Millennials invented cable! This is one of the better memes in the long time, but it works so well. I’ve been reading tech blogs for a very long time and couple of years ago one of the most popular themes was cable cutting. There was a lot of talk, how you can cut the cable, subscribe to a couple of services, buy antenna and save a lot of money.
For some time Netflix and Hulu (in the US) were the ones to have. There was a lot of content, some old, some new, some originals. Now, every company wants to build its own subscription service and charge for it about 10$ a month. And as this is the golden age of the TV you’ll want to watch them all. Subscribing to Netflix, Apple TV+ and Disney, for example, would be about 30$ per month. Add to it Apple Music or Spotify (that’s another 10$) and probably gaming service or two (Apple Arcade and PSN). 50$ and that’s not even trying. Want to watch Office next year – another service.
This all adds up very easily. Apps are implementing subscriptions more and more. Weather apps, Twitter clients, writing apps, Podcasts apps. Everything is a subscription.
For the video services, my plan would probably be keeping Netflix and adding one other services. The service I add will depend on the content it has. There is something new on Disney+? Subscribe for a month or two, until I watch it and something else pops up on another service.
When music streaming became a thing, it destroyed piracy in some markets, as it was much easier to pay and listen to all the music you want, without the need to download, clean meta-data, upload to the phone, etc. Now, with all those video services coming out, I have a feeling, piracy will again rise. You either look for it on some shady website, where it is all lumped together or you take your time to figure out which service it is on. Sure, something like Apple TV could help (app, not a device), but already not every streaming service is in there (and Netflix will never agree to be added).
I hope I’m wrong and those services will prosper and companies will have funds and willingness to produce more great shows.
As we’ve seen last week with Spotify, the use of location tracking can be explained with business interest – they want users to stop abusing the Family Premium plan. What Facebook is doing after all the scandals it had with our data, is unexplainable.
In the recent Newsroom article titled “Understanding Updates to Your Device’s Location Settings”, the social network company explains how updates to Android and iOS will prevent them from abusing the constant location tracking.
Facebook is better with location. It powers features like check-ins and makes planning events easier. It helps improve ads and keep you and the Facebook community safe. Features like Find Wi-Fi and Nearby Friends use precise location even when you’re not using the app to make sure that alerts and tools are accurate and personalized for you.
Just read the fucking quote. Facebook tracking your location to keep you safe. How delirious are they? Article further explains, that now there will be the ability in OS to allow location sharing with the app only once and if the app is tracking your location in the background with the app closed, iOS will prompt you with notification, showing map of the location data and explanation why the app uses it (to keep you safe, of course).
This article shows how bad these changes are for Facebook. Right now location tracking is the best data they can get on users. Knowing where you’ve been can give a lot of insights. Which neighborhood do you live in, where do you work, which type of restaurants you go to, if you are sick, how often do you travel. All of this information can be gathered using the background location tracking, without users even noticing.
I’m glad both Google and Apple are making changes to the location tracking in theirs OS’s. I’m sure Facebook will find a way to track it anyway, they say so in the article:
We may still understand your location using things like check-ins, events and information about your internet connection.
This article shows how out of touch Facebook is, but the more scary thing is – people believe them. I hope those changes will educate people more on the type of data they are sending to those companies.
As spotted by CNET, Spotify updated its terms and conditions for Premium Family subscribers, where it now says, that users have to provide location data “from time to time” to ensure that plan members are actually living at the same address.
What is interesting, Spotify tried to do the same thing one year ago, but was met with such a backlash that it had to stop, until now, when they just added this to the terms and conditions.
Although in the description of the Family plan it specifies that plan members should be ‘members of the same household’, people take the name of the plan quite literally and point out that it is not a prerequisite for being a family to live under the same roof.
This is one of those things, where legitimate users have to suffer because of the abusers. In the reports about the news it is mentioned that friends use the feature to pay less ($15 per month divided by six users is just $2.50), but groups all over the internet and social networks are full of messages where people are looking for “family members” to share the plan with. Most of them don’t even know each other.
