calsy

A home battery system stores the excess solar energy generated during the day so you can use it at night. It's about long term savings on electricity bills.

Apple isn't deserving of a slice of revenue from game developers because of questionable gaming practices. If anything it makes them complicit. Like a mafia syndicate, they will allow these types of gaming practices if they are given their share.

The whole point of Epic side loading apps was to avoid the gatekeeping of the primary stores and their ‘review’ process. Was it a terrible failure because Epic is incapable of creating functioning software? Or was it a failure because it's near impossible to circumvent the limited developer 'sandbox' with APIs that all run through Google services? Are apps listed on Google Play free of security vulnerabilities? Who’s to say this information wasn’t disseminated throughout the public and media by Google or Apple themselves attempting to sway opinions against the so called evils of installing your own software.

As far as Epic vs Apple, whether the judge ruled Apple a monopoly or not isn’t of great concern. What’s more important is that she ruled Apple must provide other payment options to developers. It's in the user's interest that alternative payment methods are made available as it (in theory) will decrease the cost of app purchases. Apple's not in any hurry to implement it through.

Way overblown... tell that to a game developer. The privacy and security argument was used time and again by Apple in court as a reason for booting Epic's Fortnite off the App Store for not using their payment system.

The issue isn't about personal preference. It's about the anti-competitive practices of large tech companies that remove competition, stifle innovation and allow monopolies to set the value of their own product rather than the market.

'Privacy and security' allows them to justify taking a cut of 30% from developers for simply allowing their apps to be installed on an Apple device, which is then passed onto you.

'Privacy and security' is why you need to update your perfectly capable phone after X amount of years because Apple stopped releasing updates for it.

'Privacy and security' is why they removed ad tracking on devices used by competitors, forcing developers into Apple's payment streams where.. you guessed it, they take a cut. They then created their own App Store advertising model in the process. No alternative payment methods are available on Apple devices because 'privacy and security'.

Obviously these types of features are welcome, even though they are apply to an incredibly small group of people. I cant help but feel the 'personal security' push from Apple and its marketing is rather self serving.

Apple is under more legal pressure than ever for its apparent 'anti-competitive' practices. They have on many occasions pushed the line of user privacy and security to defend their business. Features like this benefit a small group of people, but help Apple enormously in defending itself from litigation.

Edit: Downvote? Why are companies given the benefit of the doubt as if they were human and caring when they are clearly not! Large listed tech companies like Apple will ALWAYS act in their own interest first. User privacy is the advantage Apple has over its competitors who rely on free services and advertising. It is in their OWN INTEREST to pursue this path which in turn impacts others ability to compete. Must we continue to be so grossly naive?

Prior to iOS 16, Apple Weather was using 'The Weather Company' for their forecasts I believe.

...And the entire thread devolves into old man stories,

'Kids these days. I walked 10km to school everyday barefoot on a dirt road with a racoon for a hat. Didn't hear me complaining...'

Why are we pretending that all published stories are presented equally, forgetting the entire history of media and the internet advertising economy in the process.

Ohh it's nothing against online play, except most of the article that complains about online play.

You all want to wax nostalgic about LAN parties when most of the time everyone was playing pirated versions of games and burning copies of copyrighted content and p*rn onto CDs.... Them's were the days.

Your personal sensitivities about travelling with a laptop are not shared by the majority. Laptop fans are in no way noisy enough to cause a distraction for yourself or others.

Making a VM copy from a NAS every time I decided to step outside and work say on the back deck in a different environment with trees and some sun is anything but convenient.

There seems to be a perpetuation falsehood in these discussions that the only time you would need to use a laptop is when travelling a substantial distance from home, which can not be anymore further from the truth than is possible.

Lastly, laptops are not the sole domain of developers and you don’t need to ‘embrace virtualization’ simply because it exists.

Newsflash, game matchmaking 100s of players in a single game across an entire country ensuring they have latest patches to minimise hackers and cheats is slower to load than a wired LAN with known peers and zero risk of bad actors. but hey, nostalgia...

Yes rollback really is that good. Guilty Gear Strive is an excellent example of it.

Why are you ignore the obvious issue of distance? LANs are great, you just have to be next to each other don't you, which is kind of a HUGE problem.

