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Apple reports fourth quarter results

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Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#141

Post by asdff »

jdross wrote: post #115
moduspol wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have literally watched my in-laws plan and book a vacation from their smartphones. From their house, where they also have computers. They're quite different from my side of the family, but the biggest thing is that they've never been big planners. Everything is by the seat of their pants. If you're like that, you're probably OK with taking one of the first three SEO-optimized search results and making it work. Mean…

How often do you get a meaningfully better result than google.com/flights? Outside of booking with points, it's all basically the same thing and I can book on google on my phone in under a minute

It's not that you get a meaningfully better result. It is that you can open an arbitrary number of results and trivially compare them side by side. Essentially multitasking multiple concurrent searches and scenarios. Smartphones limit you to one view at a time on the screen and make it somewhat clumsy to flip through tabs in comparison.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#142

Post by MaysonL »

larkost wrote: post #66
reaperducer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by the time M6 is coming out they will have external GPUs available for both the data centre and home use. I thought there were already external GPUs for Macs. Since before COVID, IIRC.

There were eGPUs for Macs, but only the Intel ones. To my knowledge there are no drivers for eGPUs for Apple Silicon. My guess is that without Apple's involvement it would be near-impossible to get graphics accelerators working. In theory you could make things work for some sort of computational acceleration (e.g.: AI, or some OpenCL work), but I am not sure that that market is really worth all of the work it would t…

Just last week: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/tiny-corp-su...

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#143

Post by giobox »

rconti wrote: post #126
Jnr wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except many new cars are locked down in software, for example not allowing to release rear parking brakes without authorized service subscription, keeping the electronic keys for each VIN unique and stored in the cloud. Yes, there are workarounds on releasing the brakes manually but it is a burden. Also similarly as with iPhones, many cars require connecting to the authorized service to change headlights and other pa…

I don't follow. Every time I drive my car I release the parking brake. On the cars with electronic brakes, you use a button rather than a lever. I'd do it the same way to service the brakes.

A lot of electronic parking brakes do have a service mode. For most modern Fords, there is a procedure, as one example of many:

> https://www.brakeandfrontend.com/quick-answer-electronic-par...

You typically need the piston fully retracted to replace pads, which very rarely happens just by disengaging the park brake.

If you are old enough to have changed a manual handbrake pad, you normally had to screw the piston back in before you could fit the thicker new pad with a "caliper rewind tool" even if the handbrake was off, the electronic parking brake service mode essentially does this for you, or unblocks the piston permitting a rewind tool to work.

> https://www.thedrive.com/guides-and-gear/how-to-use-a-brake-...

FWIW, I've never found an electronic parking brake I couldn't rewind myself after a few minutes on google.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#144

Post by asdff »

lostlogin wrote: post #138
MrGilbert wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We keep hearing that the next generation is "true computer" illiterate. We had that development with cars. 40 years ago, it was common to fix your own car. Nowadays, we have a subscription for seat warmers. The manual tells you to visit the dealer to get your brakes checked. Makes me sad, somehow. But people have choosen this path as a collective.

> Makes me sad On one hand, yes. But also, cars are now an appliance. They rarely break, can be bought quite cheaply (if that’s what you want) and consume little time. I like this.

Except they are 2020s appliances with bells and whistles and reinventing the wheel for no reason with electronic wizzbangs and dohickeys and layers and layers of complexity. Your car in the 90s was the appliance. Simple electronic system. Reliable simple ICE engine. Simple gearbox. Easy to work on which means even if you don't work on your own car it helps you, because labor takes less time and therefore repair shop bills are lower. Parts back then were widely shared across a manufacturers lineup so readily available and relatively cheap. 4 cylinder economy car was practically a commodity back then.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#145

Post by dontlaugh »

astrange wrote: post #128
45764986 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a war rendered TSMC unavailable it would crash the global economy. There is no next best option.

Samsung, Intel, SMIC are not incredibly far behind. TSMC is the best because we (the US and its customers) trust them more than its competitors and so fund its R&D and license them more exclusive technologies.