Still, even if I understand what Spotify tries to prevent, this is the reason to leave the service. Today location data is a king and providing it to the music service is just stupid. Sure they say that they will delete location data right away, but who believes them anymore? The price of not deleting and apologizing later is much lower than what they can get selling or using the data.
I’ve been thinking recently about switching as everyone is so positive about recommendation engine (didn’t work for me previously), but after that I’m definitely staying on Apple Music with my Family Plan.
Although there was a loot of interesting stuff presented, something was definitely amiss at the latest Apple Event. First it was half an hour too short, leaving time for at least one big thing. Second, different release dates for iOS and iPadOS don’t make sense and actually will be messy.
Regarding the first issue. There were a lot of rumors about Apple bringing the reverse wireless charging to the iPhone. This would give the ability to charge the AirPods from the iPhone. It is now rumored Apple scraped this feature as it didn’t hold up to the high standards (Apple and wireless chargers, am I right?).
There were also a lot of rumors about some kind of Tile device, which you could track. Apple didn’t show anything like that. It even added new processor to the iPhone and didn’t bring it up. How un-Apple is it? This U1 chip is specifically designed for proximity based navigation and right now the only feature it will have – you can AirDrop to the specific person by pointing iPhone at them. Imagine this technology used in retail. This could be a game changer – you point your iPhone at something, it shows you the price, you pay with Apple Pay and you are done.
There was absolutely no mention of AR. Again, this is unlike Apple in the recent years. There were rumors of AR headset, I wouldn’t say it should have been shown in this event, but still, no word? Especially considering, that in the GM builds of iOS 13, people are already finding a lot of new mentions of AR.
Regarding release dates for the OS’s. In the new version redesigned Reminders app uses a different format, so if you update your iPhone on September 19 and use this new format it will stop syncing to the iPad, which will still have old Reminders app and old format.
Also, if you use Shortcuts and change anything in one of them on iOS 13, it will stop working on iOS 12. What about universal apps? Can you update your app for iOS 13, while still supporting iOS 12 for the iPad.
There are a lot of questions, which make this event a bit weird. Remember the tag line for the event was By Innovation Only and there was nothing Innovating in that event (except of course Pro font in the camera app on the Pro iPhone).
I hope there is a second event in October, where Apple will be able to bring some light on the features it didn’t show us in this event or should we wait another year now?
Yesterday Apple held its biggest event of the year. As was rumored we’ve seen three new iPhones, watch and so much more. Luckily this time not all rumors came true, we’ve had a couple of surprises. On the other hand, some were expecting too much, so as always my strategy of not reading rumors before the event pays off.
Arcade
If you didn’t notice, Apple is services company now, so it started with two of them. Apple Arcade is gaming service, starting from 100 exclusive high quality games. You will pay the subscription fee and play whatever game you want on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. The games in the trailer look amazing. Considering that Apple announced support for xBox and PS4 controllers, this could be a very big deal for many.
As it often is, game demos are the weakest part of Apple presentation, after Tim Cook said “I won’t waste your time with usual updates” we’ve watched three game demos in a row with one of them being Froger, in 2019.
It will be available September 19 in over 100 countries around the world for a price of $4.99 per month for the whole family. And Apple will give 1 month free trial.
Considering the price, I feel like this is the one to at least try. As I said games look good, the lineup of developers looks strong with some big names and indie.
tv+
As every company under the sun Apple is launching original content. tv+ will have three shows at start adding more every month. Tim Cook was so excited that the trailer for the Morning Show was “one of the most watched trailers ever” it wasn’t even funny.
We also saw a trailer for the TV show See, which looks very promising.
It will cost $4.99 per month for family and will be available in over 100 countries. What was surprising, you will get 1 year of the service included with the purchase of any Apple device. Considering Apple only has a couple of shows at the start and doesn’t have any backlog this is very smart strategy.
iPad
This one was a surprise. There were some rumors about new iPad, but most thought it would be shown in October event later this year.
