The controller usually does long before the flash runs out of rewrite cycles and spare sectors. Sometimes it dies completely, sometimes the metadata like block rewrite counts and logical mapping gets corrupted. Depending on how shit the firmware is corruption can be fatal or at best let you recover some data.
It's also kind of a bugger if your motherboard dies for some other reason and you want to recover your data.
So, if the on-board SSD controller dies, or the SSD's block mapping gets corrupted on a REMOVABLE SSD, isn't THAT data JUST as "gone" (and the computer JUST as un-bootable!) as it would be with a SOLDERED SSD?
So, in either case, you can only HOPE your BACKUPS (you DO have BACKUPS, don't you?) are complete, up-to-date and READABLE. And, other than the difference between ordering a replacement SSD, reinstalling it, vs. cycling your computer through a Repair Depot, the "fix" is the same: Restore your computer from a BACKUP.
And, since Apple makes having Backups about as drop-dead-simple as they can be, any Mac User who DOESN'T have an up-to-date Time Machine Backup of their DESKTOP Mac, CERTAINLY doesn't get to whine about Data Loss.
I have restored two Macs using Time Machine Backups (actually Restored one after an HDD swap, and used a Time Machine BU to Migrate an older iMac (FIVE Generations of OS-OLD!) to a brand-new iMac (Snow Leopard to High Sierra)), and in BOTH cases, it was literally a one or two-click operation, with 100% "fidelity" of Restoration. In fact, the migration was actually performed by the 86-year-old owner of the iMac HIMSELF, with VERY MINIMAL "handholding" over the phone by me. Doesn't get much simpler than THAT!!!
Since the chip enumeration is likely NEVER ( or hardly ever) rewritten, those locations in SSD will also likely not "wear out" for many DECADES. Even the oft-rewritten portions of a modern SSD are unlikely to "wear out" for over 30 years; FAR longer than almost anybody would be running the same computer.
They can still outright fail though, it's happened to me. And of all the things soldered into an iMac, I'd consider it the most high risk item. But we had this argument 20 years ago about why would anyone buy an AIO over a desktop with an external screen, where you can upgrade one or the other and replace just one if the other breaks. To technical people this was absurd, but the customers didn't care as long as it looked pretty. And that's when they figured most people don't care about these things so let's just solder it down and glue it shut, sockets and connectors are for nerds.
Offer people a "warranty" which is basically to clone it in a new device and recycle the broken one and most don't care that it's essentially irreparable. Until they're stuck with an out of warranty paperweight, but then they're looking at features and price right now. That they'll be stuck in the same position some years down the road, well let's just kick that can ahead of us. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. Long term planning is where to go on vacation next year. How you'll repair you iMac in five years? Not even on the horizon...
Of course, you're one of those people who turns around and argues that people can repair their own iPhones, even though 90% of the world's population couldn't successfully effect a repair on ANY electronic assembly, let alone one with almost exclusively SMT components, including those with fine-pitch leads, or even NO real exposed leads (BGA, QFN, etc).
So which is it? People can repair modern SMT-based electronic assemblies, or not? Because, it is no harder to access the innards of a modern iMac (heat gun, spudger, cutters) than it is to access in innards of ANY modern smartphone and many laptops (heat gun, spudger, cutters).
And considering the fact that the vast majority of computer owners NEVER upgrade their computer's internals, even when they ARE easily accessible and replaceable, the "but it's SOLDERED!" is a pretty weak argument overall.
As for me, I have been an embedded systems designer/developer for several decades, and have built-up many of my own SMT designs, and, at certain times in my life, I have also been an electronic repair technician (bench tech). But when I want my phone worked on, I take it to those who do that every day. And I don't own a computer with a soldered-in SSD or RAM; but if I did, I would also take that to someone who works on those products every single day.
Experience and knowledge also includes the experience and knowledge to know when you DON'T have the specialized skills and equipment to effect a successful repair, and should take your device to those who do.
To use a car analogy: I can fix many things on my car; but I would never attempt to rebuild its automatic transmission, even though it is completely "repairable" by the standards set forth by the Parent.
Oh, yeah, and everything is soldered to the motherboard. RAM, CPU, GPU, SSD, everything. And guess what? When the SSD fails (which it will eventually), it will prevent the machine from booting (even from an external drive). You read that right- the machine is literally tied to the SSD, and if it can't enumerate the chipset, then the system will refuse to boot from anything.
Since the chip enumeration is likely NEVER ( or hardly ever) rewritten, those locations in SSD will also likely not "wear out" for many DECADES.
Even the oft-rewritten portions of a modern SSD are unlikely to "wear out" for over 30 years; FAR longer than almost anybody would be running the same computer.
