maury markowitz

zroger73 said:

I'll continue to enjoy and utilize my Amazon Echos as smart speakers.

Do they do AirPlay? Generally, how do you use them with an iPhone/iPad? Do they just appear and work, or is it like Sonos?

Soli said:

I see your point, but this might be welcome to many as one of the common complaints I hear from people with Apple Pay is that end up paying with the wrong card because Touch ID is so fast. On this forum in the last couple weeks I had a discussion with someone that prefers their Apple Watch because they can do the more deliberate action of pressing the side button twice to activate Apple Pay.

Ha! Fair point, I only have one card so this use-case doesn't effect me.

> To pay, you double tap the side button, similar to Apple Watch.

This strikes me as a real step backward.

Right now I keep my phone in my left shirt pocket, facing in, with the button at the top.

To use APay, I simply reach up with with my right hand and grasp the end, with my thumb on the button. As I place it on the reader, this naturally "flips" the phone face up while also authenticating. It's one single motion.

This is especially important because I have found most readers have some sort of plastic or rubbery C-shaped "cup" around the number buttons that are below the display area in order stop people from seeing you type in a PIN. These interfere with the placement of the phone, which I normally have to rotate so it's sideways on the reader.

Now it appears I will have to hold the phone in such a way that I can double click the buttons, and while it can see my face. I'm a bit concerned that this will make it more difficult to use in this case, although only time will tell.

sog35 said:

1. Wall Street trust Tim Cook more.  He has proven himself the last 5 years.

Proven what, exactly? That he can ride existing momentum without instantly crashing? Sculley managed that too, remember?

I watched all of this happen in the early 1990s. By the late 80s the management was more focused on what Wall Street thought of them than anything to do with their products. To keep that ball rolling, they adopted the "high right" policy because that made the margins look good, and WS loves its margins. Within five years their customer base consisted entirely of high-end publishing and rich people. And they had all the machines and software they needed. The developers left the platform in droves. Anyone could get tickets to WWDC.

SJ came back and basically noted that they were a consumer company with no consumer products. He solved that with the $999 iMac. They followed with a stream of consumer products that were well priced and well built. That pushed up the stock price to the stratosphere. And now we have the same problem again. 20 years later, after the price of electronics has fallen in half, the cheapest iMac is $1299, and the bottom-of-the-line MacBook is the same price. They are eliminating every low-end product from their catalog, with the exception of the Apple TV, which is now the world's most expensive and least flexible streamer box.

I don't think he's doing a good job at all. I think he's cutting out the soul of the company, again.

"Apple is in a unique position to fix a series of ugly problems with social networking"

No, they are in a unique position to fail any such attempt.

Their history is filled with repeated failures in this field. They show no evidence that they understand it at all. The technology basis for such a system is also largely a failure (iCloud).

What could possibly convince anyone that this a good idea?