What Apple did is update it’s most popular iPad, the original size one. It is now 7th generation iPad, they’ve changed screen size a bit, increasing it to 10.2 inches (instead of 9.7). It has updated specs and is shipping on September 30 starting from $329.
Interesting how Apple doesn’t compare it to other tablets (because that market doesn’t even exist), all of the comparisons were with top selling PC and of course iPad beat it in every aspect.
Up until now, this was The iPad to get, considering the price and power you get. It remains the one device in Apple lineup which you can consider inexpensive and well worth every dollar you spend.
watch
Tim Cook started with the video showing how Apple Watch save lives with its ECG function. What was nice this time – it also showed how Apple Watched helped get healthier by asking you to close your rings or stand. Those videos are always Apple at its best.
There will be three new studies – Hearing, Women’s health and Heart and movement study. Those are great, but unfortunately available only in the United States.
And here is the announcement I was most surprised by – new Apple Watch. Watch Series 5 will have THE feature, the one many asked for from the very beginning – always on display, while still having all-day 18 hour battery life.
All the watch faces were optimized for low-power mode when it shows time, so you don’t have to tilt your wrist or tap the screen. This is the feature for getting a new watch, especially if you didn’t upgrade to the Series 4 last year.
As everything in the US, Apple Watch now has a compass. As most of the cities in the US were built considering the directions, this will be helpful to Americans, but also around the world, Maps app will now be able to show where are you heading more precisely.
There will also be international emergency calling in more than 100 countries if you have cellular Apple Watch. Amazing feature, which I hope nobody has to use.
This year Series 5 is available in a couple of new finishes – two Titanium models and white Ceramic. They look great, but will cost accordingly.
Apple Watch Series 5 will start at $399 for GPS model and $499 for cellular. You can already order one and it will ship on September 20.
What also interesting, Apple leaves Series 3 in its lineup for $199. It is great entry price, but only if you don’t care about the look and newest feature. By itself it is ok, but if you ever come across Series 4 or 5, two year old model looks very old and dated.
iPhone
The main star of the event – iPhone. Last year, I think Apple confused buyers with releasing three models which were hard to differentiate for average consumer (believe me, I know, the amount of questions I got about which one should someone buy was like a customer sat – through the roof). Fortunately this didn’t stop iPhone XR to become the most popular iPhone and smartphone in the world.
This year the lineup is much more clearer. First, there is iPhone 11. Which you can consider the standard one – everyone who wants to buy an iPhone this year should get this one. It has 6.1 inch display, Haptic Touch and Spacial Audio.
It also has two cameras this year, but instead of adding telephoto, the second camera is ultra-wide. This will allow you to switch to x0.5, which means you will be able to capture 2 times more of the scene from the same point.
This is also shown in the new camera interface. When you launch it, it will look more immersive, showing you the whole available picture instead of black bars.
Although there is no telephoto camera, Portrait mode is still made using hardware, so it will work on animals, unlike the iPhone XR.
Apple also showed Night mode, which in presentation looked great, but we will need to see comparisons with Google Pixel, where night mode is just out of this world. Hope Apple delivers.
If photography is something Android manufacturers, especially Google, mastered, in videos Apple is still unbeatable. Adding to that ultra-wide and cinematic stabilization, makes it even more impressive.
Front camera was also updated, it is now wider 12MP sensor which will take normal selfie, until you rotate it sideways and it will get wide.
Apple also added 4K video support and slo-mo to the front camera and invented the word Slofies – which is probably officially the worst word of 2019.
A12 processor leads the industry, the overhead it has is not even funny, it is still faster than all the newest Android phones and Apple made it even faster. A13 Bionic is the new processor inside iPhone. It is so ahead, it will take Android manufacturers a couple of years to catch up.
What iPhone XR did have, was amazing all-day and then some battery life. In iPhone 11 it was improved – adding 1 hour.
