USB-C is fairly open, and USB4 can do most things Thunderbolt 3/4 can do, but there are exceptions like daisy-chaining. Thunderbolt 5 is also out now, and it has no open counterpart. And Thunderbolt is very much proprietary, requiring licensing and certification from Intel.
To be fair, USB-C, especially with Thunderbolt, is much more universal. There are adapters for pretty much every "legacy" port out there so if you really need FireWire you can have it, but it's clear why FireWire isn't built into the laptop itself anymore.
The top MacBook Pro is also the 2016+ pre Apple Silicon chassis (that was also used with M chips, but sort of as a leftover), while the newer MacBook Pro chassis at least brought back HDMI and an SD card reader (and MagSafe as a dedicated charging port, although USB-C still works fine for that).
Considering modern "docking" solutions only need a single USB-C/Thunderbolt cable for everything, these additional ports only matter when on the go. HDMI comes in handy for presentations for example.
I'd love to see at least a single USB-A port on the MacBook Pro, but that's likely never coming back. USB-C to A adapters exist though, so it's not a huge deal. Ethernet can be handy as well, but most use cases for that are docked anyway.
I like the Framework concept the most, also "only" 4 ports (on the 13" at least, plus a built-in combo jack), but using adapter cards you can configure it to whatever you need at that point in time and the cards slide into the chassis instead of sticking out like dongles would. I usually go for one USB-C/Thunderbolt on either side (so charging works on either side), a single USB-A and video out in the form of DisplayPort or HDMI. Sometimes I swap the video out (that also works via USB-C obviously) for Ethernet, even though the Ethernet card sticks out. For a (retro) LAN party, I used 1 USB-C, USB-A (with a 4-port hub for wired peripherals), DisplayPort and Ethernet.
A game can both be complete and have expansions later. While it is true that many games strip what seems like core content off the main purchase to sell it separately as DLC, there are many examples of DLCs expanding upon an already finished game.
SMS, iMessage and now RCS have been working well for me and I've been (primarily) using iPhones for the past 8 years now.
The Messages app shows what type of message (iMessage/SMS/RCS) you're about to send in the text field and displays which (sent or received) messages are what as well.
One thing I could see going wrong is that a given phone number is registered with iMessage and it hasn't been disabled after switching to an Android phone for example.
Another (imo more likely) thing is that if it's using RCS, some carriers don't seem to work too well with it as of now. iOS seems to have implemented the base standard, while Google added proprietary extensions to said "standard" in Android, like end-to-end encryption. I never had issues sending or receiving RCS messages from/to Android devices, but there might be some hiccups for some people as RCS - even though it's called a "standard" - isn't really standardized.
Not sure what's so insane from Apple's side about any of that.
Your company should provide you with an Apple ID (or "Apple Account" as it's apparently called now), no..? If they didn't but one is required, ask them.
I'd rather have properly working accessories that connect using Thread (not Wi-Fi) to one another and work without requiring a separate app. Currently almost every manufacturer requires their own proprietary bridge or they want to connect directly to Wi-Fi.
Give me a button/switch, climate sensors (Eve Room comes to mind as it has Thread but it's a PitA in some other ways), thermostats that can adjust based on an external climate sensor, lightbulbs etc.
Apple TVs and HomePods already work fine as a "Home hub", I don't need a separate, central display.
Does the CLI still work? If so, you could download and play all the Windows 7 compatible, DRM-free games in your library just fine. Alternatively, if you already had these games installed, they'll work fine without launching Steam first.
narc0tic_bird @ narc0tic_bird @lemm.ee Posts 1Comments 1,215Joined 2 yr. ago
Accessing region-specific content doesn't work as well as it once did with some services actively blocking access from public VPN services nowadays.
Windscribe has a plan where you can pay for an IP address dedicated to you, but this takes away the advantages a shared IP may have.