Why does iOS and Apple continue to "innovate" by copying features standard in the OS and hardware for years in the Android world? Courage? Bottom line: iOS will end up in single digit territory, and apps will get released as 2nd tier - if ever - simply because market share doesn't exist.
It's a technologically better form of money, far more efficient for moving large sums across borders.
Really? What, a 3% surcharge (1.5% on each end) is good? I pay $15 flat rate for a wire transfer, no limit. Did one yesterday to a vendor, $380,000 for $15. I guess Bitcoin charging $12,000 would be better than $15?
You forgot about 100% traceable transactions for your entire wallet (identify you with one transaction, and the public record shows ALL your transactions you ever made), to essentially eliminate privacy...
Because iAds will be so much more shiny than regular ads! This is a move to eliminate anyone else from tracking/advertising to you - so Apple can control that space and do the same. Oh, and sell that information back to the people who originally wanted it via current standards.
And yet, Android keeps walking away from iOS in terms of marketshare - US and the world. It's almost like raw CPU speed doesn't matter nearly as much as people try to infer that it does. Memory, storage, ease-of-use, apps, etc. seem to drive market share - and it's consistently moving towards Android. Another year or two and iOS will be in the single digits of market share and essentially irrelevant. Sure, maybe the fastest processor - but so what?
MSRP is $200. Dealer/retailer pays $120. Distributor pays $80. Apple makes a typical 4-5X markup, not 12X as intended. There are more steps in the chain than most expect... For most CE products, you can assume a 10-12X markup between COGM (not COGS which would be higher than COGM) and MSRP.
I can walk into my local grocery store (Albertson's, Von's, Ralph's), plunk down $500 cash and walk out with a prepaid VISA card that can be used online. Zero trace to me - it was a cash purchase. Done. Online Crypto isn't close to anonymous or less trackable - in fact, that's the whole point of blockchain: EVERY transaction is trackable and your entire history is recorded on purpose.
Currency is useful as a means of decoupling barter from direct person-to-person exchange. I don't have to go to a dairy farmer, a butcher, a corn farmer, a winery, and the newspaper printer - I can go to the local Von's and buy everything there. I give them paper to procure goods; they give some of that paper to others for goods, and so on. Currency is great because it's universally accepted at a recognized value.
Bitcoin? Where the price can bump 20% in a matter of a few days (and plunge by that too) is terrible, because that same dairy farmer couldn't quote a price and be relatively certain the quote can last for more than a few hours. Stability is crucial - and having a currency that is recognized by Governments as legal tender (meaning - it can be legally used to pay off debts and contracts) is crucial. Bitcoin is neither stable nor legal tender. Meaning - great for speculation, but pretty poor for basing an economy upon.
There will always be transactions that people want to hide from governments.
And that is where blockchain currencies completely fail. Yes, your blockchain can be anonymous - but if it is tied to you, then EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION in that blockchain is also tied to you. With cash, if they tie one transaction to you - the others are still anonymous. Cryptocurrencies are 100% traceable and indentifiable to a single user; once you know who that user is, you know everything they've ever done with their blockchain.
Cash is still king for anonymity, as it requires ZERO identification for any transaction and each transaction is completely decoupled for every other transaction. Buy illicit drugs with your blockchain? Make one connection to you, and I now know you purchased Oxycontin 43 times over the last 3 years. Buy with cash? I get you for one purchase - and don't know about the other 42.
Nope. I am a realist that realizes putting big efforts into 5% of the problem tends to allow a person to overlook 95% of the problem. You want to address China's pollution problem? Start with industrial waste and burning of coal - that will address 95% of it right there. But since it's "sexy" to talk about electric cars in the US and "Big Oil" is evil, we will all talk about electrifying cars and commend the Chinese for using an eyedropper on the candle in the room and ignore the inferno all around them...
Per NOAA, Irma was category 3 when it made landfall (120 MPH sustained winds). So I guess we can say that 2017's dual cat 4s really didn't happen, did they?
Hurricane Dennis was 150 MPH. Katrina was 175 MPH. Rita was 180 MPH. And Wilma was 185 MPH. Yet those were all category 3 - not the category 4 of Harvey at 130 MPH. Irma did reach Wilma-speeds though of 185 - yet Irma is a cat 4 and Wilma was a cat 3... Go figure! It's almost like someone wants to mislead the public...
Right here, saying it was terrible that Musk (electrons be unto His name) chose Nevada over California because he would bypass the onerous and stifling regulatory world of California. I can provide a few dozen other links to both right and left groups that opposed the financial giveaways and the environmental damage that the gigafactory represented to these groups...
China already makes about 60% of ALL lithium batteries in the world; sure, Musk (electrons be unto His name) is hyping the West with a big factory, but in terms of output? He'll be way down the list. One big facility versus dozens of nearly-as-big facilities - I know which one is a better, safer, more economical supply chain!
Most of China's pollution problem comes from non-vehicular sources. Making electric cars isn't going to solve that... Heck, half of Beijing's famous smog problem is because of the 'Yellow Dust' that blows over from Mongolia, coming out of the deserts just 100 km West of Beijing.
Slashdot Mirror
Tie that name to a number ONE TIME, and it's tied for all past and all future transactions too. Cash? You're tied for ONE transaction only.
Who knew that consumers actually prefer choice?
Why does iOS and Apple continue to "innovate" by copying features standard in the OS and hardware for years in the Android world? Courage? Bottom line: iOS will end up in single digit territory, and apps will get released as 2nd tier - if ever - simply because market share doesn't exist.
