dws-2

I get why they're doing this (or might be doing this, really). If their biggest competitor has a smart speaker that doesn't work with their service, it could cut them out of the market.

However, I agree with the others here. It's very unlikely they're going to make a better speaker than a Sonos or a HomePod, and it's more likely they'll associate themselves with a crappy brand because of the poor speaker.

What they should be doing, if possible, is to with speaker companies like Sonos to better integrate their services so that you can get the equivalent of a "native" Spotify experience using a Sonos (or Google Home or Amazon Echo). Sonos in particular derives a lot of its value by being flexible, so I would expect they'd be open to this.

Finally, a product that I don't need to worry about whether I want it or not.

I think it's a conscious decision by Apple around the time that Forstall left. Apple management decided it was better to move faster to add features than it was to make sure that all features were well implemented and solid. Apple has adopted a more iterative approach, where they release a rougher product, then refine it. This is mainly a difference in degree, though. Apple still tries to release great first products; they just tolerate a lot more issues than they did previously. I think this is partly because they don't have Jobs any more, so they can't really rely on their "taste" to release a better first attempt. For example, the first watch OS was pretty rough, and their third-party app support was very bad. The current watch OS is much, much more pleasant to use. Under Apple's old way of doing things, the watch would have started as a limited but more refined product without apps, then new features would have added carefully. 

My tendency is to prefer the refined style, but they have different management now without Jobs and Forestall. Also, it's hard to argue with Apple's success. 

Interesting. I had my iPhone battery replaced. It supposedly was at 86% capacity (as reported by Coconut battery), but it seemed to run out quickly. I also had 400+ charge cycles on it. For $29, it was worth a try, especially because I'm planning to keep the phone for another 9 months at least.

Anyway, when it came time to pick up the phone, there was no charge. I don't know why, but it made me happy.

My battery life is definitely better now, too.

better headline: "Intel deflects blame"