Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#311

Post by msla » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:40 PM UTC

hyperbovine wrote: post #97

chadash wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think their biggest innovation is making devices where everything just works. Look no further than any two year old who has been exposed to an iPad to see that their interfaces are super-intuitive. Plus, unlike most manufactures, they control all the hardware plus the software, so they can make sure that the entire experience is seamless.

I do agree with this. When I was younger I would happily blow a whole weekend getting my window manager set just so or figuring out how to load load songs onto my Diamond Rio from RedHat. Now I’m middle aged and I’m willing to pay all sorts of $$ to have it just work in a sensible way. And work it does — nothing in android or windows land even comes close. It’s surprising how many comments I see here that are complet…

Interesting: I used to use what you use now, and I gave it up when I realized I was spending too much time re-training, learning the latest UI fads, and not getting any real work done. No consistency, no backwards-compatibility, just the upgrade treadmill. Now that I'm an adult, it isn't worth chasing that anymore, and I'm on Linux now.

Window Maker hasn't changed in a very long time.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

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Post by philwelch » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:42 PM UTC

ken wrote: post #290

philwelch wrote: post #161

Steve Jobs was, among many other things, both good and bad, an irreplaceable human being. The Apple that created the Apple II, Macintosh, iPod, and iPhone isn't coming back. That having been said, of the two post-Steve Jobs Apples that we've seen, this one is still pretty damn decent. They aren't killing the entire company by throwing all their software engineering resources at a Second System Effect technical quagmi…

> killing the entire company by throwing all their software engineering resources at a Second System Effect technical quagmire like Copland They bought themselves out of this, of course, by buying NeXT (managed by SJ). But NeXTstep itself could have easily fallen prey to the second system effect. Was it luck or skill that saved it? Back in 2000, SJ said that Mac OS X would set up Apple "for the next 20 years". It's 1…

> Back in 2000, SJ said that Mac OS X would set up Apple "for the next 20 years".

In the 1990's, he also said that if he ran Apple, he would milk the Mac for all its worth and move on to the next big thing. That was the iPhone, and now Apple is milking that for all its worth, too.

It's not a historical necessity that we ever do invent something bigger and better than "basically a Unix workstation", any more than we need to fundamentally reinvent any of the other foundational technologies of our civilization. A Mac today is a good implementation of a 1980's Unix workstation the same way an airliner today is a good implementation of a 1960's Boeing. Invent a better operating system? Sure, you could also invent a better jet engine or make concrete obsolete if you wanted to, and maybe someone will, but it's been a long time since anybody did.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#313

Post by coldtea » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:46 PM UTC

Yeah, the kind of landlord that designs its own CPUs, GPUs and co-processors, has its own language (Swift), solves several difficult engineering problems with every new product, and so on.

Meanwhile, since I was watching Apple in 2000-2007, when they "used to be an inventor", they used to put out barely incremental updated for the iPod, the OS, and Mac laptops every year.

People would circulate rumors for months, and then cheer, for tiny generational spec updates on iPods. Now we get 10x the technological change we got every year of that era between iPhone models, and people are blaze about it.

Also, Google aside (and them only on the software assistant side) who solves any interesting consumer problems in the space Apple works?

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

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Post by rkho » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:48 PM UTC

matwood wrote: post #139

izzydata wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that people think there is no better / equivalent alternative is an issue. Why people are willing to begrudgingly spend thousands on something without doing research doesn't make a lot of sense.

I do research and my couple forays into Android, while less expensive, were not good experiences. Admittedly my last Android phone was a Nexus 5, so maybe I should look again? The problem is after other poor experiences I will only get a Google phone. The Pixel 3 XL with 128gb is $999. A new iPhone Xs is 1249 for the 256gb. Is taking yet another chance on Android worth $250? How well will that Pixel 3 XL even be supp…

Exactly this.

I've made four attempts to consider an Android ecosystem and have owned the following:

Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Note 5, and Pixel 2XL.

The Nexus/Pixel phone hardware were fine, but I found that the software ecosystem was heavily lacking. I got the impression that to the majority of Android devs, UX was the last thing they cared about.

The Note 5 on the other hand was one of the most disrespectful, anti-consumer experiences I had ever encountered since ditching a dumbphone years ago. The carrier I used (Verizon) felt it was appropriate to plaster its own logo on the back of the phone and in a loading splash screen when powering on the phone, plus preload the phone with a bunch of useless apps that could not be uninstalled.

Every single time that I've purchased an Android device hoping that it was finally good enough, I've ended up carrying my iPhone as a secondary device within a week and either returning or throwing the Android device in the drawer within a month.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#315

Post by lern_too_spel » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:49 PM UTC

natch wrote: post #214

drb91 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting conditions on the use of the hardware is distinctly harmful to consumers in a way that otherwise good design cannot ameliorate.

