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Apple appears to be coming to some sort of head at this point. This is speaking as someone heavily invested in Apple products and shares. Their iPhones have re

Apple appears to be coming to some sort of head at this point. This is speaking as someone heavily invested in Apple products and shares. Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They are too damn expensive, with nothing to justify their costs. I am one of the morons who upgraded to the XS, but only because I needed the 512GB storage. If not for the increased storage needs, I wouldn't have upgraded and I know for a fact there is really no difference after using it for several months. I have no plans on updating to the next one, the first time since iPhone 3. MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. Apple software is terrible. iTunes is still the worst piece of software that I'm forced to use. The bugs they've had are inexcusable. Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, they are wasting it on stock buybacks. Until their revenues decrease year-over-year they won't change their ways. To put it bluntly, Apple is extremely, extremely arrogant and I hope they will pay their price in the next few years. It feels like all product lines are either too expensive and/or worse quality than even a few years previous. Many people unhappy or unimpressed with their products, but they don't give a damn.

mk89 8y ago
>Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, Any numbers saying that they earn just an average salary? Also, why would the touchbar be an engineering issue? Some people like it. (I don't) I do understand your concerns and I agree with some of them, I just don't believe it's because they pay their engineers less, or they are not good enough. Some decisions come from top management. If there is only capacity to fix 10 bugs, well, that's it. I don't even see this large amount of features delivered on a monthly basis, so I assume their plan is really to invest just on their iPhones and hardware, maybe.
- adrianhel 8y ago
  The engineering issue is a lack of accidental touch sensing. Mac did this with the caps lock key (which is arguably easier to implement). The feature feels half baked.
  - interpol_p 8y ago
    I'd argue that the Touch Bar implementation is fully baked but utterly useless. There's a ton of engineering and polish that went into that feature — from the way it can securely render the price of a purchase through Apple Pay to the way it communicates and transfers its frame buffer, to the UI components it can smoothly display. It's just a pity I never actually want to use it.
threeseed 8y ago
You definitely ticked all the cliches. Complains about: 1) Apple products being expensive but buys the most expensive one. 2) Being forced to use iTunes even though it hasn't been needed for any reason for quite some time. 3) Quality getting progressively worse based purely on anecdotes. And of course the "I own Apple products and shares therefore my opinion is important" line. Always a classic.
- jedberg 8y ago
  I just had to use ITunes the other day. It’s the only way to load an ipsw onto an iPhone.
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    I use it all the time, it's really not that bad.
  - fingerlocks 8y ago
    You can also use Xcode. Or at least you could a few years ago.
  - dwaite 8y ago
    You can do it with Xcode by opening the devices and simulators window.
- ProfessorLayton 8y ago
  RE 2: iTunes is the only way to get a local iPhone backup. For those who don’t care how their phone is backed up, iTunes is the only way to fully backup their phone at all without paying for iCloud. iTunes is the only way I can listen to Apple Music on my Mac. iTunes is the only way I can create smart music playlists for my phone (Which is ridiculous, but I digress) I can’t wait until I’m not forced to use iTunes.
  - dwaite 8y ago
    > For those who don’t care how their phone is backed up, iTunes is the only way to fully backup their phone at all without paying for iCloud. I'm unclear by this statement. iTunes backups are technically a more 'full' backup than the iCloud ones, because iCloud will avoid caches, files marked as not-to-backup, and will not back up files which are part of app packages (and can just be downloaded again). But you can do an iCloud backup without paying a cent - you'll just hit a storage limit with sufficient data/devices and have to start paying for additional storage. > iTunes is the only way I can listen to Apple Music on my Mac. There was an article here the other day about http://musi.sh http://musi.sh > I can’t wait until I’m not forced to use iTunes. I thought the hold-up was that it was cross platform between Mac and Windows - but the Win 10 version is still the same old crap.
varlogix 8y ago
Couldn't agree more. I am a pretty big Apple user (mac/iphone/ipad), but their audacity (shamelessness?) with the recent pricing is breathtaking. They will probably fix the audio issue and use the opportunity to charge $500 more for the new improved Macbooks.
savanaly 8y ago
>Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages... If that sentence caught anyone else's eye, know that it caught mine too and I did a quick sanity check. [0] It does seem that Apple is falling a bit short of other top companies, especially for the upper levels. [0] https://www.levels.fyi/SE/Google/Facebook/Apple https://www.levels.fyi/SE/Google/Facebook/Apple
- jedberg 8y ago
  Anecdotally, everyone I know who works for Apple is paid below market rate. They justify it by reminding you that “you get to be part of the mission”. I know one guy making market and he’s in the video streaming product group.
  - bartread 8y ago
    > They justify it by reminding you that “you get to be part of the mission”. That reminds me of the post from a few days ago on HN: "#### you: pay me!" I think there comes a point in many (and I'd hope all, but I don't think it's true) peoples' careers where they realise that, in business, money talks and everything else is sadly just chatter.
    - Jwarder 8y ago
      Your attitude seems common, but I'm quite curious just how common it is. Personally I totally happy with my current income and don't have any real interest in making more. I can pay my bills, buy anything that catches my eye, max out my 401k, travel to visit family. I don't turn down raises or bonuses, it is nice to have a little bit extra in case of emergencies. But an extra dollar doesn't mean much compared to the personal satisfaction of working on good projects.
      - sinatra 8y ago
        Just curious. Have you done a serious analysis of how much you’ll need in your retirement savings to be able to live a comfortable life when you’re no longer earning (due to lack of desire to work or lack of opportunities to work)? Say you live till you’re 90. I’m asking because many times people think about the present and say they don’t need any more money, but don’t think about the future when they won’t be able to earn.
viburnum 8y ago
Worse than 2012 MacBooks.
std_throwawayay 8y ago
> MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. For me, the keyboard kills it. It feels cheap. It almost feels like there's no keys at all like the glass surface that is rumored to come. I'm sure that's great for people who are media consumers but producers of media and software often like to have a keyboard. To me it feels like they missed the market and try to sell products at premium price to normal customers. Also, the lack of HDMI and one USB-A port on each side would hinder my workflow.
- tobyhinloopen 8y ago
  Exactly my complaints. Awful and notoriously unreliable keyboard. The missing HDMI and USB-A are also stupid but at least it can be solved with a dock or dongle. Broken keyboard cannot be solved, and they break all the time. Lets hope the 16” 2019 will fix at least the keyboard...
  - BuildTheRobots 8y ago
    I'd suggest that "solved with a dock or a dongle" is just as awful a fix as "why not bring a usb keyboard with you".
    - philjohn 8y ago