In all seriousness, I've been buying their laptops for over a decade, and I have to tell you that they are now, suddenly, crap. If you've never tried typing on a new Macbook Pro keyboard (the ones in question) I encourage to try one out at an Apple store. It is *literally* like typing on a package of chicklets. They do this big sell job on you about how revolutionary the keys are now, but they don't move at all (well, not much anyway). If you think that the feeling of touch typing on your smartphone's screen is revolutionary, then you'll probably love them. If you still prefer buckling springs on your desktop keyboard then this is about as far away as you could possibly get from that.
I just had a go on a new Thinkpad and Lenovo seems to be going in the other direction - trying to get more travel in their keys. I don't know what Apple is smoking but they're about to throw away a very nice business. It used to be that the best Windows laptop you could buy was an Apple, now there is no way that would be true.
You realize, of course, that the farther the key-travel, the more TIME and EFFORT is required to type on it.
Now of course it isn't like hauling a stone up a hill; but it all adds up. That's why the people who take a week or so and get used to the new keyboard design almost universally say "I can type much faster and more accurately on this keyboard..."
I'll even go so far as to say this: My work gave me a 13" MacBook Pro from 2017, with the Touchstrip, and I really like the keyboard. I made a lot of typos at first because of the extremely low-profile design, but now I can type fast as hell on it. I've never had any keys mysteriously stop working or anything of the kind. And I've never heard any complaints from my coworkers about that, either. If they don't like it, it's just because they don't like how it feels.
Thats like all the people like fluffernutter, above, who don't know how to treat a cable, and then complain "I've gone through |x| number of these power cords in |y| months!" When I have NEVER had a failure of either an Apple power adapter nor its cable.
Yes we do. Because there isn't anything else!
All waveforms are combinations of sine waves.
Congratulations. You just established yourself as a total ignoramus of wave physics.
Of COURSE I know that there are nothing but sine-waves. When you start doing FFTs on stuff you can plainly see that.
BUT, you also know what I MEANT.
And you also know that the sine-waves representing the upper harmonics of "tone-burst" sources like Cymbals and other "metallics" go WAY beyond that convenient 20 kHz (or 22 kHz, if you want to be pedantic), and that when you start SAMPLING those sine-waves, some fugly stuff starts to happen when you try and reconstruct the result.
Apple sold almost exactly the same number of phones as last year. Unless you think they can keep increasing the price of their phones or somehow makeup for the loss of unit growth by selling billions in services then the profit growth for the company is nearing its end.
Ah! Hello, old Meme! So Glad to see ye!
Apple Computer: Proudly Going Out of Business for over FORTY Years!!!
Ah, only in the head of an apple addict does profit growth nearing end equal going out of business. Strawman much?
And only in the head of an Apple Hater does the richest (or one of the richest) companies on Earth have a "Profitability" problem.
<quote> <p>2. Apple's notch is not "Ridiculous"; because it is there for a purpose. what is TRULY "Ridiculous", however, is all the Android phones that slavishly COPIED Apple (yet again!) and their "Ridiculous" Notch, <i>even though they don't actually NEED it!</i></p></quote>
The first phone with a notch was..... an Android phone: the Essential Phone was announced in May 2017, a few months before the X.
So, that just begs the question: Why is the "Notch" ONLY "Ridiculous" when Apple uses it?
1. The S9+ 64GB model is 888EUR, the iPhone X 64GB is 1056EUR a difference of 168EUR close to $200USD from Vodaphone. The price gap is the same from electronics stores. From the electronics stores the S9+ 256GB model is 1049EUR vs the iPhone X 256GB being 1319EUR, a difference of 270EUR!
But that's just EU. I hear you man! The S9+ 64GB is $799 in the US, the iPhone X 64GB is $999 a difference of $200USD
2. Ridiculous is in the eye of the beholder. What is not is calling it "Apple's Notch". It's a "notch" period. It is ridiculous on the iPhone X, and it was ridiculous on the 2 android phones which introduced BEFORE Apple copied it. But it's amazing that Apple "needs" the ridiculous piece of shit while Android doesn't. You just gave props to Android. Bad FakeTimCook, Bad.
3. No Android phone on the market is banned from airplanes. There were phones that were recalled in a panic resulting in users not only being $0 out of pocket, but actually getting a significant discount on a replacement phone. All Apple users get is a middle finger, and they LOVE IT!
1. I'm not lying. I'm talking MSRP. Not some Carrier's LOSS-LEADER or "Special Pricing" Pricing!
2. Can you express that thought in a COHERENT fashion? You flip-flopped the "blame" at LEAST twice! Oh, and BTW, the new "Vivo X21" with INTEGRATED FINGERPRINT SENSOR, ALSO has the "Notch". So now it's at least THREE (and one (Vivo) that REALLY doesn't "need" it!).
