george kaplan

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george kaplan
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  • Apple is financing all the lending for the Apple Pay Later service

    8thman said:
    This is risky in the current financial environment.
    Inflation is taking a toll on consumers and some will start defaulting on payments. Timing of this is not good.
    No, this is a move to snare a sector of the market which can’t/won’t get a credit card like the Apple Card to make the purchase of the next accessory or iPad. With transactions capped at $1K, Apple takes little risk on defaults, while building relationships with customers who may grow into Apple Card customers, expanding their creditworthiness into iPhone to MacBook Pro range.

    All of this builds transactions which don’t cost Apple 3% to 6% in processing fees from the credit card companies. While that may seem trivial, scale that up to tens of millions of dollars in transactions and the savings become significant. It also gives additional experience and data to Apple as it continues to build out a fintech division—one that might be responsible for car sales/leasing in a few years.
    am8449Beatswatto_cobra
  • Wemo Smart Video Doorbell review: The new HomeKit doorbell of choice

    So the Wemo has a wider viewing angle than the Logitech, and the Logitech provides color night vision, excellent HDR (more important than many realize until it’s installed and being used), costs $50 less, and looks less like something you’d have an oncologist look at.
    h4y3swatto_cobra
  • Smaller Mac Pro with Apple Silicon to join Mac mini refresh in 2022

    Seeing the reference to the G4 Cube made me feel both old and sad. 

    I loved my Cube; I had no need to expand it, but the fanless design meant it was quiet as a tomb. My office was in my bedroom then, but I could have the Cube on all night and it never made a peep. Back then, Windows desktop units often used cheap fans built with even cheaper bearings, and some fans could be heard in the background of a phone call. But the Cube made no noise at all, and the G4 chip in its day was pretty frisky. 
    williamlondonJWSCpatchythepiratewatto_cobramcdavedewmeStrangeDaysdocno42
  • Apple execs explain why you should use Apple Maps over competitors

    jingo said:
    Apple Maps has some really big UX fails which mean Imalways go back to Google Maps. In particular it is close to useless if you are the “navigator” while someone eslse is driving. A vast part of the screen is taken up with a panel showing details of the place when you search for a destination, and there are only two ways of seeing the map full screen (that I have found). Firstly you can click the X to close the panel, but then you lose the route. Secondly you can start the route, but there is no way of switching to a mode where you control what you are looking at, or lose the directions. 

    It surely should be possible to use it like a map book, but with the route displayed on it? This seems really fundamental to me but the UX designers seem to have almost wilfully stopped you from using it that way.

    Other things that bug me in CarPlay is that you can only have the display in dark mode or “automatic” when it seems to always be in dark mode as well. Why can’t you set it to always be in light mode? This doesn’t make any sense to me. The ideal scenario would be a quick and easy way to manually change it to the mode you want, not the mode that Apple seems to think you should want.

    Another failing is the difficulty in CarPlay of seeing what is coming up on the map a little bit further ahead than what is immediately in front of you. Viewing of the map is extremely limited.

    Finally another annoyance is that the warnings for speed cameras are only given when you are using it in routing mode. Why can’t you switch on the warnings even when you are not following a route?
    You may want to revisit your Settings. You should have a choice of Light, Dark, or Automatic. 
    JWSCwatto_cobra
  • On its second anniversary, Apple TV+ is in a good place

    seanboy81 said:
    I must say I really enjoy Foundation, and also the Morning Show, my favorite series is For all Mankind, though.
    Most of the shows really don’t speak to me (yet), except Ted Lasso, of course!
    My take on Foundation is they should have released the first 5 episodes at once because it has taken that long to understand the time jumps, locations and plot threads. I think this is sizing up to be a very effective long-term dramatic story in the way it is presented, but the viewer buy-in is at least 4 episodes and 5 would have been better.  Being able to binge 4 or 5 would have helped tremendously. 
    OferscstrrfStrangeDaysjas99watto_cobra