688: A Company Manhttps://atp.fm/688

[curdriceaurora@mastodon.social]

@atpfm Looks like none of you have been watching Shrinking on Apple TV. Those shirts are the suburban dad Derek’s standard wardrobe on the series.

[janne_o@mastodon.social]

@atpfm te the quick comment on Touchbar: am I the only one who loves the idea? I think the problem is that they replaced function keys with it. I would love if Apple brought the touch bar back, but kept the function keys as well.

[sharding@mastodon.social]

@atpfm You're right that the masses care about convenience and price over quality. But we should be thanking, not dismissing, the minority who do care about quality. Caring about quality is not a character flaw. Those are the people who push for improvements that trickle down to everyone else. Is the person who spends more and inconveniences themself for a 1% improvement in video source quality all that different than someone who buys a Mac Pro to do... whatever John does on his Mac Pro?

[siracusa@mastodon.social]

@sharding I don't think I was "dismissing" people who want better quality! I just think the quality improvement needs to be perceptible in some way, ideally…

[blazesanders@techhub.social]

@lukeratta @atpfm but they would need to charge EVERYONE more money, if they wanted fewer SKU’s. The few people that want / need higher the spec help pay for the people that can’t afford it.

[lukeratta@mastodon.social]

@blazesanders @atpfm

That’s making some pretty big assumptions about cost. Take BMW’s heated seats, for instance. They scrapped the subscription after backlash, so they’re no longer making any subscription revenue from it. Do you really think those cars suddenly stopped being profitable?

[blazesanders@techhub.social]

@lukeratta @atpfm Fair points. But I didn’t say the no subscription purchase mean loss of all profitable. A company like Apple wants to make 40% so they save money by making one SKU and their modeling calculates that if 20% of users do subscribe they make 40% profit.

[sayrer@mastodon.social]

@dschaub @atlauren @atpfm Executive Chairman just means he's still an employee of Apple, not an outside board member, and may have some managerial duties. As the show said, it's probably dealing with world leaders for a few years. It also makes sense because they have to do most things a year ahead at least, so it's still his decisions they're dealing with for a while yet.

[sayrer@mastodon.social]

@atpfm @siracusa @marcoarment the clothes do indeed appear on podcasts. I know it from Search Engine, but there is also a store of theirs not too far from my house. That stuff is expensive, but not like high-fashion expensive.

The Nike shoes make sense, because Tim Cook is the lead independent director at Nike! He kinda has to wear them.

Just a moment...

(investors.nike.com)

[spyder@mastodon.social]

@atpfm polestar 2 is one of the EV models with a paid software unlock for full motor performance. It also adjusts the pedal response curves, adds launch control, and they’ll send replacement stickers to put on the car.

(www.reddit.com)

(Or the official, less useful, FAQ: https://www.polestar.com/au/support/faq/performance-software-upgrade/ )

[janne_o@mastodon.social]

@atpfm re: audiophiles: there was a guy in Japan who installed his own utility pole so he could get “better” electricity:

An 82-Year-Old Japanese Audiophile Searches for the Best Sound by Installing His Own Electric Utility Pole in His Yard

As a longtime record collector (first because it was before CDs were invented) and a budding audiophile (because vinyl does sound better than digital, have at me in the comments if you must), I appreciate a good story about the search for perfect sound. But Takeo Morita takes it to a new level. Open Culture, openculture.com

Open Culture (www.openculture.com)

[devdaniel@hachyderm.io]

@atpfm @caseyliss

I have a repeating daily event in my Apple Calendar with a notification 5 minutes before the event and it just doesn't arrive.

It works after adding the event for a couple of weeks but then stops working. Recently the event fixed itself for a few days and stopped working again ‍️

[havn@mas.to]

@atpfm Regarding the most important subject covered in this podcast episode:

For some unknowable reason, I wrote a thorough blog post about cuffing clothes a couple of years ago:

What makes a good cuff?

Ok, so this is by far the most niche thing I’ve ever written. But after getting a great jacket (that I’ll write about some other time!) that only had one problem, I wanted to gather my thoughts on this tiny subject. The “problem” was: It doesn’t cuff perfectly. What’s the deal with cuffing anyway?? Cuffing is when you fold the sleeves of a shirt, jacket, sweater etc. It’s also commonly used when you do the same to leg opening of pants or shorts. And I’m an avid cuffer! The three reasons are: I’m 1.75 m tall, and my legs and arms aren’t especially long - so clothes are usually too long. Related, I like watches, bracelets, shoes and socks - and cuffing shows them off. I often think it makes the clothes themselves look better. Here’s some examples of what I mean by nr. 2 and 3:

(havn.blog)

Finally, it's relevant for something!

I don't mind the technique @ejauch posted elsewhere (https://mastodon.social/@ejauch/116445075325007446) — but it's not my favourite. If I were @marcoarment, I'd try just folding the cuff x amount of times (and try with or without buttons).

[interfaceengineer@mastodon.world]

@atpfm re: overtime I’ve seen uhd over plex go beyond 190mb/s. Stephen who isnt an AV critique noticed a diff in video & audio so there is technical limitation that streamers have & it’s worse outside of US

Another consideration is ownership - lose iTunes your “bought” collection is lost too

Blu ray players are back in fashion: https://www.whathifi.com/tv-home-cinema/blu-ray-players/4k-blu-ray-sales-are-on-the-rise-but-one-key-ingredient-is-missing-for-a-vinyl-level-revival

Convenience will always win e.g. I recall @siracusa having lip sync issues that your fam didn’t care for

[menevets@mastodon.social]

@atpfm If you’re gonna complain about play blu rays, that darned FBI screen you have to sit through that you cannot fast forward through. And the terrible subtitle fonts I guess that depends on the disc and the player? Streaming subtitles are better I’ll grant you that. Scrubbing on the BR player is more accurate and consistent.

How the hell long does it take to play a BR disc? A minute? Come on, man!

[menevets@mastodon.social]

@Janne_O @atpfm I get that. Less buzz. Assuming you can tell the difference. I agree some audiophiles are nuts. But I kind of get this.

[sommer@mastodon.world]

@atpfm @marcoarment Regarding #gemini I asked three questions today: Every answer was horribly wrong and absolute garbage. 0/3.

[janne_o@mastodon.social]

@menevets @atpfm remember to get some appropriate cables for your artisanal electricity.

Cloude Grande AG Power Cord

Default Description

(www.thecableco.com)

[atpfmfanboi@mastodon.social]

@atpfm I am always amazed how these retrospectives of Apple‘s leadership reliably omit Eddie Cue. He has been a train wreck since the Mobile Me era, but because he deals with found money, he has always gotten the pass. If you ranked Apple SVPs based on whether their values aligned with our perception of Apple’s values, wouldn’t he be dead last?

[atpfmfanboi@mastodon.social]

@atpfm thank you, John, for for referencing Apple in China with respect to Tim Apple’s strategic decisions. At the end of the day, you cannot get around supply versus demand. And without China, that equation could have led to $2000 iPhones. Has been Thompson frequently has pointed out, Apple is basically the only company that suffers from dis-economies of scale.