3. The "Panic" was pretty damned realistic, when there is VIDEO of a phone CATCHING ON FIRE ON A PLANE!!!
That's actually a good question. Maybe we should see those same dire predictions for those brands, if not more dire. After all, the smartphone industry as a whole is growing, and if a company's sales are flat, that means they're losing market share. The question then becomes who they are losing market share to, and what impact that will have on their long-term business prospects.
For Apple, as long as people who buy iPhones tend to spend more money on apps and in-app purchases than the average Android user, losing a little market share won't hurt that much. For an Android vendor, losing a little market share could be the first step towards losing a *lot* of market share.
I think the recipient this past year of MOST of the "lost sales" was Oppo. Don't know why; but if their phones are as good as their Optical Disc players, I can understand to some extent.
Of course, they are still that Android horseshit; but for SOME reason, some people actually LIKE that INSECURE crap...
2. Apple's notch is not "Ridiculous"; because it is there for a purpose. what is TRULY "Ridiculous", however, is all the Android phones that slavishly COPIED Apple (yet again!) and their "Ridiculous" Notch, even though they don't actually NEED it!
It may not be ridiculous, but I was watching that keynote in a room full of Apple fans, and the number of "what the f**k" reactions was telling. The word that kept coming up over and over was "ugly".
What was ridiculous was not the notch so much as the fact that the product seemed to have clearly been rushed to market to hit a deadline. They shipped with that ugly notch because they couldn't get the fingerprint-through-the-screen tech in quantities soon enough, and if they had waited just a few months, they could have shipped the product they really wanted to ship, rather than watching as the rest of the industry made it happen a few months later.
And I say that as somebody who has used Apple hardware almost exclusively since the mid-1980s. If S.J. (requiescat in pace) were still alive and running things, I'm absolutely certain that he would have thrown it across the room and said, "This is the ugliest f**king piece of s**t I've ever seen. We're not shipping it until you find a way to get rid of that f**king notch," except that he probably would have used a greater number and variety of swear words.
Just saying.
I agree that Fixed "Release Schedules" are the antithesis of good products. Everyone does it to some extent; but when it becomes the MAIN driving-force in determining when a product is "done", that is almost never a good thing.
Having said that, Apple really had no idea how quickly the "Fingerprint through Display" would get working reliably (wasn't the issue a matter of "yield"?); so at some point (and that "point" is WAY far back in time, when you are talking to a Contract Manufacturer with their own Logistics Chain), you just have to "fish or cut bait".
So, you MIGHT want to think about the position that Apple was in. The "optics" of SIGNIFICANTLY delaying a product with as much attention paid to it as the iPhone has, makes that less and less desirable, and at some point, no amount of swearing, "throwing things against the wall, firing and other counter-productive histrionics (S.J. RIP!) can help to change the course of things.
I note, BTW, that NO ONE but "Vivo" has YET to display a (supposedly) PRODUCTION-READY Fingerprint-through-Display solution (and the announcement of Production is just NOW, at the time of this Posting, only 6 hours old). So how long should Apple have waited? Can you IMAGINE the hand-wringing and unmitigated Apple Hate that would have been spewed-out on the intarwebs since last SEPTEMBER if Apple had delayed the iPhone X until MAY?!?
BTW, notice that the through-display Fingerprint Sensing Vivo X21 ACTUALLY HAS APPLE'S "RIDICULOUS" NOTCH?!?
> the flagship iPhone X didn't perform as well as some anticipated
iPhone X failure - with it's price tag and ridiculous notch is probably what Apple is going to tweak next. Their expected "new" line of *cheaper* phones, support contracts and accessories (like the Airpod) will help Apple continue to fleece their customers. Battery issues will also help drive up sales...
1. Samsung's flagship phone is priced within $50 of the iPhone X.
2. Apple's notch is not "Ridiculous"; because it is there for a purpose. what is TRULY "Ridiculous", however, is all the Android phones that slavishly COPIED Apple (yet again!) and their "Ridiculous" Notch, even though they don't actually NEED it!
3. Say what you will about Apple's battery performance; but at least they never got their battery-operated products banned from airplanes...
with an edge to edge screen + a larger edge to edge screen device
If results are any indication, they need to come out with a model with an even bigger notch. And a negative headphone jack. Meaning, a phone with a protuberance that sticks out of the side of the case a little about the size of a 3.5mm plug and pokes you in the thigh if you have the phone in your pocket. To remind you how brave you were to choose a phone without a headphone jack.
