WW 988: Bubbleable

TWiT Shows Windows Weekly
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Windows Weekly #988 - “Bubbleable” is available now.

  • Xbox faces major leadership upheaval with anticipated studio closures and layoffs as Microsoft’s fiscal year ends
  • Windows Insider Program releases record seven builds while claiming simplification, with screen tint and widget improvements
  • PowerToys reaches version 0.100 milestone with significant quality-of-life enhancements
  • Microsoft announces premium Surface Laptop 8 and 13 with Snapdragon X2 chips at steep pricing
  • Edge switches to two-week update cycle; Game Pass adds CoD: Vanguard

#WindowsWeekly #Xbox #WindowsInsider #PowerToys #Surface #Microsoft

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I’m worried prices will never come down for companies like Apple, even when the RAM crisis is over. Apple mentioned they’re soon going to have to raise prices on all their consumer products (my worry is specifically with the iPad, though) and I’ve never really seen Apple move prices back down after moving them up. It doesn’t seem like a very Apple move to say “the price of RAM has come back down, so we’re going to lower our prices accordingly”.

I feel very fortunate I upgraded my desktop at the time I did, even though RAM was already pretty expensive (thankfully a bundle saved me $300)

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Apple launched the Neo this year. The price of the MacBook Air fell last year and Apple dropped the price of the first iPhone dramatically weeks after launch, even reimbursing early adopters. So never say never.

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At the same time (for this year), they also dropped the least expensive Mac Mini. The now-least-expensive model is about $200 more. This feels like a planned decision to me in the wake of the Neo launch, rather than a reaction to RAM prices. So those people that might have wanted a desktop unit and are somewhat price conscious (like myself) now have few options.

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I guess maybe I’m more worried about this: the cost of the Pro branded gear likely won’t go down in price. You won’t see the iPad Pro dropping in price after they raise the prices due to RAM. But I hope I’m wrong.

Apple does (sometimes) drop the price of it’s base-line gear. But rarely it’s Pro stuff.

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Back when I had an Android phone, Facebook Chat Heads were a super new concept and I loooooved it. I was in my 1st year of college at the time. That’s probably the biggest feature I miss from Android all these years later post moving to iPhone

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Today Tim Cook warned that, indeed, Apple is going to have to raise prices. I expect a steady and increasingly dramatic series of leaks from Apple to prepare us all for the reality coming in September.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-price-increases-memory-supply-199845b1?st=NPpwSV&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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It just shows how much his planning and control of the supply chain over the years, plus their margins, has meant that they could keep the prices level until now.

I found 1TB of 32GB ECC DIMMs in a cupboard that my predecessor forgot about. That was worth about 2,000€ last year, about 6,000€ a couple of months ago, looking at the price comparison sites, they are worth about 15,000€ now!

The general business laptops we purchased have shot up, despite discounts from the manufacturer. In Germany, the prices have gone up around 30%, in the USA, were we don’t get good discounts, because we only have 1 small manufacturing plant, the prices have gone up between 70% and 150%.

Heck, the last 2 Lenovo orders were silently cancelled (the devices never turned up, when we questioned where they were, Lenovo said that they had simply cancelled the order, without informing us!). We have switched to Dell now, but the prices have risen from around $1,200 in October last year to $2,200, even though we have halved the amount of RAM they have!

So, hats off to Apple that they could keep the prices steady for so long, but it was inevitable that the prices would have to rise at some point.

I am now in a dilemma, I dropped my iPhone 16 Pro and the back is broken (interestingly, it is only the coloured part that is broken, the top layer of glass is still intact) and the battery life isn’t stellar, do I fix it and put in a new battery, grab a 17 Pro before the price hikes kick in or wait for the 18 Pro?

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I would wait if I were you. I don’t think the price increase will be that big of a deal to be off-cycle.

If repairing and getting a new battery is cheap, I’d also consider that

If it were me, I would probably buy a new phone now because I’m impatient and love instant gratification.

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