and now I have a topless Britney Spears staring at me

W for Apple

The vast majority of users clearly are not able to act responsible all the time in all life-situations.

And yet society still gives them lots more freedom than Apple does.

Majority marketshare ≠ major computing platform.

You will always have the option to use only the App Store.

Apple promotes their products as perfect

Apple fans as well. (Well, not necessarily “perfect” but definitely “better” than the competition. We’ve seen many cases where feature X was derided on competitors’ products, but subsequently praised when Apple added it to their product line.)

Apple doesn’t have other products if one is bad. They sell 2 laptops, so if there’s a problem with the keyboard it effects 1/2 their product line

This point is underrated.

If Apple sold appropriately updated versions of the 2012 Mac Pro and 2015 MacBook Pro alongside the 2013–2019 cylinder Mac Pro and 2016–2021 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, then the latter two products would have gotten much less criticism.

Much of the history of GUIs can be split into two parts:

1. Skeuomorphism (1980s–2010s)
2. Flat design (2010s–present)

The quick shift from skeuomorphism to flat design happened in the midst of other cultural changes: the prevalence of “digital natives,” specialized subnotebooks (e.g. personal organizers) being replaced by more general computers (e.g. smartphones), society becoming more digital, along with the increasing abstraction of technology over the decades. These factors generally benefit flat design, which is why I don’t see it being replaced in the near future.

Ten years ago, iOS 7 and Mac OS X 10.9 “Mavericks” were probably near the top of my head.

Now I have to look up what the current versions of iOS and macOS are.

If Apple moved to a 2-year cycle, would you prefer Apple update all their OSes in the same year or update different OSes on alternating years?

I feel like a 3 year cycle for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS is probably ideal at this time. Apple already uses the dot updates for nontrivial features anyway. visionOS and watchOS are newer so should get more frequent updates for now.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/HhNMU

They stop producing the iPhone 13 mini in spite of its respectable sales because figures didn’t match its flagship iPhone models. Yet, they look to produce another 12-inch Macbook which they only recently discontinued for poor sales. 🤌🏼

The iPhone has higher sales standards for a success.

I expect the rumored 12"/13" ARM MacBook to sell better and make Apple more profit than the old 12" Intel MacBook for four reasons.

1. No butterfly keyboard this time.
2. I assume that the 12"/13" ARM MacBook will have at least one USB port plus MagSafe, which is a big improvement over the 12" Intel MacBook’s single USB port plus headphone jack.
3. The 13" display size appears to be quite popular, which is another strike against the 12" Intel MacBook, whose base model was more expensive than the 13" MBA and equal to or more expensive than the 13" MBP. The upcoming 12"/13" ARM MacBook is expected to come in two sizes which is good for those who want 13" laptops and those who want smaller ones, and judging by the rumors I expect the 12" to be quite cheap (for Apple). I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of development work is shared across both sizes.
4. The Intel Core M “-Y” series was kind of a failure and the 12" Intel MacBook was released just as enthusiast opinion began to turn against these chips. The same isn’t the case for Apple Silicon (so far)—they have great performance per Watt and are praised everywhere except at the server/workstation level. In the worst case scenario, the 12"/13" ARM MacBook would have an M1 or an A17 Pro. The first chip is still considered to be solid, and the second was disappointing to some but mainly in comparison to Apple’s previous generational improvements. Neither chip has the poor reputation of Intel’s Core M.

It’s possible that this low-cost MacBook is partly an admission that the iPad in school push hasn’t worked out as well as Apple expected.

If you mean the display area, that was already the case.