djames4242

nicmart said:

davebarnes said:

So, just buy a new Apple TV.
How many years did you get out of your soon to obsolete one?

Why would I want a new Apple TV instead of Roku and a TV with Airplay 2?

Because the Roku experience is inferior. I used one back in the day when the first-gen Apple TV was little more than an iTunes extender and it was fine. Then a year ago when we moved from Comcast to DirectTV Now (and more recently from that to Hulu Live) I got a Roku for our seldom-used TV. I gave up after an hour. The interface was unbearably slow, and the DirecTV Now app completely unusable. Launching apps (Roku Channels) would take more than 10 seconds, and changing channels within DTV would take about three seconds at best. That might not sound like a lot, but it is when you’re surfing channels.

We ended up returning the Roku and getting a Fire Stick. It’s not great either, but it’s far more usable than the Roku was.

Maybe I’ve just become used to the smooth response from our Apple TVs 

It's a shame that On the Firing Line has been out of print for so long. Gil Amelio does come off as though he's trying to save himself from (some well-earned) criticism and (if I remember correctly) he has some pretty harsh words insinuating that he was involved in a planned coup, but it's still a fascinating read on what Apple was like during the last few years of its downward spiral.

There are used copies floating around. I bought mine at Costco when it was released 22 years ago. I wish I still had my copy. It would be fun to read it now in retrospect.

Widgets on the springboard would be fantastic. I used Android for work (voluntarily) for a number of years and it’s a fantastic feature. I had one for my email and one for my calendar and I used them to preview messages and events without having to open the app.

Honestly, Android is pretty much crap. But life widgets on the home screen is the one feature I’ve always longed for.

rob53 said:

Why are you pushing Parallels when VMware is a much better product?

I dunno. Maybe because it isn’t really a better product. I’ve been using Parallels since v3 (it’s now on v14, I believe) and bought Fusion licenses during the early days and again a few years ago. Fusion has two definite advantages over Parallels: 1) better support for VMware images, and 2) A much less restrictive licensing scheme.

In so many other ways, VMware is inferior. The early version had serious issues when running images on external drives and caused numerous kernel panics. I’m guessing that’s been resolved in more recent updates, but Fusion still doesn’t support running multiple displays each in their own space, and that was a deal breaker with my workflow.

Parallels is more mature, and certainly not clunky, although I also haven’t found Fusion to be clunky either. I personally find setting up Boot Camp t be far more clunky than any virtualization tool, including VirtualBox, and that’s free.

seanismorris said:

Sounds like a bundling strategy to get people to chose Comcast Internet.

Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever will I give those crooks another dime. At three different service addresses they have lied to me, refused to provide written contracts, and snuck in additional features without consent.

Comcast is, without exception, the single most disreputable company on the planet. Thankfully our telco offers gigabit fiber (and unmetered data) for less than what Comcast charges for an inferior product.