Apple
From iGeek
Some things I've experienced or observed while working at/for/with Apple.
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2022-01-16 |
History[edit | edit source]
- 2018.08.03 $1 Trillion+ - I remember back in 1996 when everyone was declaring doom and gloom, and gleefully claiming the end of Apple was neigh. I didn't think a company with that much customer demand, and goodwill, and superior technologies over the competition was doomed. I bet against the experts, and became a millionaire.
- Copland - Apple's Copland was their nest OS before they bought NeXT: looking back at what happened, and what might have been. NOTE: I think Apple's new management was far better than it's old management. And I'm not saying I could have done a better job than they did. But I'm very into honest post-mortem's to try to learn the lessons that life is offering.
- Graphical User Interface - Computers originally started off with programmer having to program them. Then they added built in programs that you could run with simple commands. (You could Operate it, with an Operating System). Then we created Graphical Objects and metaphors for the real world that you could visualize and interact with. This article offers some of that history.
- Inside Macintosh - In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh with the famous "1984" Commercial. They also released the less famous "Inside Macintosh" volumes 1, 2 and 3, which were 3 books printed on cheap paper which looked like telephone books, that were the developers bible. Later, they added many more books to the series, and printed the whole series on better stock.
Tech Reviews[edit | edit source]
- 2003.05.15 PowerBook Repair - I've had quite a few good, and a few bad experiences with Apple Support. This was support issues around a finicky model, that Apple wasn't good about supporting. (Certainly not as good as Old Apple / Pre-Jobsian). New Apple has shorter warranties, but they enforce them looser to convince you they are giving your grace. Sometimes.
- 2015 iPad Pro (1st Gen) - A better iPad. iPad Prois better in every way -- bigger, faster, longer battery life... and more expensive. OK, better in all ways but price. The bigger screen, a keyboard that works, and the iPad fills a niche for me as a great travel/note-taking and entertainment device, when it's not worth bringing out my laptop. Or as a second screen for my laptop.
- 2016 MacBook Pro (Touch bar) - There's a lot of whining and complaints about the New MacBook Pro's (MBP2016). Some valid, many overstated but heartfelt. But I think the problem was more about messaging than delivery. For me, and most users, it's a great product. But it would be as great without the touch bar.
- 2019.01.31 Apple Chairs - I regularly visit the Apple Park, and I've noted that the wooden chairs they use in the Café and Apple Store there are comfortable, solid, simplistic, and a nice aesthetic. So out of curiosity, I looked them up. They're by a designer Naoto Fukasawa, called the Hiroshima Chair, and they're $2,500 each.
- Apple Mouse - Until Steve Jobs came back, Apple could design a mouse. After that, form over function, and they suck. The USB Mouse (Hockey Puck), the Apple Pro Mouse, and the Magic Mouse all suck. Hard! I use a Microsoft Mouse, because even though Microsoft is mediocre at design, they're still better than Apple on Mice.
- Apple TV+ - Apple TV+ is an subscription video on demand service of Apple, that debuted on November 1, 2019 (announced on March 25th at a Special Event). It is accessible in about 100 countries (fewer than competitors), includes custom programming, but so far is proprietary to Apple devices (no native Android/Windows players).
- Apple Watch - Watch is hit and miss for me. Enough value to get me to wear a watch again. Annoying quirks that could be easily fixed. Kevin Lynch was my old boss at Adobe, so I was sort of rooting for him. And I like the idea of wearables, and there are usecases that add enough value. But 7 years, and it still can't keep up-to-date, or have a multi-day battery?
- Apple killed my Music - One of the most assholish things Apple has ever done (and they've done a few), was a few versions ago, when I did an upgrade from one Mac to another their "backup" to New Machine decided that they would secretly NOT copy any Music if that Music was ripped from CD. No notifications, backup complete, and so on. By the time I figured it out, the old machine had been wiped.
- Apple's Greatest Misses - I'm not an Apple basher, or Apple fanboy. The former looks only at the worst, the latter at only the best. I prefer to admit both. This article isn't into their many revolutions and successes, just a few highlights of technologies or ideas they went *splat*. Not to bash my Fruity friends in Cupertino, but any mistake is useful if you learn from it.
- IPod - The iPod is a little device that is much bigger than people realize. For a complete technology nerd, I'm fairly socially aware and can actually interact with humans as well as hardware. But when something new and cool comes out, my technaholic tendancies tend to come bubbling to the surface. The iPod will be revolutionary in its simplicity.
- ITunes - iTunes (💩🎶) started out as a mediocre Music app, and got worse year after year until the shit show of Apple Music. I stopped buying Music BECAUSE of Apple. I won't support their proprietary Music store, and they don't work well with things outside their music store. So we're not friends; and I only play music I already have or use other streaming services.