Also, more dongles. Maybe some wireless dongles this time. A bluetooth home button would be nice.
Why don't you take your tired Meme and go home?
The People are voting with their wallets. Over 60 BEELION Votes, in fact!
Apple sold almost exactly the same number of phones as last year. Unless you think they can keep increasing the price of their phones or somehow makeup for the loss of unit growth by selling billions in services then the profit growth for the company is nearing its end.
Ah! Hello, old Meme! So Glad to see ye!
Apple Computer: Proudly Going Out of Business for over FORTY Years!!!
I don't think we even got into the differences between 1-bit (like SACD uses) and multibit D/As. They both have their pluses and minuses (sorry!); but if you crank the sample-rate of the single-bit (Delta-Sigma) converters up high enough, they are essentially the same (until you try to start EDITING in the Digital Domain. But that's another story!).
But I agree: The "Perfect Copy" ONLY applies to Sine Waves, and is ONLY in theory, depending on how "close" you want to look...
No argument here. I personally prefer the sound of a good multibit DA for 16/44 but find delta sigma better for hi-def 24/96 and above. My budget certainly factors in as well........
I hear you (no pun!) on that last point!!!
The settling-times for mulitbit DACs and the follower-amps start to get in the way with higher sampling rates, especially if the multibit DAC system is doing "oversampling", in an attempt to get the Brickwall filter up into the "Dog-Hearing" region!
But with the Delta-Sigma D/As, the downstream stuff is only taxed hard if you are playing-back square/pulse waves.
But I'm talking about the DAC chip itself; not all the stuff around it that audiopiles lump together and call a "DAC".
Burr-Brown, ESS, Wolfson and many others make DAC chips, often with a range of quality and price. DAC device makers take those chips and add their own filters, output stages, etc. People pay huge dollars for hand trimmed discrete resistor ladder DACs. I understand the theory behind digital sampling, but the actual functional implementations of that yield vastly different analog waveforms in the real world.
People pay a lot of money for all sorts of Tomfoolery, especially when it comes to audio.
A DAC made out of discrete resistors, "hand trimmed" or not, is going to be REALLY shitty compared to a nice, IC DAC (which, BTW, ALSO has a "hand trimmed" resistor-ladder); because of the extra inductance caused by the comparatively-miles-long resistor leads (even with SMT resistors), and the discrete FETs (and THEIR miles-long leads!) used to switch them, and the discrete comparators (and THEIR miles-long leads!!!!).
Sorry. There is just a LOT of "Shit" that gets sold to a LOT of "golden ears" for a LOT of money.
Give me a nice, laser-trimmed B-B IC DAC *CHIP* any day over THAT nonsense!
The DAC doesn't "recreate the original signal". The DAC puts out Discrete STEPS (despite what the video claimed)
If you use a DAC that creates discrete steps, and feed the output through a perfect 0-22kHz lowpass filter, you get the original signal back.
Because it is impossible to create such perfect filter, a common method is to convert the 44 kHz sample rate to a much higher one, say 1 MHz. Feed that through a DAC, and then use a much simpler lowpass filter to get rid of anything above 500 kHz.
As far as higher harmonics: if you can't hear a pure sine at 30 kHz, you cannot hear the harmonics of a 15 kHz fundamental either.
You may not be able to hear those harmonics; but you sure as HELL can hear the DIFFERENCE frequencies created by the essentially "Heterodyning" (multiplication) of the Sample Frequency and the "Modulation" Frequency. THAT's what I am attempting to describe.
What the Video's problem is, is that it didn't show the Spectrum BELOW the fundamental. THAT's where the REALLY Ugly stuff happens!
I've got a fairly nice Oppo DVD/CD/DVD-A/SACD/Wax Cylinder player, and there are some CD recordings where an extended tambourine shake sounds like it has bees buzzing beneath the intended signal.
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The controller usually does long before the flash runs out of rewrite cycles and spare sectors. Sometimes it dies completely, sometimes the metadata like block rewrite counts and logical mapping gets corrupted. Depending on how shit the firmware is corruption can be fatal or at best let you recover some data.
It's also kind of a bugger if your motherboard dies for some other reason and you want to recover your data.
So, if the on-board SSD controller dies, or the SSD's block mapping gets corrupted on a REMOVABLE SSD, isn't THAT data JUST as "gone" (and the computer JUST as un-bootable!) as it would be with a SOLDERED SSD?
So, in either case, you can only HOPE your BACKUPS (you DO have BACKUPS, don't you?) are complete, up-to-date and READABLE. And, other than the difference between ordering a replacement SSD, reinstalling it, vs. cycling your computer through a Repair Depot, the "fix" is the same: Restore your computer from a BACKUP.