It will be priced starting from $699 and as I’ve already mentioned, this is the one to get.
iPhone 11 Pro
As Phil Schiller said – this is the first phone Apple called Pro and it is worthy of its name.
There are four new colors – Midnight Green, Space Grey, Silver, Gold. And at least on photos the green looks amazing, I will be surprised if it will be available on first day in enough quantities. The back has a nice matte finish now, which doesn’t even look like glass anymore.
There are two phones iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, with the same sizes as last year of 5.8 and 6.5 inches. It will also have A13 Bionic processor, but one of the biggest improvements is battery life. 4 hours more for iPhone 11 and 5 hours more for iPhone 11 Pro Max. As a XS Max user I can tell you this will be amazing, it will bring phones closer to the main iPhone 11. It will also have 18 watt adapter in the box, so you will be able to charge it faster.
There is now three cameras. The ultra-wide was also added to the Pro models. One amazing thing 3rd party developer Filmic Pro demoed, was shooting video with two cameras at the same time. So you have more different footage for the same moment.
Apple also showed sneak peak for a feature coming later this year called Deep Fusion. What it does is it takes 9 photos (8 of them before you even press a button) and combines them to bring a lot of detail. On stage it looks great, we will have to wait for it to come out.
The iPhone 11 Pro will start at $999 and iPhone 11 Pro Max at $1099 with pre-orders this Friday and shipping on Septemver 20th.
Apple will also keep in it’s lineup iPhone XR for $599 and iPhone 8 for $449.
Some already are saying this was the weakest Apple event in recent history, but I think it was good. Making already great iPad even better, always-on display on the Apple Watch making it even better in the market with almost no competition. And iterative update on the iPhone, which should be expected, as this is a mature market already.
You come to the store, fill up your basket with food and go to the counter. Cashier scans everything, it’s 103.59 EUR, the screen lights up, you look at it and smile – transaction is accepted and your account is charged.
Next morning you look at your watch – 8:47, you can still make it. You run up the stairs and get outside – just a couple of blocks left. Finally the office building is near, but it is on the other side of the road and the light is red. It’s 8:56, you don’t have time, you look left and right, let the last car pass and cross the street. 8:59 you’ve punched your card at work – pure luck.
You get to your desk, get your phone out of the pocket – there are two recent notifications. First, your credit score has been lowered, second – the fine for jaywalking was charged from your account.
This might sound like a utopian future or a conspiracy theory, but this is a reality, at least in China. It started with publicly shaming people using CCTV cameras, facial recognition and billboards to show faces and names of jaywalkers.
As you jaywalk across the street, CCTV picks up your face and sends it to the servers where AI is matching it against the database. This database is also tied up to the credit scoring system – that’s how your score is lowered, and also to the payment system – which lets the government to bill your account for the amount of the fine.
What helps – all of this technology can be provided by just one company – Ant Financial.
Ant Financial
It all started with the square. In 2011 Ant Financial launched a new version of the Alipay app, with a built-in QR code reader. QR codes can help you with the simplest functions, like scan it and open the website, but in this case it had a monetary function. Waiter could print QR code, so you can tip her, beggars could print it out, so you couldn’t dismiss them with a simple “I don’t have cash on me”. It started to propagate all over China. From high-end restaurants and hotels, to fast-food chains and mom and pop shops. Quickly cash became unnecessary in China. Young and old used mobile phones to pay for things offline.
It also worked online, when Jack Ma decided to launch e-commerce site Taobao, the company faced a major problem – although the user activity was high, there were very few transactions – people didn’t trust each other with money. That’s when Alipay was added to the mix.
At first it worked like an escrow mechanism. Buyer would send money to the Taobo bank account and only after confirming receiving the item, Taobao released the funds to the seller. There were two issues with this. First, Alibaba didn’t have any sort of financial license, but Jack Ma decided to risk it. Second, there were errors. Chinese banking system was very antiquated with a lot of manual work. So Alibaba started to cooperate with Chinese banks, together with the first partner – the Commercial Bank of China, Alipay created online version of the process that was once manual. Banks started to partner with Alipay and by the year 2010, the company had connections with more than 200 of them in China.
