iPad Pro

Shouldn’t you be more specific and say an indictment of Photoshop or Adobe?

Perhaps they have a lot they can optimize but the levels of layers, masking, opacity, blending or whatever is complex.

There’s a lot to be said about reduced efficiencies with the layers of languages and abstractions we use today but I’m not sure photoshop is the best example to try and torch the whole industry.

I found the announcement an interesting mix, more like the original iPad where there is potential in the hardware that isn't available in the software.

The increasingly similar optics to the Surface Pro are amusing as well, design students would do well to read the coverage of these two systems from introduction to the present day. A lot to be learned there in terms of understanding how systems like these evolve.

I am bummed that the pencil isn't compatible and while you get better recharging and 'tap to change tools' and some tilt and pressure sensitivity, but how much? Actual specs seem to be elusive.

I always forget about it but that is a great feature, especially since it's nearly impossible for me to modify the start of a url in safari since my finger bumps up against the edge of the case.

No, that's not a valid argument.

Apple[Jobs] produced a steady stream of industry game changers - original iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, even the MacBook Air. Plus supporting ecosystems and software, including Siri and iCloud. And business relationships - with music companies, movie companies, phone carriers, podcast creators, and app devs.

Apple[Cook] has acquired a mountain of cash, but product development has followed a consistent and predictable faster+thinner+more_expensive path.

No game changers. Not one. Watch is the closest thing to a new class of products, but it seems to be an Ive vanity project rather than something that really scratches a user itch that users didn't even know they had - which was the classic Jobs USP. (And - ironically - Watch isn't obviously a design classic.)

No big new ecosystems. No big new business relationships - unless you count far-from-leading options like ApplePay. No game changer products. Just endless glacial refinement.

Which is fine for generating mountains of cash, especially when you're selling into new markets like China.

But you can only keep producing reruns for so long before you lose momentum. And buyer good will isn't infinite.

Luckily for Apple, Windows is still an incredibly terrible POS as an OS, so the motivation to switch isn't there. Nor is MS ever likely to do better for cultural reasons.

And Linux is - Linux.

So Apple can continue on this path for five more years. Maybe ten. But when the next new thing appears - quantum, bio, plain old distributed, whatever the hell it is - Apple will be buried by it.

I write on Pages. The Shortcuts app is a great way to sutomste time tracking or anything else: toggl is good in conjunction with this.

Affinity designer is a great vector program. Lumafusion is good for editing, though I havem’t used it much. Ferrite is good for audio. Most areas have a few standout apps, depends what you want to do.

Explain everything is good for making educational videos.