SMIC in particular have made very quick progress. They’d probably match TSMC first in such a scenario.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#146

Post by asdff »

jajuuka wrote: post #104
giobox wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cars have become more complicated and require more diagnostic equipment For the consumable stuff every car owner has to deal with, nothing has really changed in 40 years, honestly! A brake service is still done the exact same way, same with virtually all the fluid services. I just find far more people parrot "modern cars are so complicated" today and don't even consider that in fact, it is relatively simple to chan…

These are all relatively simple TO YOU. You are not everyone though. Some people lack the mobility, strength or even time to do these things. Some people just don't want to get dirty working on their car. Some people don't have the space to do these kinds of maintenance. Not everyone needs to know how to compile their own kernel, build their own furniture or clean their laundry perfectly. Everyone has their own inter…

Stuff like changing cabin air filter or your own oil takes no additional space beyond the space already occupied by the parked car. You don't even need to lift the car to change the oil in most cases unless the car designers were massochists. Sure, maybe not everyone can get down on their back anymore, but that shouldn't be an issue for able bodied people.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#147

Post by agentcoops »

ponector wrote: post #110
flyinglizard wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use computers, just not Macs. Which is a shame because it feels like where Apple has the largest advantage compared to their competitors, being that high end Android phones are rather nice and the barrier to making a good tablet is quite low but a laptop is a whole different ball game, and Apple is far ahead of the rest.

Or rather not buying laptops as often as phone. 2015 Mac or other premium laptop is good enough for internet surfing.

I bought my dad a Mac laptop when I got my first job out of college and he used it for well over a decade. I even later got him a MacBook Air and he kept using the old one for years yet out of habit… I imagine that’s not an uncommon pattern for non-programmers who aren’t gamers.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#148

Post by asdff »

duskwuff wrote: post #82
giobox wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cars have become more complicated and require more diagnostic equipment For the consumable stuff every car owner has to deal with, nothing has really changed in 40 years, honestly! A brake service is still done the exact same way, same with virtually all the fluid services. I just find far more people parrot "modern cars are so complicated" today and don't even consider that in fact, it is relatively simple to chan…

You're overstating how easy these tasks are for many people. Doing brake pads/rotors or changing oil requires a driveway, some tools, and (for oil) a way to collect and dispose of the old fluids. Not everyone has access to those things - for instance, people who live in an apartment complex may not have the space to work on their car. (Air filters are, admittedly, pretty easy.)

You can change your oil wherever you parked the car. A way to collect the used oil is as easy as an old jug of milk, or the empty bottles from your new oil. Disposal involves finding an autozone or someplace similar and dropping it off for free. In terms of tools you'd need, a $5 dish from autozone to collect the oil, a 10c copper washer for your drain plug, and a socket wrench.

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#149

Post by portaouflop »

lm28469 wrote: post #124
j1elo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't get how people do research work (like finding good flight tickets, or comparing hotels to stay in for a trip) without a computer. I really cannot stand seeing websites in a small screen without the ability to quickly open 4 browser windows with 4 tabs each for different combinations of dates, for example.

You don't really have to buy a new laptop every year though. If it wasn't for my work provided laptop I'd still use my 2015 mbp

I still use my thinkpad from 2012. It runs fine with Linux on it, i had to replace the hdd and some other parts but otherwise it’s holding up. Granted I only do very simple stuff on it, no dev work, video or gaming. Mostly browser, reading, writing, music and chatting

Re: Apple reports fourth quarter results

#150

Post by asdff »

jeffbee wrote: post #65
ghaff wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People choose what to outsource and, as cars have become more complicated and require more diagnostic equipment, they go to a dealer/mechanic. Personally, I've never done a lot of personal car mechanic work. On the other hand, I've done my own cooking more than not. You make choices about what you do yourself and what you have others do for you.

Cars are both more complicated and way more reliable. You used to spend a Sunday changing your plugs and points. Now your car lacks points and if the plugs last less than 100000km it's a disappointment. You used to need new clutch plates on the regular, now nobody ever needs them or if they do need them the car is a total loss because good luck getting to the clutches. On my current car the closest I ever came to wor…

They were already this reliable by the 80s and 90s.

Where new cars get shitty is the electronics that get shoehorned in to control systems that were previously controlled by a button or dial.

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