brucemc

Please read @arthurba post (#22 in this thread).  It is the best explanation of why Apple moved on from this market.  I think we are all disappointed - while it didn't have all the bells and whistles, my AirPort Extreme and Express combination have been the most solid.  Hopefully they work for years to come.  I think I will pickup another Extreme if on sale, just to have for the future in event my current unit bites the dust.

However, I can be disappointed without going into a diatribe as to why Apple is so stupid, and Tim Cook is ruining everything...

A smart band interface that uses the same location on the AW as current band connectors, but updated with contacts for power and data (like the smart keyboard cases on iPad Pro), would seem a better path.  This brings forward a whole new area for Apple and 3rd parties to provide new value.  Such smart bands could provide battery power and additional sensors.

Existing and other non-smart bands would still work - just not have the contacts for the smart connector.

Seems doable for Apple.

That Samsung's biometric security options for retina scan and facial recognition continue to get a pass says all that you need to know about CR.

sflocal said:

...

This was just a pony show to make Congress look like they were actually doing something.  They're making it sound like Facebook was sharing my ATM Pin, Birthdate, SSN#, and bank account numbers, when all they really know about most people is what kind of cute kitten videos we've seen.  I really don't care.

...

If you truly believe what I have underlined, then you are seriously naive.  You think FB's only data is what people directly share or like?  That might have been true back in 2008, but it is far from the truth know.  FB of course has all the data that people willing supply - or what their "friends" willingly supply about them (many would select to upload their "contact" info to FB from computer or phone, which has phone numbers (work, home, mobile), addresses, etc).  FB knows lots about people that aren't on FB...

Data that FB gets "from its users" on you (remember it can get it from you, contacts that others have on you, what is written in comments, infer by social graph, etc):
- Where you live, who you work for, email addresses, phone numbers...
- What you look like, family members, hobbies, where you go on vacation, when you go on vacation...
- What you like, don't like, sexual orientation, social beliefs, political views, ...
- It can infer how much you earn, spouse earns,

The mother load for FB came with mobile (as many are not careful with such location settings)
- They know where you go throughout the day, often at all times.

But FB is not limited to their own data - they purchase data from 3rd party sources - many, many sources.  
- For example credit card information - all the CC firms sell this.  It is "anonymized" in that your name and card number of course are not shared, but it includes data just beyond "person X bought this" so that it is valuable to advertising firms - like zip/postal code, income range.  So a firm could see what people in a certain city / neighbourhood spend money on.
- I read one article, where a researcher estimated the number of 3rd parties that FB was purchasing information from, as being "in the hundreds".

Now couple what FB natively gleans from you/friends, together with knowing your "exact" location, with the above.
- It is possible to determine which CC information belongs to you - it knows where you live (so in that general zip/postal code domain), and it knows where you go (near / into what stores), and so it can infer locations with purchases and say -> this is you.
- Why would they do this?  It is very powerful from an advertising perspective - if they can reliably say that a digital ad resulted in an off-line purchase, then the value of that targeting advertising is huge.

This is only one example.  FB knows more about (some of) its users than any other company in the world - and perhaps more than government agencies.  It is true that they do not know your SSN or bank account info...they don't need to...but they know just about everything else.

FB is correct when they say "we do not sell your data"...it is far too valuable to sell to anyone else.  It is for their own targeted advertising business.

Don't worry - neither the media - nor many of the posters on this site - will give Apple any "kudos" for this....(strains neck daily shaking head...).