The next logical step and the one users also asked for – keeping balances in the Alipay account. This would allow to use those funds on Taobao and lower the friction for making the transaction and potentially cheaper. Alipay introduced virtual accounts, which allowed the company to provide more financial services in the future.
In its portfolio Ant Financial also has Yu’e Bao – the worlds largest money market fund. Sesame Credit – a private credit scoring company. ZOLOZ – biometric-based identity verification platform. Ant Cash Now – consumer loan service. Insurance services, banks, credit card products and a couple of joint ventures in India, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong and more.
Ant Financial has well over 700 million users in China (which is about half of the population of the country), it also has passed the 1 billion user mark worldwide. That is one of the factors which allowed it to raise $14 billion with a valuation of $150 billion, which is about the same as the combined market capitalization of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs or all of the FinTech unicorns in US and Europe – combined.
Data Collection
Alipay has everything in its app. You can order food, pay your bills, pay for parking and car insurance, buy movie tickets, it knows about your fines and how well you tip. In Western Internet we are concerned with privacy policies of companies one by one. Facebook has information on you, so does Google, Netflix, Amazon, eBay. Some data brokers try to collect all of it together, buying up everything they can, but there are no incentives for tech giants to sell it. Facebook has to buy information from credit card companies to know what you’ve bought. But here, all of this information is in one app. As you have financial data, social circle and add to that behavioral data and you can “rank” the person pretty easily.
That’s why, when Chinese government decided to issue licenses for the social credit scoring companies, Alibaba was first in line. It was one out of 8 companies who got the license in the beginning of the 2015. With it at hand and all the data it started the development of Sesame Credit.
Sesame Credit
Sesame Credit is a credit scoring system, which analyses all the data available and shows you the score. The range of the Sesame score is between 350-950 points, with 700 and up being excellent credit score and range between 350 and 550 is considered the worst, which will give you more of a punishment than perks.
As this is still an experiment, Sesame Credit is optional, but nobody knows if it still calculates your score even if you didn’t signup.
It is reported that credit score consists of your general credit history (35%), financial status (25%)- the amount of money on users Alipay account, online behavior and preference (20%), personal characteristics (15%) and relationships (5%).
Two years ago Sesame Credit launched a program called “Credit Medical Treatment”, which is available to those with the score of 650 or higher. It allows to cut lines and pay for treatment upfront in the app. If the normal waiting time in the hospital is more than 2 hours, with “Credit Medical Treatment” it drops below 1 hour mark.
Try out before buying
On Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall, users with high credit score can try out items before buying them. That way you don’t have a risk of regretting buying decision. Not only that, but there are also frequent promotions, such as the ability to try out the new Ford or some new smartphone for 30 days without the need to buy it afterwards. This is only available to the people with the highest score.
No Deposits
If you have high enough credit score in many instances you won’t need a deposit when you otherwise would have. One example is bike renting platforms which allow users with credit score of 650 or higher to rent bicycles in the bigger cities in China without deposit.
Not only that, but you don’t need the deposit in other places, like using shared umbrella, or public phone charger. Going back to hospitals and “Credit Medical Treatment”, with the score of over 600 you don’t need a deposit when renting a wheelchair.
It goes even further, in some instances you don’t need a deposit even when you are renting the apartment if you have high enough score.
Libraries
There are even perks in Public Libraries for people with higher scores. If you are eligible, you don’t need to pay a down payment and can set up library card for free. In some libraries you don’t even have to set up a card and just borrow books using your ID.
Lounges at Train Stations
As China’s train stations sometimes can get very crowded, especially in peak seasons, for members with high credit score there are now special lounges, where they can relax. In this case though, you not only need a high credit score, but you need to buy a higher fair ticket or have a platinum status.