      I always argue that Apple went with USB-C a little too early, but it IS the future. More and more monitors now support it, and a single cable to both charge your laptop, and extend your laptop to the display is a killer feature.
- dangero 8y ago
  I was afraid to buy a new Mac because of how people talk about the keyboard, but after a couple months of use I can say I actually like the new retina macbook air keyboard. I know this is anecdotal, but considering Macbook computer sales, I wonder if I’m in the majority. Yes it’s my daily driver and I create a lot of content. No finger pain. I think it helps me type faster.
lfxyz 8y ago
iTunes is terrible, but you don't have to use it – I got my MBP at Xmas 2014 and still haven't accepted the iTunes EULA.
- rusk 8y ago
  Is there an alternative tool for managing your iPhone?
  - c16 8y ago
    You dont need iTunes to manage your iphone - it's essentially it's own device. I've never synced my phone with my laptop.
    - rusk 8y ago
      So the answer is “no” then ...
      - bunnycorn 8y ago
        As bad as iTunes is, its still better than adb
        rusk 8y ago
        That’s a poor excuse EDIT I would add that at least with adb its not the only option. Android is a reasonably open and flexible and open experience and there are lots of different ways you can manage your device. The iPhone for better or worse is locked down, the least Apple could do is provide something better than the lousy piece of crap that is iTunes.
        bunnycorn 8y ago
        No, that's not. You'll need iTunes the same way as you need adb. You don't. Also, iTunes is not a "lousy piece of crap".
8fingerlouie 8y ago
When it comes to (smart)phones, you don't really have much choice. You either consent to being exploited by Google, or you pay a pound of flesh to Apple. As for the pricing of the phones, nobody is forcing you to upgrade every year. I've done that ever since the original iPhone came out, but when i bought the X, i also decided to only upgrade every 2-3 years to justify the cost. MacBooks are a sad story though. I'm "stuck" with my 13" retina with the last functional keyboard Apple made. I've tried the keyboard on the newer models (in store), and i'm not a fan.
- jamesb93 8y ago
  I don't understand what people are talking about when they say they get gouged by phones. Mine cost 180 USD in 2016. I still use it everyday and I get over 10 hours screen time. The issue is people conflate everyday devices of utility with fashion products (Apple, Google Pixel).
  - hrktb 8y ago
    To give another angle, my iPad Pro cost around 1000€. The iPhone X is about the same price. Event taking into account miniaturization, waterproofing and just “luxury” tax, it’s insane that both products cost the same when their capabilities are so wildly different. I know there are reasons (like paying licensing and cetification for the cellular stack, and pure greed), I just feel they are wrong reasons.
    - rsynnott 8y ago
      I doubt the margins on them are that different. Similar CPU, the XS has a smaller but more expensive-tech screen.
    - maeln 8y ago
      Also, and thats the main thing keeping me from having an iPhone at this point, is that, even after paying a premium price for an iPhone, you have to spend even more money due to the App Store situation. On my Android, I use a lot of open-source application that, I find, are often really the best app to do X or Y. They are also free, often without annoying advertisement, with the option to pay for a "premium" version (that usually add nothing but its to help the devs). Because most OSS devs (with the exception of a few big project like VLC) don't have the money to pay for an iPhone and/or to publish their app on the App Store, there is almost no good open-source/free application on iPhone. So not only do I have to pay a quite hefty price for a phone (which, to be fair, I find very good), but I also need to pay even more if I want to replicate the setup I have currently for free on an Android. Some application, don't even have good equivalent on iPhone. I really hope one day Apple change their policy regarding OSS and open up iPhone programming like Google did with Android.
tobylane 8y ago
China has people no longer willing to pay for iPhones. Everywhere else it's not changed much year on year. There was great demand for stock buybacks, Apple resisted for a while. I'm surprised to hear a need for 512GB storage, I'd be interested to know how that's used. The upgrade to XS is only minor from the X according to the reviews I've seen/seen summarised. A yearly upgrade isn't common, isn't their target.
- wyclif 8y ago
  And India. And the Philippines. And loads of other developing countries. Meanwhile, Apple killed the best price/value iPhone they offered, the SE. I just don't understand Apple's current product direction.
  - dwaite 8y ago
    People are buying phones less often, so Apple is trying to increase the value (and subsequent price) of new phone models to encourage upgrades and to capture more money when people do upgrade (either because third party apps now run slow on the older hardware, or their old phone broke). People don't stop buying gas when the price of gas goes up. They just conserve and figure out how to make it fit into their budget. Also, Apple isn't (and has never) been trying to target the highest end phones at developing markets. They'll target those markets with the iPhone 6 and 6s.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      That did not went well in the mid-90's if it weren't for the inverse acquision of NeXT.
- StreamBright 8y ago
  >> I'm surprised to hear a need for 512GB storage How should I store my lossless audio files then? I have a 6s and I am continuously having issues with space but I won't give up the jack port and nothing can change that. HiFi audio needs additional 10 years before it becomes viable on wireless (battery times, quality, etc.).
bad_user 8y ago
You may not upgrade to the next iPhone model, but are you going to switch to another platform? If not, then you're still in Apple's ecosystem and generating some revenue and opportunity for them, aren't you? iPhones age better than other phones. You can also get them to a service and get a batter replacement and they're like brand new after two years of use. You can't really say the same thing about the other phone makers, it depends on luck really. I've had Nexus and Samsung phones die on me after less than 2 years. This need to update your phone every year or every two years is insane, the peak of consumerism. And iPhones are now good enough that you don't have to do it. I've seen multiple people using the iPhone 6 and not upgrading to 6s, 7, 8, X or XS. I mean, as a society, shouldn't we be glad that we're no longer buying a new phone every year? Think of how much junk that generates. --- > MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. You're exaggerating. Personally I don't mind it that much. The only problem is the ESC key, otherwise I never touch typed the F keys. And I like having the fingerprint scanner. You actually haven't mentioned the problem with more recent laptops (post 2017) which is the quality of the keyboard. Mine is still working after a year, fingers crossed, but I heard you can get it replaced for free. --- > Apple software is terrible. iTunes is still the worst piece of software that I'm forced to use. The bugs they've had are inexcusable. Personally I don't use iTunes. I never understood people that do. You've also just mentioned the worst piece of software that Apple makes and it's kind of unfair because it's not representative of everything Apple makes. I also have access to laptops using Linux and Windows and for me MacBooks still have the best ecosystem. And their laptops are still the best, even if overpriced. If that weren't true, then you wouldn't see a majority of developers at software conferences with MacBooks.
- Tepix 8y ago
  The percentage of people with Macbooks at conferences has decreased a lot. It used to be >50% at the conferences i was attending. Nowadays it's more like 15%. You also see a lot of Dell XPS, Thinkpads etc.