And, since Apple makes having Backups about as drop-dead-simple as they can be, any Mac User who DOESN'T have an up-to-date Time Machine Backup of their DESKTOP Mac, CERTAINLY doesn't get to whine about Data Loss.
I have restored two Macs using Time Machine Backups (actually Restored one after an HDD swap, and used a Time Machine BU to Migrate an older iMac (FIVE Generations of OS-OLD!) to a brand-new iMac (Snow Leopard to High Sierra)), and in BOTH cases, it was literally a one or two-click operation, with 100% "fidelity" of Restoration. In fact, the migration was actually performed by the 86-year-old owner of the iMac HIMSELF, with VERY MINIMAL "handholding" over the phone by me. Doesn't get much simpler than THAT!!!
Since the chip enumeration is likely NEVER ( or hardly ever) rewritten, those locations in SSD will also likely not "wear out" for many DECADES. Even the oft-rewritten portions of a modern SSD are unlikely to "wear out" for over 30 years; FAR longer than almost anybody would be running the same computer.
They can still outright fail though, it's happened to me. And of all the things soldered into an iMac, I'd consider it the most high risk item. But we had this argument 20 years ago about why would anyone buy an AIO over a desktop with an external screen, where you can upgrade one or the other and replace just one if the other breaks. To technical people this was absurd, but the customers didn't care as long as it looked pretty. And that's when they figured most people don't care about these things so let's just solder it down and glue it shut, sockets and connectors are for nerds.
Offer people a "warranty" which is basically to clone it in a new device and recycle the broken one and most don't care that it's essentially irreparable. Until they're stuck with an out of warranty paperweight, but then they're looking at features and price right now. That they'll be stuck in the same position some years down the road, well let's just kick that can ahead of us. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. Long term planning is where to go on vacation next year. How you'll repair you iMac in five years? Not even on the horizon...
Of course, you're one of those people who turns around and argues that people can repair their own iPhones, even though 90% of the world's population couldn't successfully effect a repair on ANY electronic assembly, let alone one with almost exclusively SMT components, including those with fine-pitch leads, or even NO real exposed leads (BGA, QFN, etc).
So which is it? People can repair modern SMT-based electronic assemblies, or not? Because, it is no harder to access the innards of a modern iMac (heat gun, spudger, cutters) than it is to access in innards of ANY modern smartphone and many laptops (heat gun, spudger, cutters).
And considering the fact that the vast majority of computer owners NEVER upgrade their computer's internals, even when they ARE easily accessible and replaceable, the "but it's SOLDERED!" is a pretty weak argument overall.
As for me, I have been an embedded systems designer/developer for several decades, and have built-up many of my own SMT designs, and, at certain times in my life, I have also been an electronic repair technician (bench tech). But when I want my phone worked on, I take it to those who do that every day. And I don't own a computer with a soldered-in SSD or RAM; but if I did, I would also take that to someone who works on those products every single day.
Experience and knowledge also includes the experience and knowledge to know when you DON'T have the specialized skills and equipment to effect a successful repair, and should take your device to those who do.
To use a car analogy: I can fix many things on my car; but I would never attempt to rebuild its automatic transmission, even though it is completely "repairable" by the standards set forth by the Parent.
Oh, yeah, and everything is soldered to the motherboard. RAM, CPU, GPU, SSD, everything. And guess what? When the SSD fails (which it will eventually), it will prevent the machine from booting (even from an external drive). You read that right- the machine is literally tied to the SSD, and if it can't enumerate the chipset, then the system will refuse to boot from anything.
Since the chip enumeration is likely NEVER ( or hardly ever) rewritten, those locations in SSD will also likely not "wear out" for many DECADES.
Even the oft-rewritten portions of a modern SSD are unlikely to "wear out" for over 30 years; FAR longer than almost anybody would be running the same computer.
In all seriousness, I've been buying their laptops for over a decade, and I have to tell you that they are now, suddenly, crap. If you've never tried typing on a new Macbook Pro keyboard (the ones in question) I encourage to try one out at an Apple store. It is *literally* like typing on a package of chicklets. They do this big sell job on you about how revolutionary the keys are now, but they don't move at all (well, not much anyway). If you think that the feeling of touch typing on your smartphone's screen is revolutionary, then you'll probably love them. If you still prefer buckling springs on your desktop keyboard then this is about as far away as you could possibly get from that.
I just had a go on a new Thinkpad and Lenovo seems to be going in the other direction - trying to get more travel in their keys. I don't know what Apple is smoking but they're about to throw away a very nice business. It used to be that the best Windows laptop you could buy was an Apple, now there is no way that would be true.
