seems like a pretty clear cut case of 'will of the people' overriding government authoritarianism. I'm not arguing that there isn't good reason to ban the fireworks in an area that frequency suffers devastating fires, but this isn't exactly that. People are doing this in the city in substantial numbers, enough that the 'government' should rethink the model. California seems plagued with 'nany state' tendancies.

I just wonder how the people don't vote these people out?

I don't think that Desktop Linux is going to take over as a result of these things, but I am seeing SOME small movement for people that went looking as soon as the ads started showing up in Windows. A lot of these went to Mac, but a not-insignificant number jumped to Linux on their existing hardware. Not earth-moving numbers, but it's one step closer to a threshold where Windows loses it's 'defacto' status.

Plenty of time for Microsoft to adjust for sure, but I think the ads are enough to turn more serious buyers away or have them consider alternatives. We've already seen a ~5% of market gain for MAC and 2% for linux (which is about a 50% increase on Mac and a 100% increase on Linux) in the last 10 years. If you remove the 'value' end of the market these numbers are more substantial.

Windows is still king and will be for quite some time, but there is some threshold number where the operating system is irrelevant. When we hit that point, and some major players like Adobe make Linux a first-class target, and if game devs make Linux first-class then the dominos will fall.

I suspect the new xbox licensing model is an attempt by Microsoft to keep gaming tied to Windows.

What vmware has is a product that doesn't have any near-peers at the enterprise level. There are substantially better alternatives at the SMB level and vmware is losing them in droves.

The thing to watch is how the 'SMB' level products are working very hard to bridge the enterprise gap and become near-enough peers to vmware to get the enterprise over.

Now, there are radically different models that are peer-level with vmware, they're just so foreign a design to existing IT staff that it's a difficult migration. Openstack for instance can likely fit right into vmware but it's a wildly different toolkit.

So this is sort of a race to extract maximum profits before enterprises re-tool or another product elevates a bit.

it's interesting because I use this feature quite often. airdrop and airplay is a constant for me, and I often use continuity camera for meetings because I can convert from a desktop view to my iphone and show poeple things easier. Similarly taking notes etc I can move it to my ipad and draw on things mid-meeting in a way that is much nicer than using the mouse. imessage and facetime 'continuity' might be what keeps me on mac entirely if not for great battery on my macbook and ipads.

Now, it took a while to remember to use these things and get muscle memory for it, but now that I've done that these are indespensible tools

A clone font is not piracy, it's a clone, and it's completely legal. There is no irony here and no piracy.

You might consider how you would behave if someone criticised you. Would you let that person into your home? These are, at least on paper, private facilities.

I think this is a distraction from the real problem. These 'public' like facilities are often built, refurbished, or maintained with public funds. The moment that happens, some public access rules need to be in place. They exist on the backs of taxpayers but get to operate as if they are a private space with no compromises.

not semantics. SE was previous gen specs. 6E is modern specs but trimmed down. ie, 6E has the single 48MP camera, skipping the telephoto lens but it's the modern camera. 6E is the modern CPU, just with 1 less GPU core. The SE was 1-2 generations of CPU behind, and not just a single camera, a couple generations out of date camera. SE was like taking a 1-2 generation out of date phone and throwing it in a blastic box and calling it new. The 6E is a current gen phone and features with no frills.

I never considered an SE for my family because it was so cut-rate across the board. The 6E is probably going to be the next upgrade for the parents and the kids. I'm pretty excited for it because despite the price tag, it's a good value in the facetime+icloud ecosystem.

No apple fanboi'ing here, but Apple's got a good lockin with facetime and simple sharing for non-technical people and that wins the war for the 'family' even if i lose out on android tricks.

it's not an 'SE'. SE was always a sort of modern clone of the previous generations. the E is a pared down version of the modern kit. ie, they 'cancelled' the SE and replaced it.

The 6E is in-line with similarly capable phones. The market has just moved up this far.

This is a bit of a dated perspective. Chinese labor isn't especially low in 2025, that's mostly propaganda.

China has 'light touch' regulations and a simpler tax structure. The chinese government would be considered to subsidize these companies by western economics, but mostly they've removed most tax hurdles and through CCP 'integration' into companies reduces the component prices between the companies. 'everything is a comodity' in China and compenents are priced like they were a comodity.

It's a huge mistake to think China is being successful because of slave labor, because it's just false. One of China's challenges is that they have an upward moving workforce and not enough replacement labor. Probably their main problem these days.

yeah, i think the 'do everything' is probably the failing here. I like Visor's concept, just do the basics, people can put in airpods or over the ears of their choosing if they want. Just make really great floating screens.

lots and lots including myself. this is a dream for mobile workers. Many are standing in line for maybe Visor or to see what Facebook comes up with.

same way a teacher can tell which kids copied which kid's homework.

I can't imagine buying this even as an Apple household until siri 'works'. Siri is by a good margin, the most irritating 'smart' home assistant.

I'm perceiving Apple in decline. The 'just works' isn't just working, Siri feels like a 10 year out of date tool, and new products aren't really solving things.

'copies' vs theft is a serious concern. and their 'paper' doesn't necessarily mean fact.

it's not one thing but a combo

-Fast enough. iphone 14 pro max is/was fast enough
-Solid camera. I upgraded 14->16 pro max specifically for the camera
-all-day battery. iphone 14-16 also have this handled.
-integrations. and this is the iPhone trap for me, airdrop, imessage, facetime. I know there are alternatives but nothing has worked quite like facetime for us and I live-or-die on imessage. These are mostly seamless and simple.
-USB-C, so iphone 14 had to go...
-wireless charging
-durability

No bloat, no extra bundled junk. This mostly eliminates samsung for me. Also had so so so many issues with samsung phones and basically all samsung products. I have had samsung zoom envy, but I think non-zoom the iphones take much nicer photos.

I don't need a lot of customization, I need functionality. A phone that takes great pictures that works right out of my pocket no fuss. easy share images/videos directly via airdrop (quicks share is clunky in comparison, and convert a phone call to a facetime live so 'grandma' can take the call.

I'm interested in something like a One+13 which checks all the boxes except for the software bits for me.

One of the things that irritates me most about the smartphone ecosystem is that basically all android vendors (or maybe it's google's fault) are chasing features to beat iPhone but missing the base requirements that most iPhone people want. Yeah, top-tier androids have great cameras, often huge batteries, but converting a call to video is wildly less effective than facetime, google messages on web is a functional but 'afterthought' imessage replacement, and quick share isn't nearly a clean as airdrop.

I really like the One+13 for instance, checks a LOT of the boxes for me. A new Pixel might as well. But I really need the software bits to line up.

And to be clear, I'm on iPhone for features, not fandom. I like my 16 Pro Max less than I liked me 14 Pro Max, and the 'AI' bits seem to get more in the way and feel more like bloatware so iPhone has lost some of it's luster for me.