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Yeah, I think people are incorrectly assuming that everyone had the same experience with the stream. I watched the whole thing and only had a few instances of buffering and quality degradation. Not more than 30 seconds total during the stream.

Even if it was only 30% of people had a problem that's still millions of unhappy users. Not great for a time sensitive event.

Also, from lurking in various threads on the topic Netflix's in app messages added to people's irritation by suggesting that they check their WiFi/internet was working. Presumably that's the default error message but perhaps that could have been adjusted in advance somehow.


The point is that if the problem was different depending on the user, it will be in a distribution layer, not in the encoding or production layer

That eliminates a whole raft of problems.


One of the times I reloaded the page I got a raw envoy error message!

I don't buy it. There's a reality distortion field at work here. If Trump had been in office he would he would have been touting the economy as the greatest in history. And 'average people' would have 'seen that' despite not 'seeing it'.


I don't vote for Trump. I don't know anyone aside from some crazy family members who like him. I'm in an extreme blue state that was called when only a few percent of the vote was in. I don't even know anyone who listens to Trump's speeches or sees this ads.

Every single person I know feels this economy is terrible. Of every age. From new graduates, to senior people. Even the most extreme Obama or Bernie people feel like things are going very badly.

Everyone on campus was consistently outraged when Biden would gloat about his economy.

It's not Trump. I have no idea what his message even is.

This is an own goal. Democrats believed the total bullshit that economists spew about how good things are. When people actually feel how terrible they are.


And trump voters, not understanding inflation, think he will bring down prices.


I'm in the Bay - am I the only person that thinks the economy is going great?

My wages are up since Biden started. My rent, my biggest expense, has held the same. NW up a lot from stock market gains.

There seems to be a lot of inflation with food ,restaurants and domestic work, but isn't lower wage people getting higher wages a good thing?


Yes, it’s been good for the rich. Stock market gains do nothing for most people.

I’m skeptical about the vibes based methods of evaluating the economy, I think the economy really is better for the lowest income workers, but forget stock market gains. Also, rents remaining flat might be a Bay Area specific phenomena. Or even SF specific? Don’t know where you live.


> but isn't lower wage people getting higher wages a good thing

Their wages did not rise anywhere near commensurate with the increased costs of those goods and services - the same goods and services that those people would be buying


I don't think that can be true in the Bay. They would have an even higher percent of expenditure to rent, which is flat.

America wide looks at worse flat: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q (ignoring covid years which distort this)


What you're doing now is what people are so angry about. Stop, "But the numbers..."ing, humor people's feelings for a moment, and figure out what would need to be done to lift those spirits. Gaslighting is not a good tack.


I agree that maybe people need their feelings humored, but how is this gaslighting? I'm not denying that there's food inflation or restaurant inflation - I pointed out that it's a narrow way to look at even your own economic position.

Food might be up 30% in biden's term for all I know. And maybe wages are only up 20%. But as long as rent is 0% and asset growth kept track with inflation (it's blown past it), you are still ahead.

I suspect this is just standard human loss aversion at work. I feel this even from my own wife who looks at our economic position worse than me even though it is the same numbers. What's worsened becomes more important than what's improved, even if rationally, it nets out even.


>But as long as rent is 0%

My rent was up 30% and it was my largest expense. DoJ has been dragging its heels on punishing the companies that were a part of this gouging-via-algorithmic-price-fixing-and-warehousing, and now that Trump is going to be in office, those lawsuits are likely dead in the water. Very much a "Thanks for nothing, Joe," situation.

In gaslighting, the perpetrator insists on denying the victim's perception of reality, while actually controlling the facet of reality that he denies is altered. In this case, Democrats control the means to alter the economy via leaning on Congress, the Treasury, and the Fed. They manufactured an environment where earners would lose out to the concerns of asset holders (the "soft-landing," rather than a swift and severe FFR rate hike and tightening of Treasury holdings that would have squelched inflation), but insist on telling earners that everything is okay, because the metrics that matter to asset holders are doing well. In carrying water for this line of argument, you're participating in their gaslighting. People aren't doing well, full stop.


Dems don't control the fed.

A fast rate hike might have caused massive unemployment which would be much worse.


They can lean on the Fed, and they did.

A fast hike would have caused pain, but the money printing that we did anyway would have helped mitigate that. Instead, it just went to propping up asset prices. Bank Bailout 2.0; we didn't learn our lesson, and the incumbent party was yet again ousted.


