sdw2001

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sdw2001
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  • YouTube TV will cost a lot more per month in April

    sdw2001sdw2001
    I’ve had YouTube TV for a couple of years.  I saw this price increase come up yesterday, and I have to say it’s going to cause me to seriously reconsider my subscription.  I don’t think I’m alone and I think Google is probably going to regret going this far. They should have raised it to 68.99.  The tax brings it to that price anyway and perhaps their customers may not have noticed. I think they’re going to actually lose subscribers over this.  

    watto_cobra

  • New OLED iPad Pro will probably cost as much as a MacBook Pro

    sdw2001sdw2001
    DAalseth said:
    Dear Apple:
    When did you stop being The Computer for the Rest of Us? I mean, there has been the Apple Tax for ages, but for a long time if you matched feature for feature it would disappear. Now though you just keep driving prices up and up. I mean $3k laptops are cool and all, but even your Mini has climbed steeply. More importantly the price has become prohibitive for a lot of The Rest of Us.  When I got my M1 iPad Pro a bit over a year ago, I really had to scrape to make it. Now you are looking at ~20% above that? For an OLED display that few outside of the technoratti either want or could even tell the difference? Looks like my next iPad will be an Air. I’ll just have to deal with the small screen and that’s assuming you don’t double the price by the time I need to replace the one I have. The replacement for my iMac? Well the new iMac is great and all, but it’s outside of what I can swing. I’m eying a base Mini and external FW drives rather than your exorbitantly priced storage. Actually today I started pondering if for what I NEED the Mac for I might be able to get by with a cheap Linux box. I’d lose all the ‘nice’ functions I use the Mac for on the side, but I could get by.

    Apple; you’re leaving The Rest of Us behind. 

    There is nothing new about Apple's pricing schemes.  If anything, they are far more affordable.  I bought a Pismo Powerbook in 2000.  It was like $3500.  A year ago I bought a MBP 14".  It was less than $2500.  Take inflation into account and one sees Apple hasn't jacked prices up...quite the opposite.  
    watto_cobra

  • New OLED iPad Pro will probably cost as much as a MacBook Pro

    sdw2001sdw2001
    They might be more expensive, but I have very serious doubts that Apple will raise the price anything close to 80%.  Just the PR alone (even on some kind of "ultra" model) would be really bad.  In fact, the conclusion about such a price increase doesn't make sense.  According to AI:

    According to sources cited by TheElec, the cost of the OLED panel from suppliers could be two to three times the price of existing OLED panels of the same size. While an existing 10-inch OLED panel could cost $100 to $150 apiece, the price of the component for an 11-inch iPad Pro could be around $270, rising to $350 for a 12.9-inch panel.


    It's not clear to me what the current cost of the 11 inch Pro screen is.  But, let's say it's $150, the high end of the "existing 10 inch OLED panel."  Let's say it doubles to $300.  And let's say the 12.9" model costs $250, and increases to $400. 

    • The 11 inch iPad Pro starts at $800.  Of that, we are saying 19% is LED component cost.   
    • The 12.9 inch starts at $1100.  Of that, we are saying 22% is LED component cost.  
    • If the price was unchanged, the new costs would be: 11 inch/$300/37.5% and 12.9 inch/$400/37%. 
    • If Apple simply passed on the increased component cost directly, the new numbers would be: 
    • 11 inch starting $950. OLED is 31.5% of the cost.   12.9 inch is now $1250 and 32% of the cost.  

    The only way you get close to an 80% overall price increase is if Apple insists on the same component cost as a percentage of the total product.  To accomplish that, they'd have to raise the 11 inch to over $1300 and the 12.9 inch to over $1800.  But of course, that makes no sense.  The profit margin is the important piece.  If Apple simply passes on the raw cost increase to maintain the profit margin, the increases would be 16% and 12%.   Even if they have another $100 increase in other components per model (for whatever component you like), we're still at a 24% increase per model.   

    Given all of that as well a the aforementioned PR/market reasons, I would expect a price increase more in the neighborhood of 15-25%, which is still significant.  So, I don't think the data is the problem with this article.  It's the conclusion that doesn't seem to make sense.   
    neo-techackpfftApplejacswatto_cobra

  • Victrola Stream Onyx review: The unofficial Sonos wireless turntable

    sdw2001sdw2001
    Great review, thanks. As a musician, I can’t escape asking “who is this product for?“ as you noted in the article, people who are going to invest in a turntable ecosystem, aren’t necessarily going to choose this. Is someone who’s been fascinated by analog versus digital music and how consumers respond to them, I don’t really get this one. Who would invest in an analog system just to run it over Bluetooth? It’s not really analog anymore, even without the network issues.  Certainly not Hi-Fi people.  The people I know who are into this kind of thing won’t even run a turntable through an integrated receiver. This product really seems like some sort of urban chic thing to me.  

    retrogustobaconstang

  • Apple Music violates EU antitrust laws, $39 billion fine possible

    sdw2001sdw2001
    I'm sure Apple will get right on paying that.  Or they'll spend .5% of that on the best lawyers in the world.  I'd rather see Apple tell the EU to pound sand.  I'm not saying pull out of Europe. I'm saying they simply refuse to pay or defend the case any longer.  Piss off.  
    aaplfanboystarof80darelrexpsliceTheSparklewilliamlondon