zoetmb

Most of these programs are pretty worthless -- most translate to 6/10th of a cent for every dollar spent.   So spending $1000 gets you a $6 benefit, but the benefit is calculated at list prices, so it's really closer to a $4  or $5 benefit.   I have one card with Chase points, but I don't think I've ever gotten anything out of it.   With one of my Citibank cards, I can use points to pay off certain purchases (not all qualify), but it only works if you have enough points to pay for the entire charge.   

Bar said:

All the announcements were pretty meh to be honest. Wasn’t anything anyone really needed. The only thing I took away from the event is that only affluent people are wanted as the Apple customer. They completely ignored the entry level market with the Mac mini. Won’t be able to recommend Apple products at all to the average individual anymore considering all that most people do is check email and watch cat videos. 

People who only check email and watch cat videos don't even need a computer.   Their large-screen phone or pad will more than suffice, not that iPads are inexpensive.   And once one added a keyboard, monitor and mouse or trackpad, the Mini was never really inexpensive anyway.   

darkpaw said:

Isn't it funny how both increases are a round $50? The cost of the changes to the iPad aren't a round figure of $50; it's likely $36 or $19 or $41, but rounding up is great for Apple's bottom line.

Edit:  I see...you're talking about out-of-warranty replacements, but my other comments still stand.
 
An odd-manufacturing cost increase has nothing to do with how companies price products.   Note that all of Apple's pricing ends in "$...99".   Apple will always increase by round figures.  And the increases are not exactly $50.  The last price on the 12.9" iPad Pro 512GB WiFi was $1279 (it was originally $1229) and it's now $1499, an increase of $220.  64GB went from $929 to $1149, also $220.  Does the A12X cost so much more than the A10X?

And it's great for Apple's bottom line, assuming they don't have reduced sales because of it.   I've written this before, but I believe that the massive salaries paid to Apple executives and managers are warping their perceptions about what prices mean to people of average or average plus incomes.    We should be benefiting from cost reductions in technology more than we are.   A topped-out MBA is $2599, a topped-out MBP is $6699 and a topped-out new MacMini is $4299.   IMO, those are all completely absurd prices as is $1500 for an iPad Pro 12.9" with 512K and WiFi (and $1900 for 1TB).   Pads were supposed to be (in part) lower-priced alternatives to computers.

Apple used to tend to provide newer tech at the same price as the older tech.   IMO, these price increases are just greed.  

mac_128 said:

Still has a 100 year old headphone jack. Curious to see if the iPad rumors come true now ...

 But no FaceID. Maybe next year...

Edit: yup. No headphone jack on the iPad Pro. Gonna be a lot of dongles hanging off that sucker ... 

So first you complain that they're using a 100-year-old technology (which isn't accurate anyway) and when you find out that they're not, you're complaining that you have to have dongles.   So what is it that you actually want aside from the ability to complain?  

rain22 said:

I'm convinced he won't be done until he has a wafer thin iPhone that gets 2 minutes of battery time. 

Yes.  If he ever goes, I would hope Apple hires or promotes someone who still cares about form, but cares a LOT more about function and practicality.   I think in recent years, Apple has placed form over function far too often.   And in the case of iPhones, it's a sad joke because the phones aren't robust enough to not use a case, which hides the form anyway.    Whenever I see a phone without a case I think, "oh, that's a really nice phone - maybe I should upgrade" and then I discover that it's the phone model I already have. 

Apple's decision to not let end-users replace the battery or upgrade memory or storage may have been to force people to upgrade their computers more often (and may have been partially caused by the obsession with thinness and no seams in the case), but I think that's going to backfire in the long run.   I think people will upgrade less often because of the cost and Apple might even lose some customers who no longer want to pay what Apple now gets for its laptops, which IMO has ventured into ludicrous territory.