Accurate. The laws need to find a balance as I get shareholders who took a risk on business would like to see a return, but it is way too slanted to the point that the risk is on our entire society. We need people to be in those laws not just shareholders.
I think it's a great idea in theory. Basically a form of decentralised loans. You need money to invest, you sell shares of your company to get some cash. In return the shareholders get a return if you succeed. And of course they can sell their shares if now your company is worth more.
Seems alright with me tbh.
I scrolled away and had to come back because I just kept repeating the sentence in my head. If Apple Jacks gets $19B in profit I better join the cereal industry.
Please vote with your money. Don't waste money and buy overpriced stuff and certainly don't support this kind of business practice. And fuck the shareholders too. If they want money, then work like most people.
Already do. Used to buy new phone every year. Now it’s every three years or so. That is completely due to price and lack of compelling innovation. Don’t care if shareholders make money or not. I just like good value.
I do not understand all the rage, Apple does not provide any vital services or products. They can charge anything they want. If you don't like it then don't buy it.
but you still lock yourself in their offer space when you also bought devices that kind of depend on those services: music streaming for the homepod, fitness+ for watch, cloud storage for iphone photos...
every time you switch from apple to a third party, it's ever so slightly less convenient, and they probably conceive their products around that notion.
None of the products that had the price increased are locked in. Apple TV plus doesn’t even need an Apple device and has many competitors, Apple News has plenty of competitors, there are games you can buy without Apple Arcade though most do stupid in app purchases.
That is the thing with for profit companies, especially publicly traded ones. No matter how much they make, it is never enough. Next quarter must always be higher than this quarter or the world is on fire and heads will roll.
They are epitome of passive aggressive capitalism. “Will keep doin unethical shit til they make a law not to and even then you have to sue me to make me stop”
The problem is that since there is no real competition all this shit propagates to other companies. If Apple is charging 1000 for a shitty phone, you better believe others will follow suit and charge 900-1000$
Meanwhile the fucking phone should actually cost 200$...
The thing I loved about Apple 15+ years ago was that even though the hardware was expensive, it was semi modular and tightly integrated with the software and you got an offline product that you could also buy Apple server equipment and software for. 10 years ago was still ok but things were starting to erode.
These days there is no server software, no modularity, no ways to use enough of the new features without a cloud subscription and the hardware is just as expensive and designed with defects to limit it's lifespan (in my opinion). They want to have their cake and eat it too. I was a proud Apple fan boy but not a blind one. Well now they can fuck off. Bye.
Apple’s been ignoring professional users for a while now. Folks in sound and video production were the ones who kept them alive in the 90s. But they turned Final Cut Pro into iMovie+ and their professional machines are impossible to upgrade or repair.
Remember the outrigger cases? Or the G3/G4? Beautiful design, great airflow, and one latch and the whole thing opened up.
Remembering the G3 and G4s had daughterboards? So you can not only change out the memory, but also change out the CPU/GPU. It was a great time to be an Apple fan back then.
Was also a fanboy 15+ years ago. First they got rid of the Macbook 17". Then they got started soldering memory to the motherboard. Thats when I left. It just got progressively worse ever since.
I can get the TV+ hike. I don’t like it, but I get it. When TV+ launched it had very little content and no one was going to pay for that little content unless it was cheap. But now there is a pretty good library of new stuff, and it’s usually of better quality than what’s floating around on HBO.
Arcade price hikes - now that seems like a good reason to cancel Arcade. If they’re going to add better games that take advantage of the new fast processors, I can understand console tier pricing. But the games still mostly feel like mobile games. And not mobile as in “Nintendo Switch,” mobile as in “flappy bird.”
The logic is that others raised subscription prices and got away with it, so they can too. Masks have come off in the last 1-2 years and corporations try to milk us for every last cent, using any excuse (e.g. Covid, energy prices) they can. Inflation is not a law of nature, it’s corporate greed for more profits
You got downvoted, but I agree. HBO isn’t what is once was, although there are a few gems. TV+ seems to be the place where people are allowed to spend an ungodly amount of money on a show right now.
