eightzero

brianjo said:

eightzero said:

More and more "trickle down" tech. Choices are great, and today's update is very welcome. The lineup is much more clear, and the pricing attractive at each level - and that will get better over the coming months as the sales hit.

Really interested in what WWDC will say about padOS now. While all the glamour is all at the top end, I really do hope they continue to work on making iPad easy to use for basic needs. Please add a "gramma mode" to turn off all the complex gestures. Or hey, if all that is built-in already (and hidden in various places) someone can offer a script for us family members that are the designated IT bitches when the call comes, "this damn thing is broken! I can't print any of my email anymore!"

While iPads are awesome, they SUCK for offering remote support.  Only Apple gets to control them remotely.  You can set up MDM to give yourself a little bit of control on settings remotely, but if they get stuck and you need to help them, it's not possible to take control like you can with a Mac.  Super frustrating!!

Ayup. All the more reason for some sort of version of "moron mode." For me (and I'm admittedly not the targeted audience for these latest iPads) iPad is a consumption, not creative, device platform. I don't, never have, and likely never will, create anything on an iPad. Remember Steve sitting on the chair on stage reading the New York Times? Yes, that's me. It does travel well too, but my M1 MBA is the device I type on. Sure, you can maybe have the new magic keyboard on the iPad and reduce the number of devices you have to buy and maintain...but there's that pesky macOS/padOS difference. And if you never use a desktop or macOS - sure. The choices are there for consideration, and that's a good thing. 

There are people in the world that need a desktop to do very basic things. Elderly people *really* struggle with touchscreens, and when all they want to do is eMail, messages, and "print coupons for the store" that's not an iPad's forte. And even if it was, iPad can't be remotely managed when gramma has 200+ tabs on the safari open because "the coupons keep disappearing and I need to see this week's ad."

As already opined, as long as I can turn it off, I'm fine with it. There are a lot of things in Apple's stuff I feel this way about, so this is nothing new.

I am not opposed to ads. In fact, i would like to be able to control them - receive ads for things i want and use. As it stands, these things are intrusive and rude. They interfere with what I am trying to use my technology (that I pay for) to do. Give me credit to watch your ad for stuff I wish to use/buy? Sure.

harry wild said:

Everything is OLED screens but Apple products!  LOL!  Even the Chineses branded laptops, tablets, PC monitors and smartphones!

Yep. You have choices, contrary to what the US DoJ claims. 

Choices are good, I'm glad Apple is making them, and hope they are successful. But there is nothing for me here. iPad for me is a consumption device only. Read, doomscroll, fall asleep in bed. I like it, but like many Apple devices, it does way more that I need it to. And that's fine, not a criticism...so long as all the whiz bang stuff can be easily controlled, if not simply turned off.

davidmalcolm said:

If they make this a sound bar I think it would be insane not to put an Apple TV in it as well. 

Heck, they could have the HomePod mini, the 2’d gen HomePod, the TheatrePod/CinemaPod, and then the HomeStick leave Apple TV branding for TV+ and brand all of Apple’s home offerings as some variant of a HomePod. Make a stick for people who just want the Apple interface on another TV, and have the HomePod for people who want a home theatre experience. Realistically I’m not even sure it makes sense to keep selling separate HomePods without HDMI out. 

Honestly you might even wanna allow for HDMI in so that you don’t have to worry about ARC or eARC or anything, just let the HomePod allow your other devices to connect to the TV through it. Maybe even offer low latency ML power upscaling for old consoles?

There's lots of potential here. I'd like to modernize my home TV setup, and maybe even use HomePods as a replacement for a very aging analog amp and box speakers. However, the latency issue prevents all that unless you connect an AppleTV with HomePods, and I dislike the AppleTV interface, and it of course offers no OTA option (as of now, and almost certainly never will.) 

Should Apple make a device like this with an HDMI interface for AppleTV; and perhaps an optical input, i'd like buy very quickly (along with more HomePods to pair to it.)

Probability: low.