LE TTER OF THE MONTH!
Apple price drop?
We’ve all grown used to paying a premium price for Apple products here in the UK, especially so after the price hike a couple of years ago after the Brexit referendum.
It was encouraging to note recently that the greenback was exchanging above 1.40 to the pound, very close to early 2016 levels. If this trend continues, it’d be really nice if Apple would consider reducing its UK prices once again, perhaps in September with product upgrades, as a bonus to those of us who are still loyal to the brand but unlucky enough not to be able to benefit from the recently announced share buy-back. Or is this just wishful thinking? by John Fr aser
Alan sa ys… I was fortunate to avoid the price hike on my iPad Pro, but will definitely share your pain if I need to replace my iMac all of a sudden. The good news is there are small signs of favourable price adjustments already. The latest 9.7-inch iPad shaved £20 off the price of its predecessor, and Apple Pencil is now bang in the middle of the price at its 2016 introduction (£79) and last year’s peak (£99).
Apple sets prices according to expectations in the long term, and though sterling has indeed strengthened in recent months, the ongoing Brexit issue, the emerging threat of a broader trade war, and that (at the time of writing) the pound isn’t quite back to where it was two years ago make it seem likely we’ll see slow, steady concessions until the economic outlook becomes more predictable.
Wind it bac k
Your response to Jason Vaughan’s inquiry about a consumer-focused database might have mentioned TapForms (tapforms.com).
When FileMaker discontinued Bento, I discovered and was blown away by the power and simplicity of this software! It works seamlessly on the Mac, iPad and iPhone – I use Dropbox to sync the data. Might be a welcome suggestion – you gave it your highest rating in March 2014! by Dr John M Bonn Alex sa ys… Thanks for reminding us about TapForms, which totally slipped our minds when replying to Jason’s letter. TapForms is still actively maintained, having received a mix of fixes and small but handy features in recent updates. Perhaps it’s time we took another look at how useful it is, this time in our Apple Skills section.
Into the suns et
Great to read the newsletter in my email box today. However, after reading about Apple scrapping AirPort routers. I’m very disappointed. I’ve been using Time Capsule for quite a while and love it.
I’m now a bit confused as to what I can do to back up all my devices to one device. Do I go down the route of using Apple’s server? Or have multiple disks everywhere to back up to. I’m hoping you can shed some light on my options, as I haven’t a clue! by Alex bes ni er-Chamberlain
Jo says… I’m also sad about this, though it frustrates me that AirPort doesn’t cater to iOS backups (which require iTunes or iCloud).
AirPort kit hasn’t stopped working just because of this news, but you’ll need to know about fallbacks in case yours does down the line. This sounds like a group test to us!
Features in macOS Server are changing, but Time Machine appears not to be one due for the chop; so, Server remains an option for backups, if you’ve a spare Mac to run it.