You realize, of course, that the farther the key-travel, the more TIME and EFFORT is required to type on it.
Now of course it isn't like hauling a stone up a hill; but it all adds up. That's why the people who take a week or so and get used to the new keyboard design almost universally say "I can type much faster and more accurately on this keyboard..."
I just wish they would release iOS developers from having to buy into the Apple Mac club. It's not like developers type a lot or anything.
Go get another career, already! That's ALL you bitch about.
I'll even go so far as to say this: My work gave me a 13" MacBook Pro from 2017, with the Touchstrip, and I really like the keyboard. I made a lot of typos at first because of the extremely low-profile design, but now I can type fast as hell on it. I've never had any keys mysteriously stop working or anything of the kind. And I've never heard any complaints from my coworkers about that, either. If they don't like it, it's just because they don't like how it feels.
Thats like all the people like fluffernutter, above, who don't know how to treat a cable, and then complain "I've gone through |x| number of these power cords in |y| months!" When I have NEVER had a failure of either an Apple power adapter nor its cable.
They will just laugh and tell you to buy the "new new" macbook "pro" at the next WWDC with still no 32GB RAM.
This post typed on a 32GB RAM Windows 10 laptop with USB-A ports, ethernet port and fixable keyboard.
...and two whole hours of battery life!
Stolen that Keyboard Design from Xerox as well :-D
I'm sure you'd want a Laptop with the Lisa's Keyboard!
http://www.mac-history.net/app...
because we don't listen to sine waves, generally.
Yes we do.
Because there isn't anything else!
All waveforms are combinations of sine waves.
Congratulations. You just established yourself as a total ignoramus of wave physics.
Of COURSE I know that there are nothing but sine-waves. When you start doing FFTs on stuff you can plainly see that.
BUT, you also know what I MEANT.
And you also know that the sine-waves representing the upper harmonics of "tone-burst" sources like Cymbals and other "metallics" go WAY beyond that convenient 20 kHz (or 22 kHz, if you want to be pedantic), and that when you start SAMPLING those sine-waves, some fugly stuff starts to happen when you try and reconstruct the result.
Apple sold almost exactly the same number of phones as last year. Unless you think they can keep increasing the price of their phones or somehow makeup for the loss of unit growth by selling billions in services then the profit growth for the company is nearing its end.
Ah! Hello, old Meme! So Glad to see ye!
Apple Computer: Proudly Going Out of Business for over FORTY Years!!!
Ah, only in the head of an apple addict does profit growth nearing end equal going out of business. Strawman much?
And only in the head of an Apple Hater does the richest (or one of the richest) companies on Earth have a "Profitability" problem.
Ridiculous much?
Yeah, the sunk cost fallacy coupled with locked in syndrome will do that.
Riiiiight. Keep telling yourself that.
<quote>
<p>2. Apple's notch is not "Ridiculous"; because it is there for a purpose. what is TRULY "Ridiculous", however, is all the Android phones that slavishly COPIED Apple (yet again!) and their "Ridiculous" Notch, <i>even though they don't actually NEED it!</i></p></quote>
The first phone with a notch was..... an Android phone: the Essential Phone was announced in May 2017, a few months before the X.
So, that just begs the question: Why is the "Notch" ONLY "Ridiculous" when Apple uses it?
Why are you lying?
1. The S9+ 64GB model is 888EUR, the iPhone X 64GB is 1056EUR a difference of 168EUR close to $200USD from Vodaphone. The price gap is the same from electronics stores. From the electronics stores the S9+ 256GB model is 1049EUR vs the iPhone X 256GB being 1319EUR, a difference of 270EUR!
But that's just EU. I hear you man! The S9+ 64GB is $799 in the US, the iPhone X 64GB is $999 a difference of $200USD
2. Ridiculous is in the eye of the beholder. What is not is calling it "Apple's Notch". It's a "notch" period. It is ridiculous on the iPhone X, and it was ridiculous on the 2 android phones which introduced BEFORE Apple copied it. But it's amazing that Apple "needs" the ridiculous piece of shit while Android doesn't. You just gave props to Android. Bad FakeTimCook, Bad.
3. No Android phone on the market is banned from airplanes. There were phones that were recalled in a panic resulting in users not only being $0 out of pocket, but actually getting a significant discount on a replacement phone. All Apple users get is a middle finger, and they LOVE IT!
