darkvader
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Communications Workers of America jumping in on Apple Grand Central unionization efforts
It's time for ALL retail employees to unionize. Union membership is the only chance for an individual employee to ever hope to get any kind of fair treatment from an employer.And now is the time to do it! With many employers screaming that they can't find enough people who will work for the pathetic wages they're offering, employees have far more power than they think, but they can't use it alone. With a union, with the ability to negotiate collectively and strike if a corporation won't, fair wages can happen.
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Apple retailer Simply Mac is shutting down
So, apparently Simply Mac had lots of issues, but there's a big one that nobody's mentioned yet:Apple is EXTREMELY abusive to authorized resellers/service providers. Warranty repairs are reimbursed at unsustainably low rates. Provider part cost for out of warranty repairs is frequently EXACTLY what an Apple Store would charge for the entire repair. And of course you're not allowed to actually repair anything, you're only supposed to do board swaps, and only supposed to use parts from Apple. Back in the hard drive days that meant authorized shops were technically not allowed to do RAM upgrades or hard drive upgrades, and were only supposed to do like-for-like swaps with Apple parts (most ignored rule ever, obviously).Sales had insanely low margins. A dealer would typically not make more than 5%, and in worst case sales (Remember the $500 mini?) selling a Mac when the buyer paid with an AMEX card would actually LOSE money making a sale. Getting product was a nightmare too. After a new model launch, an authorized dealer could wait months to actually get a new model. Catalog resellers got product first, then big box, then independent authorized dealers. Once Apple opened their own stores they immediately got product, sometimes they had new models ready on launch day, while dealers couldn't even order until a day or two after a launch.So I'm not ever surprised when an Apple dealer/service provider goes out of business. Louis Rossmann got it right, the only way to make money fixing Macs is to be completely unauthorized and actually fix them, not just swap boards like Apple wants.
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Florida cop accused of stalking ex-girlfriend with AirTag
A cop? Domestic violence? Unpossible!(40% is probably a low estimate. ACAB.)
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Apple's 2023 CarPlay is an Apple Car preview - and is scaring Detroit
jetpilot said:Has anyone yet considered the possibility that this new CarPlay IS the "apple car" project?In the sense that CarPlay is all that Apple will ever actually ship? Absolutely. There won't be a car within the next decade, and probably not ever.In the sense that they were never actually attempting anything else? LOL, no. While Apple's California self-driving test miles are an absolute joke compared to companies that are serious about self-driving cars, they are also far too high for a company that just wants to take over the dashboard. The car is one of Apple's most massive development failures.Remember this oldie?At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.
For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off."
Computer companies aren't car companies.(And at least Ford had the good sense to label the button on my car Start/Stop. Of course they also put the word "Engine" on it in front of Start/Stop, and my car being a plug-in hybrid that is distinctly what that particular button does not actually do.)
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WWDC 2022 keynote was a showcase of Apple innovation, Katy Huberty says
Oh look, it's this Apple Car crap again.There isn't going to be one, not for at least a decade if ever. Apple isn't a car company, and has absolutely no idea how to build a car. They're screwing around with self-driving AI, but they're doing very badly at it. They have no factories, and it's not like you can just call up Foxconn and have them build one like they do with computers.