America's economy probably did better than anywhere else in the rich world. I don't see how we can view this as a fail


You're doing it again.


Housing’s still shooting up really fast and I guess used cars are just always gonna be expensive now.



I'm in Texas, in Big Tech. I didn't vote Trump. But I understand.

I'd like to get out of here but can't move because of mortgage rates, among other reasons. I'd like to change jobs but tech layoffs have flooded the job market. It's an anxious time. My 401k is doing great though.

I don't blame Biden for all this. There was absolutely no choice but to pour enough stimulus into the economy to cause massive inflation in order to prevent a revolution during COVID. But if I'm feeling the hangover I'm sure the real working class is staggering.


There was someone upthread that was talking about how unemployment is lowest ever while we have all these layoffs going on. It's kinda surreal.


I’m also in tech. I’ve been looking for work for the last several months. Took some time off after my work contract ended last year.

I likely don’t count towards unemployment statistics. I don’t qualify for unemployment since I was a contractor before.

In my current job search, I’ve sent out more applications and had more interviews than the rest of my career. Granted, I found jobs more through connections than cold applying in the past. I’ve been tapping connections in this search too, though. It’s rough out there. I’ve contemplated taking an exit from tech and picking up a trade.

It sure feels surreal to me when I see reports of a strong economy.


I believe the unemployment statistics, but I'm not sure what industry is doing all the hiring. I doubt it pays as well as the industries that are shedding people right and left.


Becoming the refuge-party for fleeing Republican neoliberals (joining the existing Democratic ones) is really gonna cripple the party when the party that popularized (among the political set—voters never liked it) that damn world-view is abandoning it.


It's been a long time since I read it, but it definitely gets better.


What he describes is why I have stayed away from using these tools so far. I don't want to be exposed to something that is just useful enough to feel indispensable, but still comes with so many drawbacks.


Same here. In the demo it never sounded like SJ to me. After the story broke I listened to clips from Her and the 4o demo. It doesn't sound like SJ.


That Yahoo screenshot really took me back.


Do you know if the voice was the same back in september?


Scarlet says she was shocked to hear the voice in the 4o demo, and they had requested her consent (for the 2nd time) 2 days prior to the demo. If that demo voice was the same as the existing Sky voice, this wouldn’t be happening.


It was essentially the same, the new one is definitely more human like. I have been calling it Scarjo since then.

    Sam Pullara @sampullara
    If you have the ChatGPT app, set it to the Sky voice and talk to it. It is definitely a clone of ScarJo from Her.
    6:21 PM · Dec 13, 2023
https://x.com/sampullara/status/1735122897663094853


The voices were available for some time for the ChatGPT TTS model, but it seems that they reused them for the 4o audio output, which sounds significantly more human-like. I’ve heard the Sky voice before and never made the connection. I did think of Johansson though during the live demo, as the voice + enhanced expressiveness made it sound much like the movie Her.


A lot of people are saying they do it just to sell more iPads, but I'm skeptical. I bet they have research telling them only a small percentage of customers want multi-user sharing.


Every single person with kids either wants this, or just doesn't know they want it. That is not a small market. Do you want your kid to have access to your email, saved credentials and saved payment cards? No.


I have two kids and have not once wanted this. What am I missing? Why should I want this?


To be sure the kid won't accidentally/purposefully:

- factory reset the device

- delete all your emails

- dismiss a (very important notification/message)

- spend $$$k on micro transactions

- change a random setting you never knew existed and don't realise why things suddenly stopped working

(I'm thinking here of young kids below the "understand the technology/responsibility well" age, possibly not able to read yet)


You want it if you yourself use the iPad for more than just watching Netflix, and you ever hand your iPad to your child without locking them into a single app using that feature.

Otherwise, they can do things like delete incoming chat messages you haven't yet read, delete any/all notes/photos/ etc, and a hundred similar things — and in many cases, it's easy to do accidentally.


That sort of begs the question, and what of it?

Usually when that's invoked with Apple, it's a misapplication of the general principle of simplicity, used to create a blanket ban against features desired by a superminority.

Even just given TFA, we can see that's not how Apple operates in practice, and in context, TFA describes in detail of how Apple says it wants to flesh out more of these type of features for years on iPad, and it hasn't.

Most damning: _the feature exists_. But obscured. It ain't about simplicity.


But they already put the effort in to build it. So why not let everyone use it?


Complexity that comes with it. Both from an implementation point of view but also from a user experience point of view.

