  Thru the browser or something?

Yes, through the browser.

It's important to understand that Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Google all took different approaches in cloud game streaming.

Microsoft has content both as a studio and as a publisher due to its long experience with Xbox. Google had nothing and they really aren't a content company.

Meanwhile Microsoft acquired Bethesda/ZeniMax and is trying to acquire Activision-Blizzard. Microsoft made studio acquisitions primarily to prop up their portfolio to drive subscriptions to the Xbox Game Pass. The xCloud game streaming service is an add-on benefit to Game Pass subscribers and leveraged off Microsoft Azure datacenters.

Microsoft already knows how to run a successful gaming business. Same with Sony and Nintendo so those two will have a better chance of success at cloud game streaming when they tackle it head on. Nintendo has a few cloud titles available through Switch Online but they are taking a very cautious pace.

Non-gaming companies like Google and NVIDIA have a much steeper learning curve.

tht said:

It's amazing how keyboards can have so many keys, yet have these weird imperfections. There isn't one perfect keyboard, or mouse for that matter.

Some of the keys on the Mx Mechanical mini for Mac keyboard don't look to be standard width and are less wide. If it is for Mac, why are the functions in the function key row different from a Mac laptop keyboard? There's always something.

This is a 65% keyboard. The normal keys are all regular sized keycaps. The lens on the camera might be making things look different but all the central keys are the same dimension.

The other keys (tab, caps lock, shift, control, command, option) have to be adjusted for the constraints of the 65% layout which is one key wider than the main layout.

It should be pointed out that Apple themselves have futzed around with the keyboard layout on their smaller keyboards:



See how the four arrow keys are half sized? Here the function key is on the lower left. That key is elsewhere on the full sized wired keyboard.

There's a standard width between the center of each of the main keys. In the case of the Logitech keyboard and this Apple wireless keyboard, the keycaps are narrower than the base of Cherry MX keycaps.

Note that the ASD and ZXC rows are offset by half the width of a standard key. That's normal. Same with the 123 and QWE rows. However the offset between the QWE and ASD rows is much smaller. Again, this is normal and it's not specific to Apple/Mac keyboards. It's the same if you look at a PC keyboard. This layout has been like this for decades.

There's generally no standard for the function key row apart from putting the Esc key in the upper left and having twelve function keys due to software conventions. The alternate functions (screen brightness, keyboard brightness, media control, volume control) are all at the discretion of the keyboard manufacturer. As you can see, this keyboard uses F4 for the now-discontinued Dashboard.

ravnorodom said:

I am surprise they haven't killed Google+ yet. I have no idea what it does beside just being a profiler of an existing Google profile?

They shut down Google+ services in 2019.

I think Google Plus URLs resolve elsewhere just to prevent 404 errors.

fastasleep said:

mpantone said:

You have been online long enough to know that Apple rumor sites will post anything for ad impressions. True journalism died in the Nineties. 

It's not like they're making stuff up, see the Patently Apple link above.

I never stated that this rumor was made up or all rumors were made up. 

In this case, Ming-Chi Kuo says that he thinks Apple is trying to put together a new Apple Car research team. He's not stating that an Apple Car is coming. Apple has been working on this for nearly ten years.

Alphabet has been working on Waymo for longer.

He's not even speculating what product -- if any -- would ship.

One thing we do know -- based on California DMV autonomous vehicle testing data -- is that Apple's on again/off again program does not have much in the way of total miles driven. For sure the US DOT, the California DMV, and other authorities aren't going to let Apple market any sort of vehicle (consumer or commercial) without extensive road testing. And when I mean road testing, I mean on PUBLIC roads, not some fenced off test track in Nevada, Utah, wherever.

There is nothing new here. Various companies have been testing autonomous vehicles for years and years and there are only a handful of very limited deployments here in the USA.