anome
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Apple launches its all-in-one universal gift card in Canada, Australia
Actually, they do, it's just the branding of the cards. When you redeem them, they go into the same pool of money.crowley said:I’ve got credit on my UK account that I seem to be able to use for both iTunes and the App Store. Seems weird that there is the mechanism for doing that, but gift cards don’t use it.
I think ours have mostly been non-denominational (for want of a better word) for some time now, saying "iTunes and App Store". I mostly buy them when they're discounted at other retailers - used to be typically 20% off, now 15%, and a lot less frequent. I'm guessing, if these cards also apply to hardware purchases, they're not going to be available at discounted rates. Especially not as they seem to be online only, and only through Apple. (We don't even get a physical card for these, only the e-mail one. Kind of feel ripped off, and yet don't really need more waste paper to deal with.)
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Apple ban on P.O. box delivery snarls orders in Boxted, Essex
It annoys me that they won't deliver to P. O. Boxes, because, as I'm no longer allowed to take deliveries at work, I have to arrange to take the day off to wait around for a delivery (in store pickup isn't always available, either). But this is just odd. Just looking for the word "Box" in an address doesn't make much sense.
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Apple supply chain readying for third quarter 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro release
Because, as I mentioned above, they are large holes in the side of the computer that reduce it's structural integrity and provide ingress points for dust and liquid. The ideal design for a hardy, portable computer is to have no ports at all. I suppose the ultimate form is a MacBook with inductive charging and only wireless connections. Of course, such a device would be considered, quite rightly, absurd (but I suspect it's on someone's roadmap, somewhere).MplsP said:Well, since my 2017 MBP will likely be considered 'vintage' soon this is perfect timing for a replacement. The 16" sounds like it will be awesome.
Why would you be worried about an HDMI port or an SD card slot? If you don't use them, just ignore them. If you use and external display less than 5k the HDMI port would be useful. The 3 main uses for the USB C port are charging, external storage and an external display. HDMI is far and away the most common interface for external displays, so it makes perfect sense to include it on a laptop.anome said:I'm a bit worried about the talk of SD and HDMI, as I personally think going all USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 was an improvement. I think, though, if they do go with a new MagSafe power connection, there may be potential to put these ports, plus Ethernet and some other stuff, on the power brick, as currently done for Ethernet on the new iMacs. Of course, I'm sure this will be very unpopular, but I'd rather see them do that than put more large, and structurally compromising holes in the side of the MBP's chassis.
Hell, they could put all ports on the brick, and just have the MagSafe on the MBP itself. I mean, that would be going a bit far, but it does improve the structural integrity of the unit.
The key is to find a balance between minimising the number and size of holes in the side of the laptop, and maximising connectivity. That's why going from one each of a half dozen single use ports to 4 multi-purpose ports was actually a good idea. Especially when they went with USB-C which is smaller than most of the ports it was replacing.
In any event, I'm just guessing at what they might do, based on reports like the one in the article, my personal preferences, and what they've done most recently. Apple could end up doing something else entirely, which even Ming Chi Kuo hasn't guessed at.
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Apple supply chain readying for third quarter 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro release
I'm a bit worried about the talk of SD and HDMI, as I personally think going all USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 was an improvement. I think, though, if they do go with a new MagSafe power connection, there may be potential to put these ports, plus Ethernet and some other stuff, on the power brick, as currently done for Ethernet on the new iMacs. Of course, I'm sure this will be very unpopular, but I'd rather see them do that than put more large, and structurally compromising holes in the side of the MBP's chassis.
Hell, they could put all ports on the brick, and just have the MagSafe on the MBP itself. I mean, that would be going a bit far, but it does improve the structural integrity of the unit.
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Reminder: Don't install Apple's betas on any critical devices unless you really hate yours...
I'll wait for the public beta before installing anything, and then I'll install the iOS beta on my backup phone, and macOS beta on a virtual machine. Actually, a couple of VMs, one on my M1 mini, the other on my 15" MBP.
The problem is iPadOS. I only have the one iPad. Then again, I don't really consider my iPad as being "mission-critical", so I'm usually OK with the risk on that one. The biggest problem is remembering to get it off the beta stream after the actual production release.
