polymnia

maxkraft said:

The Mac mini is not a bad machine. But if I wanted to make a pro machine I would have added a better GPU option. Anything in the 1050 or 560 range would be fine. Apple even shows one benchmark with an external GPU. So Apple is aware that people might want more GPU power. 

Not all Mac minis would need a faster GPU, but this will in no way make Pro users that looking for a new desktop happy. Especially with no new iMacs.

MacPro feature. 

eightzero said:

Maybe this is obvious, but is this financing free? Is the AppleCare included free? If not, I'm not sure I see an advantage here at all. Why not just buy the phone outright (add the applecare if you want)? Many credit cards offer 12+ months of financing as a promo. Put it on one of those if you don't have the cash.

Yes and yes. At least on the plan I’m on now. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you will upgrade on time and could use the AppleCare (and don’t 
care for selling used iphones on Craigslist). 

It sure would be nice to work multi-GB files on a server over the network. Especially in a collaborative environment, copying assets to local storage and working from those is problematic. Links go missing and even if they are available, the links often point to a local copy, leaving a collaborator to search the server for the file that started out as a local asset. 

Leaving everything on a server and accessing at 10Gb is the way to go! I remember when gigabit Ethernet enabled that 15 years ago. Since then files have gotten bigger and the gigabit network is the chokepoint. 

I have the Amplifi.

Works great for mesh WiFi. Not super powerful as a PPPOE device. I was able to buy into CenturyLink Gigabit Fiber for $80/mo recently. I didn't want to lease/buy their modem/router. Saw the Amplifi can login to PPPOE (which I need to get my Fiber connection going) but saw my Gigabit speeds go down to 300Mbps speed. The Amplifi couldn't keep up. I guess PPPOE is computationally demanding? Not my area of expertise.

I eventually settled on a Unbiquity (the makers of Amplifi) EdgeRouter. It can keep up with the full-Gigabit-speed with PPPOE.

Turned off the Routing on the Amplifi. Works great.

Sent back the CenturyLink Technicolor monstrosity and save another $10/month.

If I ever switch ISPs, all my custom DHCP reservations & port forwards live in the EdgeRouter, which I won't need to replace until someone can deliver 10Gb to the house.

nunzy said:

It must be that the licensing fees exceed the profits that Apple would have made by selling more homepod.

The tiresome negativity about Apple versus Sonos is really ridiculous.

Are these two companies not friends? Sonos features Apple devices conspicuously in their marketing (there is an iPhone arranged with an assortment of Sonos products on Sonos' homepage today). Apple sells Sonos products in their stores. Sonos is the first manufacturer to support Apple's new AirPlay 2 standard, which is a standard Apple WANTS 3rd parties to use, compared with AirPods (for example) which has proprietary tech and only Apple/Beats can make the hardware (and the profits, as the commenter seems fixated on). Sonos has supported Apple Music in it's App almost as long as it was a service (and supported Beats Music before that, I subscribed to Beats Music and transistioned to Apple Music, and at no time was I left out in the cold during the Beats Music/Apple Music transition)

Apple wants 3rd parties to make AirPlay 2 products. Apple & Sonos have a good, mutually beneficial relationship.

Maybe that will change someday? I just don't see that today. If anything, Sonos is moving closer to Apple by supporting AirPlay 2 (having sat on the sidelines for AirPlay 1). I'm sure it irked Apple that the Sonos speakers sold in it's stores haven't supported the Apple streaming protocol. That is not longer an issue—Sonos is fully on board.