kdupuis77

That's a pretty sweet set of upgrades. Honestly, I would've thought they'd leave the Mini for the final (3rd?) update this week as it is likely the biggest overhaul. I presume tomorrow or Thursday we'll of course see the M4 MacBook Pro which, beside the chip upgrade which is nice, I think the only other notable change is they're potentially putting that 3rd Thunderbolt port onto the non-Pro chip base model (as it should be) which presumably would simplify manufacturing as they'll all now have the exact same chases with different logic board/chip/RAM/SSD combos. The M4 Pro in the extra-mini Mini will make a nice "headless" MBP for the desktop. I agree with a previous poster, they should slice out a spot in the Studio Display to route the cables from that baby so it can sit nicely under the screen (Hell, they'll even save a bit of $$$ on the recovered aluminum haha).

Scot1 said:

We have both HomePods and Amazon echo. 

I’m so tired of hearing from Siri, “I found a result on the Internet, I can send it to your phone if you’d like.”   When I ask Alexa the same question, she answers the question almost immediately. Make no mistake, I love my Apple products, but at least until recently Siri has been hugely lacking. I suspect that’s one reason why so many of us use Amazon or Google for our smart device devices.

It's so bad sometimes I joke that Siri is my second wife since I argue with her so much haha. But seriously, it's so stupid at doing the most basic tasks or answering the most mundane questions it's mind numbing. I have 5x HomePod Minis around the home primarily for playing back music and podcasts as I'm doing things around our place... But half the time I need to use some HomeKit stuff I put my Apple Watch to my face or pull out my iPhone and use its power button to trigger "smarter Siri" on the iPhone. I dunno why it's so much worse on the HomePod than other Apple devices, but it often has me questioning if it weren't for the HomeKit integration, should I have bought into better quality speakers that would still let me stream my Apple Music and podcasts from my devices? Thinking of it now, I always have my Apple Watch on so I don't really need Siri speakers all over the place nowadays anyhow.

I pray that the Apple Intelligence "Super Siri" comes to the HomePods when it drops in a few weeks in iOS 18.1! At least I do get a kick out of listening my wife arguing with her at times too lol.

This one for the semi-relevant laughs though: https://fb.watch/vfIYQpU3UI/

And only an additional $12.95 fee per ticket too!

lewchenko said:

Surprised considering how well the 16 and 16 plus have been reviewed. 

A much better value proposition than the PRO … but people still prefer the PRO if they can justify the extra cost. 

That pesky zoom camera and 120hz display ! Counter argument is that many look at the absence of these things on the 16/16+ and think it’s hobbled in some way, so the real entry price of the 16 series is the 16 Pro (for the majority).  I’m probably in that boat. 

That's exactly how I look at it too! If it weren't for the 60Hz display and not having the extra zoom... I'd totally have gotten the 16 instead of the 16 Pro this go around... Particularly for one of the cooler more exciting color options that those have. I too don't look at the Pro as the "extra nice model" and instead view the 16 as the "hobbled to save a few bucks" model... Kinda like looking at a full-fat streaming service (ie. full price with no commercials) vs. the hobbled ad-ridden experience for $1 less a month that''s really only there to catch the handful of people, that the extra $1 a month would be a dealbreaker, but really is there for the majority of us to make the full cost product seem more worth its asking price. Kinda like how at movie theaters a small popcorn or drink is $6.50 and the mega-large is $6.75 lol.

The argument can be made that smaller tech “needs” to be glued together, and accessed solely by removing the screen, for the sake of space constraints or water resistance. But for a screen that is designed to just sit on a desk and never go anywhere, there really is no excuse as to why there either isn’t an access panel or a series or screws or latches to allow relative ease in detaching the screen panel for repair work. It would make this repair in the sub $50 range if they were the case.