Honestly, arcade is a cool idea, but it’s never been cool enough to buy on its own. I feel like the majority of people that have it just get it as part of Apple One.
Also short selling. Maybe I don't have a full understanding of how it works, but I don't think you should be able to place money down in hopes of the decline of a company. I don't think that really encapsulates the spirit of the word "investment".
Like I thought the whole idea of stock was to put money into companies thag you believe in so they can have extra capital to grow, and then you get a cut of it. How in the world did people figure out a way to bet against companies and profit off of them losing? It just opens the doors for even more insider trading and corporate sabotage.
Fighting for years against right to repair, seeing the sentiment stay against them and the EU forcing them to be more repairable, leading to them suddenly jump on the right to repair train isn't losing? Interesting.
And why would I want an apple anything? They get cheap labor so....what the investors want more money? Never had an iPhone or apple product never will.
Hate to burst your bubble on that one, but all of the latest and greatest phones are made by cheap labour these days. Apple uses China and India, Samsung uses Vietnam, Google uses China and Vietnam with some assembly in the US.
I just have second hand ipod touches and manage my collection by burning cds through media monkey to them. There is so many mp3 players out there that look good but when you get them the software is junk.
Why would anyone need a dedicated piece of hardware to play mp3s these days? My $250 smartphone accepts SD cards up to 1 terabyte, plays flacs, and runs whatever media software you want. I was using GoneMad until updates turned that to shit and now I'm happily using PowerAmp. But there are dozens of others I haven't even tried.
I had a 5th Gen iPod video back in 2006 and loved the thing like it was my firstborn child but eventually it broke and I got a smartphone and have never felt the need for another one.
You call it slave wages, for them its living wages. Im not supporting Apple. But unemployment for young over there so though, working at Foxconn seems like upscale to them
Very untrue. Consumers have the power to buy far cheaper Android phones where they have far more freedoms, but not only do the majority of American consumers refuse to do this, they voluntarily and systematically shame those who do.
Statistically, Most American consumers are pretty dumb and act against their own interests
Workers and consumers actually have all the power, they just don't want to inconvenience themselves by using it. Collective action has destroyed empires and absolutely can annihilate multinationals.
I’ve been an Apple loyalist since 1993. Practically everything I’ve loved about the company has gone to shit in the past few years. It used to be inspirational, seamless, intuitive. Now every new OS update makes something needlessly complex and confusing.
On top of that, they’re increasing prices for their services. I genuinely love Apple TV+ and still think with the increase that it’s an incredible deal. Still, they can suck a dick if they think I’m falling prey to this annual price increase bullshit. Apple stopped being an industry leader under Cook and became a basic vanilla consumer electronics and digital services company. It’s fucking disappointing.
What’s worse, they still do most things better than the competition so there’s little to do but hope things don’t break and disable auto updates. I have nearly every product category they put out but as things start to fail, I will not be replacing them. Instead, I’ll simply choose a more simple life without excessive tech.
I have thought about doing this in the past. I eat, sleep and breath technology and also work in the field so I feel it would be difficult for me to make this transition.
I know for sure that my Apple Watch will be the first to go since they've handicapped the OS and I'll never upgrade from OS 9. My Apple TV is one of my most used devices but it's very likely that I get rid of that along with my TV within the next five years (despite having well over 1,000 movies on my Plex server). iPad might be the next on the list in favor of just a Mac mini and iPhone.
Although, my ideal end-game (what I DREAM about), is just an Apple Watch and iPad. It doesn't seem like Apple's interested in making that a thing though. And, even if they did, I no longer trust them to make it "just work". Oh, how I'd love to abandon iPhone. The 12 Mini I have is about the right size but the camera bump is still ridiculous. I just might switch to a dumb phone if Apple refuses to offer reasonably sized, slim, camera-bumpless phones.
I'm approaching middle middle-age soon. I've invested so much of my life (and money) in tech, I think it's time to step back and enjoy the disconnected life I should have had as a young adult. There's no reward. There's no freedom. No simplicity. I do worry if it's even possible though.
