paxman

Not only should voting be paid time off, it should be obligatory. It is a small price to pay for a functioning democracy. That the US laughably referred to as 'land of the free' by some of its inhabitants can't manage to stage open and fair elections in 2020 is incredible. No other democracy as far as I know struggle with this. It is the absolute fundamental basis of democracy. 

I am an on and off Apple News user.  I like that it is right there and I like the breath of choice, but I am not crazy about having news curated in the way I think it is (not certain). When I read news I don't really want to only read what I already think. It is not that I read every angle of a story, but I like being presented with a range of topics and articles within one publication. I like the NYT and may subscribe independently. Apple news is trying hard to balance between easy access, tabloid layout and article length with a ton of adds within many articles. I like it but it has not hit the sweet spot for me.

I prefer Apple Maps but the inability to plot routes, with any start point is a big negative. Hope they fix that. And I wish they'd either buy or struck a deal with DDG to use their services somehow.  I am not a DDG user most of the time but if they Apple branded it and built it into the address bar search I'd use it a lot more. Google would still be available of course. 

radarthekat said:

Best WWDC keynote in years. Straight to the point, no interacting with a life audience, pre-recorded is they doctor get it right without hiccups and keep it tightly scripted.  They should do it this way every year, with apologies to the live audience who would love to be present.  

Couldn't agree more. Snappy, to the point, less of Tim  . I love Tim but he is not a great stage act and what there was this time seemed so much fresher. No performance anxiety, I guess. I hope they continue with this type of major announcements in the future. 

30% has always seemed on the high side and it has been controversial since day one. I don't know what the costs are but we do know Apple makes shedloads of money and it would make sense (to me), for Apple to share some of the spoils with the creative people who help make the platform so successful by lowering the prices.