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John Ternus to become Apple CEO

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Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#871

This is one of the more broadly normal HN-reaction threads to large public news event I've seen in a while. A lot of love for Apple, respect for the decision, and respectfully stated nuance. Surprising and good. I still haven't scroll down to the bottom, I don't want to spoil my impression. But it's great to see a positive reaction. Good way to mark the moment. Tim has been CEO for 15 years roughly, since Steve's pas…

This reads like a good example of how prestige brands flatten people critical faculties. :-)

"A lot of love for Apple" is not evidence of wisdom or merit. It is evidence that Apple has been extraordinarily successful at converting ordinary consumer electronics into a moral aesthetic identity for its customers... Once that happens, public praise stops being about products and starts being about selfregard.

That is why Apple gets discussed in a register normally reserved for institutions that have actually earned public affection. In reality, it is a company that charges luxury prices for tightly controlled products, then persuades customers that the control is sophistication and the markup is virtue. :-)

This is mostly a case study in prestige bias. People are not just evaluating a company but protecting a status hierarchy in which buying Apple signifies discernment.

And the something amazing must be in the skunkworks line is the usual theology that means when the present is overpriced iteration, redemption is always scheduled for a few years from now.

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#872
It is very hard to evaluate Apple as a single entity. Certain branches of the company did great in the latest 10 years: the chips division being the most obvious one but in general hardware did well. Software received a lot less love, and in general deteriorated, but the really terrible performance was the products division. Then there is the horror story of Apple software stores and services.

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#873

This is one of the more broadly normal HN-reaction threads to large public news event I've seen in a while. A lot of love for Apple, respect for the decision, and respectfully stated nuance. Surprising and good. I still haven't scroll down to the bottom, I don't want to spoil my impression. But it's great to see a positive reaction. Good way to mark the moment. Tim has been CEO for 15 years roughly, since Steve's pas…

This reads like a good example of how prestige brands flatten people critical faculties. :-) "A lot of love for Apple" is not evidence of wisdom or merit. It is evidence that Apple has been extraordinarily successful at converting ordinary consumer electronics into a moral aesthetic identity for its customers... Once that happens, public praise stops being about products and starts being about selfregard. That is why…

[flagged]

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only hope, however unlikely, is that Apple will recognise that power users, engineers and gamers would really really appreciate running Linux on Macs and they write some drivers for it. There are literally no PC laptops with the quality or hardware offered by even the cheapest MacBook - the software, while fine for general consumers, creators, and some developer workloads, tragically holds back its potential somet…

Well, that certainly would be one way to wipe billions from their share price overnight. The only way Linux on Mac will become a reality is if it's legislated.

Why didn’t Apples stock tank when they started offering Windows drivers, that they’ll stop offering only this fall ?

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#875
post #711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that certainly would be one way to wipe billions from their share price overnight. The only way Linux on Mac will become a reality is if it's legislated.

Why would Apple writing some Linux drivers wipe billions from its share price? You can already install Linux on a Mac if you really want to. Back in the day, you used to be able to install Windows on an (Intel) Mac, and that didn’t seem to have any such effect.

You still can right now.

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#876

For Apple nerds that pay close attention to company, this is no surprise. Third-party dev Marco Arment wrote a blog post speaking to Ternus earlier this month[0]. Marco has enough standing within our world that it's actually a clever idea to appeal to Ternus on these terms. He'll probably be aware that it was written and the appeal is somewhat generic in its call to reverse course on some Cook-era policies. We're all…

Why would anyone pay close attention to a company ? It is not a tongue in cheek remark, I am genuinely curious

> Why would anyone pay close attention to a company ?

Why would anyone pay close attention to a sports team? A musician? A writer?

But if you read Arment's post:

> As you grow into the leader that we know you can be, I urge you, on behalf of everyone who loves computers as much as we do, to protect and cultivate this spirit of Apple’s founders as the company’s top priority:

> *We love computers. We don’t hide that — we celebrate it!

