What Apple’s 50th Anniversary Misses

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21

If Apple truly wanted to keep it simple, they could design whatever “improvements” they make to avoid that issue. David Nanian has been successful in getting around those issues with the replicator by “thinking different”. Apple used to be that way, but that seems to be no longer the case, at least in this instance. And I suspect there are others.

In actuality, you said it yourself: “Sure, Apple could make it easier to create bootable backups”, ie. keep it simple. But seems like laziness and non-innovation are at play here. Thank god there are folks like David Nanian still around who can devise reliable methods to get around Apple’s shortcomings.

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Some really interesting thought expressed here, which highlights, to me anyway, part of the high value of the TBT experience.

I haven’t been able to bring my thoughts on the subject to any succinct post yet but I think they revolve around the Big Picture idea of the meaning of any new tool introduced to human society, in this case Apple software and hardware.

Initial attraction for me, as a visual person, was the GUI, attractive hardware, software that let me do interesting things and be more efficient, all enhanced with a feeling of shared values, that is, attention to detail and quality, care for the user experience, development of helpful community (user group/developer) spirit. That’s all gradually faded for me (exc here at TBT) especially since I worked in an Apple Store and since its massive growth.

Marco Arment wrote in the same vein on Weds.

Ultimately, any new tool can be used for good and bad, so what matters, what brings meaning to a tool, is how human society puts it to use.

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23

All of those things I mentioned led to people not being able to use what were (at the time) seen as the most basic of skills. That was my point. Every generation thinks the next is losing something crucial, without the self-awareness that the previous generation thought exactly the same about them, and that perhaps the lost skills aren’t as crucial as thought.

And I think we’re actually in a period of great innovation. In the past 20 years, I’ve acquired a supercomputer in my pocket that keeps me closely linked to the world, and that connects to a constellation of satellites which locate me precisely so I always know where I am. I’m resistant to an entirely new disease because of a new way of making vaccines. There are genuinely reusable rockets going into space and coming back. On the horrible side, drones and cyberattacks are completely remaking warfare. Whether one likes it or not, AI is remaking entire economic sectors.

(Historically innovation has two sequential periods. The first, where the new capabilities are invented / created and the second, where those capabilities are democratized / universalized. The latter is often much more important than the former. Cell phones existed in the 1980s but were rare, expensive, and barely portable. It’s only the universalizing of the capability in the 2000s – by Apple among others – that really changed the way society worked).

People (for the most part) have never been able to apply basic mathematical skills in the way you’re hoping. Throughout my life, I’ve had cashiers struggle to make correct change quickly, seen car dealerships use deceptive math to rip off customers, and students get flustered when a professor starts chiding them for not being able to handle a “simple” question.

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That is true, but my point is that by not applying those basic skills, it leads to non-innovation. People cannot think on their feet, even though their brain never runs out of batteries! And thus it is crucial. Fortunately there are still some folks like Dave Nanian around who think differently, and obviously knows all too well how to even apply those basic skills.

What you say about innovation is true in many industries, but for the most basic one, thinking on one’s feet (and using their brain), there are so many instances where it is lacking. And I, at least for now, cannot embrace AI. That is definitely in its very “infant” stages, still prone to numerous issues and mistakes. Also, you are missing another phase of innovation: making it easier and better. That needs to be the second phase. Unfortunately, with the third stage, making it universal does not always make it right or useful.

Same with me. When I was teaching I avoided humiliating someone who could not do even simple calculations. I did not want to inhibit their chance for improvement. That is just common sense, which again a lot of folks these days lack. But again I point to the wide availability of calculators (and now cell phones) for making that even worse! You can not me that is not a by product of those devices. People mostly want the easiest way of doing things, but ignore the consequences.

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MG Siegler, “A Conversion to Apple”:

…It wasn’t one thing, it was a million little touches that only became clear upon using these Apple products regularly: there was care put into the process. These devices were thoughtfully designed. A joy to use. They were everything a PC was not…

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26

Agree 100% in that was the way it used to be, and including from a software perspective. But unfortunately Apple started moving away from the KISS philosophy, especially with their software, back in the early 2000’s, and it unfortunately continues today. Macs are, for the most part, still somewhat easier, and a pleasure, to use. But not as good as earlier.

