They still haven't caught up production enough to stifle the price increases.
They should have stuck with their core IMO.
* https://pine64.com/product-category/single-board-computers/
The Rock64 fits in a Pi3 case and is roughly equiv. and runs DietPi (makes a good Pihole).
The RockPro64 is a great media machine.
The A64 doesn't really do it for me but I am sure it has applications.
My one big complaint about the Rock64 design is that the tiny barrel power plug (the same size and voltage used for USB powered hubs) is right next to the 3.5mm audio jack and fits inside and if you mistakenly put it in it will fry the board (ask me how I know). I have taken to popping the connector off shitty headphones and putting it in the audio jack so that can't happen.
For heavier usecases that really there isn't as much of an alternative. Many other boards like the pine64, beagle and orangepi, but their ecosystem lacks sophistication.
And the RPi prices are through the roof everywhere. "Just get a Pi, they are cheap" is basically a pre-2020 sentiment.
Everything in Canada is usually 10-25% more expensive than the US, besides stuff covered under NAFTA. Consumer things like clothes/electronics are usually the biggest victims.
But I just compared the Apple stores and the base Macbook = $999USD vs $1299CAD, doing pure currency conversion $1299CAD = $965.96USD, so it's technically ~$32USD cheaper in Canada? Probably just out-of-step with currency markets/inflation.
... and if I go to trade it in, they'll give me $850 for it ...
Lol, that's a joke :D
I'm really surprised how they let the Pro range suffer though. Every 5-6 years there is a major release bringing it up to spec but in between nothing happens at all, not even a minor redesign for the latest CPUs.
This is what I don't get - the Pro is specifically aimed at those needing the maximum performance out of their machine. But after the first year this has been overtaken by the rest of the market and the remaining years until the next redesign it's a pityful excuse for a high-end workstation. Not to mention they won't even drop the price (ok for the trash can model they actually did that once.)
So, to whom is this still an appealing offer? Who invests top dollar into apple workstations when it's almost guaranteed they're going to be left in an awkward spot with nowhere to upgrade every few years? What's the point of this whole product line this way?
What's that?
I've noticed this as well, but having lived through 2011-2013 when the CAD = USD, Apple has 3-6 month lead times on pricing changes, almost always tied to product releases/store updates.
Maybe it'll get more expensive the next time they release a product, maybe it won't because the difference is currently negligible.
There is only 1 Mac Mini available with M1 CPU and it only has 8GB RAM - that's for $499 and if you add shipping to Europe and tax, probably it will work out closer to $1000 than $499.
If you ignore a parcel or reject it, it should be returned to the sender.
€360 * 1.12 * 1.24 = €500
It's pricy, but it's not going to double the price.
There is only 1 Mac Mini available with M1 CPU
He stated specifically Intel machines. The M1 isn't an Intel processor.
So I went an bout a bunch of mac minis with remote desktop and just looped the digital signage videos via VLC.
I had to do this in some of the salesforce offices I built - like 50 Fremont, Chicago, NYC...
Mac minis were great for the 'bandaid' -- but even then were over priced and a pain to manage...
But I personally do not think Ill be buying another mac object due to appl fking me when my machine was under recall for catching fire, and my machine..... caught fire....
And appl held the machine for two month while 'investigating' and refused to honor the recall because it took them two months to find a moisture sensor that had been set off at some point.
The machine caught fire in my bed while I was watching netflix.
Appls solution was "well you can buy a new machine to replace it at full price" (this was LITERALLY what they said to me in the Union Sq, SF flagship store.
I remember being upset that the same laptop cost more in Australia than it did in the US, then I realized that it had a lot more to do with Australia's corporate tax rates. Turns out... companies do pass on taxes to the end purchasers.
It feels, and I don't mean offense here, that if the EU wants to tell companies which power plugs they can use, and stay heavy-handed with corporate tax rates, that people in the EU will need to just accept higher prices as the outcome of their leaders' actions.
Currency fluctuations, and corporate taxes explain all the price differences. Someone said "Oh it costs 7% more now than it did 2 years ago!" Gosh, compared to the rest of everything a price hike of only 7% seems like a really good deal over the last 3 years. =P (But I get we aren't used to tech prices ever going up over time.)
No company is in the business of giving things away, y'know? Anyway Apple just wants a profit of $X per unit. If your country adds a bunch of rules and costs, that's fine it's your right to self-govern and set whatever laws you want, but Apple is still going to get a profit of $X per unit.
Edit: Later today I'm picking up a laptop for a colleague who is coming in to town next week from an EU country. He wanted to buy it in the US since it was so much cheaper. Good timing on this post. (=
Add into that things like shipping costs in various areas, and it can all add up.
He needs to declare it when he returns to the EU, and pay the same taxes. (Assuming it costs more than €430, which is the limit for bringing personal goods into the EU by plane.)
It seems that everyone buys laptops in the US and brings them home this way; whether they are in Australia, Costa Rica -- or even the EU -- on a personal level, nobody wants to pay more, especially not more taxes.
The only time I have paid import taxes was when I sent a used phone and laptop to a person on Reddit who needed them in Canada. Even though the devices were over five years old, the Canadian tax authorities wanted me to pay new retail prices for them. I paid the taxes so that the kid could receive the devices. I'm pretty sure I could have just declared them as having a value of $100, but by the time I got involved the kid had already said it was an "Apple Laptop" and the Postal Mounties just assumed a new sticker price. Frustrating.
This has been true for Europe for a long time.
In the early 90's, I had a particular Sony Walkman that I was very fond of. I paid about US$100 for it.
A couple of months later, I accidentally left it on the plane as I was transferring in Paris. When I got to Vienna, I was delighted to discover that it was also available there, so I bought a replacement. I was not delighted to find out that it cost nearly double what I paid for it in the U.S.
There's something about Europe and electronics that always seems to equal higher prices. It's been going on for at least a half a century.
I did these calculations a while back on various Mac models and the price difference was actually not that large. The US prices are without VAT. Add the 19 or 21% of VAT that is typical for EU countries and it's almost the same. The difference grew a bit, because the Euro became a bit stronger relative to the USD since Apple made their last announcements.
mini-PC that would be energy efficient and I could run some AI experiments on
Don't do that, an M2 has very limited compute. A cheap RTX2060 Super from some years back will be many many times faster when you use Tensor Cores.
These taxes seem punitive. For essential goods such as computers, that seems way too high.
But its the same with a lot of other electronics too - people online will tell you something like "just get a raspberry for $40" but then you look at the European ebay and you're in for at least a 100 euro and that's for a used one.