> *We use computers to enhance our minds, lives, and abilities — not to be controlled, restricted, tricked, placated, angered, or surveilled.

> *Our computers work for us, with the utmost respect for our time, attention, money, data, and privacy.

> *We are customers and owners — not resources to be harvested, annoyed, or badgered into ever more services and upsells.

> Apple leads the industry in these values, but leading doesn’t always mean excelling. Remaining true to these values requires constant diligence, honest evaluation, introspection, and the audacity and courage to effect change.

* https://marco.org/2026/04/01/letter-to-john-ternus

Perhaps if more companies had values besides "shareholder value"[1] the world would be a better place.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#877

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that certainly would be one way to wipe billions from their share price overnight. The only way Linux on Mac will become a reality is if it's legislated.

Why didn’t Apples stock tank when they started offering Windows drivers, that they’ll stop offering only this fall ?

2006 was a different time, and Apple was a different company. Now, having control is more valuable. See: iOS App Store.

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#878
post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And Apple Maps today is absolutely amazing. Perhaps that is the case in the US, but in Poland, I haven't had a single app guide me into the literal bushes as many times as Apple Maps does. The straw that broke the camel's back was when, I shit you not, the navigation aspect literally expected me to drive through a lake.

This may just be my bubble, but even among my iPhone-owning friends, I haven't seen a single person use Apple Maps in Europe, so I wouldn't be surprised if the efforts to improve the map data have been more focused on the US.

I believe Apple Maps uses Open Street Map data for the mapping, which it augments with its own data collection. So it shouldn’t be worse than other vendors, like TomTom, who use the same dataset. Google has its own map data that’s probably better than OSM, but I think it probably has the same bias of USA + large international metros focus as Apple.

Google Maps is definitely still a little better but I find the delta is nowhere near as wide as it used to be. The main problem with Apple Maps I find today is that their data on business listings and locations tends to be a little older than Google’s, sometimes even a year or more out of date. So if a business or meeting place you’re trying to get to has moved recently you can wind up in the wrong spot.

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#879
post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And Apple Maps today is absolutely amazing. Perhaps that is the case in the US, but in Poland, I haven't had a single app guide me into the literal bushes as many times as Apple Maps does. The straw that broke the camel's back was when, I shit you not, the navigation aspect literally expected me to drive through a lake.

The interface and the direction instructions on Apple Maps are way ahead of Google Maps. The app performance is also much smoother / snappier, it connects to the car instantly and reliably, where with Android Auto it’been always waiting and pain. But the accuracy of maps is indeed worse. However my biggest gripe with Apple Maps in Poland is that Siri does not understand Polish and cannot be told to navigate to a Poli…

I have my iPhone set up in a way where I have "Apple Intelligence" and that, somehow, manages to pick up Polish VERY well. Might want to try it. Never have expected "play "Oddałbym" by Slums Attack from Spotify" to work - and yet it did first try, way better than any attempt I made on Google Assistant in the past decade.

The pronounciations, though, are indeed something that leaves no other option but to laugh. Expect "Rogozińska" (ruh-goh-tzeen-ska?), recieve something I fail to comprehend :-)

Re: John Ternus to become Apple CEO

#880
post #72

Wow. Hopefully, Ternus will bring what he brought to Apple's hardware to their software. The hardware is leaps and bounds ahead of anything else, but their software gets worse and worse every generation. I'm glad to hear this.

Ternus recently gave an interview where he said this about the initial flop of Apple Maps: > “When we started out with maps, it was an ambitious undertaking. It was bumpy,” said Ternus. “But the team had just been over the years just pushing and pushing and pushing. And Apple Maps today is absolutely amazing. If you have the vision and you're persistent and you keep working at it, you can take something you know that…

Oh I remember this quote. I thought it was quite a good one because he’s right. At least in the US, apple maps is better than google maps for most purposes.
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