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27

OK, let’s stop repeating the same positions—the points have been made.

I particularly appreciate @ddmiller’s post for offering an optimistic alternative to my pessimism. I acknowledged the good that Apple-adjacent technology has brought to the world more briefly than the topic deserves.

To be clear, I am not in any way suggesting that we should go back in technological time. Aside from the fact that it’s impossible to turn back the clock, I like exploring and deploying new technology.

The challenge, as I see it, is to figure out how we can continue to advance the technology while focusing on its best aspects for improving the human condition and mitigating its deleterious side effects.

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28

I’m all for that, as long as others do the same.

Good luck with that! You could have tough challenges from Apple.

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I missed this the first time around. Companies may not have a soul but they have a culture and it’s the people in those companies that hand down and build that culture. You do an enormous disservice to not recognize that. Company cultures make a massive difference in how they deal with people. By your logic, both Meta and Apple have no soul. So, no difference, right? I say Apple’s culture, built by all the people we might imagine (Bill Atkinson!) and shepherded by Jobs, Amelio, Jobs, and Cook, is better than Meta’s. Apple’s culture is what drives it and it’s a culture that built the Mac, the iPhone, Apple Silicon, etc. There are only a tiny number of number of companies whose culture I trust by (default with wariness): Costco, Honda, Ben and Jerry’s, Bombas, LL Bean. Apple is in there, and it should be.

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I agree that companies have different cultures, and that they can absolutely be better and worse. And I agree that Apple is likely better than the rest of the big tech companies. But I also think that a lot of Apple’s public image is carefully managed and promoted for marketing reasons, particularly in the last decade or so, with some of the more controversial stuff swept under the rug. But even back in the mid-1990s, there was a saying among developers, “Apple is not your friend,” meaning that you could be invited to a keynote one day and Sherlocked the next. And there are plenty of ex-employees with stories about problematic working conditions. Steve Jobs may have been many things, but he has seldom been accused of being a nice guy.

I don’t know enough about most of the companies on your list of trusted by more-or-less default, but Ben and Jerry haven’t been at all happy about how the company has been run by Unilever recently. I still see Jeff Furman, a major B&J figure who lives in here in Ithaca, at the Turkey Trot every year, but I didn’t have a chance to ask him about it last year.

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@ace We get so caught up in critiquing Apple that we forget to remember the massive difference between them &, eg, Meta. So I’ll go with actions – how much Meta technology/software/presence do you have in your life compared to Apple? Given your past comments, I’m guessing the difference is massive.

That’s the point I’m making.

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32

I miss the gee-whiz excitement of the opening of a new Apple store. I stood in line to go early, see the new stuff, and get a t-shirt (which I still have in tatters). I miss MacWorld, even though I never actually went. I’ve been with Apple since the IIe. I have a couple of Newtons. Apple still makes good, great stuff. I hate Liquid, though. And…I wish Finder had true two-pane windows.

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33

I would add Toyota to your list. They have been consistently steady and worthy.

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And of course thousands of mom’n’ pop and small enterprises everywhere. Such as TidBITS of course. But anyway…

I don’t know if anyone has read Apple in China, the recent book by Patrick McGee, but it’s worth reading to consider how big an impact a corporation such as Apple can have. Essentially he posits that Apple trained China to be the China of today, moving from being the worlds producer of the bottom end of every market to being a technology powerhouse, making not just the cheapest but frequently the best and the cheapest. China is now their second largest market.

As companies like Apple become the equal of major nations in terms of impact, the interaction with regulators comes to the fore. China, the UK and the US all have had issues with privacy, Apple’s stated core principle, with varying outcomes. The EU has tackled them on transparency, charging cables, and the closed nature of the App Store, with a mixed bag of results. Most geeks I know complain about these encroachments even while they complain about the issues too. It seems no one can be happy. But it strikes me that at some point a strategy for dealing with the problems technology presents needs widespread agreement or we will be swept up in a solution that only benefits a few.

