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

#91

Post by jotjotzzz » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:50 PM UTC

reacharavindh wrote: post #33

May be people are disappointed with innovation in iPhones compared to previous years' or for the last few years, but every time I use my AirPods, I can't but feel good about the innovation it took to make it as easy to use and comfortable. * If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. * They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) * Lasts reasonable amount of ti…

I'll wait until the AirPods has noise-cancelling. I can't wait until Apple enters into the NC game!

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

#92

Post by sneak » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:50 PM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #64

raverbashing wrote: post #45

Do you know what really worries me about Apple now? So, when SJ came back to Apple, he reorganized their (then at the time) computer lines into more streamlined ones. Something like (I might get some of the names wrong), into consumer/pro and portable/desktop iBook/Powerbook, iMac/Powermac Now look at their line now What the F is an iPhone XR? Is the XS "better" than the X or not? Why are there 2 iPad Pros? Is an iPa…

They've definitely failed at saying 'no' - no to selling last years model as a budget, no to selling 2 different sizes of the same phone, they've lost their mojo in saying "this is the best product available if you're looking for an everyday driver and don't need all the RAM in the world", or, "this is the best product available if you're running Final Cut Pro on the road" To your point, you can actually buy 2 differ…

They didn’t stop selling the $999 non-retina “old” MBair because that is Apple’s single best-selling computer. They sell a fuckton of them every September.

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

#93

Post by izzydata » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:50 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #48

izzydata wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those terrible things would be fine if people stopped buying them. You vote for what you want with money and if people are willing to buy terrible things then they will continue making it.

People aren't buying terrible things, they're buying the best thing available to them. Edit: Samsung/Microsoft/Google are free to come up with their own ecosystem and quality hardware devices that don't have the drawbacks that Apple's do. But for some reason they don't.

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.

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

#94

Post by adt2bt » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:50 PM UTC

sithadmin wrote: post #83

iscrewyou wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the fact that I can keep them in my ear and just go on my Macbook and select the output from the volume icon. I’m always amazed by that.

Moving AirPod pairing from iOS -> Mac works well, but going the other way is always a struggle for me. I nearly always have to go into my iOS device's Bluetooth settings to reconnect. It's tolerable, but an annoyance.

What I do is put them back in the case real quick and open it near my iPhone. That seems to do the trick though it’s arguably not much better than going into Settings.

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

#95

Post by wsinks » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:50 PM UTC

reacharavindh wrote: post #33

May be people are disappointed with innovation in iPhones compared to previous years' or for the last few years, but every time I use my AirPods, I can't but feel good about the innovation it took to make it as easy to use and comfortable. * If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. * They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) * Lasts reasonable amount of ti…

The battery life and charging is arguably the best thing, and they do sound great, but they also have a high pitched electronic frequency in them that I've gone through a replacement and still had. Pain in the ass.

I love 'em, and I want them to be better :)

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

#96

Post by themodelplumber » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:51 PM UTC

mjfl wrote: post #8

Apple used to be a slave to the gods of productivity. Now it's living its best life using the 4 hour work week strategy!

Just riffing on that metaphor, which is true in a lot of ways, Apple could really, _really_ benefit the world by publishing "Apple standards for business" or something similar, a reference point for other corporations who will frankly never be Apple, but could at least kick things up a notch in terms of overall professionalism and impact.

A few very successful corporations have come to the point where they are practically worshiped and almost universally admired, but we are not getting all the cultural benefit from them that we can. That needs to be part of the deal--we give you our markets and cultural attention, you return to us your cultural technology in a more concrete form, at the very least by publishing standards that can be applied to other human organizations. This will help us accelerate human cultural evolution and we'll all benefit.

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

#97

Post by hyperbovine » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:51 PM UTC

chadash wrote: post #68

reacharavindh wrote: post #33

May be people are disappointed with innovation in iPhones compared to previous years' or for the last few years, but every time I use my AirPods, I can't but feel good about the innovation it took to make it as easy to use and comfortable. * If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. * They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) * Lasts reasonable amount of ti…

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 completely oblivious to this and insist on trashing apple for being “not free”. The market has spoken. Almost no one cares.

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

#98

Post by jandrese » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:51 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #76

kirykl wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs era re-designed the boxes with chip generations, but there's always been sku complexity and naming consistency weirdness iMac SE / iBook SE iMac Aluminum - Core2/i3/i5/i7 20, 21, 24, 27 iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iCloud iPod Mini/Shuffle/Nano/Touch 3rd 4th 5th gen USB1/USB2/FireWire400/800/30-pin/ . . iPhone XS/XSMax/XR lightning/usb-c

Agreed. "Early 2014" is not a good model description

This drives me crazy with Mac products. Would it kill Apple to print the damn hardware revision on the case? It doesn't have to be big, just a tiny line of text in the back corner that tells you exactly what hardware you have.

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

#99

Post by matwood » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:51 PM UTC

adamrezich wrote: post #31

hunta2097 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say Google is stagnant... Apple users can thank them for forcing Apple to make their phone OS better (and vice-versa with regard to hardware). Google's problem isn't innovation, it's supporting and following-through on their innovations past the honeymoon period.

They keep making new messaging apps that compete with each other instead of providing users with one great messaging app. Gmail's getting objectively crappier and they're killing off the much better Inbox interface. I'm not saying they make unilaterally bad decisions and I'm decently happy with my cheap Android phone but ten years ago Google was making new and exciting stuff and I haven't felt that way about them in…

Google is also milking their moat. Look at the 10x price increase for using map APIs in the middle of this year.

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

#100

Post by rauhl » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 6:52 PM UTC

reacharavindh wrote: post #33

May be people are disappointed with innovation in iPhones compared to previous years' or for the last few years, but every time I use my AirPods, I can't but feel good about the innovation it took to make it as easy to use and comfortable. * If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels. * They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate) * Lasts reasonable amount of ti…

> I could not get this experience ever before and honestly, even after I have had it for a year. I don't know of a better competition to it.

Real, wired headphones. Seriously, let’s address each of your points:

> If I open the case near my phone, it automatically pairs and shoes battery levels.

Whenever I plug headphones into a jack, they pair, and I needn’t worry about battery levels, because there’s no battery.

> They sound decent for earbuds (not in-ear plugs which I hate)

Headphones sound awesome, because there’re no wireless issues, and the DAC is a good, high-quality one in the phone.

> Lasts reasonable amount of time on its battery and quickly charges while in case.

Headphones have an infinite battery life. And they have a service life measured in years, about a decade or so.

Every time I see someone using AirPods in public, I make sure to make good, solid eye contact — and then I smirk. They’re even better than Google Glass at identifying folks who pay more for less.