paxman

I always have to laugh when people rage against advertising. If nobody advertised their goods how would you know what your options were, and as a producer of goods how would you let people know? Remember that branding is pretty much just advertising. In your face invasive advertising is terrible, I agree, and I understand that that is what people hate, but I just hate blanket statements devoid of nuance. As for Apple, I am paying top dollar for their products and service so they owe me the pleasure of no unsightly inappropriate ads. 

Why would Apple do this? It is not as if they need the money. It reminds me of SJ and JI's mantra about the great design comes from how and when to say no. I understand that it costs a small fortune to provide maps and live directions etc, but isn't that marketing? In order to sell the best devices for a high price Apple provides great software and services? I agree with above that this could be a starting point and that One+ or whatever removes the ads. Common for a lot of smaller apps for understandable reasons, but a cheap shot by Apple. Ugh!

This is one battle I hope Apple loses, or rather comes to terms with the fact that workers need representation and as such decide to work constructively with the union. Unions may be guilty of many things but the concept of workers at the bottom of the pay scale having the power to negotiate as a 'body', and have legal experts and organizers on their side is clearly 'right'. It doesn't matter how great Apple is as a company or how much they pay. It is a matter of lopsided control. 

If I pay for something I expect no ads. In fact that is the way I prefer it. 'Free' is never free and everybody knows it. I hope Apple will be very careful here. Having said that a ton of apps offer a pid version to remove ads. I personally don't mind that model. 

I am a very happy Safari user on all platforms. I have Chrome and Firefox but it is very rare that I have to turn to either of those. I remember the bad old browser days - today it is unusual to have issues. At least in my world.