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I feel for you, having Tidbits be a job vs a fun hobby. But I need you to keep up the good work. Tidbits is my main contact to the apple world. As another poster mentioned the world of today’s tech is wonderful (but I am not on social media). What we can do, find out about and experience is positive and immense. I know social media is a tarnish on this view, but it is not so large as to overwhelm the positives.

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36

Adam, I could not agree more.

For me, the golden age was around the ‘Think Different’ era, when Apple was the plucky, but often beleagured, underdog. It’s products were definitely different to everyone else’s, and owning an Apple product was a statement. You saw yourself as taking the path less travelled, and in the process, enjoyed computing more.

There was even a sort of cameraderie with other Mac users in a world where IT support meant Windows support, so if your Mac wasn’t working, you got help from one another. Mac magazines, then mailing lists, and eventually personal websites, were at the heart of this, and I remember the fun to be had sharing new tips and tricks.

Apple is everywhere and everything nowadays, and while I’m glad my trust in the company wasn’t ill-founded, something was definitely lost on the way.

TidBits is the last tangible connection with that era, Adam, and I for one appreciate you continuing with the project. God speed to you all!

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37

Take what you need and leave the rest!

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Adam, I share some of your general sentiments, but on a close and personal level, I can say that your publications have taught me a lot and helped me tremendously to better understand this tool I am using and has saved me from days and days of headaches. So, I for one, am very thankful that you went on this journey and you certainly made my world a better place (Both my son and I even use the same backpack to this day that you had discussed in some long ago article and we love it). Marc

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39

The community, thin as it may be at this point, is appreciative of all the things you and Tonya have done for us as a whole. Many of us used the Internet Starter Kit to get ourselves going, to understand the world of communicating with others and the network of how our computers relate to each other.

As time rolls on, Apple the company reaches its 50th Anniversary, it’s true — who cares, at this point? At least it’s something to comment on, an event (or non-event) to promote discussion as to how far we’ve come or haven’t come.

I’m a baby boomer, and read that book early on. In some ways, it set my direction though I bought my own Apple computers and devices decades after their use at work. I was phototypesetting on a Compugraphic 7500. During my career as typesetter / typographer / graphic designer Apple computers brought us so much further along. We entered the digital age. It’s been a long way, baby. That career is long past but I really got somewhere with it.

I’m looking down a long lens towards the idealism of the community. We felt a wondersome sense of creation, and did what came to us accordingly. I felt it and grew through it so many times. It’s a drop in the bucket, but many decades ago on a cross-country USA trip I created one of the first ‘blogs’ writing about the journey and uploading every night from a hotel. Probably had twelve followers.

The world has become vastly inter-connected from our use of computers, we being Apple-based is just one neighborhood of all that. What a collection we now have, we’re fortunate, I guess, with a now-constant collection of devices. The wrong people have grasped the reins of the country. Apple never was our friend, nor most any of the corporations. What remains is the community of people we know through tech and life experience as well as those we’ve yet to meet and get to know face-to-face — knowledgable and open people, feeling people, kind people.

Adam, I tend to agree — It didn’t approach the ideals we had. I hope we still have hope.

My cat calls for breakfast.

Take care.

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40

The only thing I can add here is that, to be fair to Apple, they obviously have to celebrate such landmarks for marketing purposes. It’d be rather odd if they didn’t, wouldn’t it.

The company does a few celebration events, while a few third-parties do things for the enthusiasts (like Pogue’s book, and various journalist’s articles) that the rest of us may watch or read a couple of things to learn about how we got here. Then we move on with our day.

Companies are vehicles for money-making of course, not people with souls, but they can still have some interest in venerating the people within them, rather than the thing themselves. But yes, certain aspects of the tech we use have had as many negative results as positive ones, making it somewhat difficult to be completely happy about how great any of these companies actually are – even if you think Apple are the least bad.

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