tshapi

maury markowitz said:

sog35 said:

1. Wall Street trust Tim Cook more.  He has proven himself the last 5 years.

Proven what, exactly? That he can ride existing momentum without instantly crashing? Sculley managed that too, remember?

I watched all of this happen in the early 1990s. By the late 80s the management was more focused on what Wall Street thought of them than anything to do with their products. To keep that ball rolling, they adopted the "high right" policy because that made the margins look good, and WS loves its margins. Within five years their customer base consisted entirely of high-end publishing and rich people. And they had all the machines and software they needed. The developers left the platform in droves. Anyone could get tickets to WWDC.

SJ came back and basically noted that they were a consumer company with no consumer products. He solved that with the $999 iMac. They followed with a stream of consumer products that were well priced and well built. That pushed up the stock price to the stratosphere. And now we have the same problem again. 20 years later, after the price of electronics has fallen in half, the cheapest iMac is $1299, and the bottom-of-the-line MacBook is the same price. They are eliminating every low-end product from their catalog, with the exception of the Apple TV, which is now the world's most expensive and least flexible streamer box.

I don't think he's doing a good job at all. I think he's cutting out the soul of the company, again.

spice-boy said:

I live in NYC and can tell you although a lot of people like the ease of getting an Uber car that business model (if you can call it that) has had some serious consequences and negative impact on the city. First off, with the city experiencing a population boom Uber has only added to the already jammed pact streets with a flood of more vehicles. To drive a taxi you need more than a simple driver's. license you need to be trained in the laws regarding the rights of those you pick up. You must know how to get from a-z and no google Maps is not a crystal ball for navigation. An Uber driver is like someone that went to med school but never got a license to practice. The taxi and limousine commission regulate taxi and car services, handles complaints, lost and found, etc... Uber takes zero responsibility for who drives for them. The city has a long time system of medallion taxis. A medallion is legal contract the owner has with the city, they are very expense, until recently the average price was near one million dollars. These medallions were a valuable asset which could be sold to another person(s) and often represented a lifetime of investment. Today thanks to Uber these medallions have lost half their value. Uber is another example of some Silicon Valley nut jobs creating something that is more destructive to society than helpful, a product of service which makes them millions while it undoes rules which were put in place to protect consumers from abuse, overcharging an monopolies. There once was time when technology promised benefits for all today it only benefits the few that someone manage to put that technology between the person providing the service and the consumer. The mob would "shake down" small businesses this way, it is illegal yet has taken the form of an iPhone app. 

SpamSandwich said:

This merger should absolutely go forward. It was ridiculous it was opposed in the first place... and I say this as an AT&T stockholder.

sumergo said:

My problem with FaceID is that it further degrades our individual privacy and makes us more vulnerable to both over-officious government and predatory marketing.

TouchID is my physical finger on this phone.  FaceID is my face on a potentially global database.  Coming from the UK, one of the most surveilled societies in the western world, I find this worrying.

I'm not interested in being reduced to a target for near-field / face-recognition ads or constant surveilance.

An old fart?  For sure - I actually like being an individual.