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I am so fed up with the argument that “if you don’t like what Apple is doing, you’re free to leave the entire platform.” This is same thing as saying “America - love it or leave it”. The idea that you either have to completely agree with and love everything going on, or else you have to completely lose the investment in time and resources and goods and abandon everything. There is no technical merit to it and it is such a self-centered “unless it affects me, I don’t care about it” point of view.
Are those truly the only two solutions: complete acquiescence and subservience or total expatriation and self-exile?
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I don’t understand the dislike of a mobile browsers address bar being on the bottom of the screen. I’m a Android user on my daily driver so maybe I’m biased about this, but Firefox and Vivaldi on Android allow the option to place the address bar on the bottom of the screen and I prefer it that way. It makes sense to me. When I grab an iPhone, it always throws me off that the bar is on the top (although that’s because I’m use to it being on the bottom).
My 2¢
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I agree with what you are saying, but I think that the point is, leaving the ecosystem and taking your business elsewhere is the only thing that will convince them (Apple) to change their ways. I do however think that you make a valid point and it comes off as an elitist argument.
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I don’t really get Alex’s argument about sideloading giving users fewer options. Right now you have one choice - the App Store. If sideloading becomes a thing on iOS and and app leaves the store, you will have once choice for that app - sideloading. Not liking the option does not mean that there are fewer options.
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I am not sure that was the point Alex was making. My take, whenever he has made this point (which he seems to frequently whenever this comes up) is that - if you don’t like the conditions, you can pack up and leave the system entirely. Which is why I compare it to the “America - love it or leave it” argument.
If he’s making a different point - like you describe - then I am missing that point.
I have a greater appreciation of Andy since Alex came back to MBW. Alex climbs on that Apple high horse quite often, with the attitude that Apple can do no wrong, & Apple’s way is basically the only way, or at least the best way. Andy brings in the everyman approach, noting not everyone can afford, or has the need for an often overpriced Apple product.
95% of people are well served by a more affordable Roku or Fire streamer. I’ve used Roku since they came out, and the secret police haven’t bothered me because I have it connected to the internet. Most people don’t care.
I mostly use Apple products, but I do understand that there are alternatives that, in many instances, serve the same use, and do it just as well, & sometimes better.
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I think that you’re correct and I am giving him too much credit 
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Present company included. I am pretty deep in the Apple ecosystem, but my Rokus have all the apps I need (including the Apple TV+ app), Airplay 2 and Homekit support. I would have little to gain by paying 3-4x more for an Apple TV.
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I was in the Gravis store in the local city last week (a chain of stores in Germany that makes up for the dearth of actual Apple Stores).
I looked at the Apple TV and thought of buying one, but we have a FireTV, which has an Apple TV+ app, so I didn’t really see the need. The FireTV does all we need, and we mainly use the library apps for the main public tv channels. We only have Apple TV+ because of the free year, but I haven’t found much worth watching so far. The only one that really grabbed me was “the long way up” with Ewan McGregor.
One thing I do miss with the new Macs, is the Gravis special offers, they would often offer a Mac with a free memory upgrade for the same price as the normal version direct from Apple. No more of that “nonsense” now, with the M1 chip.
I highly recommend “For all Mankind.”
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Thanks, I’ll take a look.
While I don’t have Apple TV+, I have seen “Long Way Up” (as well as the previous “Long Way Round” and “Long Way Down”) and I agree it’s great.
Of course all I ever hear about from Apple TV+ is “Ted Lasso”.
We have always used Rokus, but we just replaced our kitchen 24” TV (the most watched TV in the house…) with an Insignia Fire TV. It is super snappy, and so far I really like the Fire set-up, along with built in Alexa. Best Buy had it on sale for $99. We used to buy LG TV’s, thus the Roku units. The last two TV’s have been TCL Roku TV’s 55” & 65” Series 6’s. Love them. On top of that, we have Xfinity Cable, & they provide most of the apps out there like Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc., through their system.