- mihaifm 8y ago
  My Iphone 6 is still going strong after 4 years. Replaced the screen myself twice and battery once, planning to do a second battery replacement. There's no killer feature in the other models that would determine me to upgrade.
huffmsa 8y ago
iTunes appears to have stopped getting updates around 2012. The long description for podcasts appears in a tooltip bubble ~20 characters wide. It's unusable. Ive must have burnt out.
jclardy 8y ago
> I wouldn't have upgraded and I know for a fact there is really no difference after using it for several months. No difference between what? X and XS? Sure. But in the same way that there is “no difference” between 6/6s, 7/8. It’s a speed bump (which from the X isn’t really relevant unless you use your phone for everything), camera improvement, and display improvement. All things that are noticeable if you have the two phones side by side, but that you will forget about in regular use. I do agree on everything being too expensive now. All the MacBook lines are about $200 more than they should be, and the same goes for iPad. iPad now has much more amazing hardware compared to the mac lines, but it is hugely limited by its software. With Apple’s recent leadership changes I think we are going to go into another era of lower cost hardware (while still keeping the newly formed top end, like the xs max.) All while they try to find what will sustain growth in the company post-iPhone.
philjohn 8y ago
Eh, I'm in two minds about the touch bar. Once you get used to it there are SOME good uses (IntelliJ has a pretty good touch bar implementation, for example).
- 8fingerlouie 8y ago
  But still no (physical) escape button. I know regular consumers probably have no use for it, but as a die hard Vim user, it's kinda annoying.
  - adestefan 8y ago
    Ctrl-[ And turn Caps Lock into Ctrl
  - philjohn 8y ago
    I've gotten used to the non physical escape button. Took me a while, but I got there in the end.
  - chongli 8y ago
    I'm a die hard neovim user with a touch bar MacBook pro. I remapped caps lock to control and use control-] to escape in nvim. I'm used to it and it works just fine for me. Other people like to map caps lock to escape, which makes it even easier. I have even heard of people doing this that have a physical escape key on their keyboards.
    - heartbreak 8y ago
      I’ve been doing the caps->esc remap for a lot longer than I’ve had a touchbar Mac. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to reach all the way to esc - constantly - day in and day out. My pinky and wrist would hate me.
    - meestaahjoshee 8y ago
      You can have the best of both worlds - tap capslock for escape, hold for ctrl. I currently use karabiner-elements to get this functionality, it's pretty good.
matwood 8y ago
> Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They may have reached peak growth, but the numbers show that outside China (which in hindsight appears to have larger economic issues), millions of people buy iPhones. Are all the current iPhone users going to suddenly switch to Android? Very unlikely. By all accounts the XS is a great phone. If I had anything other than the X, I would have upgraded. > Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, they are wasting it on stock buybacks. You realize that Apple has so much money they can do both. This is not a binary decision. A much bigger issue for Apple is that they need more stores. They have a huge advantage over any other phone maker in that people can walk in and get service and support. The stores are so busy now, that it has become a challenge. Hopefully the departure of the head of retail shows that Apple has realized they have not grown the store base fast enough.
- redacted 8y ago
  The stores (and iMessage) get brought up a lot, but for the world outside the US they are a secondary consideration if they even factor in at all. There are more _Samsung_ stores in Dublin than Apple, and the ones we have a 3rd party 'authorised resellers' with average service at best...
  - benologist 8y ago
    Most of the US is not within range of an Apple store either.
- fauigerzigerk 8y ago
  >You realize that Apple has so much money they can do both. Not with the same dollar. We shouldn't forget what giving money back to shareholders means. It means that Apple cannot think of anything to invest that money in that's more promising than what investors can find elsewhere. You could say it's prudent and honest. Instead of wasting all that money on stuff that never yields a return they're handing it back their owners. But I still find it surprising that a company like Apple with the enormous leverage of billions of (the wealthiest) users and a brand name second to none doesn't think that it can make great things happen with that money. I don't think I'm best placed to tell them what that could be. But there are clearly some huge gaps in their strategy. For instance, they keep pushing AR, because AR is an area where latency matters so much that you need expensive devices for it. But AR would be so much more valuable in combination with all the information that only Google Maps and Google Street View has. Even more so if you think about the data that's going to be needed for (and generated by) self driving cars. I imagine it's hugely expensive to gather that information. Apple Maps is second rate. They have nothing like Street View and no self driving car project. I think owning information that makes high end devices far more useful than low end devices is exactly what Apple needs. There aren't going to be many players in that market exactly because it's so expensive. Only the biggest global tech companies can really do it. That moat will be one of the widest and deepest ever. Gaming is another area where expensive devices make a difference. Playing games is something almost everybody does on their iPhones. I find it baffling that Apple isn't one of the biggest gaming companies. Where are Apple's contributions to new user interaction paradigms? The touch bar? Is that it? Apple just isn't thinking big enough. That's why they have so much money left to pay back. Anyway, you can completely disregard _my_ ideas on what they could do with that money and still be surprised that _they_ can't think of anything.
puranjay 8y ago
And here I am switching to Mac after a lifetime on Windows. All the things you say about Apple might be true, but the alternative is substantially worse. Microsoft dropped the ball way more than Apple ever did with Windows 10. And hardware quality among laptop manufacturers is frustratingly inconsistent, even within the same brand. My last Lenovo worked great for 5 years despite being a low end machine. My much more expensive new Lenovo has had a keyboard replacement and significant performance issues in one year.
- stoolpigeon 8y ago
  This is my fear. I'm holding onto my 2015 MBP really hoping Apple starts making laptops I want again, but I don't know where else to go. My last Windows machine was a very expensive Samsung Ultrabook machine that cost much more than the equivalent Apple machine. It was a mess in terms of OS and hardware. So I feel like I'm running out of options.
  - ridgeguy 8y ago
    You're in good company in my household. We have four MBPs (2015, 2012, 2x2011). Not getting rid of them until, as you said, Apple starts making laptops I want again.
- LoneWolf123 8y ago
  What about Linux laptops? Are you considering that alternative?
  - ddalex 8y ago
    Not OP. For home, I'm using a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu on it, for office I use a MBP 15. There are upsides and downsides to either of them. The Ubuntu is super snappy low latency desktop, it's a pleasure to type on it (running i3 as window manager); but the sound randomly disappears so much that I'm forced to use bluetooth speakers; and the backlight / network managers controls randomly stop working on upgrades. When I'm tinkering with stuff, I can hunt what's wrong and fix it, but when I'm working, I want stability. So the MBP is the workhorse. But it struggles a lot with a high res external monitor connected via DisplayPort, and even worse, the UI starts to hiccup when I'm running a heavy load, like executing the test suite in parallel. The Linux scheduler is much better in this regard.
