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...which did not have this feature beforehand (nor the email anonymization) and did not increase in price from a dollar a month. That's what iCloud 50GB cost i

...which did not have this feature beforehand (nor the email anonymization) and did not increase in price from a dollar a month. That's what iCloud 50GB cost in 2015, and they introduced these new features in 2021. Likely possible due to falling capex/opex costs for the storage, but still...they added multiple new features and didn't increase the price, even after a fairly substantial amount of inflation over those five to six years.

lapcat 4y ago
I'm not sure what the argument is supposed to be here. Apple adds features to its hardware without raising the price. As a software developer, I add features to my software without raising the price. The point is to make the product more enticing so that more potential customers will buy it. If Apple wasn't trying to sell iCloud+ then it would have made iCloud Private Relay available to all Apple users without iCloud+. Apple is not a charity. This is sales 101.
- fartcannon 4y ago
  They're the _least_ charitable, I'd say. Apples marketing is trying to push generous, kind, etc because it shifts the overton window about the companies main objective which from the outside appears to be make computers into appliances that you replace every year. Which would be fine if there marketing wasn't so effective. As it stands, they're an existential risk to the freedom we all currently enjoy in computing. And the environmental impact of pure disposable consumption devices is the kind of thing journalists will be talking about in 30 years - like oil and gas. And like oil and gas, they're very powerful and have great marketing.
  - otterley 4y ago
    Hundreds of thousands of developers use Macs every day to produce both content and software. And the Internet is still open to you (in most countries, at least) to add your own service or website. Also, technology has advanced so much in the past 15 years that people are replacing their Apple devices significantly less frequently than they used to.
    - fartcannon 4y ago
      Yep! Can even do some stuff with iOS too. But its not open so you can't do anything. Which is the promise of computers. Not to do what Apple deems OK, but whatever a childs mind (or any mind) can dream of. Its not OK to teach kids that they can't use the things they own how they see fit. It's teaching them to think inside a box of Apple, or Googles choosing. It is sort of disgusting.
      - otterley 4y ago
        What “anything” are you speaking of? If people couldn’t do anything with their devices, they probably wouldn’t buy them!
        fartcannon 4y ago
        How about write software themselves on their devices and share it with their friends for starters? You know without paying a tithe to Apple. That'd go a long way.
    - lapcat 4y ago
      > Also, technology has advanced so much in the past 15 years that people are replacing their Apple devices significantly less frequently than they used to. Not sure about that. We have annual OS updates with force obsolescence via termination of device support and security updates. (Even the "supported" N-2 versions of macOS don't get all the security updates of the latest version.) And the devices now all have batteries that aren't user-replaceable. With the 2 year phone carrier contracts, the financial incentive was actually to upgrade your phone every 2 years. Those are mostly gone now, but it's rumored that Apple is working on a new hardware subscription.
      - otterley 4y ago
        The termination of device support tends to be for devices that are 7+ years old. That’s quite a reasonable support lifetime. A lot of commercial software support has a similar or shorter term. Also, as of today, battery replacements for all supported iPhone devices costs less than $70. That’s a very good price and basically includes the labor for free. Nobody is getting ripped off here. > Even the "supported" N-2 versions of macOS don't get all the security updates of the latest version. If it’s supported, it’s getting security updates, period. Here is an example of a recent security update for Catalina: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2089?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2089?locale=en_US

lapcat 4y ago

I'm not sure what the argument is supposed to be here. Apple adds features to its hardware without raising the price. As a software developer, I add features to my software without raising the price. The point is to make the product more enticing so that more potential customers will buy it. If Apple wasn't trying to sell iCloud+ then it would have made iCloud Private Relay available to all Apple users without iCloud+. Apple is not a charity. This is sales 101.

fartcannon 4y ago
They're the _least_ charitable, I'd say. Apples marketing is trying to push generous, kind, etc because it shifts the overton window about the companies main objective which from the outside appears to be make computers into appliances that you replace every year. Which would be fine if there marketing wasn't so effective. As it stands, they're an existential risk to the freedom we all currently enjoy in computing. And the environmental impact of pure disposable consumption devices is the kind of thing journalists will be talking about in 30 years - like oil and gas. And like oil and gas, they're very powerful and have great marketing.
- otterley 4y ago
  Hundreds of thousands of developers use Macs every day to produce both content and software. And the Internet is still open to you (in most countries, at least) to add your own service or website. Also, technology has advanced so much in the past 15 years that people are replacing their Apple devices significantly less frequently than they used to.
  - fartcannon 4y ago
    Yep! Can even do some stuff with iOS too. But its not open so you can't do anything. Which is the promise of computers. Not to do what Apple deems OK, but whatever a childs mind (or any mind) can dream of. Its not OK to teach kids that they can't use the things they own how they see fit. It's teaching them to think inside a box of Apple, or Googles choosing. It is sort of disgusting.
    - otterley 4y ago
      What “anything” are you speaking of? If people couldn’t do anything with their devices, they probably wouldn’t buy them!
      - fartcannon 4y ago
        How about write software themselves on their devices and share it with their friends for starters? You know without paying a tithe to Apple. That'd go a long way.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    > Also, technology has advanced so much in the past 15 years that people are replacing their Apple devices significantly less frequently than they used to. Not sure about that. We have annual OS updates with force obsolescence via termination of device support and security updates. (Even the "supported" N-2 versions of macOS don't get all the security updates of the latest version.) And the devices now all have batteries that aren't user-replaceable. With the 2 year phone carrier contracts, the financial incentive was actually to upgrade your phone every 2 years. Those are mostly gone now, but it's rumored that Apple is working on a new hardware subscription.
    - otterley 4y ago
      The termination of device support tends to be for devices that are 7+ years old. That’s quite a reasonable support lifetime. A lot of commercial software support has a similar or shorter term. Also, as of today, battery replacements for all supported iPhone devices costs less than $70. That’s a very good price and basically includes the labor for free. Nobody is getting ripped off here. > Even the "supported" N-2 versions of macOS don't get all the security updates of the latest version. If it’s supported, it’s getting security updates, period. Here is an example of a recent security update for Catalina: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2089?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2089?locale=en_US