Some of the governments are starting to accept Sesame Credit. For example, users with a score over 750 can apply for Canadian visas without the need for submitting bank statements. You just download the copy of the report in the Sesame Credit app, which is generated specifically for visa application and provide it to the embassy.
The Dark Side
While the perks are nice, some of the elements of credit systems are Orwellian at best. In some areas of China, when you call person on the phone, the siren sound is played and you hear a recorded message warning that the person is on the blacklist, because they have low social credit score, it also asks you to urge the person to pay the debts.
You will have a lower score, if you don’t have friends on the platform, or if you don’t pay your bills through Alipay, or even if you don’t buy anything on Alibabas e-commerce websites. It means that to have all the perks of the high credit score you have to be all-in in the Ant Financial ecosystem. If you are someone that uses Alipay here and there, when you apply for Sesame Credit, you will see your score closer to the bottom half. This could incline you to spend more on Taobao, pay your bills through Alipay, that means having more money on the account, which can be then used for other purposes as well.
People are talking about the green bubbles and Apple ecosystem lock-in, when a student doesn’t get added to the iMessage group chats, because he has Android and the group chat goes green. Now, in China, if couple of friends decided to see, who’s credit score is higher. Their income may differ and so may their habits. When four out of five realize that their score is much higher than that of their friend, what do they do? Is it worth it to abandon the friend just to get their score get higher (or not to get lower)? For some it is. They will either shut him out of their lives or force him to make decisions he doesn’t want to make, just to improve his credit score, so he stays friends with them.
And after social credit score becomes mandatory in a year, anyone will be able to see anyone’s score. The best case scenario will be, people will try to help and encourage those with lower scores to change some habits. But most probably people will just isolate lower scoring friends, because there is a risk of your score getting lower because of such friendship.
But the biggest and probably scariest controversy about credit score in China was its implementation of the blacklist. Its official name – the List of Dishonest Persons Subject to Enforcement, the catalogue of excluded people. By the summer of 2019 there were 7.49 million names. What is a punishment? You can’t buy plane tickets, the system says our are “not qualified”, you can’t buy properties, take loans or travel on top-tier trains. You can get on the list even for stealing just a pack of cigarettes and there is no appeal mechanism, it just ruins your life.
One businessman was placed on the list after a dispute with another company, after that the banks cut him off, so he was unable to pay employees salaries, business partners abandoned him. It was like torture. Luckily he was able to pay the court the money it ordered and was removed from the blacklist.
In the west
As China is full steam ahead, the west doesn’t want to be behind forever. There is no shortage of FinTech companies in Europe and US. In 2018 American FinTech companies received $11.9 billion in funding, while European received $3.5 billion. There were 39 VC-backed unicorns in FinTech which combined were worth $147.37 billion. Those are all record numbers.
In Europe the biggest FinTech companies are N26 and Revolut. N26 as of valuation had 2.3 million users and raised $300 million with valuation of $2.7 billion, while Revoluts last valuation was $1.7 billion with more than 3 million users.
N26 has a banking license in Germany, which gives it the ability to provide credit to clients in certain markets, as it does already. Revolut up until recently had an EMI license, which prohibits crediting clients, so it was solely focused on acquiring the user base. In the end of 2018 it also got banking license in Lithuania, which will give the company the ability to issue credits – the goal of every financial company.
In the spring and later autumn of 2014, Google led two rounds of what could be described as quietest $160 million combined investment in Credit Karma. Search engine company didn’t even bother to comment the news. So what is Credit Karma? It allows you to view your credit history weekly for free, which is something unprecedented in the US. Not only does it give you the graph showing your score over time, how it compares to others by income, age and state, how certain factors impact your score, but you can also simulate how your score changes by paying off debt or applying for new credit.
It also allows users to aggregate their financial data from banks, credit cards, loans and transactions and provides information on habits that could be changed in order to improve your financial health.