- Mac OS X 10.2 - Jaguar - Apple acquired NeXT, Steve Jobs had a palace coup and replaced old Apple's Not-Invented-here and leadership with NeXT's Not-Invented-here and leadership. NeXT did some things better, some worse, and had even more arrogance and inflexibility than old Apple. But they did have competent management, a stronger vision, and a willingness to just ship "good enough" and fix it later.
Woke[edit | edit source]
- 2018.10.28 Unbalanced - 27:1 - Bay Area folks are igno-woke, so I wasn't exactly shocked to find out that Apple donated 27:1 in favor of Democrats ($737,003 to Democrats and just $27,005 to Republicans). That's not as bad as Netflix's 141:1, but it still shows a lack of intellectual and cultural diversity. When Facebook and Google are less biased than you are, that's not a good sign.
- Apple China Censorship - applecensorship.com exposes the how much Apple cooperates with Chinese government to censor (block) access to: privacy enhancing apps, western news sources, information about human rights and religious freedoms. I don't care... unless Apple is getting sanctimonous about American Politicians/Cities/States doing less, while they help totalitarian fascists.
- Apple Removes Kanye - The far left has been trying to cancel Kanye, ever since a black man publicly supported Trump. Since Kanye (now Ye) is a bombast/boundary pusher, it's a matter of time before he said something that the left could take out of context, and use as an excuse. Apple Music pounced and removed Kanye West playlist after his anti-semitism controversy.
- Digital Kristallnacht - Under the urging of Biden administration and supporters, Social Media enacted Digital Kristallnacht: ripping through 7,000 Conservative individuals, digital businesses and communities on Social Media, breaking windows, banning, and blocking, in order to harass and ban them, all in the name of faux healing and unity.
- Emoji/Handgun Emoji - Emojis mean things. But when political correctness/the left gets involved, they often pervert the language. A tool (gun) was too hostile... so they replaced it with a squirt gun instead (🔫), even though a squirt gun and a real gun have completely different meanings, and a real gun is far more common than a super soaker.
In Media[edit | edit source]
- Jobs (2013) - Hollywood has this attitude that fiction is more interesting than real life. It is more interesting to people that don't care about the truth as much as they care about shallow entertainment and becoming more misinformed about a topic or person. I'm not their audience, and this movie wasn't made for me. Walter Isaacson's book was pretty good, but flawed. This movie omitted the former and exaggerated the latter.
- Steve Jobs (2015) - A fictionalized drama-mentory retelling of Steve Jobs life, by an ultra-Liberal director (Aaron Sorkin). Reviewers preferred it more than audiences +13% (86/73). While the dialog and story is the best of the rash of Steve Jobs pseudo-biographies, this one captured the spirit of many things better, while getting too many actual facts wrong. It would have been great, if only they were fictional characters.
People[edit | edit source]
- Steve Jobs - Just some articles about a controversial and accomplished person: aka one of the most famous people (and more complex people) in the world. I got to meet him a few times. I tend to the think the stories about either aspect (assholishness, charm) are a bit overstated. He was a human, with flaws and accomplishments.
- Ricky Gervais - It might be his leftist bonafides, but Ricky Gervais has told the self-important Hollywood elites at the Golden Globes how the rest of the country (and world) see them and their sanctimonious speeches at masturbatory award shows. He's a rare lefty that seems to get that leftism can go too far, when it starts trying to censor and bully and preen.
Other[edit | edit source]
- 2019.04.19 Apple v Qualcomm - Look, I don't really have a dog in this fight. But according to this article, Apple was trying to destroy Qualcomm through some highly questionable means, and also screwed Intel out of the business and was also possibly behind attack on Huawei, in a plot to own the cellphone market. Isn't that Business?
- Apple's App Store Margin - Apple has terms on their App Store that their cut is 30/15% (30% the first year subscriptions, 15% on later years). This one-size-fits-all "egalitarian" sounds fair to the dim of wit, but is totally unfair to large companies with brand recognition and don't need their marketing, or to content with razor thin margins (books, music, etc).
- Facebook/Broke Apple Store rules and got blocked - Apple rules don't allow you to install apps directly. Facebook circumvented that, and got temp blocked for it.
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
Don't anthropomorphize companies, they hate that. The same goes for dogs, computers, and some people. Apple is neither good nor bad: it is a group of people making products and trying to get returns for investors and customers. That behavior can be good or bad (or a bit of both), depending on how they're doing it.
Sometimes the leadership can be good or bad, or making bad decisions. But mostly, I roll eye's when I see things that vilify the leadership for things that they have a responsibility to do. Tim Cook isn't evil for paying as few taxes as legally possible, and using that money to employ people and create great products -- he would be evil/negligent if he didn't do that, and wasted investors/employees/companies money on things he didn't have to.
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