MKBHD covered this in his review, and pointed out that FCP worked fine for basic video edits but not more complex activity. That’s just fine for influencers. Also, TikTok doesn’t need any video editing software to become a big star, it’s only YouTube that needs that. I stand by what I said, this is totally fine for the intended audience, and hits the mark in terms of key things they care about, like a good display, metal & solid build quality, etc.

What this has that other products don’t at this price point:
1. Solid build quality that feels good in the hands. This is very important to a lot of consumers, who spend a lot of time using their devices
2. A really decent screen. 75% more pixels than 1080p, 500 nits of brightness, and reviewers commenting that it looks way better than competing products at this price. Again, something consumers value hugely, after all they’re staring at it
3. Integration with consumers’ other Apple devices. In particular, apps like Calendar, Notes, Messages. It’s just substantially more convenient than the alternative approaches
4. Coiour and other elements of Apple pizzazz. Vanishingly few people on this site give a shit about funky colours, but students will
5. Financing. 0% means you can spread the cost without worrying too much, and that counts hugely.

Maybe I’m wrong, and someone else is offering a nicely built metal device with a great screen that looks funky and providing 0% financing. But I don’t think I’m wrong, and that still doesn’t do the integration with iOS apps that consumers are using all the time.

This has a keyboard though, and the iPad is not cheaper once you add a keyboard.

Most people, no matter how tech-savvy they are, are not going to need any help to run their MacBook Neo. My father in law ran his Mac Mini for many years right up to his death at aged 85 without any issue. These things are not going to be painful for consumers to use the way that Windows machines can be.

The vast majority of students will never have cause to do video editing, certainly not in any high end program. This is just not an issue for the target market.

That smacked of complacency to me. This thing will be perfectly fine for emails, presentations, maybe a spreadsheet or two, etc. Most students aren’t doing anything that begins to max out the capabilities of a machine.

I note the irony of getting your knickers in a twist over how the OP’s post has been moderated, rather than expressing any kind of moral outrage about the disgusting ideas it contained. In some senses, the presentation of disgusting ideas in calm language is a yet worse way to behave, as it shields them from proper scrutiny by getting patsies to express outrage about people’s reactions when the original speaker had been oh-so-polite. Here in the UK, this was the modus operandi of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Michael Gove, and it’s true of Farage also, to a large degree. The various British fascist parties used to do this: a combo of jackbooted thugs and a couple of twats in suits with posh accents providing the air cover.

Let me try to understand once again the exact nature of your complaint: you think it’s an illegitimate use of a moderator’s points to mark someone’s down or mark it as Flamebait or Troll if the post is calmly argued, no matter the content of the post, is that it? The content cannot be considered Flamebait or Trolling simply by virtue of the ideas it expresses, but only through the tone?

I find that a pointless distinction, tbh. No debate is enriched by having Nazi views expressed, no matter how politely. A productive debate is one in which we learn something. One doesn’t learn things from arguing with Nazis. One merely debases oneself. The world was better when Nazis were ashamed or fearful of public vilification. I use the example of Nazi to point out how this works in extremis. But I hold that moderators are entitled to think that other opinions are also beyond the pale. Such as arguing from a false position, gaslighting people by saying that things that have happened have not, in fact happened, or bywriting apologia for fascist administrations, all of which the OP indulged in.

This is indeed consequence culture, but working exactly the opposite way to the way you intend it. The consequence of the US increasing the hostility of its border crossings is that it sees a drop in international visitors. For some in the US, that's a feature, not a bug; but not for the organisers of this event or for hoteliers or others who rely on international visitor income, and not for the games industry etc.

I am going to engage with you in good faith, although I suspect I may regret it.

You are arguing that if someone writes a post that "is a simple statement of the poster's perspective on [an] issue", then that in itself should not be cause for vilification. But a poster's perspective can be absolutely obnoxious. Their perspective may be a Nazi perspective or a pro-paedophilia perspective or a pro-slavery perspective. Just because something is said calmly or in a measured way does not make it morally neutral.

And people ought to be free to respond to a statement in whichever way they please, including expressing vehement opposition. Anything less and you are asking them to self-censor so that one voice, the original, gets heard at the expense of others.

Your position is muddled and not thought through.

It is truly incredible that you think that what the OP was referring to in that picture were the *masks*, as opposed to, I dunno, the giant guns and tactical gear. You are so deep in the rabbit hole. And also hilarious that you point to those countries and think we don't fucking notice that you don't point to a Nordic country, or Spain, Italy, the UK, Germany...you're so pathetically transparent.

That's a very silly way of thinking. It's not like this robot will be used for only one operation, and the costs of that surgeon are a lot higher than just a plane ticket.

Seriously, why would you assume that the people who bought this thing are gibbering idiots incapable of running the numbers to ensure they get value for money? The people who will make the decisions will include the CFO, the CMO, the CMIO, senior surgeons, etc. They understand maths and finance and budgets and medicine and the cutting edge of tech and have bought and chosen not to buy kit many times before.

Also, you pulled that maintenance figure out of your backside, didn't you? There's no way it costs anything close to a million bucks a year to service. You're just making up a story to help yourself feel better. Prove me wrong by showing links to the numbers.

Capex vs opex, amortisation over time (a second order but crucial benefit of choosing capex investment over opex spend), scaling, flexibility of deployment... lots of reasons. Hopefully you don't need me to spell each of those out and can think them through.

The entire purpose of antitrust is to protect consumers' interests. The reason we have antitrust regulation is that anticompetitive behaviours harm consumer interests, eg price fixing keeping prices artificially high.

Exactly. What sane consumer wants these companies to be able to track them like this? It's gross behaviour, and it's even worse that the German regulator is considering acting against the interests of consumers at the behest of these companies.