Which would be easily resolved by having them off by default?
Having said that, I don't know how window snapping being on by default isn't incredibly frustrating for someone who is simply trying to precisely position a window near a corner only to have it snap in a way they didn't want it to.
IIRC, in the Reddit comments, the OP said the phone was not locked with a passcode at all, which is presumably how the bad guys got access to basically everything.
> I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but...
As an older person, I find this observation very interesting.
Today, I would consider people in general to be much more technically knowledgeable compared to people 20+ years ago. And yet, 20 years ago, removable storage was quite common, and probably expected of most devices.
It is definitely GPU + heat related, but disabling the GPU is an unacceptable solution. People paid top dollar for a Macbook Pro with a fast GPU, you don't tell them to write off the premium they paid for that feature by disabling it.
But here's what the real problem was. Apple pretended the problem didn't exist for a very long time.
There was a huge thread on the Apple Support site related to this issue that was literally hundreds of pages long that spanned over a year. People were resorting to baking their logic boards in an oven to fix the issue, albeit temporarily.
Many people eventually gave up and wrote off the hardware before Apple finally acknowledged the issue with a repair order. This happened to me. I had the logic board replaced once already while under AppleCare (and the issue came back a few months later, but there was no point in constantly having the logic board replaced with another having the same design flaw). Just before my Applecare lapsed, it died. I wasn't going to pay $500+CAD for another defective board.
I was lucky I kept my unit around long enough when the repair order (recall) was issued. It still ended up dying a while later.
Apple had many options to make their affected users whole. They make enough money that they could have replaced everyone's 2011 model with a 2012 model (even a refurb would have been OK) which had none of those issues. Had they done that, I'd probably still be a Mac user (using that very same 2012 model) right now.
In the end, that experience completely soured me from Apple.
> Don't compare consumer-grade $300 laptops/PCs to Apple hardware that costs $2,500+, please.
If you're the type of person who doesn't put your hardware through a beating, I find that name-brand consumer PCs to be fairly durable. But like you said, they are obviously not as nice as Apple hardware.
Another thing about PCs is that you don't get forced obsolescence from Mac OS upgrades that stop supporting old hardware that is still usable, outside of having a weak gpu.
My early 2011 15" Macbook Pro barely lasted 4 years before being bricked by a design flaw. These particular MBPs have ended up dying post-recall as well. Two out of the three that I know of in my social circle that got the recall fix died afterwards.
That 2011 MBP is easily the most short lived computer (and one of the more expensive) I have ever had, and I've had >2X more Windows computers than I have had Macs.
Having said that, I would still say that the 2012 15" MBPs were the pinnacle of MBPs -- for me --. I know that a lot more people prefer the 2015 MBPs, but thin and light is not tops on my priority list.
One could also ask the question "how many people would prefer to have a phone that didn't --need-- a case"?
Given the choice between a thin phone that needs a case and a phone that is as thick as a thin phone with a case that is more durable, possibly has a headphone jack and a slightly larger battery, I would personally go for the latter.
>> Java runs everywhere and is at least an order of magnitude more efficient than Electron.
I don't think people are choosing Electron for efficiency. They're choosing it for getting results sooner.
Electron lets you pump out a reasonably nice looking cross-platform app that does what it's supposed to do, using a lot of your existing code, in a short period of time.
That convenience to developers can easily outweigh the trade-offs related to Electron's many flaws, especially when time and resources are very limited.
Price aside, it's actually easy. Just buy a micro-SD card and the right "accessory" (there are maybe only two worth buying) and it takes a few minutes. With the most popular accessory, you can also run any home brew .3ds files very easily.
It only gets hard if you want to play online, which means you need to do .CIA files, which becomes difficult (it also requires a new SD card). But if playing online isn't a priority, it's not even an issue.
>> That feels very chicken and egg to me. Nintendo owners don't buy 3rd party games because there aren't very many. And there aren't very many because owners don't buy them.