You could even argue because no one needs to buy any of their stuff, it could be a good thing, because you could tax those extra profits and put it towards subsidising something everyone needs.
I find fanboyism pretty much a naïve attitude to have. These are large companies that only have one aim in mind, and that is to make as much money as they can out of you. That is not the same as buying into an infrastructure that gives you a comfort zone. All phone companies strife to push people into that comfort zone, where they do not want to change. On that I am guilty as charged.
All in all you spend your money where you feel happier about it. If Apple want to out price their products then people will find alternatives. I never understand this culture of griefing people for having differing comfort zones. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on calling out people buying a bad deal, rather than just educating people on where the good deals are to be had.
I think there's a distinction to be made between being a fan and being a fanboi. I like AMD, but I also know Bulldozer was a disaster, the GPU division tends to over promise and under deliver, and their marketing and naming is covered in self-inflected wounds. Then there's people who bought the AMD-branded mountain bike, a cheap Chinese bike with some vinyl AMD logo stickers slapped on with a $300 markup, and I don't get those people at all.
I think that you mean by distinction, what you really mean some have a sensible approach. Both are likely to buy a product just by preference.
As for people buying the less informed option, if people are happy with their purchases, then let them have at it. It is hard to compare anything with the disappointment of buying something you are getting enjoyment from, only to find some smart Alec calling you an idiot. It is great to see guides on best purchases before you buy them, but once a purchase has been made there is no real going back on that.
News+ was worthless and they dropped the one show I gave a shit about because Jon Stewart wasn't towing the line for Chinese propaganda. This was easy to not give a fuck about already, and they are making it even easier.
Goddamn they were proud of that title "Apple Jack"(originally hard apple cider concentrated by freezing the water out vs heat distillation of the alcohol itself) and "Apple Juice" both make appearances. Gotta love El Reg.
I really like the idea of mandatory profit distribution to workers.
Imagine a world where this (or even half) gets divided equally by all apple workers. So much money going back into the economy, and a much smaller incentive to maximize profits...
Not sure if I was getting a sweet deal or what but I'm currently paying 4.99/mo. They are raising prices ro 9.99. In what universe would anybody think doubling prices is okay?
Subscription pricing has been on the rise for nearly every service imaginable, and Apple isn't about to miss the opportunity to squeeze its customers for a little more.
In a statement provided to The Register, Apple said it'd begun rolling out new subscription pricing "in the US and select international markets."
Apple typically notifies customers by email of upcoming price increases, but this humble vulture has yet to receive such a notice.
"We are focused on delivering the best experiences possible for our customers by consistently adding high-quality entertainment, content, and innovative features for our services."
In August, executives boasted that services revenues reached an all-time high in Q3, with the company counting over a billion paid subscriptions.
Last quarter Apple as a whole made $221 million a day in profit and paid an effective tax rate of 12.5 percent [PDF].
The original article contains 378 words, the summary contains 141 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Apple users can probably stomach it. Not like they can't afford 100$/year or so after paying 1000$ for a phone, 2000$ for a laptop, and don't even know how much else for peripherals. They'll gladly do it again, so of course 200$/year for a subscription ain't much. They probably pay more for their phone bill.
Why would I be salty? I have money too, but choose to save it by buying stuff at half the price that doesn't lock me in. The rest of the money is invested in crypto, ETFs, or on my bank for a rainy day.
If people are willing to pay a steep price for Apple's products, then it should mean that they can afford marginal increases to their overall Apple spending. If not, they shouldn't be buying Apple 🤷
Why can't it be both? Just because you have money and can realistically afford these devices, doesn't mean you should buy it. Purchasing tells Apple you're fine with the price.
Subscribe to a different service. Choose to download your own music. Buy albums direct from the artists and rip them yourself. There are several solutions to switching away from Apple services. Whether you're willing to give up some inconvenience for the sake of switching is entirely up to you.
You should read the article because this isn't about phone prices. It's about stuff that you actually can only buy from them.
We're backsliding from a world where you could have just one or two streaming platforms and basically get access to everything to one that's even worse than old cable packages.