Think about storage, notifications, app management, etc.


Yes, android has had all this working for years, on phones and tablets alike.

It's not trivial but I'm not going to give a trillion dollar company reprieve for a feature standardized in all of its competition.


As the poster before you said, they have already built it. They have already solved those issues. They only offer the solution to schools and big organisations that use their management software to control lots of devices.


Use cases in family context is different from that of schools and businesses, both in terms of account management and in terms of user journeys.

So I’m not sure the infra for those edu and commercial use cases would work elegantly “as is” for a family setup.


A company that is making 45% net margin, mostly from their hardware sales (revenue from associated services is very dependent on the limitations they put in, on purpose); is not trying to make even more profit.

Like Apple sole focus in the last 10 years has been on insuring profit growth at all cost, annoying many customers in the process.

You are dangerously naive.


There is something particularly immoral about companies like Nintendo/Disney/Apple that have some sort of mind-control over their customers.

I think outsiders see this. There is something a bit 'off' about the loyalty of the customers. The other day I saw a family wear micky mouse ears in public. Someone else can define the difference between fandom and mental illness.


Sometimes they seem so biased that I can't believe the company apologists are even real humans with freedom of will.

They argue for things that are counter to their own interests. It's difficult to avoid coming to the conclusion that I'm arguing with AI or a paid employee.

The existence of these people proves that there is something fundamentally different between my life experience and theirs. I must be missing a lot of context for why they act like they do.


You can add in Tesla as well.

Apple and Tesla are unique in the levels of brandd zealotry they seem to induce. Nintendo users for example are unlikely to only ever use a Nintendo device...they may own other consoles or play other games on a computer.

Apple and Tesla users tend to only own and use those devices to the exclusion of everything else, which feeds the myopia.


I’d have to agree. I see the use case for wanting to share with your small child. It sure seems to me like buying the cheapest iPad is the solution most people go for. Like the gateway drug before a parent feels the kid can handle a phone.


Indeed I have no interest in multi-user iPad. I have one, my wife has one, my daughter has one. Sharing them just wouldn’t get us anything.

Would some people want it, sure, but features aren’t free to add or maintain.

iPhone mini showed how much vocal Internet commenters (don’t) represent the actual user base. Commenters said they wanted a smaller iPhone. Then it sold poorly. And I say this as I write this on an iPhone 13 mini.

I suspect the multi-user iOS, right along with the people complaining that iOS is underpowered generally, is the same phenomenon at work.


I know that iPads aren't a necessity of life, but your post reads as "I have enough money to buy 3 iPads, so I don't care about families that want to share a single one to save money"


Or they can buy 3 cheaper Android tablets. Or they can buy 1 Android tablet, seeing as Android supports multiple users. So no, I really don’t care about families that would rather whine about Apple than exercise some agency and buy other products that already have the features they claim they want.


Sure, but don't Android tablets suck -- especially the ones with 11-inch displays rather than 7-inch displays?


Samsung ones are quite good. And Google Family gives you a lot of granularity on what they can access too…


sure it does.. just significantly less than ipads


Welcome to being a grown-up. You have to pick from available products and decide what’s important. If you want multi-user support, don’t buy an ipad.

There are non-tablet alternatives. Get a laptop. Get a Chromebook. Both support multiple users. Both can be cheaper than an iPad.

Indeed maybe the Android tablets “suck” because Google and those manufacturers are busy adding things people don’t want, like, ahem, multi-user support, while maybe Apple products are better because they are focused and don’t have the kitchen sink.


That is just plain wrong.

Android tablets absolutely don't suck if you put as much money in them as you would in an Apple one. It is just that people have been convinced by marketing and by people like you (believers) that they suck at any price and that if you have to put as much money, you better get an Apple one anyway, which is just plain wrong.

You seem to conveniently forget that the reason iPad got so much traction is because they launched at a price that was very competitive. It was state-of-the-art technology and even if you wanted to put more money there wasn't much better to be had.

Now you are somewhat right telling people to not buy an iPad, but they also have the right to complain about the state of things, particularly since switching OS is an expensive (have to rebuy all the software, possibility content held captive in the "Store") and time consuming (need to figure out how to transfer everything and learn new stuff). This is especially true since Apple has made this part very difficult for obvious reasons. If you relied on their messaging platform there is just no other way than to export and archive, losing all continuity and if you relied on their office suite there is no other way than to export and recreate any files in a competitor software. This problem exists in other parts of this industry but it's rarely as bad as with Apple... And there is the fact that since their hardware doesn't support any other OS, telling people to just change hardware that is still in good shape, that should be more than sufficient for their need is just stupid peak consumerism. "It's fine, you just need to re-buy all the things, and then it works "

So, people complain against their disgusting behavior and ask for better solutions for the money they spent, as they should. You don't have more legitimacy telling people to just chose another vendor no matter how you feel...