Not sure it's about quantity, it's more about quality. When Nintendo's first party software sets a high bar for quality, it makes most of the non AAA titles sold by third parties look like crap, and they usually are.
Third party AAA titles like Just Dance, FIFA, Madden, Tiger Woods Golf etc. sold well enough on the Wii that some sequels were still being produced even after the Wii had become an afterthought. IIRC, Street Fighter IV on the 3DS sold very well too.
What you're saying is technically true, but for the vast majority of people it's about the convenience of not having to carry a second device.
In the same way that a real camera is better than a smartphone, convenience trumps quality.
>> If you're looking for something cheap to carry your retro games around on, might I recommend a GBA?
I have a 3DS because I wanted to play Street Fighter, Tekken and Dead Or Alive on the go. But I don't always bring it with me. In fact, I only bring it with me on vacations. And when I'm out on the go with just my phone, well, I don't play anything at all - it's not a huge loss. FWIW, you can already do everything you mention and more on a 2DS/3DS with the right "accessories" and a little bit of time.
>> it's not going to take long before mobile phones offer similar graphics, and gamepad experiences.
But they already do now. The only problem, albeit a big one, with gamepad experiences is the constantly changing form factors of phones over time.
>> At that point, what's the advantage of buying a Switch, when the phone in your pocket does all of the same things, and more?
It's not about the hardware, it's about the software. And in Nintendo's case, it's about having the latest and greatest first party Nintendo games. Which, with few exceptions, are not available on other platforms. The bottom line, enough people are still willing to pay for proprietary hardware to play Nintendo's games.
>> Hopefully the docking station provides additional CPU/GPU power, otherwise this would be no different to a PS Vita.
Only if you make game console purchasing decisions based on hardware alone.
I would think that the hardware matters less if your primary interest is in having access to the latest and greatest Nintendo first party games like Zelda, Mario Kart, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I actually -like- the system and it might very well be the first console I buy since the PS3. But practically speaking, I don't think the rest of the market will view this console as favorably as I do.
Clarifications of my original response:
By "me too" I was referring to the original post's point of going x86 in a traditional TV box in the way that XB1/PS4 did.
By "struggle", I was specifically talking about third party software support in the post I replied to. On the TV console front, Nintendo's primary strength going back to the Wii (and maybe further) has always been first party games. Most of the third party games on the Wii and Wii U were not very good. In other words, if you're buying a Nintendo TV console for the third party games, I think that would be a big mistake, regardless of how long the list of committed 3rd party developers is.
Addressing some of your points:
>> Their mobile products are, in essence, "me-too" products that are larger and less powerful than a smartphone
By "mobile products", I assume that you're referring to the DS/DSi/3DS - how are those "me-too"? What other successful portable consoles have that clam shell form factor? If anything, Nintendo's mobile form factors (starting with the original Game Boy) were the ones that were historically copied by others.
>> The years when the Wii outsold the PS3/X360 are not all that far past. If they come out with something different and compelling, the market will respond.
Yes, but the market for gaming is completely different now. Games are no longer the exclusive territory of proprietary tv consoles or portable gaming devices (i.e., psp, 3ds).
On the TV console side, Steam is a legitimate substitute for a TV console. I myself switched to Steam since most of the AAA titles I played (2D/3D fighting games) are now all available on PC and I can bring them with me in the form of a laptop with a discrete GPU. And with Steam, I can regularly upgrade my hardware with full backwards compatibility for my purchased games.
On the portable gaming side, phones and tablets have basically taken over the market. The only reason why I bought a 3DS is so that I can have my fill of 2D/3D fighting games (with a real controller and buttons) in my pocket, but I'm in a very small niche.
IIRC, it was a huge issue for the 3DS. If you lost or damaged your 3DS, it was a real pain to get all your downloaded games back on a replacement device.
Having said that, I don't know how window snapping being on by default isn't incredibly frustrating for someone who is simply trying to precisely position a window near a corner only to have it snap in a way they didn't want it to.