Tag: Tim Cook

Why Apple Killed The MacBook Pro

Apple’s MacBook Pro remains an iconic product, but over the last few years Cupertino has pushed it back into the shadows; handing all the spotlight, attention, and shiny launch events to the iPhone. But it did more than that. It neutered a powerful laptop and turned it into a supporting player. Today’s MacBook Pro is a pale imitation of the original masterpiece.

Once upon a time Steve Jobs took to the stage, standing on the shoulders of Apple’s previous laptops, and announced the MacBook Pro. It was 2006, and the MacBook Pro pretty much defined Apple’s approach to for the next five years. It launched with Intel’s Core Duo chipset, an aluminium design, backlit keyboard, and a magnetic power connector so any trips would leave your laptop on a desk (whatever happened to that innovative idea?).

Four times faster than the G4 PowerBook, this was a laptop for the ages. Job’s Apple iterated on the design, ramping up the power, adding new apps, and increasing the portfolio to accommodate 17-inch and 13-inch versions.

When the time came to take on the lighter laptops from Microsoft (and arguably the Mayfly like rise of the netbook), the MacBook Pro was not compromised – instead the MacBook Air picked up that challenge and the Pro continued to push the envelope with Retina Displays, more powerful apps, and remained the gold standard for a workhorse laptop that could do anything, anywhere, with no compromises.

Today In: Innovation

The MacBook Pro was what you measured other laptops against, and frankly very little came close.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs discusses a new version of the Mac Book during a "town hall" style event at Apple Headquarters October 14, 2008 (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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Then Tim Cook came along, taking over as Apple’s CEO in 2011. Given the lead time of products, Cook’s vision of Apple would arguably take a few years to become fully apparent, but when it did it was clear where his priorities lay.

The iPhone.

I’m not saying Apple should not have focused on the iPhone, after all this was a chance to dominate a new landscape (we’ll leave the discussion about how dominant Apple’s roughly twenty percent share actually is for another time. But Cook’s Apple decided that the company’s other products would be subservient to the needs of the iPhone.

That meant the Mac family, and especially the MacBook Pro, had to walk in the shadow and to reinforce the message  of the iPhone. New technology came to the iPhone and iOS first, with the Macs and macOS picking up similar apps later in the product cycle (and invariably sold as ‘now you can sync your iPhone docs to your Mac, doesn’t that make your Mac useful?’).

You even saw the physical design trends of the smartphone world affect the reliability and trustworthiness of the MacBook Pro. Everything was about making the machine thinner, lighter, more fragile, and reducing it to a single sealed unit that turned your personal computer from something you could tinker and upgrade to a ‘Tim says this is the way forward’ monolith.

Add in the move towards cloud based services, applications syncing data through to the internet to mobile devices, and the subtle indicators that your Mac was no longer a standalone machine but one that was a second-class interface to Cook’s world of monthly subscriptions, and is it any wonder that many consider Apple’s deskbound computers to be an afterthought?

Apple CEO Tim Cook previews a MacBook Pro during a product launch event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California on October 27, 2016 (Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

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The MacBook Pro is no longer the MacBook Pro.

The powerful standalone computer that did things differently was sacrificed. There never seemed to be a thought to keep the Mac family as something separate to the iOS product line. No, everything had to fall in line to support the annual retail temptation of the iPhone, every feature added to macOS was one that the iOS team had already provided to the smartphone, and the Mac lost its place as a premier product.

The MacBook Pro is dead. Long live the MacBook Pro. Excuse me for not putting out the bunting.

Now read more about the problems with the latest macOS update…

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.

Ewan Spence

I am known for my strong views on mobile technology, online media, and the effect this has on the public conscious and existing businesses. I’ve been following this space for over ten years, working with a number of publishers, publications and media companies, some for long periods of time, others for commissions, one-off pieces or a series of articles or shows. As Scotland’s first podcaster, I continue to be a prominent voice in the rise of podcasting and new media online, and picked up a British Academy (BAFTA) nomination for my annual coverage of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, alongside contributions to Radio 5 Live, the BBC World Service, presenting Edinburgh local radio’s coverage of the General Election. You’ll find me on Twitter (@Ewan), Facebook, and Google Plus.

Source: Why Apple Killed The MacBook Pro

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Say goodbye to the petite laptop. Read more: https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/09/a… Subscribe to Engadget on YouTube: http://engt.co/subscribe Engadget’s Buyer’s Guide: https://www.engadget.com/buyers-guide/ Get More Engadget: • Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/engadget • Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/engadget • Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/engadget • Read more: http://www.engadget.com Engadget is the original home for technology news and reviews.

In Apple’s push to emphasis software and services, it’s tough to look at macOS and wonder what the deskbound platform would look like if Apple had decided to make it successful in its own right. As well as its role in being the developer platform for iOS and iPadOS apps, macOS has been slowly turned into a subsidiary OS which supports the features of iOS. New apps are rarely for new desktop purposes, but to support existing mobile purposes.

While the world is moving towards mobile, there is still a strong place for desktop apps. But Apple’s focus is on iOS, on subscription services delivered to mobile, and how to support the cloud based services. It’s tough for any Mac to stand out when your seen only as a secondary supporting character.

Today In: Innovation

Most Apple watchers are expecting Tim Cook and his team to organise a second consumer event at some point in October (my money is on October 29th) and this will be the last opportunity in 2019 for Apple to publicly introduce the 16-inch MacBook Pro…  which is already in production ahead of the launch.