talkingtab 8y ago
I agree with your assessment of the situation. Apple products are actually functionally worse than they used to be. Think about that - would you buy a car that did not work as well as your old one? I differ on the cause, however. Steve Jobs was an artist - a product artist. There was a team in place that balanced his vision with an ability to execute. That is not true anymore. It is one of the more interesting things to think about: how do you produce an iPod versus a Zune? Or what a Mac versus what we have now. Personally, I don't think the issue is they don't give a damn, I think they don't have a clue as to how to give a damn.
- mberning 8y ago
  The product lines are a lot less focused than they used to be, especially on the mobile side. It hurts the software side as well supporting so many different configurations. Many things that were introduced years ago still do not work properly, like handoff, continuity, and other related features.
  - talkingtab 8y ago
    Exactly! Apple now thinks feature announcements are the equivalent of success. And perhaps to investors, it is. But to users it actually sort of matters whether the thing makes their lives better.
deleted 8y ago
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ubermonkey 8y ago
>MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. But you don't HAVE to use it, right?
- PopsiclePete 8y ago
  The Touch Bar replaces the entire top row of keys. No more escape key. Vim users were pretty pissed.
- xutopia 8y ago
  You kind of need to if you want to change the screen brightness, play/pause music or video and change the volume. These are things I do all the time on my keyboard and honestly the experience with TouchBar is drastically less pleasant than it is with normal keys.
snowwrestler 8y ago
I don't understand why folks get so upset about the Touch Bar. It just sits there; if you don't want to use it, don't use it. It's not like Macbook Pros are getting more expensive. A 15" Macbook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $2,399. When I bought my first 15" Macbook Pro in 2008, the base model was about $2,500. That's the price range of a Macbook Pro. When it comes to iPhones, considering the sales trajectory without the broader industry context doesn't reveal much. It's not like Samsung and LG phones are selling as fast as they used to either. BTW, their flagship phones cost about as much as an iPhone these days. Phone sales in general are slowing down. Apple continues to compete very well in that space. People have been complaining about Apple's arrogance for as long as I can remember. I'm not trying to discount the way you feel, I'm just saying that your feelings are not necessarily representative of Apple's future prospects. Apple threads on HN have attracted similar comments for as long as I've been reading here. I mean, people were complaining about iTunes 10 years ago, and look at Apple sales over that time.
- wl 8y ago
  > I don't understand why folks get so upset about the Touch Bar. It just sits there; if you don't want to use it, don't use it. 1. It replaces the F keys, which I actually want to use. 2. Unlike real keys, if you even brush the touch bar, it detects a touch and performs whatever action is assigned to the region you accidentally came into contact with.
- rtikulit 8y ago
  Several years ago I severed a tendon in my left index finger, as a result it is relatively immobile and sticks out. It brushes against that horrible touch bar all too often. I touch type, can handle real keys without looking, but the touch bar just slows me down. Have to look, recognize an icon, choose. Arrrrgh!
JohnJamesRambo 8y ago
Great post. If you don't mind me asking what do you store on your phone that takes up 512GB? I've always wondered what people store on their phones that takes up the room. I know I am definitely in the minority, but my iPhone SE with 32 GB never gets full now that I use Google Photos to backup the images and delete them from the phone whenever it gets full.
- Slippery_John 8y ago
  I have tons of podcasts set to auto-download new episodes, and the file sizes on episodes can get pretty big. On my old 32gb phone I was constantly having to go through and prune podcasts as I don't auto-delete them since I'll often re-listen.
- docker_up 8y ago
  I store all my videos of my children on my phone. I have backups on iCloud and Google Photos, but I prefer to have them on my phone. It's personal preference, and I know others do it differently, but I don't want to waste time looking at a spinning wheel waiting for the video to download if I'm looking at old videos. I'm lucky in that I can afford the extra storage.
  - JohnJamesRambo 8y ago
    That makes sense. I need to start shooting more videos instead of photos.
wayne_skylar 8y ago
I'm mainly frustrated by the lack of advancement in the Macbook Pro line. I have a 2014-ish MacBook Pro and accidentally got water on the keyboard. It works fine with an external keyboard. Instead of paying 400 dollars to get the keyboard working again I chose to buy a refurbished Macbook Pro from 2017. What was super frustrating was that the specs are almost the same after a three year gap. I still have 8GB or RAM and still have a 128GB SDD. The processor and has double the cores, but overall it's not the kind of improvement you'd expect from a three year difference. Instead it's thinner and only has USB-C inputs. I would have never chosen to buy this machine on the merits alone. I'm in the same boat with the iPhone by the way. I have an iPhone 6 and really see no reason to upgrade. It works well enough for me and I have no appetite to spend 500 or 1000 dollars on a phone that will do the same things for me. And yes iTunes is a disgrace. I've switched to Spotify for podcasts and most music and it's far better.
- dep_b 8y ago
  > I still have 8GB or RAM and still have a 128GB SDD Well that could have been 32GB and 2TB in the 2018 if you wanted?
  - jmanderley 8y ago
    Apple charges ridiculous prices for SSDs and RAM.
    - NicoJuicy 8y ago
      You expected something else?
- vibrato 8y ago
  Lol my 2011 MBP has 16 gb ram and a 128gb ssd... and a 17" matte screen!
whalesalad 8y ago
It's easy to make those claims when you live on websites like HN. > Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They are too damn expensive, with nothing to justify their costs. I went into the apple store the other day with my wife to finally get her off of Android and onto an iPhone XS. We planned to pay cash and walk out with it, doing activation and migration ourselves. I had to get put onto a special iPhone waiting list until a specialist was ready to sell me the phone. I was surprised. There is a decline in the buzz around the phone but the demand is certainly still there. > To put it bluntly, Apple is extremely, extremely arrogant.. Hmm. That's quite an attack.
e40 8y ago
I'm not an iPhone user, but I use the MBP and MP. macOS itself is far, far better than Windows, but lately I've had weird issues with the security updates. Late last year a machine was bricked (yes, actually bricked). The 2018-002 and 2019-001 has taken me 2-3 times to get installed on > 5 machines. The MBP keyboard, I hate it. I saw here on HN about the cable to the display is fixed to the display, so a previous $6 repair part is now many $100's, AND they fail after a year with lots of use. And this is all because of the touchbar--the cable has to go under it and it's thinner than before, so it fails quicker. I've been waiting to get my CEO on a 32GB MBP for years. He's on Windows with VMware running large Linux VMs. 16GB can't get it done. I haven't upgraded him because of all the problems with the latest line. No update to the Pro line... this has been flogged to death. It's heartbreaking to watch Apple drop the ball, because every single time I have to use Windows it is a complete shitshow.

