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Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

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251–260 of 307 posts

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#251

Apple does appear to be losing focus. For example: Apple has devalued the PRO moniker under Tim Cook's guidance. By trying to ram it's Mobile OS into a PRO product (iPad PRO). I mean the UI grid is still 4 x 5 on a massive 12 inch display. Nobody noticed it feels more like Fisher Price? And the iPad "PRO" apps are all dumbed down, feature limited versions of actual pro desktop apps. Then, by stagnating a once well re…

The fact that you think the "Pro" in "MacBook Pro" is an acronym might be undermining your argument a little...

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI The Alexa/echo ecosystem. > However it's tough to beat Google in this space...they also have a lot of data on users... Agreed, the amount of data is key. This is where Apple will struggle when looking to upgrade Siri/AI capabilities in coming years. > Tim Cook's Apple is making a stand for privacy and security, which is actually quite rare to witness in this day and age. He's a…

I disagree. Apple's stance on privacy has everything to do with the personality and life experiences of Tim Cook. Stop for a moment to imagine what being a homosexual teenager in 1970's Alabama was like. Also it's well known that his career at IBM was torpedoed over a gay "glass ceiling." Tim Cook is a man who understands that privacy is a human right.

Also it's well known that his career at IBM was torpedoed over a gay "glass ceiling."

I guess I've missed hearing this. That's disappointing, especially since I've always thought of IBM as being pretty progressive in that respect.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. Doesn't that ignore the XBox and the dominance of Windows in the consumer market?

Let us know what consumer market products you think MS will have by 2018.

Satya Nadella is in charge of Microsoft, not Ballmer, so I don't see the relevance of 2018 for the article.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 is still a schizoid failure to merge the "desktop" and "modern" worlds: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/control-panel-and-settin... . High-DPI scaling is a disaster that is only now being fixed in the Anniversary update: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2016/08/16/displ... . There are battery life regressions even on Microsoft hardware : https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3isuu4/windo…

Wow. So, your evidence that it's a "disaster" is one random blog post and a handful of reddit complaints... That's a BIG deal. I guess I should go uninstall Windows 10 from all the High-DPI devices that I'm running it on right now and install...what? I'm guessing that anything that's not perfect qualifies as a disaster in your opinion. Could you recommend an OS for me? I'll go and make sure that there are no critical…

I referenced the articles for the facts therein. Are you disputing that Windows 10 bizarrely has two different control panels? Or that it has trouble moving applications between high-DPI and regular-DPI settings?

It's okay to "not be perfect" when it comes to extra features or marginal functions. But stuff like text display, configuration, and power management are things that an OS needs to get perfect.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 is not a disaster and never has been. There's great stuff for everybody. It's the same rock-solid OS that every business depends on, that is still able to run all the software from 20 years ago, yet it also offers a ton of new functionality. What other desktop OS can you say that about? IMO, there isn't a better desktop OS out there. Just last night I was actually running some games from 1995 on my 5 year…

Windows 10 is still a schizoid failure to merge the "desktop" and "modern" worlds: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/control-panel-and-settin... . High-DPI scaling is a disaster that is only now being fixed in the Anniversary update: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2016/08/16/displ... . There are battery life regressions even on Microsoft hardware : https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3isuu4/windo…

> Windows 10 is still a schizoid failure to merge the "desktop" and "modern" worlds: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/control-panel-and-settin....

Apple's "Lion is a Quitter" botched attempt to merge the iOS file paradigm with the Mac file paradigm was easily worse than this.

I think it's fair to say that both Apple and Microsoft have had difficulties bringing mobile paradigms to the desktop, and I think it's even fair to say that Windows 8 was deeply flawed. But at this point both Apple and Microsoft (heck, even GNOME 3) have gotten over their growing pains in this regard and have made quite usable systems. I switch between Mac, Windows, and Linux desktop frequently and I find that they've all converged to a pretty similar point of usability.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#256
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These were not just product transitions, but radical business model transitions – new channels, new customers and new markets–and new emphasis on different parts of the organization

Alexa is the perfect example of a product that could have been made by Apple but wasn't, and which ticks all those boxes. And not just those. Apple's big strength isn't hardware, it's ecosystems. The hardware was always just a front end to a network of unique systems, markets, and services. The latest Apple offerings seem to have forgotten that. Watch is primarily a shiny widget, not the thin client the iPod and iPad…

It could also be that Apple doesn't see Alexa as something they need to compete with — that Siri on existing devices (and especially "Hey, Siri") addresses that niche for them.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> announced very few new products. Look it up, he's actually announced plenty. Just they're kinda underwhelming. Off the top of my head: MacBook, Mac Pro, iPad Pro, iPhone+,MacBook HDMI Dongle, iPhone Headphone Dongle, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple Pencil.

How does this list not include the Apple Watch, which Cook also announced? Speaking of which, how does this not include Swift, which also debuted under Tim Cook? And Metal?

And iCloud Photo Library. And HomeKit. And …

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#258
post #26

Tim Cook is a "Bozo" - He has moved the focus away from computers and the companies core professional users and turned Apple into a fashionable health services company. They will coast for a while on their dominant mobile market share but eventually the stagnation and lack of new products will catch up to them. He built a watch, which was a "me too" product and answered a question that no one asked. Jobs would never…

The same could have been said about the ipod as well. It has little to do with computing and was marketed as a lifestyle product. Apple is notorious for being second to the market with its simplified vision of emerging tech.

"Notorious" or "beloved"? What you're complaining about here is literally a huge part of why they're successful, and the reason so many people like their products. There are people who value "tech done first" over "tech done right", but those people are more known for their hot takes in tech blog comment sections than as a meaningful or lucrative target audience in the consumer electronics and computer industries.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. So, your evidence that it's a "disaster" is one random blog post and a handful of reddit complaints... That's a BIG deal. I guess I should go uninstall Windows 10 from all the High-DPI devices that I'm running it on right now and install...what? I'm guessing that anything that's not perfect qualifies as a disaster in your opinion. Could you recommend an OS for me? I'll go and make sure that there are no critical…

I referenced the articles for the facts therein. Are you disputing that Windows 10 bizarrely has two different control panels? Or that it has trouble moving applications between high-DPI and regular-DPI settings? It's okay to "not be perfect" when it comes to extra features or marginal functions. But stuff like text display, configuration, and power management are things that an OS needs to get perfect.

The article you linked to is talking about a new feature, per-thread DPI awareness, which is something that macOS has never had—NSHighResolutionCapable is per-app (in the Info.plist) and always has been. It seems strange, then, to claim that this feature is needed for HiDPI to not be "broken".

Rather, the problem here is that legacy APIs, which Windows has a lot of, are not HiDPI capable, and attempts to retrofit them are always going to be hacks. Apple has the same issue with Carbon—Carbon is not HiDPI capable either.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#260
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can interpret public stances of principle as various ways of making money in the long term, but I do buy that Tim Cook cares about doing the right thing in some areas. > (An) NCPPR representative asked Mr. Cook to commit right then and there to doing only those things that were profitable. What ensued was the only time I can recall seeing Tim Cook angry, and he categorically rejected the worldview behind the NCPP…

If I wasn't aware enough about the US political landspace, reading that I'd be convinced that the NCPPR representative could only be a bad plot by Apple for PR. I mean, "commit to doing only those things that were profitable"? It's like asking if he plans to add "Darth" to his name.

Also, the Snowden leaks showed that all the major tech companies were in bed with the Us Govt.
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