1. I'm not lying. I'm talking MSRP. Not some Carrier's LOSS-LEADER or "Special Pricing" Pricing!
2. Can you express that thought in a COHERENT fashion? You flip-flopped the "blame" at LEAST twice! Oh, and BTW, the new "Vivo X21" with INTEGRATED FINGERPRINT SENSOR, ALSO has the "Notch". So now it's at least THREE (and one (Vivo) that REALLY doesn't "need" it!).
3. The "Panic" was pretty damned realistic, when there is VIDEO of a phone CATCHING ON FIRE ON A PLANE!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Oh, and apparently, that wasn't the FIRST TIME:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That's actually a good question. Maybe we should see those same dire predictions for those brands, if not more dire. After all, the smartphone industry as a whole is growing, and if a company's sales are flat, that means they're losing market share. The question then becomes who they are losing market share to, and what impact that will have on their long-term business prospects.
For Apple, as long as people who buy iPhones tend to spend more money on apps and in-app purchases than the average Android user, losing a little market share won't hurt that much. For an Android vendor, losing a little market share could be the first step towards losing a *lot* of market share.
I think the recipient this past year of MOST of the "lost sales" was Oppo. Don't know why; but if their phones are as good as their Optical Disc players, I can understand to some extent.
Of course, they are still that Android horseshit; but for SOME reason, some people actually LIKE that INSECURE crap...
It may not be ridiculous, but I was watching that keynote in a room full of Apple fans, and the number of "what the f**k" reactions was telling. The word that kept coming up over and over was "ugly".
What was ridiculous was not the notch so much as the fact that the product seemed to have clearly been rushed to market to hit a deadline. They shipped with that ugly notch because they couldn't get the fingerprint-through-the-screen tech in quantities soon enough, and if they had waited just a few months, they could have shipped the product they really wanted to ship, rather than watching as the rest of the industry made it happen a few months later.
And I say that as somebody who has used Apple hardware almost exclusively since the mid-1980s. If S.J. (requiescat in pace) were still alive and running things, I'm absolutely certain that he would have thrown it across the room and said, "This is the ugliest f**king piece of s**t I've ever seen. We're not shipping it until you find a way to get rid of that f**king notch," except that he probably would have used a greater number and variety of swear words.
Just saying.
I agree that Fixed "Release Schedules" are the antithesis of good products. Everyone does it to some extent; but when it becomes the MAIN driving-force in determining when a product is "done", that is almost never a good thing.
Having said that, Apple really had no idea how quickly the "Fingerprint through Display" would get working reliably (wasn't the issue a matter of "yield"?); so at some point (and that "point" is WAY far back in time, when you are talking to a Contract Manufacturer with their own Logistics Chain), you just have to "fish or cut bait".
So, you MIGHT want to think about the position that Apple was in. The "optics" of SIGNIFICANTLY delaying a product with as much attention paid to it as the iPhone has, makes that less and less desirable, and at some point, no amount of swearing, "throwing things against the wall, firing and other counter-productive histrionics (S.J. RIP!) can help to change the course of things.
I note, BTW, that NO ONE but "Vivo" has YET to display a (supposedly) PRODUCTION-READY Fingerprint-through-Display solution (and the announcement of Production is just NOW, at the time of this Posting, only 6 hours old). So how long should Apple have waited? Can you IMAGINE the hand-wringing and unmitigated Apple Hate that would have been spewed-out on the intarwebs since last SEPTEMBER if Apple had delayed the iPhone X until MAY?!?
BTW, notice that the through-display Fingerprint Sensing Vivo X21 ACTUALLY HAS APPLE'S "RIDICULOUS" NOTCH?!?
https://www.cnet.com/news/vivo...
WTF is THAT for?!?
I rest my case.
Apple sold almost exactly the same number of phones as last year.
So did Samsung, LG, and HTC. Yet, for some reason, you don't have the same dire predictions for those brands.
I Wonder why...
> the flagship iPhone X didn't perform as well as some anticipated
iPhone X failure - with it's price tag and ridiculous notch is probably what Apple is going to tweak next. Their expected "new" line of *cheaper* phones, support contracts and accessories (like the Airpod) will help Apple continue to fleece their customers. Battery issues will also help drive up sales...
1. Samsung's flagship phone is priced within $50 of the iPhone X.
2. Apple's notch is not "Ridiculous"; because it is there for a purpose. what is TRULY "Ridiculous", however, is all the Android phones that slavishly COPIED Apple (yet again!) and their "Ridiculous" Notch, even though they don't actually NEED it!
3. Say what you will about Apple's battery performance; but at least they never got their battery-operated products banned from airplanes...
with an edge to edge screen + a larger edge to edge screen device
If results are any indication, they need to come out with a model with an even bigger notch. And a negative headphone jack. Meaning, a phone with a protuberance that sticks out of the side of the case a little about the size of a 3.5mm plug and pokes you in the thigh if you have the phone in your pocket. To remind you how brave you were to choose a phone without a headphone jack.