mk89 8y ago

>Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, Any numbers saying that they earn just an average salary? Also, why would the touchbar be an engineering issue? Some people like it. (I don't) I do understand your concerns and I agree with some of them, I just don't believe it's because they pay their engineers less, or they are not good enough. Some decisions come from top management. If there is only capacity to fix 10 bugs, well, that's it. I don't even see this large amount of features delivered on a monthly basis, so I assume their plan is really to invest just on their iPhones and hardware, maybe.

adrianhel 8y ago
The engineering issue is a lack of accidental touch sensing. Mac did this with the caps lock key (which is arguably easier to implement). The feature feels half baked.
- interpol_p 8y ago
  I'd argue that the Touch Bar implementation is fully baked but utterly useless. There's a ton of engineering and polish that went into that feature — from the way it can securely render the price of a purchase through Apple Pay to the way it communicates and transfers its frame buffer, to the UI components it can smoothly display. It's just a pity I never actually want to use it.

threeseed 8y ago

You definitely ticked all the cliches. Complains about: 1) Apple products being expensive but buys the most expensive one. 2) Being forced to use iTunes even though it hasn't been needed for any reason for quite some time. 3) Quality getting progressively worse based purely on anecdotes. And of course the "I own Apple products and shares therefore my opinion is important" line. Always a classic.

jedberg 8y ago
I just had to use ITunes the other day. It’s the only way to load an ipsw onto an iPhone.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  I use it all the time, it's really not that bad.
- fingerlocks 8y ago
  You can also use Xcode. Or at least you could a few years ago.
- dwaite 8y ago
  You can do it with Xcode by opening the devices and simulators window.
ProfessorLayton 8y ago
RE 2: iTunes is the only way to get a local iPhone backup. For those who don’t care how their phone is backed up, iTunes is the only way to fully backup their phone at all without paying for iCloud. iTunes is the only way I can listen to Apple Music on my Mac. iTunes is the only way I can create smart music playlists for my phone (Which is ridiculous, but I digress) I can’t wait until I’m not forced to use iTunes.
- dwaite 8y ago
  > For those who don’t care how their phone is backed up, iTunes is the only way to fully backup their phone at all without paying for iCloud. I'm unclear by this statement. iTunes backups are technically a more 'full' backup than the iCloud ones, because iCloud will avoid caches, files marked as not-to-backup, and will not back up files which are part of app packages (and can just be downloaded again). But you can do an iCloud backup without paying a cent - you'll just hit a storage limit with sufficient data/devices and have to start paying for additional storage. > iTunes is the only way I can listen to Apple Music on my Mac. There was an article here the other day about http://musi.sh http://musi.sh > I can’t wait until I’m not forced to use iTunes. I thought the hold-up was that it was cross platform between Mac and Windows - but the Win 10 version is still the same old crap.

varlogix 8y ago

Couldn't agree more. I am a pretty big Apple user (mac/iphone/ipad), but their audacity (shamelessness?) with the recent pricing is breathtaking. They will probably fix the audio issue and use the opportunity to charge $500 more for the new improved Macbooks.

savanaly 8y ago

>Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages... If that sentence caught anyone else's eye, know that it caught mine too and I did a quick sanity check. [0] It does seem that Apple is falling a bit short of other top companies, especially for the upper levels. [0] https://www.levels.fyi/SE/Google/Facebook/Apple https://www.levels.fyi/SE/Google/Facebook/Apple

jedberg 8y ago
Anecdotally, everyone I know who works for Apple is paid below market rate. They justify it by reminding you that “you get to be part of the mission”. I know one guy making market and he’s in the video streaming product group.
- bartread 8y ago
  > They justify it by reminding you that “you get to be part of the mission”. That reminds me of the post from a few days ago on HN: "#### you: pay me!" I think there comes a point in many (and I'd hope all, but I don't think it's true) peoples' careers where they realise that, in business, money talks and everything else is sadly just chatter.
  - Jwarder 8y ago
    Your attitude seems common, but I'm quite curious just how common it is. Personally I totally happy with my current income and don't have any real interest in making more. I can pay my bills, buy anything that catches my eye, max out my 401k, travel to visit family. I don't turn down raises or bonuses, it is nice to have a little bit extra in case of emergencies. But an extra dollar doesn't mean much compared to the personal satisfaction of working on good projects.
    - sinatra 8y ago
      Just curious. Have you done a serious analysis of how much you’ll need in your retirement savings to be able to live a comfortable life when you’re no longer earning (due to lack of desire to work or lack of opportunities to work)? Say you live till you’re 90. I’m asking because many times people think about the present and say they don’t need any more money, but don’t think about the future when they won’t be able to earn.

viburnum 8y ago

Worse than 2012 MacBooks.

std_throwawayay 8y ago

> MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. For me, the keyboard kills it. It feels cheap. It almost feels like there's no keys at all like the glass surface that is rumored to come. I'm sure that's great for people who are media consumers but producers of media and software often like to have a keyboard. To me it feels like they missed the market and try to sell products at premium price to normal customers. Also, the lack of HDMI and one USB-A port on each side would hinder my workflow.

tobyhinloopen 8y ago
Exactly my complaints. Awful and notoriously unreliable keyboard. The missing HDMI and USB-A are also stupid but at least it can be solved with a dock or dongle. Broken keyboard cannot be solved, and they break all the time. Lets hope the 16” 2019 will fix at least the keyboard...
- BuildTheRobots 8y ago
  I'd suggest that "solved with a dock or a dongle" is just as awful a fix as "why not bring a usb keyboard with you".
  - philjohn 8y ago
    I always argue that Apple went with USB-C a little too early, but it IS the future. More and more monitors now support it, and a single cable to both charge your laptop, and extend your laptop to the display is a killer feature.
dangero 8y ago
I was afraid to buy a new Mac because of how people talk about the keyboard, but after a couple months of use I can say I actually like the new retina macbook air keyboard. I know this is anecdotal, but considering Macbook computer sales, I wonder if I’m in the majority. Yes it’s my daily driver and I create a lot of content. No finger pain. I think it helps me type faster.

