@paul Over here they have turn them into freezers to make your visit as short as possible. People dust off their jackets and hoodies so they can spend a bit of time chatting and/or working at a SB.

@paul I was hoping Apple wouldn’t go the same way as everyone else and shove AI stuff everywhere it can. But alas, that’s where the money is going. At least is not multicolor like the copilot button in MS land.

@paul I'm starting to loath using my banks website or app. Every section has an area dedicated to promote related products. sales or whatnot. The app has floating banners for their products with a dismiss button so small that I always end up tapping the banner. Before it would automatically kick you out of the app (and session) to the website to start filling a form. The backlash was so bad they had to add a modal with "You're leaving the app, want to proceed?" 🤬

@paul Tried to use it, but on a 11" iPad Air, it's way too cramped. If I upgrade to a 13" next year, I might give it another shot.

@paul That would be nice, but no. You're just spared the remaining of the retail price. The way taxes work here, I don't have access to normal lease since I'm a salaried employee. I'd have to be on my own, or be a "moral entity", basically, a company, to be able to access leases on anything.

@paul Oh yeah, forgot about that. Tax here is 16%, plus exchange rate which is high now with all the shenanigans going on. So, retail price for an M3 Ultra is almost $5,000 USD. The monthly “lease” already includes taxes.

@paul Damn, I wanted to take advantage of my credit card program and "lease” the M3 Ultra for 3 years. I'd pay around $100 USD per month for three years and then return it and get whatever is the new hotness. The M4 Max is half, but it only applies to standard configs, and I was really targeting the 96GB of the M3 Ultra.

@gruber Merida, Mexico. On macOS 15.3.1, still showing Gulf of Mexico: