retrogusto

If "Energy efficiency and sustainability are on everyone's minds these days," why didn’t they make the laptop MagSafe the standard? It uses fewer materials (which probably includes smaller rare-earth magnets), takes up less space during shipping and ever after, and transfers 100% of the power to the device being charged. It’s just way better, apart from possibly seeming less futuristic to the simple-minded. I know the subject here is a “wireless” consortium, which technically answers my question, but it’s like a coal consortium claiming to be focused on carbon footprints. 

It’s complicated when people get accustomed to a certain business model and then regulators decide to upend the business model for simplistic reasons. 94% of the apps on the App Store are free to download, with Apple providing a lot of support to developers and taking no commission. And a large group of developers sells apps for a price, but makes less than $1,000,000 per year, in which case they only pay 15%. Apple knows it’s in their best interest to provide a great experience at a fair price, so they do, and their pricing was thoughtfully calculated to work for everyone. It seems like the only developers who would favor a 3rd-party store would be those who either want to skirt Apple’s rules, which are mostly consumer protections, or to pay a lower commission, in which case they are probably among the small minority that is raking it in due to their success on the iPhone platform and paying 30%. I don’t foresee third-party stores catering to the “free download” market, apart from malware. So is the idea that you would get most apps from the App Store, and then go to 3rd-party stores for the big subscription apps and paid games? Sounds like a convoluted nightmare that wouldn’t do anything for consumers or anyone but the richest software and service companies. 

Another reason not to buy the 13” MBP

I think this would be a very popular product. Most people don’t need all of the high-end features of the Pro laptops, especially given how good the M-series processors are, but most people do appreciate a larger screen. 

Apple is not in a position to challenge the Chinese government. Even the US government has limited options in that respect. But it is probably a lot easier and safer to protest against Apple, even if it’s pointless.