It's a technologically better form of money, far more efficient for moving large sums across borders.
Really? What, a 3% surcharge (1.5% on each end) is good? I pay $15 flat rate for a wire transfer, no limit. Did one yesterday to a vendor, $380,000 for $15. I guess Bitcoin charging $12,000 would be better than $15?
You forgot about 100% traceable transactions for your entire wallet (identify you with one transaction, and the public record shows ALL your transactions you ever made), to essentially eliminate privacy...
Because iAds will be so much more shiny than regular ads! This is a move to eliminate anyone else from tracking/advertising to you - so Apple can control that space and do the same. Oh, and sell that information back to the people who originally wanted it via current standards.
And yet, Android keeps walking away from iOS in terms of marketshare - US and the world. It's almost like raw CPU speed doesn't matter nearly as much as people try to infer that it does. Memory, storage, ease-of-use, apps, etc. seem to drive market share - and it's consistently moving towards Android. Another year or two and iOS will be in the single digits of market share and essentially irrelevant. Sure, maybe the fastest processor - but so what?
MSRP is $200. Dealer/retailer pays $120. Distributor pays $80. Apple makes a typical 4-5X markup, not 12X as intended. There are more steps in the chain than most expect... For most CE products, you can assume a 10-12X markup between COGM (not COGS which would be higher than COGM) and MSRP.
Star Wars Episode IX: Attack of the Lens Flare
I can walk into my local grocery store (Albertson's, Von's, Ralph's), plunk down $500 cash and walk out with a prepaid VISA card that can be used online. Zero trace to me - it was a cash purchase. Done. Online Crypto isn't close to anonymous or less trackable - in fact, that's the whole point of blockchain: EVERY transaction is trackable and your entire history is recorded on purpose.
Bitcoin? I keep hearing how it's going to rise another 50% every month forever...
When both Snopes and Politfact say that the lobster with the EBT card is true, you can be pretty sure it's true...
Snopes is wrong. Trading EBT cards for drugs is a consistent problem.
Stability of Bitcoin? I can't see where it was stable...
Currency is useful as a means of decoupling barter from direct person-to-person exchange. I don't have to go to a dairy farmer, a butcher, a corn farmer, a winery, and the newspaper printer - I can go to the local Von's and buy everything there. I give them paper to procure goods; they give some of that paper to others for goods, and so on. Currency is great because it's universally accepted at a recognized value.
Bitcoin? Where the price can bump 20% in a matter of a few days (and plunge by that too) is terrible, because that same dairy farmer couldn't quote a price and be relatively certain the quote can last for more than a few hours. Stability is crucial - and having a currency that is recognized by Governments as legal tender (meaning - it can be legally used to pay off debts and contracts) is crucial. Bitcoin is neither stable nor legal tender. Meaning - great for speculation, but pretty poor for basing an economy upon.
There will always be transactions that people want to hide from governments.
And that is where blockchain currencies completely fail. Yes, your blockchain can be anonymous - but if it is tied to you, then EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION in that blockchain is also tied to you. With cash, if they tie one transaction to you - the others are still anonymous. Cryptocurrencies are 100% traceable and indentifiable to a single user; once you know who that user is, you know everything they've ever done with their blockchain.
Cash is still king for anonymity, as it requires ZERO identification for any transaction and each transaction is completely decoupled for every other transaction. Buy illicit drugs with your blockchain? Make one connection to you, and I now know you purchased Oxycontin 43 times over the last 3 years. Buy with cash? I get you for one purchase - and don't know about the other 42.
Check my tagline - then educate yourself about slavery in America. And then look where it still happens today.
Nope. I am a realist that realizes putting big efforts into 5% of the problem tends to allow a person to overlook 95% of the problem. You want to address China's pollution problem? Start with industrial waste and burning of coal - that will address 95% of it right there. But since it's "sexy" to talk about electric cars in the US and "Big Oil" is evil, we will all talk about electrifying cars and commend the Chinese for using an eyedropper on the candle in the room and ignore the inferno all around them...
Per NOAA, Irma was category 3 when it made landfall (120 MPH sustained winds). So I guess we can say that 2017's dual cat 4s really didn't happen, did they?
Hurricane Dennis was 150 MPH. Katrina was 175 MPH. Rita was 180 MPH. And Wilma was 185 MPH. Yet those were all category 3 - not the category 4 of Harvey at 130 MPH. Irma did reach Wilma-speeds though of 185 - yet Irma is a cat 4 and Wilma was a cat 3... Go figure! It's almost like someone wants to mislead the public...
Standard units, dammit! How many libraries of Congress would that light, and how many football fields of solar panels would it take?
When mom has a Pacer, a 12 passenger van is a long kind of bus...
Right here, saying it was terrible that Musk (electrons be unto His name) chose Nevada over California because he would bypass the onerous and stifling regulatory world of California. I can provide a few dozen other links to both right and left groups that opposed the financial giveaways and the environmental damage that the gigafactory represented to these groups...
China already makes about 60% of ALL lithium batteries in the world; sure, Musk (electrons be unto His name) is hyping the West with a big factory, but in terms of output? He'll be way down the list. One big facility versus dozens of nearly-as-big facilities - I know which one is a better, safer, more economical supply chain!
Most of China's pollution problem comes from non-vehicular sources. Making electric cars isn't going to solve that... Heck, half of Beijing's famous smog problem is because of the 'Yellow Dust' that blows over from Mongolia, coming out of the deserts just 100 km West of Beijing.