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

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351–360 of 381 posts

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

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think so. Whether or not the iPad pro has good hardwear is irrelevant. What matters is that it is missing and extremely important feature, which is a mouse and keyboard. I don't care how powerful a keyboard is if I can't use a physical keyboard and mouse for it. Power can't beat UX, and boy is the keyboard good UX when you compare it to tablets or phones.

This sounds like the kind of argument people made when the iPhone had a software keyboard and every other smartphone had a physical tactile keyboard. What I think you're missing is that the world will evolve in ways to accommodate a mouse-light interface or evolve to include it if it becomes obvious that it's mission-critical (it's not at all obvious today, despite legacy thinking). Neither version of the future prec…

Phones never replaced laptops though. Phone are useful, and yet will never ever replaced the desktop, solely because of screen size. You can't magic a full screen monitor on your phone.

Yes, iPads could be useful for some circumstances, but power was never the limiting factor.

Take an iPad from 5 years ago, and you have something that works just as well for all iPad usecases.

My point is that I don't think anyone could imagine sitting 8 hours a day, typing away at an iPad.

For office work, a mouse and keyboard is essential.

How can you possible spend hours typing away at something that doesn't have a keyboard? And the vast majority of office usecases involve lots and lots of typing and mouse usage.

An iPad being useful is not the same thing as replacing office work.

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

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And TouchId. And FaceID. And Apple Watch. And Airpods. And Apple Pencil. And TrueTone. And Swift. And the new file system. Anybody who thinks Apple isn’t innovating is an ignorant jackass.

All of these things are true but none of those have even come close to the way they moved the needle with the phone/pad. Of course let's count the number of years it took them to get there from the newton. You can't just shit out a new groundbreaking ecosystem/product every year like clockwork. If you try 99% of those will be huge misses.

Exactly they cannot keep inventing the wheel.

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

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem with the Mac is that Intel has been slow to make progress. Particularly when it comes to faster low-power chips, Moore's Law has been failing us for some time now. How long till Apple start putting their A-series chips in Macs?

The new iPad Pro already benchmarks as high as some of their recent laptops (Yes, I know the thermals are different, etc but bear with me here) My bet is that over the years iPad Pro will expand to do more and more of the jobs that people traditionally use MacBooks (or laptops in general) to do. We'll eventually see a world where most people have iPads, not laptops - thereby relying on A-series chips, not Intel, to g…

"Tablets are on the way to replace laptops" has been a claim ever since the very first iPad was released. The numbers don't show that, however. Laptops are still selling strong, and tablets haven't taken over.

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

#354

What a silly article. How someone could look at Apple's chip developments (A, T, S, W, etc. series of processors) and think they aren't innovative is mind-boggling. Apple developing key silicon in their devices is a major security benefit for their users and I consider that an innovative model. The Apple ecosystem itself is innovative and I don't think there's a single company that does it better. They still lead in…

biometrics...FaceID

The face is not a particularly good biometric modality - its main use is identification without user cooperation.

Iris recognition wins in pretty much every category.

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

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of shitty and deceptive to measure screen size by the diagonal. You could have literally a single row of pixels 15 inches wide; does that mean you have a 15 inch display?

How would you recommend we measure screen size? Length x Width I assume is the obvious one, but that’s harder to compare. I suppose you could argue comparing diagonals isn’t a good benchmark either, but it works well enough when screens tend to have similar aspect ratios, as they mostly do.

HxW would be easier to compare if anything. Today you have to look at the aspect ratio to even figure out what the diagonal really means (and the difference between, say, 2:3 and 16:9 is huge).

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

#356
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which has nothing to do with innovation. You might not like it, but it’s a meaningless argument when you’re asking about whether Apple is innovative or not. Also, good luck finding a phone that doesn’t do that.

I wasn't arguing against them being innovative, I was pointing out that they are definitely also a landlord. > Also, good luck finding a phone that doesn’t do that. Not a good defense of amoral behavior.

Fair.

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

#357
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…

I have both android and ios devices. Android is far superior for file management. Ios is a joke in that regard. Folders weren't broken but somehow ios managed to break them. Now if I want to save a random file on my ipad I have to choose a directory related to some unrelated app!? Why can't I just create a directory like I do on every other device I own?

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

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of shitty and deceptive to measure screen size by the diagonal. You could have literally a single row of pixels 15 inches wide; does that mean you have a 15 inch display?

How would you recommend we measure screen size? Length x Width I assume is the obvious one, but that’s harder to compare. I suppose you could argue comparing diagonals isn’t a good benchmark either, but it works well enough when screens tend to have similar aspect ratios, as they mostly do.

Square inches is also a single dimension.

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

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AirPods are my favorite purchase I’ve made in the last several years and definitely the best new technology product I’ve seen in a long time. I use mine for hours every day and have for the last year and a half. Before I got my AirPods I had used and returned multiple other wireless earbuds and none of them hold a candle to the AirPods. And somehow the AirPods are half the price of any of those others. I’ve kept…

I've tried airpods, $40 enacfires, and 5+ other models for market research. As an Android user, airpods didn't offer that much functionality, was $160+, looked like qtips sticking out of my ear, and the sound wasn't that great either. I think the $40 enacfires might have had a better bass than the airpods. I've gotten intimate with these products down to Bluetooth compatibility and chipsets. In my opinion, it's a lot…

The Airpods cost a lot because: a) Apple but also, b) because if they sold them for $55 they would never be able to keep up with the demand. Airpods do look like qtips, but now that they've become such a common site, my eyes have gotten used to them. I'm waiting for them to make matte black ones!

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

#360
This morning I watched two non-technical Apple users be amazed by something automatic - WiFi credential sharing.

User 1 wanted to connect her MacBook Pro to the Wifi. User 2 picked up her phone and was prompted to share her WiFi credentials with the MacBook - it was almost like magic and it worked.

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