Yes, the emoji team really needs to get back to engineering the hardware architecture of the next Mac Pro.
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Apple's New Memoji vs. Samsung's AR Emoji
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And the people working on national defense have nothing to do with the people working on environmental protection. But, to the extent that you spend money on one rather than the other, it is a reflection of priorities for budgetary resources.
I have no idea how many people at Apple are working on these silly emoji, but it is a reflection of Apple’s priorities that this stuff can get done but they can’t provide a simple sensible update to their highly popular workhorse MBA laptop. Or, they can’t significantly improve tablet productivity by enabling mouse support for iPad (which has been available for years via jailbreak, and does require software resources to develop).
As I have said before, Apple clearly believes that these emoji are popular, and they can maximize profits by creating them rather than focusing on releasing timely updates to the MBA/Mac Mini, or making the iPad much more productive by enabling mouse support. If you look at their revenue share, the iPhone is clearly the dominate product, so Apple is pursuing profit maximizing priorities. That’s fine...it’s a business. But, don’t be surprised that Mac and iPad customers get frustrated when they can’t get updates to the devices they use everyday for school or work, but they can get stupid animated emoji that make silly faces.
There’s a reason why both Samsung and apple use this
There’s a market for it!
What’s useful for one isn’t for another
As a former editor, I like to give the current editors some slack. I put more blame on the stupid feature and both companies hyping said feature than macrumors running an article around it.
Even if most of the comments are negative, and I’m not sure most of them are, it’s attracting attention. From MacRumors POV, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
It is all about which article warrants attention. I rarely comment on articles these days as I get my knuckles wrapped for criticising what I consider unimportant ,the likes of Memoji. Usually I will head straight to specific Mac articles to offer help on MacRumours but sometimes I browse the articles of the day. It is a sign of the times the likes of Memoji and Emoji get such wide coverage.
So you think that unplugging 2 hubs when it’s time to pack up and leave is worse than having to manually disconnect 10-12 peripherals? I will take this setup over a traditional MacBook Pro with its myriad of (non—USB c) ports any time of the day.
Anyone who understands Apple’s key philosophy will understand that their end goal is to make technology more personal for the end user.
In this context, the Mac will continue to be the least capable product category when it comes to making technology more personal and as such, resources and attention within Apple will continue to flow to wearables.
The haters think “Apple is neglecting the Mac!”
The ones who truly understand Apple go “Yup, just another typical day in business for Apple.”
Would you leave the peripheral's attached to the hubs? Or would you be disconnecting 2 hubs + 10-12 peripheral's? Personally, i would just have a device that doesn't need dongles to begin with, isn't locked down, and doesn't have thermal/keyboard/qc issues. But this is personal preference. Although, I'm pretty sure there are some folks here that won't buy a product unless it's extremely limited, and requires dongles galore.
Not everything that can be disconnected needs to be taken out. That’s the whole point of a hub. So one of them could be connected to all your desktop peripherals (power, monitor, usb hub, Ethernet jack, wired keyboard and mouse etc), and in a pinch, you could even just toss the other hub into your bag.
I was recently issued a HP elite tablet for work. It has a single usb C and usb A port. My desktop setup lets me connect everything via just a single cable, and it’s super convenient. Here’s what it looks like.
What you don’t see is the dongle / hub behind the tablet connecting all the wires. When it’s time to go to class, I just take out one cable, slap on the keyboard and walk away. When I return to my desk, connect the single usb cable and everything comes back on.
I think sometimes, real innovation comes when you have to design around constraints. Let’s see, I only have a single usb C port. How can I make the most out of this scenario while minimising the downsides?
I agree that the keyboard and thermal issues with the new MBPs are on Apple, but I do understand why they chose to drop every other port in favour of USB-C. Yes, the transition is supposed to suck, and that’s the whole point.
That’s all great stuff to augment the company’s hardware strategy.
Not to substitute it.
Here’s a hint for you - the people at Apple who work on these software things are not the same people who work on hardware.
I have a more specific hint to you: The Mac hardware team has dissolved into a generic hardware team that does everything from (mostly) iDevices and dongles to (scarcely) Mac hardware.