lfxyz 8y ago

iTunes is terrible, but you don't have to use it – I got my MBP at Xmas 2014 and still haven't accepted the iTunes EULA.

rusk 8y ago
Is there an alternative tool for managing your iPhone?
- c16 8y ago
  You dont need iTunes to manage your iphone - it's essentially it's own device. I've never synced my phone with my laptop.
  - rusk 8y ago
    So the answer is “no” then ...
    - bunnycorn 8y ago
      As bad as iTunes is, its still better than adb
      - rusk 8y ago
        That’s a poor excuse EDIT I would add that at least with adb its not the only option. Android is a reasonably open and flexible and open experience and there are lots of different ways you can manage your device. The iPhone for better or worse is locked down, the least Apple could do is provide something better than the lousy piece of crap that is iTunes.
        bunnycorn 8y ago
        No, that's not. You'll need iTunes the same way as you need adb. You don't. Also, iTunes is not a "lousy piece of crap".

8fingerlouie 8y ago

When it comes to (smart)phones, you don't really have much choice. You either consent to being exploited by Google, or you pay a pound of flesh to Apple. As for the pricing of the phones, nobody is forcing you to upgrade every year. I've done that ever since the original iPhone came out, but when i bought the X, i also decided to only upgrade every 2-3 years to justify the cost. MacBooks are a sad story though. I'm "stuck" with my 13" retina with the last functional keyboard Apple made. I've tried the keyboard on the newer models (in store), and i'm not a fan.

jamesb93 8y ago
I don't understand what people are talking about when they say they get gouged by phones. Mine cost 180 USD in 2016. I still use it everyday and I get over 10 hours screen time. The issue is people conflate everyday devices of utility with fashion products (Apple, Google Pixel).
- hrktb 8y ago
  To give another angle, my iPad Pro cost around 1000€. The iPhone X is about the same price. Event taking into account miniaturization, waterproofing and just “luxury” tax, it’s insane that both products cost the same when their capabilities are so wildly different. I know there are reasons (like paying licensing and cetification for the cellular stack, and pure greed), I just feel they are wrong reasons.
  - rsynnott 8y ago
    I doubt the margins on them are that different. Similar CPU, the XS has a smaller but more expensive-tech screen.
  - maeln 8y ago
    Also, and thats the main thing keeping me from having an iPhone at this point, is that, even after paying a premium price for an iPhone, you have to spend even more money due to the App Store situation. On my Android, I use a lot of open-source application that, I find, are often really the best app to do X or Y. They are also free, often without annoying advertisement, with the option to pay for a "premium" version (that usually add nothing but its to help the devs). Because most OSS devs (with the exception of a few big project like VLC) don't have the money to pay for an iPhone and/or to publish their app on the App Store, there is almost no good open-source/free application on iPhone. So not only do I have to pay a quite hefty price for a phone (which, to be fair, I find very good), but I also need to pay even more if I want to replicate the setup I have currently for free on an Android. Some application, don't even have good equivalent on iPhone. I really hope one day Apple change their policy regarding OSS and open up iPhone programming like Google did with Android.

tobylane 8y ago

China has people no longer willing to pay for iPhones. Everywhere else it's not changed much year on year. There was great demand for stock buybacks, Apple resisted for a while. I'm surprised to hear a need for 512GB storage, I'd be interested to know how that's used. The upgrade to XS is only minor from the X according to the reviews I've seen/seen summarised. A yearly upgrade isn't common, isn't their target.

wyclif 8y ago
And India. And the Philippines. And loads of other developing countries. Meanwhile, Apple killed the best price/value iPhone they offered, the SE. I just don't understand Apple's current product direction.
- dwaite 8y ago
  People are buying phones less often, so Apple is trying to increase the value (and subsequent price) of new phone models to encourage upgrades and to capture more money when people do upgrade (either because third party apps now run slow on the older hardware, or their old phone broke). People don't stop buying gas when the price of gas goes up. They just conserve and figure out how to make it fit into their budget. Also, Apple isn't (and has never) been trying to target the highest end phones at developing markets. They'll target those markets with the iPhone 6 and 6s.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    That did not went well in the mid-90's if it weren't for the inverse acquision of NeXT.
StreamBright 8y ago
>> I'm surprised to hear a need for 512GB storage How should I store my lossless audio files then? I have a 6s and I am continuously having issues with space but I won't give up the jack port and nothing can change that. HiFi audio needs additional 10 years before it becomes viable on wireless (battery times, quality, etc.).

bad_user 8y ago

You may not upgrade to the next iPhone model, but are you going to switch to another platform? If not, then you're still in Apple's ecosystem and generating some revenue and opportunity for them, aren't you? iPhones age better than other phones. You can also get them to a service and get a batter replacement and they're like brand new after two years of use. You can't really say the same thing about the other phone makers, it depends on luck really. I've had Nexus and Samsung phones die on me after less than 2 years. This need to update your phone every year or every two years is insane, the peak of consumerism. And iPhones are now good enough that you don't have to do it. I've seen multiple people using the iPhone 6 and not upgrading to 6s, 7, 8, X or XS. I mean, as a society, shouldn't we be glad that we're no longer buying a new phone every year? Think of how much junk that generates. --- > MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. You're exaggerating. Personally I don't mind it that much. The only problem is the ESC key, otherwise I never touch typed the F keys. And I like having the fingerprint scanner. You actually haven't mentioned the problem with more recent laptops (post 2017) which is the quality of the keyboard. Mine is still working after a year, fingers crossed, but I heard you can get it replaced for free. --- > Apple software is terrible. iTunes is still the worst piece of software that I'm forced to use. The bugs they've had are inexcusable. Personally I don't use iTunes. I never understood people that do. You've also just mentioned the worst piece of software that Apple makes and it's kind of unfair because it's not representative of everything Apple makes. I also have access to laptops using Linux and Windows and for me MacBooks still have the best ecosystem. And their laptops are still the best, even if overpriced. If that weren't true, then you wouldn't see a majority of developers at software conferences with MacBooks.

