arthurba

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arthurba
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  • Apple has the 'key ingredients' needed to disrupt the car market, analysts say

    arthurbaarthurba
    The user experience in cars is rubbish.  

    I drive a lot of different cars when travelling (in a normal year), and the user experience in them is all poor.  Some slightly better than others.  I've not driven a Tesla.

    But the automotive industry have consistently rejected Apple's approach - I find it particularly annoying that anything which supports carplay also supports android auto, like they are interchangable.  Apple want to differentiate their product, but the automotive companies want the opposite - they want to commoditize these sorts of "additions".

    So in the end, Apple need an automotive manufacturer who will really take a leap of faith, or find a "contract manufacturer", or build there own factory or buy a competitor.  Whether it's iPod or Mac or iPhone, Apple have always competed at scale.  Therefore it's my guess that they will buy (hostile takeover if necessary) a manufacturer when the time is right.  No reason why Apple can't buy GM or Ford if they want to (except maybe because of their historical liabilities).
    mark fearinglkrupplolliverBeatssuperklotonMplsPwatto_cobra

  • Elon Musk says Apple CEO Tim Cook refused meeting to discuss acquiring Tesla

    arthurbaarthurba
    But at least talk, Tim Cook, see what they were working on!!!
    That is an excellent reason NOT to talk.

    Apple has been sued before for "taking a meeting" then releasing their own "similar" product.

    You only take the meeting if there is a serious chance that the sale will happen imminently, which generally means the selling price is a fraction of what it would cost to develop internally, or it leapfrog's the competition.  At the time indicated, Tesla would not have given either of those things.

    Apple iPad was not the first to market, Apple Smartphone was not the first to market.  Apple's success is generally in design, technology refinement/simplification, software/hardware integration and scale.

    To make money in cars you need incredible scale.  I think Apple are far more likely to buy GM or Ford or an asian marque than Tesla.  That they didn't buy Volvo a few years ago when it was up for sale surprised me.  Either they will (now they have Chinese manufacturing), or they saw it as too small and have larger ambitions.  But if they can "outsource" production, then they don't need to buy production facilities.  I don't know automotive well enough to know if that is really feasible.
    ronnbala1234doggoneBeatsRayz2016delreyjonespatchythepiratewatto_cobra

  • Child spends $16K on iPad game in-app purchases

    arthurbaarthurba
    Good discussion here. 

    Certainly these games with virtual currency are all a blatant rip-off, and the sooner they are all declared gambling and therefore age limiters put on the better.  But until the government or a court makes that ruling...

    I think the credit card company and Apple need to share the blame here. 

    If I so much as spend £20 on my card I get an immediate call from my bank asking to confirm “unusual activity on my account”.  The bank should have been pro-active. If the family normally spent a lot on Apple I can see this being a bit difficult, which is why Apple need to share the blame. 

    If the bank can detect “unusual activity” so can Apple. I don’t know about fixed $200 / $1000 limits, but “unusual” should be easy to pick up.  Lock the account until the account owner calls and passes id check and confirms the charges.  In the UK/EU banks are required to do this by law (ensure charges are authorised by the account holder) - maybe the legislation needs to be amended to cover large semi-banks like Apple.  But Apple can see the problem, they shouldn’t wait until it’s mandated - they should get out in front. 

    Oh, and Apple can make it easier for banks by giving more detailed sub-account identifiers instead of just ITUNES for everything. 
    kiowavtktappemainyehcjony0

  • House lawmakers call Big Tech's power monopolistic, recommend sweeping changes

    arthurbaarthurba
    Needless to say I haven’t read the whole report - but based on the quote in the article, and that the quote wasn’t specifically about Apple, but about the whole lot of them, it seems pretty reasonable to me.  

    Specifically- Apple’s first party services should compete on a level playing field. I absolutely detest that it takes me a month after I get a new iPhone to disable all the stupid ways it asks me to sign up to Apple Music.  Yes I want to play my music in their app, no I don’t want to subscribe to Apple Music.  That prompt (all 1000 of them) either shouldn’t exist or be open to third parties. If it was able to be used by every app on my device you bet that Apple would also provide a big fat single ‘stop bothering me about this offer’ switch. 

    I’m happy with the Apple App Store, but I also think Apple could allow 3rd party stores - but just like the first party option, it would need to be held to a contract.  And then Apple’s store would have to compete on features. At the moment I’m finding they don’t restrict apps enough. I think there is a market for a stricter App Store, maybe with higher commissions and far more checking (and re-checking) of apps. Maybe even a parent App Store where all the kids content is truly vetted.  Apple can allow completion without opening up the platform to security risks. 


    Grayeaglexyzzy01

  • US trying for 'clean network' by banning 'untrusted Chinese apps' like WeChat, TikTok

    arthurbaarthurba
    Europe has been making pretty much the same case against the US for some time now.  That EU citizens need greater data sovereignty, and that there should be 'local' cloud providers and social networks, app stores and network services rather than primarily US ones, and there should be limits to pre-installed apps too.  And US companies and politicians have been arguing vehemently against it.  But of course the EU has been signalling these changes and gradually introducing laws and then enforcing them gradually over 15 years.
    elijahg