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How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

fastcompany.com

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Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#71

Post by jimnotgym »

dylan604 wrote: post #40
openknot wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would personally be very interested in such a blog, but so would Apple's competitors. I've read that being too open about methods can let competitors catch up to once-unique advantages quickly, especially as it lets them design a roadmap of future features to work on. Suppose Apple had an engineering blog that released a roadmap about the M1 chips before their release. Then, Apple's laptops might not have such a ma…

>Then, Apple's laptops might not have such a massive lead on Intel/AMD processors today That's giving Intel a heck of a lot of credit. Intel is a massive ship moving along at full speed. They aren't the most agile of companies to say the least. Intel's x86 giant hammer convinces themselves that everything is an x86 nail. How else do you explain the fact that they are so woefully behind in the times? Apple and Intel w…

Except...

Whilst I acknowledge that the M1 macs are pretty good, Intel power pcs on everyone else's desks that work just fine for the standard Microsoft Office workload. Intel are not miles behind, they are just not ahead. In the world of Enterprise Applications x86s compatibility with legacy code is going to be important to many large organisations.

Meanwhile Apple with probably pull support for Rosetta2 in a couple of years (like last time), but Photoshop and Logic will keep working and the most users won't care.

So whilst Intel have not innovated at the speed us techies would have liked, x86 is here to stay in the non-apple world.

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#72

Post by tintedfireglass »

bushbaba wrote: post #39
kstenerud wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who besides industry geeks actually cared about that? ipod was innovative for the common man. iphone was innovative for the common man. ipad was innovative for the common man. The rest? Meh. Nowadays it's just an upgrade treadmill, consisting of "To re-pair my old watch I first need to update to the latest watch software (even though it worked fine before I unpaired it). But to update the watch software I need to upd…

AirPods were the first Bluetooth headset that just worked and made you want to ditch the cord.

We had Bluetooth earpods in the early 2010s used by a lot of people. What's innovative in releasing the same product but for two ears something revolutionary. Capacitive touch is revolutionary, a Bluetooth earpiece is not

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#73

Post by ant6n »

zebnyc wrote: post #62

My conversatons with my brother who works at Apple goes something like this. Me: "What are you working on?" Him: "All I can tell you is that I am working on a project which will launch later this year and you hear about it in the news."

Won’t he tell u what projects he did in the past?

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#75

Post by rm445 »

Erikun wrote: post #68

What is an "HR Business Partner"?

It's a job title in HR with a certain level of seniority. It doesn't imply that the business is organised as a partnership.

It's a dumb title, but very common. I think the root cause is a lack of a general job title for a senior contributor in that field. With the debasement of the word engineer, I'm just glad they're not called senior HR engineer.

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#76

Post by imwillofficial »

kstenerud wrote: post #33
frutiger wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When was the last time people were surprised by what they saw? The performance per watt and rollout schedule of Apple Silicon?

Who besides industry geeks actually cared about that? ipod was innovative for the common man. iphone was innovative for the common man. ipad was innovative for the common man. The rest? Meh. Nowadays it's just an upgrade treadmill, consisting of "To re-pair my old watch I first need to update to the latest watch software (even though it worked fine before I unpaired it). But to update the watch software I need to upd…

You list off 3 products that changed the world.

And then say “meh”

I just don’t understand some people.

Apple’s contributions to modern computing, from GUI work, to WebKit, to AirPods is game changing.

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#77

Post by bigfudge »

_drkh wrote: post #52
asdff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of an advantage are you really getting here? The first day they are sold samsung has the airpod torn apart and rendered on a computer screen with all specs known. There are no big secrets here, these aren't warheads. It didn't take long for the gas stations around me to start selling knock off airpods along side the knock off lightning cables. If you get it early vs not, its not going to make a big differenc…

I imagine the brand recognition of being the innovator here (whether or not they really have innovated on anything, I won't judge that here) is a bigger factor in the market than it appears at first. At the very least, that lasting, prestigious reputation of being a global innovator fits the bill for the type of "personality" that the corporation exhibits and must tickle something's fancy there, and at most it causes…

I don’t think apple can charge higher prices because they’re first. If anything it’s because they are consistently good. Or just consistent.

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#78

Post by jrockway »

amir734jj wrote: post #50
changoplatanero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At fb/google the code for almost all projects is in one giant open repo that any engineer can browse.

But good luck figuring out how that code works. Disclosure I work at Microsoft and I work with ropes with millions of lines of code.

I think the best skill I learned at Google was figuring out how other people's code works. You read the documentation, and then you make some RPC. It doesn't work as documented. You go read the other service's logs and see an error message, but it doesn't make any sense. You search the codebase for that error message. You find that the super deprecated do not include field is mandatory; it's sent to some other service that thinks it's important. 10 minutes later, you fix your code, the RPC works, and you're on to the next thing. No meetings, no calls, no emails, no time zone coordination, no bugs languishing in some queue that you're not even sure it's the right one... just a solution!

I was really surprised how uncommon this is outside of Google. People will hit an issue with a library, file a bug, and just sit there blocked without ever opening up the malfunctioning code and reading through it. Why turn a one player game into a multiplayer game unless you really have to? Reading code is what you do for a living!

Like anything, it's a skill that you need to develop, but it's one that will make you really productive.

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#79

Post by uuyi »

tintedfireglass wrote: post #72
bushbaba wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPods were the first Bluetooth headset that just worked and made you want to ditch the cord.

We had Bluetooth earpods in the early 2010s used by a lot of people. What's innovative in releasing the same product but for two ears something revolutionary. Capacitive touch is revolutionary, a Bluetooth earpiece is not

One that actually works properly and doesn’t sound like ass is revolutionary. That’s where apple win.

Re: How Apple overcame its culture of secrecy to create AirPods Pro

#80

Post by cameronh90 »

kstenerud wrote: post #33
frutiger wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When was the last time people were surprised by what they saw? The performance per watt and rollout schedule of Apple Silicon?

Who besides industry geeks actually cared about that? ipod was innovative for the common man. iphone was innovative for the common man. ipad was innovative for the common man. The rest? Meh. Nowadays it's just an upgrade treadmill, consisting of "To re-pair my old watch I first need to update to the latest watch software (even though it worked fine before I unpaired it). But to update the watch software I need to upd…

Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, AirTag, AirPods...
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