Xbox was HD? Don't remember that.

Yeah why isn't Epic able to teleport 100 people to the same location with all their hardware included, plugged in and physically connected for seamlessly networking at the press of a button. Damn reality.

Not often you see someone use their own argument against themselves. Why buy a desktop with a thin client laptop (that are not in anyway cheap) when you could just buy a standalone laptop.

This isn't even an argument, the decades of the laptops continued popularity say enough.

This site is just becoming ridiculous. You understand what a portable device is right? That you can UNPLUG the laptop from the external monitor and still use it.

This is all getting rather stupid. Laptop aren't for serious work? What planet are you on? You like stationary devices because you like to compartmentalise your life. Well thats great for you, but it's hardly normal.

The only use case for a laptop is when you are travelling across the country? What sort of bizarro argument is this?

I should have mentioned I was being sarcastic.

Would you be surprised if I told you that laptops have ports that allow for external devices like a display/keyboard/mouse.

Would it also surprise you that people would prefer a device that they can be used anywhere, rather than a fixed location.

The only way you could not get this transition is if you've never had to go anywhere outside your home.

Aren't you simply justifying the cost of AppleCare+ to yourself?

What if they gave you a working product as one would expect at that cost? AppleCare+ is pointless.

If they gave you a defective product with no Applecare+? Tough luck?

You are also coming at this from the perspective of someone running a business, purchasing bulk items. Not that it is justified on Apple's part, but AppleCare+ would lead to less 'friction' from Apple as far as repairing defective units that are more likely at that number. Likewise, you could probably claim AppleCare+ as a business expense.

Don't pay a premium for new hardware as its more likely to break. This is your own fault for being an 'early adopter'.

AppleCare+, pay even more for 'Apple Insurance' so you can repair the expensive defective product sold to you already covered by warranty and consumer law.

Have extra money available to pay for repairs that can only be carried out by Apple for the laptop you paid a premium for with the mistaken belief it was reliable.

Forfeit your money and do not question Apple's role in selling you a defective product. Besides, we can't expect Apple to cover the costs of repair for the defective products they sell, thats just asking too much. You're just unlucky to have picked up a mac from a 'bad batch' of units.

Companies that specialises in complex clean ups will most certainly have all sorts of regulations and procedures employees need to follow before, during and after performing a job. Assess the risk and determine how to perform the task in the safest manner possible by following the appropriate standards.

Do all companies follow these steps, no. Can they be held accountable for neglecting safety, yes. Being exposed to hazard materials like asbestos is gross negligence. Knowing that such a company exists doesn't means it's normal or common practice.

Something is clearly wrong if you are being exposed to hazardous materials 40 hours a week.

The device still receives SMS messages, which makes all that wonderful iMessage security completely useless when receiving spam SMS messages with fake headers.

Any limitations/restrictions that Apple imposes on their devices that usually provides them some competitive advantage is ALWAYS explained away as 'protecting' the user. It's a joke how often this corporate spin is used as an excuse.

Identifying the country a person lives in would be reasonably accurate. ISPs are generally country specific and have a known range of public IPs.

It's been well known since the creation of www that users attention spans are non-existent and they will leave a page if they don't see the information that interests them within seconds.

Just because you believe in something doesn't mean any action you take to push that belief is acceptable. There are not multiple groups blocking major roads, bus ways, bridges, trains etc. only climate protestors.

Take this scenario, imagine someone dying in gridlock in the back of an ambulance because a protestor glued/chained himself to the road. Extreme? It's happened. Now for what special reason was this person glued to the road for? So they could hold a sign that says 'end fossil fuels'. Thats it, holding a sign!

A long while ago did you also understand the difference between fantasy and reality? That events in a movie created to entertain the viewer have no consequences. That you don’t see all the insurance claims and lawsuits because it’s not entertainment.

Do you understand what an economy is? Do you understand that you don’t build your own home or grow your own food or supply your own power and water? That there needs to be a means for you to purchase these items?

Do you understand what impacting services and business means? Do you understand the negative consequences?

It’s so ‘not serious’ that the government has had to introduce new laws to deter people from disrupting the city.

Yeah it’s called being out on bail. Lets pretend to be horrified that these people have had certain restrictions placed on them as a part of their bail conditions.