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Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

engadget.com

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Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#131

Post by oneplane »

GeekyBear wrote: post #104
oneplane wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, even the infinity fabric isn't "as good as" the Ultra inter-die connection. AMD, Intel and others have been trying for a while, but so far I only know about Cerebras simply making a single-wafer "chip" to actually pull it off. Of course, that is completely impossible to do at scale, trashing an entire wafer is extremely expensive and not something you're going to do at a 100million+ device sales target. I am sup…

Hector Martin is expecting only minimal changes to be needed for the M1 Ultra. >Chances are our kernel will Just work on M1 Ultra with just device tree changes, might not even need any m1n1 changes. https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1501271229763706882

I just remembered that they suspected this interconnect last year when they were probing AIC2 and found essentially a full unused half of the controller specifically designed for multi-die scenarios. Makes sense they can now enable that functionality with minimal changes.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#132

Post by JohnTHaller »

edgarischatting wrote: post #89
JohnTHaller wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't figure out who would buy this given that name brand, active, 2m Thunderbolt 4 cables go for under $60. And generic brand 2m cables that are tested and well reviewed for under $40.

This is a five-foot-long PCIe x4 cable - GPU extensions are four inches. It can feed two 4K displays at 60Hz. It can transfer data faster than an NVMe drive can store it. The fact that this is even physically possible is astounding.

It is. But it's also possible with the $40 and $60 cables I mentioned. They're all active Thunderbolt 4 40Gb/s cables that measure about 2 meters long.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#133

Post by JohnTHaller »

kristjansson wrote: post #110
JohnTHaller wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't figure out who would buy this given that name brand, active, 2m Thunderbolt 4 cables go for under $60. And generic brand 2m cables that are tested and well reviewed for under $40.

I’ll happily pay a lot of premium for a long “just works” TB3/4 cable so I can pretend I live in a world where cables aren’t themselves computers and don’t have complicated sets of features they do or don’t support

Linus Tech Tips has done some good breakdowns of specific cables so far (with a multi thousand dollar testing rig). They're ramping up to do full testing of all types of cables.

You're right, lots of cables don't do what they say. And it isn't just Thunderbolt. It's HDMI, DisplayPort, USB3, etc. Lots of the HDMI 2.1 cables they tested can only do HDMI 2.0, for instance. Not an issue with Macs, but an issue for lots of Windows gaming rigs.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#134

Post by npteljes »

theonemind wrote: post #63

I think this works like the opposite of a loss-leader, a product sold at a loss to draw people into a store, and/or like minor upsells at restaurants, like guacamole on the side. I got this theory from the Apple Explained youtube channel when he talked about the $600 wheels for Mac Pros Apple needs some high end items to keep its luxury appeal, but they really want the middle market without losing some perceived luxu…

Let's attach a name to the thing: price anchoring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias)

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#135

Post by huhtenberg »

ksec wrote: post #31
signa11 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have been using eizo for past couple of months and i have found them to be just fabulous. perhaps you can try it out and see if it works for you too ?

>high quality monitor that doesn’t look terrible . Eizo may be high quality, but it doesn't do well in aesthetic.

I like them a lot more than Apple's.

On FlexScans with their 2mm bezels there's literally nothing to look at but the actual display.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#136

Post by mgh2 »

theonemind wrote: post #63

I think this works like the opposite of a loss-leader, a product sold at a loss to draw people into a store, and/or like minor upsells at restaurants, like guacamole on the side. I got this theory from the Apple Explained youtube channel when he talked about the $600 wheels for Mac Pros Apple needs some high end items to keep its luxury appeal, but they really want the middle market without losing some perceived luxu…

Two theories

[1] Luxury: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBHY_Qaw5AI&ab_channel=Marqu...

[2] Target demographic: https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/here-is...

I am more convinced by the business argument, both only cater to a small market of high-end spenders

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#137

Post by sph »

This comment section is the definition of Stockholm Syndrome, unyielding brand loyalty and sunk cost fallacy. Some people are ready to defend whatever outrageous decision Apple makes, yet if it were any other company they'd complain loudly. This is why Apple can offer such a service at ridiculous prices.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#138

Post by DennisP »

neogodless wrote: post #79
dvnguyen wrote: post #74

When something is ridiculously expensive, it’s usually because you’re not the target customer. I’m a programmer and my I’ve had hard times explaining to my wife why did I need a $300 keyboard. I guess no one here would complain about $300 mechanical keyboard.

I agree with your main point. I'm a programmer using a $60 non-mechanical ergonomic keyboard. I would complain about a $300 mechanical keyboard. First when I pay for it, and again when I had to hear all that racket! :) (I know in theory Cherry MX Clear/Brown are a bit quieter? But I'll stick to non-mechanical, low cost keyboards for now.)

I use Cherry Browns, and they are reasonably quiet. When I worked in a cubicle I had no complaints.

They have the ergonomics relevant to me: my finger joints were getting sore. I got the mech and trained myself to type without bottoming out the keys much, and that fixed it.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#139

Post by atonse »

ren_engineer wrote: post #28
pcmoney wrote: post #18

Apple can do this because nobody else makes a high quality monitor that doesn’t look terrible. In nice offices, each chair is a couple thousand each. Full designs easily $50k+. Theyre not going to mess up a such a thoughtfully designed aesthetic with some slab of black plastic and an Amazon Basics stand (which is what I use) to save $1-2k.

and people wonder why so many VC backed startups fail when they spend money on stupid shit like this

Computer equipment is a rounding error compared to the cost of people, let alone highly sought after engineers.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#140

Post by goosedragons »

pcmoney wrote: post #116
the_doctah wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I believe this is sarcasm taken to heights. No, Apple fanatics really believe only Apple can make aesthetically pleasing things. They are enablers for the company at this point.

Please link to an alternative thin bezel, brushed metal or even just non-plastic, 4k or higher monitor with built in 12mp camera. If it is decently reviewed and a significant savings compared to Apple I know a firm that will buy 200 of them.

With the 12MP camera requirement you may as well just specify it has an Apple logo on it.

I find the requirement for non-plastic so bizarre as though it can't POSSIBLY look good. I still think the 17" Studio Display from 2000 looks better than the new one (which still has chunkier bezels than my random Dell business monitor).

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