Microsoft's end goal is "Windows as a subscription service". Has always been since Windows 10 times if not earlier.
All these little nasty anti-user bits stem directly from that.
All these little nasty anti-user bits stem directly from that.
Typing as a service, with characters billed by the keystroke.
A mixture of Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble rules apply. Vowels are free, but rare consonants or letter combinations carry a premium.
/s
They have the profits from hardware and the upgrade cycle as new versions drop old hardware. I imagine if anything we will see a program like the iPhone upgrade program come to Mac. That would better fit their existing workflow anyways.
It would also help minimize the need to try to future proof your choice. I know when I go to buy a Mac I often way over spec since I am planning for at least 3 or 4 years. That conversation is completely different if I know I am getting an upgrade in 1 or 2 years.
Meanwhile if the Mac Upgrade Program could be, idk a 2 year upgrade plan. Looking at the cheapest 16" M3 Max MBP. Right now that is $291.58 month for 12 months.
If a Mac Upgrade Plan did the same timeline as iPhone where you paid over 2 years but could upgrade after a year that would be about $147.28.
But it could likely be a 3 or 4 year timeline and be even cheaper.
If we look at the lower end it gets even cheaper with the cheapest 16" MBP could be $104 a month. The cheapest 14" MPB could be $66.5 a month.
Keeps going cheaper if you look at the Air. I feel like at that price the market very much exists when the top iPhone is $74.91 a month.
The question is if the numbers make sense on Apple's side.
While they do a lot of things very well, desiging batteries, storage, and keyboards to be practically non-replaceable and denying any upgradeability (to upsell ludicrously overpriced storage at the initial purchase) is setting an upper limit on how long the device will remain useful for.
With iPhones you can replace the battery for a small fraction of the cost of a new phone. Plenty of people are using 5+ year old phones without doing so, it really depends on how much time you spend on the device per day and if you’re recharging mid day. Deep discharges drastically shorten lifespan, but again just get a new battery.
It's the cost of being without your phone for an indeterminate period of time if you have to ship it to Apple for the battery replacement due to not living near an Apple Store.
Further, replacing a phone is itself painful so there’s no avoiding any inconvenience here.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/iphone-battery-replacement/5634...
The service rep said that newer batteries last longer because they're newer tech (I laughed internally), but it's going strong for 4 (5?) years now, and it's at 83%, so I had to eat my hat about not believing her.
Got an almost 4yr old 12 Pro that claims 85%, but doesn't feel like it's holding that much charge, feels like it's due a replacement. Would have done it myself if it was an easy screwdriver-only job rather than requiring heat and special tools.
I'm guessing that internally the capacity starts at somewhat above 100%, to ensure for example that older stock still reports 100% when sold, and the actual drop in capacity could be a fair bit more than the reported figure?
Actually yes. Because even at 83%, my iPhone can last longer than its original battery's brand-new capacity. Also, I'm using Macs for ~15 years now and Coconut Battery's battery reports (which just interfaces with macOS battery information features) were always spot-on.
> but doesn't feel like it's holding that much charge, feels like it's due a replacement.
Actually, an iPhone's daily endurance depends on two things: Network connectivity & quality, and the apps you use. WiFi uses way less battery than cellular to begin with, and some applications "performance improvements and bug fixes" means "we have improved the performance of tracking you while using the app, and fixed the bugs about misreporting usage data". Applications like Instagram are so optimized at tracking its users, it drains my battery faster and heats my phone better than some games.
> to ensure for example that older stock still reports 100% when sold...
Low self discharge batteries are borderline magic. A low-discharge Li-Ion battery sitting at ~40% can sit there for years, if the cell is good. A low discharge Ni-MH battery can sit at ~90% for a decade. I recently opened a new blister of Eneloop AA batteries which were sitting there for a couple of years. All of them were at ~95% charge.
A battery change shouldn't require heat guns, special suction/clamp tools, or adhesive-dissolving chemicals.
It also shouldn't require being without your device for an unknown period of time to send it in for service.
I've gotten battery replacements on various iPhones, iPads and Macbooks and it's a pretty straightforward processes.
Which is pretty reasonable. Giving up little bits of a control at a time is how we end up with no control at all.
Apple is a hardware company first, then an App Store rent seeker, and a software company third.
>Ads in Outlook. Want to remove? $2 a month.
>Want to use Windows productivity software? $100 a year.
>Want to use more copilot features? $20 a month.
>Want to game? Please use our subscription Xbox service.
Etc etc.
The ads in Outlook are if you're using the free @outlook.com email address. I'm using it with a Zoho email account and I haven't seen ads.
Windows productivity software? Office? Obviously, it is a paid software suite. Always has been. No surprise they're not giving it away. It is not like this is some new thing behind a paywall suddenly. Sure, back in the day it was pretty common for an average home PC to come with at least some version of Microsoft Works, but technically that was an OEM-licensed basic productivity software suite, not actually free. In the end it was just that Dell, HP, Compaq, or whoever was paying for it to put it on the list of out of the box features.
More Copilot features for $20 a month? It is essentially a custom flavor of OpenAI with some more hooks and context. It is no surprise a hosted AI service that normally costs $20/mo continues to cost $20/mo.
You don't need Xbox Game Pass to play games in Windows. Steam, GOG, etc. all still work perfectly fine without it. Game Pass is all about subscribing to a lot of games, including many AAA $60+ games. Let me know when Apple Music and Apple TV+ goes completely free.
It is like arguing "Want to listen to music on an iPhone? Gotta pay for Apple Music. Want to watch videos on your Macbook? Need to pay for Apple TV+ streaming service. Want to send an email? Gotta pay for an iCloud subscription. Want to use headphones with your Apple device? Guess you have to buy Airpods."
Not true. It’s baked into the default mail client (outlook). Outlook is now the default mail client replacing mail.
Don't let Microsoft touch your email, they're terrible at it.
>Want to use Windows productivity software? $100 a year.
Microsoft Office isn't part of Windows, and Office as a Service is a sign of the times, but OpenLibreOffice.org works ok and the price is better. People seem to like Google Docs even though it's terrible.
>Want to use more copilot features? $20 a month.
Ok, but how much for them to not ask me to use it?
>Want to game? Please use our subscription Xbox service.
You certainly don't need gamepass to game, you can just buy games instead of paying a monthly subscription for access to a selection of games. On the consoles, you need to pay for (most) online features, but not for PC. Although I don't know how many games run well on ARM Windows...