In the end of 2018 Google obtained banking license in Lithuania, which allows it to provide payment services all over the Europe.
Those are only preparations, while Apple in partnership with Goldman Sachs already started its expansion into the world of credit. Using its strong stance on privacy and its clout among users it launched Apple Card. Company claims it will give you the lowest interest rate possible. It will show you how to pay off your debt so you don’t have to pay any fees, again, with stated goal of improving your financial health.
Why do those companies provide you mostly free services, try to grow the biggest user base and promise to improve your financial health, especially Goldman Sachs, who Apple partnered with – not the most beloved bank in the world? Credit is a very profitable business and when you hook the client, for many it is close to impossible to get out. Your good financial health means companies can give you more credit, to the point where your income barely covers the monthly payment. This is the ultimate lock-in.
With cash practically going away all over the world, there is hardly anything we can do in the future other than use those services, or at least one of them to function in the world. The only possibility to somehow distance yourself from all of it, is to not opt-in without thinking about the consequences to all the new features, regardless of how futuristic and fun they sound, second – try to use only services from the companies you trust at least some and third and final advice, which is very important also now – don’t get into too much debt, try to control your finances yourself, understand where you spend it. This will help you immensely going into the future.
If your titanium Apple Card comes into contact with contaminants that can cause stains, follow these steps to clean your card:
1. Gently wipe with a soft, slightly damp, lint-free microfiber cloth.
2.Moisten a soft, microfiber cloth with isopropyl alcohol and gently wipe the card.
Some fabrics, like leather and denim, might cause permanent discoloration that will not wash off.
I was surprised to see the amount of hot takes this Apple support article got last week. Blogs called the card precious, the instructions – insane and wild, and some are proposing you leave your Apple Card at home. Which you should probably do, as it is mostly designed to use with the Apple Pay.
On the last episode of The Vergecast the theory was – Apple didn’t get the physical card before even shipping it (which is nonsense, believe me, I work in the FinTech company) and that Apple became so out of touch, they’ve handled it only in the sterile environment.
It is a white card, every credit card gets warned out and scratched. For some cards it takes longer, for some faster. I think Apple did test the card and that it is precisely why they’ve put this article. It is the same as other cards, it will discolor as any other card and when it does for tech-bloggers – it will be the end of the world. So put the article now, make everyone have a good laugh and forget about it.
Yesterday Apple updated it’s notebook lineup. Let’s start from the good news, MacBook Air got True Tone and lowered price of $1099 (with additional $100 discount for students) and MacBook Pro got quad-core processor from the start and there is no MacBook Escape now – every MacBook Pro has a Touch ID and Touch Bar. The starting price of the device is $1299.
This makes things a little bit more clear, until you start to choose. For $1299, which will you choose, baseline MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM (as $200 is the price for doubling the original 8GB). As someone who has an 8GB MacBook Pro, I would kill for more RAM, especially when trying to open a bunch of tabs and making reports in the Excel. But MacBook Air processor is much slower under heavy load. On the other hand the battery on the Air is amazing and it is a bit lighter.
One would ask, but what about one-port MacBook, but there is none as of yesterday. Apple killed the most portable MacBook it had. So here is what Apple MacBook lineup looks like right now:
If you want Apple computer as of today you have a couple of choices – MacBook Air as a default for everyone, if you want something more fun and simple – iPad Pro and if you need something more powerful – MacBook Pro.
With cleaning up iPads a couple of months ago and this I like that Apple is bringing back a bit of focus to its products.
Tom Warren at The Verge wrote an article about Bill Gates interview and I want to start with one particular part.
Many had assumed that Microsoft’s missed mobile opportunity was a Steve Ballmer era mistake. [Ballmer famously laughed at the iPhone]() , calling it the “most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.”
This is a pet peeve of mine. Ballmer did laugh at the price of the iPhone, but what nobody mentions again and again – Apple cut the price shortly after the release of the phone. The price was too high at that time. This doesn’t excuse Microsoft form blowing the mobile, but I think journalists should be factual.