Tepix 8y ago
The percentage of people with Macbooks at conferences has decreased a lot. It used to be >50% at the conferences i was attending. Nowadays it's more like 15%. You also see a lot of Dell XPS, Thinkpads etc.
mihaifm 8y ago
My Iphone 6 is still going strong after 4 years. Replaced the screen myself twice and battery once, planning to do a second battery replacement. There's no killer feature in the other models that would determine me to upgrade.

huffmsa 8y ago

iTunes appears to have stopped getting updates around 2012. The long description for podcasts appears in a tooltip bubble ~20 characters wide. It's unusable. Ive must have burnt out.

jclardy 8y ago

> I wouldn't have upgraded and I know for a fact there is really no difference after using it for several months. No difference between what? X and XS? Sure. But in the same way that there is “no difference” between 6/6s, 7/8. It’s a speed bump (which from the X isn’t really relevant unless you use your phone for everything), camera improvement, and display improvement. All things that are noticeable if you have the two phones side by side, but that you will forget about in regular use. I do agree on everything being too expensive now. All the MacBook lines are about $200 more than they should be, and the same goes for iPad. iPad now has much more amazing hardware compared to the mac lines, but it is hugely limited by its software. With Apple’s recent leadership changes I think we are going to go into another era of lower cost hardware (while still keeping the newly formed top end, like the xs max.) All while they try to find what will sustain growth in the company post-iPhone.

philjohn 8y ago

Eh, I'm in two minds about the touch bar. Once you get used to it there are SOME good uses (IntelliJ has a pretty good touch bar implementation, for example).

8fingerlouie 8y ago
But still no (physical) escape button. I know regular consumers probably have no use for it, but as a die hard Vim user, it's kinda annoying.
- adestefan 8y ago
  Ctrl-[ And turn Caps Lock into Ctrl
- philjohn 8y ago
  I've gotten used to the non physical escape button. Took me a while, but I got there in the end.
- chongli 8y ago
  I'm a die hard neovim user with a touch bar MacBook pro. I remapped caps lock to control and use control-] to escape in nvim. I'm used to it and it works just fine for me. Other people like to map caps lock to escape, which makes it even easier. I have even heard of people doing this that have a physical escape key on their keyboards.
  - heartbreak 8y ago
    I’ve been doing the caps->esc remap for a lot longer than I’ve had a touchbar Mac. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to reach all the way to esc - constantly - day in and day out. My pinky and wrist would hate me.
  - meestaahjoshee 8y ago
    You can have the best of both worlds - tap capslock for escape, hold for ctrl. I currently use karabiner-elements to get this functionality, it's pretty good.

matwood 8y ago

> Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They may have reached peak growth, but the numbers show that outside China (which in hindsight appears to have larger economic issues), millions of people buy iPhones. Are all the current iPhone users going to suddenly switch to Android? Very unlikely. By all accounts the XS is a great phone. If I had anything other than the X, I would have upgraded. > Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, they are wasting it on stock buybacks. You realize that Apple has so much money they can do both. This is not a binary decision. A much bigger issue for Apple is that they need more stores. They have a huge advantage over any other phone maker in that people can walk in and get service and support. The stores are so busy now, that it has become a challenge. Hopefully the departure of the head of retail shows that Apple has realized they have not grown the store base fast enough.

redacted 8y ago
The stores (and iMessage) get brought up a lot, but for the world outside the US they are a secondary consideration if they even factor in at all. There are more _Samsung_ stores in Dublin than Apple, and the ones we have a 3rd party 'authorised resellers' with average service at best...
- benologist 8y ago
  Most of the US is not within range of an Apple store either.
fauigerzigerk 8y ago
>You realize that Apple has so much money they can do both. Not with the same dollar. We shouldn't forget what giving money back to shareholders means. It means that Apple cannot think of anything to invest that money in that's more promising than what investors can find elsewhere. You could say it's prudent and honest. Instead of wasting all that money on stuff that never yields a return they're handing it back their owners. But I still find it surprising that a company like Apple with the enormous leverage of billions of (the wealthiest) users and a brand name second to none doesn't think that it can make great things happen with that money. I don't think I'm best placed to tell them what that could be. But there are clearly some huge gaps in their strategy. For instance, they keep pushing AR, because AR is an area where latency matters so much that you need expensive devices for it. But AR would be so much more valuable in combination with all the information that only Google Maps and Google Street View has. Even more so if you think about the data that's going to be needed for (and generated by) self driving cars. I imagine it's hugely expensive to gather that information. Apple Maps is second rate. They have nothing like Street View and no self driving car project. I think owning information that makes high end devices far more useful than low end devices is exactly what Apple needs. There aren't going to be many players in that market exactly because it's so expensive. Only the biggest global tech companies can really do it. That moat will be one of the widest and deepest ever. Gaming is another area where expensive devices make a difference. Playing games is something almost everybody does on their iPhones. I find it baffling that Apple isn't one of the biggest gaming companies. Where are Apple's contributions to new user interaction paradigms? The touch bar? Is that it? Apple just isn't thinking big enough. That's why they have so much money left to pay back. Anyway, you can completely disregard _my_ ideas on what they could do with that money and still be surprised that _they_ can't think of anything.

puranjay 8y ago

And here I am switching to Mac after a lifetime on Windows. All the things you say about Apple might be true, but the alternative is substantially worse. Microsoft dropped the ball way more than Apple ever did with Windows 10. And hardware quality among laptop manufacturers is frustratingly inconsistent, even within the same brand. My last Lenovo worked great for 5 years despite being a low end machine. My much more expensive new Lenovo has had a keyboard replacement and significant performance issues in one year.

stoolpigeon 8y ago
This is my fear. I'm holding onto my 2015 MBP really hoping Apple starts making laptops I want again, but I don't know where else to go. My last Windows machine was a very expensive Samsung Ultrabook machine that cost much more than the equivalent Apple machine. It was a mess in terms of OS and hardware. So I feel like I'm running out of options.
- ridgeguy 8y ago
  You're in good company in my household. We have four MBPs (2015, 2012, 2x2011). Not getting rid of them until, as you said, Apple starts making laptops I want again.
LoneWolf123 8y ago
What about Linux laptops? Are you considering that alternative?
- ddalex 8y ago
  Not OP. For home, I'm using a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu on it, for office I use a MBP 15. There are upsides and downsides to either of them. The Ubuntu is super snappy low latency desktop, it's a pleasure to type on it (running i3 as window manager); but the sound randomly disappears so much that I'm forced to use bluetooth speakers; and the backlight / network managers controls randomly stop working on upgrades. When I'm tinkering with stuff, I can hunt what's wrong and fix it, but when I'm working, I want stability. So the MBP is the workhorse. But it struggles a lot with a high res external monitor connected via DisplayPort, and even worse, the UI starts to hiccup when I'm running a heavy load, like executing the test suite in parallel. The Linux scheduler is much better in this regard.

talkingtab 8y ago

I agree with your assessment of the situation. Apple products are actually functionally worse than they used to be. Think about that - would you buy a car that did not work as well as your old one? I differ on the cause, however. Steve Jobs was an artist - a product artist. There was a team in place that balanced his vision with an ability to execute. That is not true anymore. It is one of the more interesting things to think about: how do you produce an iPod versus a Zune? Or what a Mac versus what we have now. Personally, I don't think the issue is they don't give a damn, I think they don't have a clue as to how to give a damn.

mberning 8y ago
The product lines are a lot less focused than they used to be, especially on the mobile side. It hurts the software side as well supporting so many different configurations. Many things that were introduced years ago still do not work properly, like handoff, continuity, and other related features.
- talkingtab 8y ago
  Exactly! Apple now thinks feature announcements are the equivalent of success. And perhaps to investors, it is. But to users it actually sort of matters whether the thing makes their lives better.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ubermonkey 8y ago

>MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar. But you don't HAVE to use it, right?