Also, more dongles. Maybe some wireless dongles this time. A bluetooth home button would be nice.
Why don't you take your tired Meme and go home?
The People are voting with their wallets. Over 60 BEELION Votes, in fact!
Apple sold almost exactly the same number of phones as last year. Unless you think they can keep increasing the price of their phones or somehow makeup for the loss of unit growth by selling billions in services then the profit growth for the company is nearing its end.
Ah! Hello, old Meme! So Glad to see ye!
Apple Computer: Proudly Going Out of Business for over FORTY Years!!!
Ha ha! You morons fall for trumped-up reports of Apple sales declines like EVERY QUARTER so the short sellers can cash in.
The amusing thing is, the Apple Haters of Slashdot act as a tool of the wealthy elite.
Precisely!
'Anally attentive' tends to have a very different meaning, but if you prefer that then to each his own I suppose! ;-)
I don't know; but from here, it sure looks like it is you that keeps mentioning anuses...
So, those who prefer Apple products are more discerning? Is that what you are trying to say? Why, Thank You for the compliment!
No, I think "anally retentive" would be a more accurate summation, but you are welcome.
One man's Attentive is another man's Retentive.
I don't think we even got into the differences between 1-bit (like SACD uses) and multibit D/As. They both have their pluses and minuses (sorry!); but if you crank the sample-rate of the single-bit (Delta-Sigma) converters up high enough, they are essentially the same (until you try to start EDITING in the Digital Domain. But that's another story!).
But I agree: The "Perfect Copy" ONLY applies to Sine Waves, and is ONLY in theory, depending on how "close" you want to look...
No argument here. I personally prefer the sound of a good multibit DA for 16/44 but find delta sigma better for hi-def 24/96 and above. My budget certainly factors in as well........
I hear you (no pun!) on that last point!!!
The settling-times for mulitbit DACs and the follower-amps start to get in the way with higher sampling rates, especially if the multibit DAC system is doing "oversampling", in an attempt to get the Brickwall filter up into the "Dog-Hearing" region!
But with the Delta-Sigma D/As, the downstream stuff is only taxed hard if you are playing-back square/pulse waves.
But I'm talking about the DAC chip itself; not all the stuff around it that audiopiles lump together and call a "DAC".
Burr-Brown, ESS, Wolfson and many others make DAC chips, often with a range of quality and price. DAC device makers take those chips and add their own filters, output stages, etc. People pay huge dollars for hand trimmed discrete resistor ladder DACs. I understand the theory behind digital sampling, but the actual functional implementations of that yield vastly different analog waveforms in the real world.
People pay a lot of money for all sorts of Tomfoolery, especially when it comes to audio.
A DAC made out of discrete resistors, "hand trimmed" or not, is going to be REALLY shitty compared to a nice, IC DAC (which, BTW, ALSO has a "hand trimmed" resistor-ladder); because of the extra inductance caused by the comparatively-miles-long resistor leads (even with SMT resistors), and the discrete FETs (and THEIR miles-long leads!) used to switch them, and the discrete comparators (and THEIR miles-long leads!!!!).
Sorry. There is just a LOT of "Shit" that gets sold to a LOT of "golden ears" for a LOT of money.
Give me a nice, laser-trimmed B-B IC DAC *CHIP* any day over THAT nonsense!
The DAC doesn't "recreate the original signal". The DAC puts out Discrete STEPS (despite what the video claimed)
If you use a DAC that creates discrete steps, and feed the output through a perfect 0-22kHz lowpass filter, you get the original signal back.
Because it is impossible to create such perfect filter, a common method is to convert the 44 kHz sample rate to a much higher one, say 1 MHz. Feed that through a DAC, and then use a much simpler lowpass filter to get rid of anything above 500 kHz.
As far as higher harmonics: if you can't hear a pure sine at 30 kHz, you cannot hear the harmonics of a 15 kHz fundamental either.
You may not be able to hear those harmonics; but you sure as HELL can hear the DIFFERENCE frequencies created by the essentially "Heterodyning" (multiplication) of the Sample Frequency and the "Modulation" Frequency. THAT's what I am attempting to describe.
What the Video's problem is, is that it didn't show the Spectrum BELOW the fundamental. THAT's where the REALLY Ugly stuff happens!
I've got a fairly nice Oppo DVD/CD/DVD-A/SACD/Wax Cylinder player, and there are some CD recordings where an extended tambourine shake sounds like it has bees buzzing beneath the intended signal.