> features aren’t free to add or maintain.

The argument is that is is free because the feature already exists and is being maintained. You just aren't allowed to have it.


And Apple wants all families to behave like yours, to grab more money.


You've just described capitalism. Consume accordingly.

Edit: It seems people are offended. I didn't mean to. Let me rephrase: Apple's fiduciary responsibility is to make money for its shareholders. If you are not in favor of this, pick different products (slowly migrating back to Linux, in my case.)


https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/08/24/stakeholder-gover...

1. Fiduciary duty has a specific legal meaning that is not really applicable here.

2. Corporations are not responsible solely to their shareholders.


Boeing kills people, but it is OK since they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders. This is just capitalism.

If you are not in favor of this, pick different products. You must learn to kneel to the overlords.


I think the question isn't so much whether Apple users want multiuser support. Rather the question is whether Apple wants customers who can't afford to buy one of each sort of device for each family member.


At a previous company, we rotated secondary (more portable) devices around the oncall rotation. I think we used a macbook air, and some fancy portable Windows netbook. Now that iPads exist, and they're super portable, I can imagine that they'd be great for oncall. That being said, I wouldn't want my settings, say in the terminal for example, to affect mine. Although MDM is a solution, at the scale of the ~50 person company, we didn't have anything as the such, nor the capabilities, time, or money to figure it out.


> features aren’t free to add or maintain.

No, but Apple already built this feature and maintain it. So why only restrict it to large organisations?


Isn't the iPhone SE, which is now on its third generation, selling pretty well? That kind of made the mini redundant, no?


I rock it and they can pry it off my cold dead hands…

The button works every time, unlike Face ID which is sometimes hit / miss for me.

Camera is quite good. Not the latest / greatest but honestly, who cares? Most people believe they are artists that are shooting the next masterpiece, yet most pictures are a)never seen ever again or b) a poor attempt of a picture already taken 20 million times - you are not that special as Apple makes us believe.

Pocketable, decent battery, does not force me to grip it forcing my finger joints. Screen is small, yes, but an upside to remember to put my phone in my pocket more and live the world more. I have a laptop and a tablet for longer sessions.


I have one (original SE, makes the Mini -which I also have, and use daily- look like a slab).

It's my low-end test device, but tops out at iOS15, so it's almost useless.


It still has the home button, which makes the screen smaller. No FaceID. And the camera is inferior.


The iPhone mini was so crippled it was a waste of money. When I say I want a smaller phone, I mean I want a smaller version of the same phone. Not one with shitty components and artificially disabled hardware.


The 13 mini is perfectly capable, even today, for 90% of users.


I'm going to keep using mine for as long as I can, and just hope that Apple releases another one by the time I need a new phone.

"shitty components and artificially disabled hardware" is one way to look at it. I think "significantly smaller battery and scaled accordingly" is more accurate, personally.

I'm an undemanding phone user. I take pictures, catch rides, use the map, take calls, listen to stuff. I don't hang out on my phone. So I want a phone that's as small as it reasonably can be, it fits more places and I notice it less.

However, I also want the battery to last a full day. The only way I'm going to get that is if the phone is somewhat less powerful than a phone running the same OS and apps with a rather larger battery. This is a tradeoff I am comfortable with, and was able to figure out from first principles when getting the 12 mini (and now the 13).

It's fine to want a phone which is small like the mini, as powerful as the base model, and which lasts just as long on a charge. But I don't see how any company could deliver that phone.


yes, today. When it came out, it was missing some features that were enabled in the bigger models. I don't remember specifics, so I can't be more helpful here.


I'm fairly sure you're conflating the mini with the base model, and comparing it to the Pro. The Pro always has features which the base model lacks.

I don't remember there being any features, ever, which the mini was missing and the base model iPhone had. Might have missed it, but I'm going to need to see a link.


Yeah, the female voice especially is really impressive in the demos. The voice always sounds natural. The male voice I heard wasn't as good. It wasn't terrible, but it had a somewhat robotic feel to it.


For half a second I thought we were getting an update on Arc.


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