Conditions like "must log in to a Google account to use this" and "must agree that Google can harvest your private data for financial gain so we can pay off those executives" yes that is harmful.

I've yet to see a product that requires that. Let's compare Apple's devices against devices that actually exist instead of terrible devices that exist only in fantasy.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#316

Post by ashildr » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:50 PM UTC

shittyadmin wrote: post #258

screye wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Here it is : https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-wire... They have most truly wireless earphones, but the OP Bullets aren't on there yet.

That's pretty disappointing, looks like they lose a lot of the lows compared to even the $20 Xiaomi Piston 3 (wired) ones I'm used to or the slightly more expensive VSonic VSD1 series. This is my biggest worry with wireless - paying a lot more money for a lot less in the quality department. Thanks for the link though, seems like good data and I'll definitely check out some other options.

AirPods have no latency issues since the latency is taken into account when playing back video. It seems the video is belt back by the expected latency of the Bluetooth connection.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#317

Post by lazaroclapp » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:50 PM UTC

Cyph0n wrote: post #7

jfim wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Viruses: doesn't really apply if you just download non shady things from the play store OS fragmentation: doesn't apply if you're not a developer, just pick a phone that will have a reasonable amount of updates over its lifetime Privacy protection: really depends how you feel about Google on this one Presence of a secure element: this one really depends on your threat profile

> Viruses: doesn't really apply if you just download non shady things from the play store Easier said than done, especially when looking for more obscure apps. Also, it's not easy for non-technical folks to tell the difference... > OS fragmentation: doesn't apply if you're not a developer, just pick a phone that will have a reasonable amount of updates over its lifetime How long is "reasonable" relative to iOS? I rec…

> How long is "reasonable" relative to iOS? I recently moved from Android to iOS mainly because of this.

4 years, basically.

Nexus 6 was supported for all security updates from launch in November 2014 to this month (November 2018). In terms of feature updates, it got up to Android 7.1.1, and I am not aware of any major app that wouldn't run on that today. Not exactly great, but certainly not a new phone per year. I believe Apple's policy is 5 years, rather than 4, with a reported risk of iOS updates purposefully making the original hardware performance worse (e.g. battery life).

Strictly as a geeky side note, if you have the time to spend DIYing your primary mobile OS (which, admittedly, very few people would prefer doing), there are pretty cool third-party Android distros and other OSes that will keep a Nexus 4 (2012, 6 years old) alive and well. Possibly a Galaxy Nexus (2011, 7 years old) too, but I am less sure about that...

Edit: To clarify, what I am saying is that, for most users, iOS' long term support is better than Android's. But, for Google phones and the like, it is only slightly better, not day-and-night better.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#318

Post by philwelch » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #190

philwelch wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don't we all steer towards the IBM PC clone model, but for smartphones? Isn't that Android?

What makes Android, Android to everyone outside of China is the proprietary Google Play Services and all of Google’s first party apps.

And what made an IBM-compatible an IBM-compatible was the proprietary Microsoft DOS and Windows operating systems.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#319

Post by philwelch » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:53 PM UTC

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #51

bloorp wrote: post #35

Two months ago, Apple announced an ECG sensor for your wrist. A year before that, they announced face detection for the purposes of identity with enough accuracy that it can be used for financial transactions. Also, AirPods are incredible. I'm not saying Apple has a monopoly on invention, but to say they 'used to be an inventor'? That's weird.

Personally, I find FaceID to be vastly inferior to TouchID for many of my regular use cases. Perhaps the worst one is that you cannot easily unlock your phone while it lays on a conference room table to see the contents of a message. You need to picking it up and point it at your face. Likewise when using the phone while it is in a stand/holder. The one and only benefit I found is during the winter, it is easier to u…

I have unusually greasy fingers, so TouchID never worked for me on iPhone. (It seems to work fine on my MacBook Pro, though, so maybe it got better). FaceID doesn't consistently recognize the particular smushed shape of my face first thing in the morning, but other than that, it's perfect.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#320

Post by philwelch » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

Skunkleton wrote: post #180

matthewmacleod wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of them are terrible for security. Please stop propagating this falsehood, or at least accept that it comes with caveats. Biometric ID on Apple devices is likely to be a significant improvement for many users.

It _always_ depends on your threat model. Most people need protection from snooping family members, or people who find your phone if you lose it. For these use cases Face/Touch ID both work great. If you are trying to secure your data from the NSA, well you have probably already lost, but by all means, turn off Face ID.

> If you are trying to secure your data from the NSA, well you have probably already lost, but by all means, turn off Face ID.

If you're trying to secure your data from the NSA, carry a flip phone and turn it off and throw it in the freezer before you have any sensitive in-person conversations. Also have all of your sensitive in-person conversations right next to a loud white noise generator (i.e. on the seashore). And memorize all of your confidential information. And always carry a highly reliable suicide method in case you get captured and interrogated.

I'm not being funny here, these are literally the precautions that people take against state-level espionage.