That's is the big issue about priorities and dispersion of valuable know-how
All the (surrogate-) gimmickery around it won't help that and is mostly raised to draw attention from the core issue in this tragedy - which is the only point I made
Happy memoji-ing.
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There never was a “Mac hardware team.” Apple always had an org structure based on function, not based on product line. That’s why there is no internal battle between teams to prevent cannibalization. That’s ALWAYS been how they operated.
yes. They are.
MKBHD, a Self admitted Apple fanboy also identified this behaviour during his iPhoneX review as he was able to cover up the sensors and still use the AR Emoji. It's speculated that Apple is only using the 3d depth sensor for facetime and as an initial depth check (but not a required one) when starting up the Animoji platform. But actual detection of motion is done by the standard selfie camera.
Apple knows their strategy and has prioritized and developed a (working) strategy based on data that is unavailable to us. Even for the data that is available to us, it's obvious many people with iPhones like these features. With over a billion active iPhones, Apple has their priorities straight.
You make it sound like your Mac and iPad are unusable. Simply false. You're just upset you aren't getting enhancements YOU think are important. I love my iPad. I don't care about mouse support. I get software and security updates and I'm very happy. I only bring this up because what you or I think doesn't matter, so I'm countering your focus group of 1 with my own focus group of 1. CLEARLY, Apple would do other things if it made sense and the features you're frustrated about are not shared by enough people or doesn't comply with Apple's strategy to be a reality.
Apple is executing a brilliant strategy that has made then 2X more profitable than the next most profitable company. The shareholders own Apple and as a shareholder, I want them maximizing profit. Why wouldn't they? Bottom line, Apple knows more than your focus group of 1.
You'll get incremental updates on things you want when it makes sense for Apple's strategy. I have full confidence in their leadership team to execute, because that's all they do.
I'll have to relook at it, But MKBHD was able to keep using his for a while. I think in his original iPhone X he even demoed it while recording that it was still working.
Apple may have however instituted a check as a means to keep Animoji exclusive to devices with FaceID. However, it's been evidenced enough that the FaceID tech isn't actually required for Animoji's functionality.
I am not saying my Mac or iPad is unusable. I am simply saying that Apple has decided to concentrate on things that are not particularly relevant to me. I get that someone might care about this stuff. I also get that a huge percentage of Apple profits come from iPhone, so they may feel animated Memoji are critical to their future margins. That doesn’t change the fact that many of their customers are disappointed that Apple can’t or won’t produce a decent update to their everyday Mac productivity machines. Also, mouse support would make iPad much more useful from a productivity standpoint. Not rocket science......jailbreaks have been available for years.
BTW - Speaking of usability. Apple’s obsession with form and fads over function does have consequences. See the disastrous keyboards on their new laptops. Please no lectures about people working on emoji are not the same hardware engineers working on Macs. I am talking about strategic focus and corporate priorities.
1) You admitted your beef is them not focusing on things relevant to you. That’s fine, but your focus group of 1 doesn’t matter.
2) I explained they do support the Mac and iPad, but the hardware or software features you want or “some” want doesn’t mean they will or should happen now.
3) Their strategic focus and corporate priorities are DEAD ON as evidenced in their financial performance.
4) Again, they are executing a strategy and doing so extremely well, literally better than any company on Earth again backed up with objective data.
1. Well, I can only really comment on things that are relevant to me......but, I don’t think I am alone judging by many of the comments in this thread.
2. Agreed. The features that I want are not forthcoming which is the reason I am disappointed in Apple’s priorities.
3. I have already agreeded that Apple is focused on the profit maximizing strategy. That doesn’t mean I have to like their approach or priorities vis-a-vis the products that I use everyday.
4. Same as #3
PS - While I have been disappointed in Apple’s lack of attention to entry level Macs and some other stuff I mentioned. In fairness, today, they released an update to iWorks, and they deserve credit for continuing to improve there productivity apps....especially on iOS.
On the other hand: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-for-sad-state-of-macintosh-hardware.2123451/
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Thank you for verifying for me. I had completely forgotten I was going to re-check.