Regarding Gates statement, Google did win the smartphone war, but after that Microsoft became so much more. For the user all of this is good. The more companies there are the better. If Microsoft dominated mobile market together with the desktop, I don’t think anything good would come out of it.
I’m mostly all-in in the Apple ecosystem, but I still use Microsoft Office and gladly pay for it (as Microsoft made it pretty easy). I try not to use Google products, from the privacy perspective. I have Google account at work, but try not to use anything for personal stuff.
Another interesting point is that in technology somehow, we’ve come to the place, where competition is not as strong. We have one dominant player, second – distant one and nothing after that. Take desktop OS as an example, there is Windows which is dominant, than there is a macOS and … it will never be the year of Linux on the desktop. Only now, when the market went to tablets, do you see ChromeOS emerging mostly in schools and universities.
Search is another example. In most of the countries there is Google and nothing else. In post-soviet countries Yandex mostly dominates with Google being second. But even Microsoft with all of its money and position with desktop OS can’t make Bing a worthy contender. And taking it back to the Bill Gates quote – mobile OS. There is Android which dominates market share. There is iPhone which dominates hardware revenue and nothing else. A couple of players tried to enter the market, but without the 3rd party developer support there won’t be users and without users, developers won’t have reason to build their apps for another OS.
Although two players make competition, but duopoly is not the best situation. For most of the people there is no choice. In the mobile OS market, if you want to choose another player you loose a lot. If you want to leave iOS for Android, you will become green bubble, you will lose access to your movies and TV shows, maybe music you bought. You won’t have first party end-to-end encrypted messages. You won’t be able to use Apple Watch. AirPods won’t work as good as with an iPhone.
Consider car manufacturers. First of all there are a couple. You have an actual choice. Japanese, German, French, Italian, Korean, American, etc. If you drove BMW and want your next car to be Audi, what will you lose? At most the membership in the Facebook group. Nothing else. You will just change your car.
Vendor lock-in is an interesting dilemma. I benefit from it a lot in the day-to-day life. Having everything from Apple makes it play together nicely. As an example, I unlock my Apple Watch with my iPhone and later my MacBook with an Apple Watch. It all syncs, I use Apple Music as it works better with a Watch and Siri, although Spotify might even be a better product. But on the other hand, if Apple starts (or one might say already started) making shitty notebooks, it will be hard to buy Windows PC or Chromebook, as they won’t play so nicely with my other devices.
And here we come to a point. Although I am a strong believer in the market making everything right, maybe in some cases some intervention is good? It helped to stop Microsoft dominance, because it felt government looking over the shoulder at every move the company made, so decisions were informed by that. Should the US government break-up Apple? I don’t think so, but we should be asking those questions and not blindly following everything the company does.
It has been a while since Facebook announced its cryptocurrency Libra and wallet – Calibra. I’m not a crypto expert, so I won’t explain the differences between real cryptocurrency and stablecoin. I’ve only read that it would be backed by “real” global currencies and short-term government securities, thus almost removing the volatility of other crypto currencies.
With the help of a lot of companies, excluding the biggest financial ones (there are no banks in the list of partners), Facebook will become the new Federal Reserve. It will “print” and “destroy” money as it wishes.
Users will be sold on the idea of easy transfers, as almost anyone has an account with Facebook. You won’t need to think about the currency exchange, you will just use Libra instead of dollars and euro.
I’m not sure what is Facebook thinking. How anyone in the company thinks it’s a good idea. With almost every country looking into Facebook, its role in the elections and the dissemination of fake news. On the day one, a lot of politicians came out saying they want to look into this before Facebook launches it.
Also, why announce it a year in advance? Right now, I’m not sure this will ever see the light of day in its current form. This is either something Facebook will close, just to show that it is over regulated and use it in the future as an example, that it can’t do anything without the government interference. Or governments will take hold of it. Regulate it. And it won’t have an effect, that Facebook hopes to achieve.