PopsiclePete 8y ago
The Touch Bar replaces the entire top row of keys. No more escape key. Vim users were pretty pissed.
xutopia 8y ago
You kind of need to if you want to change the screen brightness, play/pause music or video and change the volume. These are things I do all the time on my keyboard and honestly the experience with TouchBar is drastically less pleasant than it is with normal keys.

snowwrestler 8y ago

I don't understand why folks get so upset about the Touch Bar. It just sits there; if you don't want to use it, don't use it. It's not like Macbook Pros are getting more expensive. A 15" Macbook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $2,399. When I bought my first 15" Macbook Pro in 2008, the base model was about $2,500. That's the price range of a Macbook Pro. When it comes to iPhones, considering the sales trajectory without the broader industry context doesn't reveal much. It's not like Samsung and LG phones are selling as fast as they used to either. BTW, their flagship phones cost about as much as an iPhone these days. Phone sales in general are slowing down. Apple continues to compete very well in that space. People have been complaining about Apple's arrogance for as long as I can remember. I'm not trying to discount the way you feel, I'm just saying that your feelings are not necessarily representative of Apple's future prospects. Apple threads on HN have attracted similar comments for as long as I've been reading here. I mean, people were complaining about iTunes 10 years ago, and look at Apple sales over that time.

wl 8y ago
> I don't understand why folks get so upset about the Touch Bar. It just sits there; if you don't want to use it, don't use it. 1. It replaces the F keys, which I actually want to use. 2. Unlike real keys, if you even brush the touch bar, it detects a touch and performs whatever action is assigned to the region you accidentally came into contact with.
rtikulit 8y ago
Several years ago I severed a tendon in my left index finger, as a result it is relatively immobile and sticks out. It brushes against that horrible touch bar all too often. I touch type, can handle real keys without looking, but the touch bar just slows me down. Have to look, recognize an icon, choose. Arrrrgh!

JohnJamesRambo 8y ago

Great post. If you don't mind me asking what do you store on your phone that takes up 512GB? I've always wondered what people store on their phones that takes up the room. I know I am definitely in the minority, but my iPhone SE with 32 GB never gets full now that I use Google Photos to backup the images and delete them from the phone whenever it gets full.

Slippery_John 8y ago
I have tons of podcasts set to auto-download new episodes, and the file sizes on episodes can get pretty big. On my old 32gb phone I was constantly having to go through and prune podcasts as I don't auto-delete them since I'll often re-listen.
docker_up 8y ago
I store all my videos of my children on my phone. I have backups on iCloud and Google Photos, but I prefer to have them on my phone. It's personal preference, and I know others do it differently, but I don't want to waste time looking at a spinning wheel waiting for the video to download if I'm looking at old videos. I'm lucky in that I can afford the extra storage.
- JohnJamesRambo 8y ago
  That makes sense. I need to start shooting more videos instead of photos.

wayne_skylar 8y ago

I'm mainly frustrated by the lack of advancement in the Macbook Pro line. I have a 2014-ish MacBook Pro and accidentally got water on the keyboard. It works fine with an external keyboard. Instead of paying 400 dollars to get the keyboard working again I chose to buy a refurbished Macbook Pro from 2017. What was super frustrating was that the specs are almost the same after a three year gap. I still have 8GB or RAM and still have a 128GB SDD. The processor and has double the cores, but overall it's not the kind of improvement you'd expect from a three year difference. Instead it's thinner and only has USB-C inputs. I would have never chosen to buy this machine on the merits alone. I'm in the same boat with the iPhone by the way. I have an iPhone 6 and really see no reason to upgrade. It works well enough for me and I have no appetite to spend 500 or 1000 dollars on a phone that will do the same things for me. And yes iTunes is a disgrace. I've switched to Spotify for podcasts and most music and it's far better.

dep_b 8y ago
> I still have 8GB or RAM and still have a 128GB SDD Well that could have been 32GB and 2TB in the 2018 if you wanted?
- jmanderley 8y ago
  Apple charges ridiculous prices for SSDs and RAM.
  - NicoJuicy 8y ago
    You expected something else?
vibrato 8y ago
Lol my 2011 MBP has 16 gb ram and a 128gb ssd... and a 17" matte screen!

whalesalad 8y ago

It's easy to make those claims when you live on websites like HN. > Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They are too damn expensive, with nothing to justify their costs. I went into the apple store the other day with my wife to finally get her off of Android and onto an iPhone XS. We planned to pay cash and walk out with it, doing activation and migration ourselves. I had to get put onto a special iPhone waiting list until a specialist was ready to sell me the phone. I was surprised. There is a decline in the buzz around the phone but the demand is certainly still there. > To put it bluntly, Apple is extremely, extremely arrogant.. Hmm. That's quite an attack.

e40 8y ago

I'm not an iPhone user, but I use the MBP and MP. macOS itself is far, far better than Windows, but lately I've had weird issues with the security updates. Late last year a machine was bricked (yes, actually bricked). The 2018-002 and 2019-001 has taken me 2-3 times to get installed on > 5 machines. The MBP keyboard, I hate it. I saw here on HN about the cable to the display is fixed to the display, so a previous $6 repair part is now many $100's, AND they fail after a year with lots of use. And this is all because of the touchbar--the cable has to go under it and it's thinner than before, so it fails quicker. I've been waiting to get my CEO on a 32GB MBP for years. He's on Windows with VMware running large Linux VMs. 16GB can't get it done. I haven't upgraded him because of all the problems with the latest line. No update to the Pro line... this has been flogged to death. It's heartbreaking to watch Apple drop the ball, because every single time I have to use Windows it is a complete shitshow.