Aside from all that, I’m not sure what the worry is with hooking all this up to the internet. Alex may have super duper security needs, but what I watch doesn’t need to be a state secret. With Apple setting aside their privacy claims on my iPhone, and Google scanning my email, the TV shows I watch are not that concerning.
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Yeah, there was a lot of dancing around why it’s worth buying with no real answer given. Andy was spot on - why pay $100 more for an Apple TV? What do you get? Apple Arcade and Homepod support? If that is worth it for you, sure.
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I am looking into getting an Nvidia Shield Pro to replace my Apple TV (last gen) because I am feeling more and more constrained by Apple’s design decisions. Ever try to authenticate on the Apple TV without having a paired iPhone? It’s a nightmare of swiping left and right, clicking that touch pad, and hoping that overswipe, select the wrong letter without noticing it, and find out at the end that you entered it wrong. Because there’s no way to view the password.
They are failing miserably on the ‘magical experience’ of using an Apple TV if the only way it is magical is for you to also own some other device that costs 3-4 digits just so you can enter passwords or authenticate conveniently. When Andy talks about justifying the price differential - this is exactly a part of that. Coupled with Apple’s ridiculous stance on cloud-gaming services like xCloud and the future Netflix game service - I so little reason to keep using an overpriced streaming box that’s inconvenient to operate.
It’s nice, but before you get it, just get the Google ChromeCast with GoogleTV. It’s only like $50 ($70 Cdn) if not on sale, and it has 90% of the capability. (It doesn’t accept input USB or other media.) I have an Nvidia Shield Pro that is sitting unused since I got my ChromeCasts.
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Will do.
My main reason for considering it is the gaming aspect. I have been trying to confirm if Microsoft xCloud is on it - because, if so, it would make a very nice lightweight secondary gaming platform alongside my XBOX.
Yes, having watched the first one over a decade ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see this on Apple TV+.
I tried Ted Lasso, but it is a steaming pile of embarrassment. I really couldn’t watch it. But that sums up a majority of modern US comedy, unfortunately. I am very empathic and, if someone is being embarrassed, I feel their pain and don’t find it funny. Unfortunately, modern US comedy seems to be 90% embarrassment.
I tried watching How I met your mother and Big Bang Theory, but I can’t watch them for long. I’ll watch 10 minutes here and there, but that is 10 minutes in January and another 10 minutes in August, I can’t cope with more.
I did try Doom Patrol on Amazon Prime, The Boys as well, but they didn’t appeal either. I liked the premise for both series, but the actual content is not mine. The main reason I stuck with The Boys was Tobias Kluchert. I love his voice and he does the voice-overs for a lot of US actors and I can listen to him for hours - I have dozens of audio books he has voiced - he voices the ex-CIA leader of the Boys.
These days, I much prefer European content. There are several great French cop shows that are very good, for example.
So here’s something I want to toss out regarding Apple’s NCMIC scanning of photos (which in and of itself I have absolutely no issue with).
We all know that Apple’s schtick, among other things, is their near-total control over all aspects of the platform. They are the sole creator of Mac devices and i-devices, the operating system, the sole means of mobile distribution for apps developed for the platform - even the sole means of creating apps (since you need a Mac device to obtain xCode or Swift).
While Apple’s scanning of photos against a hashed database is new, the basic premise of scanning objects on a computer is not. Unarguably - photos are just a file on a machine encoded in a particular way so they can be read by certain apps.
I believe Apple is laying the ground work for scanning other types of files besides photos against a database to ensure those files are appropriate. I’m thinking specifically of music and video files. And I believe they will just ift this under the banner of combatting piracy. Apple already totally controls the app distribution process - I believe they are beginning the process of extending that control to certain user files - photos first, and then later music and video. I can see Apple scanning music and video files prior to allowing them to be played - similar to how YouTube scans uploads.
What do you think? Is there nothing to this beyond what Apple has stated or is there something more substantial here? I’ve thought about this and I keep coming back to the fact that they are doing this on-device. Why go to the trouble of creating a new on-device process unless you intend to use it for more than just one purpose?