sevenfeet

An interesting coda in the history of Activision, probably the oldest independent gaming company (meaning one who didn't make their own console system). They date back to the Atari 2600 system introduced in the late 70s, making games for that console (and drawing the ire of Atari at that time). Electronic Arts wouldn't be a thing for a few more years.

At some point Comcast must have realized that losing people who wanted a TV package to YoutubeTv (Google) or Hulu (Disney) wasn't a good long term strategy. But limiting that strategy to only Roku boxes made even less sense. I'm not sure just what the problem was with making a deal with Apple. Maybe it was revenue sharing on the premium channel subscriptions. Maybe it was lack of customer data from tvOS's ability to block this just like iOS does. And Comcast had never participated in the single sign-on feature of iOS/tvOS which has always been a major pain in the rear with apps constantly asking for reauthorization, especially if you hadn't used them in a while.

The irony is that Comcast legacy TV has a winning package compared to the cord cutting options, especially for things like sports and regional sports networks. I looked at this in the last couple of weeks and complained bitterly to my local Comcast store in that I wanted to consolidate my streaming boxes to just one thing....an Apple TV 4K. Why I would still need a Comcast box at all is nuts and their recommendation of getting a Roku box wasn't an option for me in a hour full of Apple tech.  One issue I know the had to be worked out is DVR where Xfinity customers are still storing shows locally and everyone else does this in the cloud now. And here's the big surprise....my monthly Comcast bill has a cheaper TV component than Internet...and its cheaper than Youtube or Hulu once you upgrade them for nickel and dimming you on 4K and/or DVR features.

And now I'll just have Apple streaming boxes so I can return the two Comcast boxes which Comcast is already discounting their fees for in order to keep my business. Everybody wins, except for Technicolor or Arris that makes these boxes. But for the customer that want to use the Comcast equipment, they will have more options now.

Happy_Noodle_Boy said:

crowley said:

Is AOL even worth anything any more?  Does it still have presence in the US?

The brand name itself likely has value just by virtue of it being so recognizable but I have no clue what that price tag would be. They have a U.S. presence. They stopped being an ISP some time ago but were doing some media content creation and publishing. 

Fun fact. AOL was originally the product of a company called Quantum. Quantum released AOL as a rebranded product that was called AppleLink and was a joint venture with Apple to offer dial up BBS for customers. So at some point AOL started as an Apple product. 

This is partially correct. The original Applelink was an online service for Apple employees internal communications. It was the first of its kind with a UI to show off the features of the Mac back in the Mac Plus/Mac SE/Mac II days. I was at Apple at the time and used it every day. It used GE's online system as the back end.  GE also marketed a text based service with the same servers as GENie, which was a rival to CompuServe and Prodigy back in the 80s.

Applelink was also used by some partners and repair facilities, but there had been a push from those non-Apple employees that had seen it to make a version for the general public. But Apple didn't want it on the same system as the one for employees. Instead of going to GE to design something different, they partnered with Quantum, run by Steve Case in Virginia. Quantum had a growing network of text based online chat forums as a competitor to CompuServe and GENie and worked with Apple on a UI version of what Quantum had that was branded Applelink Personal Edition. Apple also took an equity stake in Quantum.

Sometime after the presentation (early 1990) we got internally on the rollout of Applelink Personal Edition, we began beta testing it as Apple employees who had access. But Apple leadership decided to change their mind on the whole thing and pulled out of the deal right before launch. Steve Case and Quantum literally had a finished product ready to go, so it was rebranded as America OnLine, and as they say, the rest is history.

One bit of epilogue....Apple watched the success of AOL in the 90s and realized they screwed up so a few years later, Apple came out with a competing service called eWorld (I still have the T-shirt). eWorld went no where and went off to the grave of so many 1990s Apple initiatives.  Apple did end up making money on AOL, selling off their stock in the intervening years for badly needed cash.

rob53 said:

bsbeamer said:

This is good news for macOS moving forward, even if it's going to take awhile to transition there.  Do not see abandoning Intel-based machines for production work anytime in the next 12-18 months, but 18-24 months should look fairly promising as additional AS machines are released.  Fingers crossed we are not losing chunks of functionality in the process/transition.  

Not an Adobe user (anymore) but it does show how much influence Apple has on the market by forcing Adobe to hurry up and get their code ready for when the iMac and Mac Pro are released with Apple's M-series SoCs. Personally, I don't think you'll have to wait 18-24 months for Apple to release these Macs but you might have to wait for Adobe to complete their transition from their antique code base. It might take that long for plug-in vendors to complete the transition but if they were programming for macOS the correct way, the transition shouldn't be that bad.

Isn't Apple having another announcement any time??? Like in late March. One of these rumors will actually come true. Can't wait to see benchmarks, including Premiere, blow away Intel-based Macs. It's been too long for a change and Apple's entry level M1 shows what a quantum leap ASi already makes. 

Premiere Pro dates back nearly 20 years having launched in 2003 and its predecessor Adobe Premiere was released 30 years ago. Which means that it's one of those apps that has survived the transition from 68K -> PowerPC and PowerPC -> Intel before now. While I wouldn't expect 30 year old code to still be lurking in there, I'm sure there is lots of older Objective-C code that will need to be examined. And for problematic stuff, there's always the opportunity for a Swift migration, which takes time.

SpamSandwich said:

Looking over the description page at Apple.com, I looked closer at the volume knob and must wonder out loud what in the world were they thinking when they decided to put that closer to the BACK than the FRONT on top of the headphones? 

The volume knob will be THE MOST USED function of these headphones. And if a person is lying down on a pillow, as shown in their video/ad, the odds that the volume knob will be accidentally moved or triggered have increased hugely. And the physically awkward placement will also make it more difficult to reach in those cases when something very loud suddenly blasts over the headphones.

This is one of those slap yourself on the forehead moments. Form should never override function on something like headphones. 

Here's another head-slapping problem with these, outside of the price as the competition (Bose, Sony) are $200 cheaper.....NO HEADPHONE JACK.

Now I know that Apple has moved away from headphone jacks in most of their products. But one of the key applications for this device is going to be airplanes (when we can all fly again safely). While you may have your iPhone, iPad or Mac with you for entertainment, most airlines have infotainment system screens in the seat back and how do you interface with all of them? A headphone jack.

This had to have been discussed with the design team. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this was deleted and would be an instant deal killer to get me to abandon my Bose QuietComfort headphones, regardless of whatever cool tech Apple has included with this, or how well they might sound. Also, audiophiles would want a headphone jack to connect to sound systems and bypass the limitations of Bluetooth for an analog experience.