I don't "really really" need the extra better life but I just bought a Ultra 2 on Amazon today because they were on sale and the 10 doesn't improve battery life at all.
I've been doing hikes that last 6-8 hours (I have little kids so we go slow, takes breaks etc) and pretty much every time my Series 8 either runs out our I have to really carefully conserve battery. I'm hoping the Ultra 2 will mean I can just record my hike and not worry about it.
I think the long term question for Apple is whether or not they can pull off another category-creating move at the level of the iPhone. I believe they will in the next 3-5 years therefore I am glad for the opportunity to put more money into AAPL less expensively.
I'm surprised by your optimism here. Over the last 5-10 years, Apple seemed to have receded in to the clunky monolith of its former mid-90s self. While their supply and distribution chain is amazingly streamlined, they're still dining out on the cachet of their innovative product line from 10-15 years ago.
I just cannot understand how an increasingly risk-averse, profit-driven company will summon the chutzpah to again create category-creating products once more.
AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple Music, Apple Pay, FaceID, huge strides in mapping, Privacy-aware services and much more were all created in the past couple of years and have tremendous category-defining value.
I don't think you can overlook those things and take them for granted.
There's still not great alternatives to AirPods or Apple Watch to this day. Music streaming is pretty much just Apple and Spotify at this point. Also, few companies have been able to align privacy and embed it into their business models.
Apple has also quietly built one of the best chip design teams in the industry - pumping out various custom silicon that is powering FaceID, ML, Photography, and AR among other things. The # of custom chips Apple uses in their products grows every year.
So they've done a ton of innovative things over the past couple of years, it's just that you're not going to get another product like the iPhone which is perhaps one of the best businesses of all time.
We may never see another business like it anytime soon, from anyone. So I think it's a bit unfair to grade everything Apple does on the "iPhone Curve".
Sure, tremendous innovation on componentry and services. But I think it's being a bit generous putting the Apple Watch or the Airpod anywhere near the game-changing legacy products of the 2000s.
I still can't see how Apple will surge again. The brand equity is based upon Ramsian aesthetics (which have been mimicked to point of being passè in 2019), coupled with category-defining products that became cultural phenonenas (nope: the Apple Watch is hardly holds a candle to those). Not to mention they've all but deserted the power-users with lacklustre notebooks and having 6 year silences between Mac Pro's.
I want to be wrong, by the way. I really do. But you are mainly describing features and not products when you talk about their strides.
The actual product is the Apple ecosystem and that's the bet Apple is making.
Right now, the ecosystem is tied together by iOS whose most popular incarnation is iPhone. But iOS was so successful that it has an install base of over 1 billion users.
That's nothing less than an incredible user-base - a hell of a foundation. If they can sustain that install base while strengthening their ecosystem through value-add products like Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod and Apple Music, then they have potentially many cash cows with dramatically high ceilings and reach.
This is a good bet for them because it plays to their strengths and they've earned incredibly loyal customers over the years.
iPhone may not be the future of Apple, but it is the core from which many futures will emerge. It'll still be a critical product for Apple, but no longer a key top-line growth driver. And that's OK, that's how innovation cycles go. iPhone made it possible for them to start on 3rd base for the next cycle.
iOS adoption of new versions is extremely strong and has typically always been that way. Rate of adoption is fast as well. From release of a new version to 50% adoption is often just a few weeks.
Reading this I might actually buy these. I was pretty set against because of the fear of losing them. I've been annoyed on many occasions at not being able to use my lightning headphones with my Macbook Pro while traveling and I can see this being a superior option to any corded headphone solution. I use video chat a lot and using corded Apple headphones with a laptop is definitely awkward.
I had some worries about losing them, as well. These have proven to be unfounded over the last few months... though I haven't done anything intense while wearing them. In the course of my day to day life walking around, maybe occasional light running through the rain, they've never fallen out.
I did try some experimental jumping around and shaking my head wildly after I got them, and they didn't slip out from that.
I suspect a lot of this comes down to your ear shape. The fit of the wired EarPods are a decent proxy for how the AirPods will fit. The AirPods are less likely than the EarPods to fall out, because the wires aren't there tugging on them as you move your head, which turns out to be a useful difference.
This is a case where these might actually make sense for me. I hadn't thought about the lack of cord making them more usable underneath hearing protection.
Any experience with my number one reason not for buying them which is the fear of losing them?
I haven't liked active noise cancellation in the past. For office work I tried an old Bose quiet comfort (10 years ago) and decided I much preferred Sennheiser HD 280s for isolation.
You may want to consider always flying the same airline, getting that airlines credit card and using it for everything, and purchasing a lounge membership to that airline.
If you do this and fly enough your experience will be much better. You can arrive to the airport later because you can use the elite/first class line at security. If you need to check bags there will be a priority line and finally if you need to change something you will have access to a priority phone line that is answered in a timely manner and the customer service agents in the lounges will help you quickly and effectively. Also, many change fees will be eliminated and you will occasionally be upgraded to first class.
Edit: they will also put special tags on your luggage that will cause it to come out first and get lost less.
Edit2: They will also treat you better on the plane. They have a list of where everyone with status is sitting and they make an effort to be nice. It helps if you are also nice to them.
While it's true that you can buy your way to decent customer service, I'm of the opinion that airlines should treat all customers as if they will one day have a $50k travel budget.
The discussion of gradient descent was excellent. So far I'm quite impressed. As others have said the question is going to be whether you can succeed at building on this base in a way that makes the later topics accessible.
A nitpick is that you use the words "matrices" and "differentiable" at the end of chapter 2. Maybe this is okay because you are signposting that these concepts will be explained but if you are aiming for high school algebra level readers with some python experience this could intimidate people.
He did say 'high school math' and not just algebra. It would be a pretty crap high school math course if it didn't cover linear algebra and beginner-intermediate calculus.
Amusing that he views something with a predicted chance of occurring at 25% actually occurring as a market failure.
He may be right that prediction markets are currently experiencing an anchoring effect that is slowing their response to changes in the factors that influence the outcome. If you believe this, maybe you should go buy Trump shares in various prediction markets. Personally I think that a long position on AAPL is a better undervalued position than Trump for President.