But the event is unlikely to be just about the new MacBook Pro… or the full MacBook or Mac range… Apple’s slate has a number of products that are going to be loved by Cook much more than the macOS machines. There’s the traditional ‘don’t you think the iPhone has been doing well’ reinforcement to the hand-picked audience which will take up some of the digital column inches.

Apple has been working on geo-location tags, and the expectation is that the Apple Tags system will launch at this event with the ‘new power’ of the iPhone 11 switched on by a software update to interact with these tags (and other Apple devices).

And then there’s the ‘direct’ competition in the form of the iPad Pro, which is also expected to pick up an update for the holiday season.

Given the choice between eulogising the new iPhone, increasing its functionality, and promoting the walled-garden of the iPad Pro… or giving the MacBook Pro family room to breath and luxuriate in the limelight, I suspect Cook will choose the former. I would love to be proved wrong but nothing in the last year or two suggests that is going to happen.

Finally, there’s another truth about the MacBook range as a whole, and the MacBook Pro individually, that has to be noted. No matter what Apple says on the stage, the MacBook Pro is going to struggle in comparison to its Windows 10 counterparts. There are laptops with far better designs and styling (such as Microsoft’s Surface Book series), there are laptops far better suited to gaming and multimedia creation (such as the Razer Blade Pro), and there are far more portable and practical business laptops (HP’s Elitebook range).

Even restricting a comparison to the headline feature (increasing the screen size to 16 inches), the new MacBook Pro is falling short not just of Apple’s previous large screened MacBooks, but also of the top line large screened laptops where the going rate on the diagonal is seventeen inches. It might be ‘the biggest and best MacBook Pro from Apple’ but it’s nowhere close to being the biggest or the best laptop in the market.

An employee is illuminated by the screen of an Apple Inc. laptop computer as he works at Flock's office in Mumbai, India. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

© 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP

I want Apple to prove me wrong. I want Apple to do more than a minimum viable upgrade to the MacBook Pro. I want a machine that is seen as more than a ‘use this to support your iPhone’, ‘code for your mobile devices’ or ‘edit your miniseries so it can feature on Apple TV’.

But I don’t think Apple wants any of that.

Now read more about how Apple’s decisions have doomed the Mac family of devices…

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.

Ewan Spence

I am known for my strong views on mobile technology, online media, and the effect this has on the public conscious and existing businesses. I’ve been following this space for over ten years, working with a number of publishers, publications and media companies, some for long periods of time, others for commissions, one-off pieces or a series of articles or shows. As Scotland’s first podcaster, I continue to be a prominent voice in the rise of podcasting and new media online, and picked up a British Academy (BAFTA) nomination for my annual coverage of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, alongside contributions to Radio 5 Live, the BBC World Service, presenting Edinburgh local radio’s coverage of the General Election. You’ll find me on Twitter (@Ewan), Facebook, and Google Plus.

Source: Apple’s Unpleasant Behaviour Is Hurting The Macbook Pro

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Download PDFelement for Mac Free: https://www.macpdfeditor.com/?utm_sou… Save 50% on Back-to-school sale: http://bit.ly/2N7ITg5 Review It to get $5 Amazon gift card free: http://bit.ly/2Nd764H Rules: Download PDFelement 7 from Mac App Store and give it a try! Rate and write a review for it on the Mac App Store Capture your review and send it at jessie@wondershare.com Within 2-5 business days to wait your gift card to come. -Sponsored by PDF element The entry level MacBook Pro 2019 has been out for over a month. With previous problems like the reliability of the butterfly keyboard, thermal throttling issues on the 2018 model, just how well does Apple’s latest entry level MacBook Pro hold up after one month of use? #MacBookPro #MacBookPro2019 #MacBookPro13 Buy MacBook Pro 13″: https://amzn.to/2XKboqm Join the Greg’s Gadgets Discord: https://discord.gg/s8jp9Kt Follow Me on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2G9H3HM Audible: http://www.audibletrial.com/GregsGadgets Buy Greg’s Gadgets Merch: http://bit.ly/2RWZUNs NEW Six Colors Logo: http://bit.ly/2SIIpQy NEW Six Colors Logo 2: http://bit.ly/2Gr98vt PROMOCODE: SIXCOLORS for 25% off!

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Apple’s Obsessive Behaviour Is Killing The Macbook Pro

With the iPhone 11 launch out of the way, Apple’s attention will turn from the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro phones to the iPad Pro and a new wave of tablets to accompany the newly forked iPadOS. But what of the upcoming MacBook Pro updates and the larger 16-inch laptop?

Looking closely at the attitude of Tim Cook’s Apple to the macOS powered laptops, you’d be forgiven in thinking that the MacBook Pro has already been moved to legacy status. The intense and almost obsessive focus on thin and minimalist design, coupled with restricting choice and denying Mac owners long-term flexibility, has pushed the still-useful and beloved laptop family out of the public’s gaze.

First up is the obsessive drive to make its laptops thinner and lighter. Yes, the resulting devices look lighter and I’m sure that focus groups presented with alternate designs will choose the prettier one, but a laptop is not phone, nor is it a tablet. You need a certain amount of size to enjoy the experience, to have space for powerful chips, to handle the cooling requirements, to allow for new technology, and to guarantee reliability.

Today In: Innovation

By all means use the MacBook Air for the ‘thin’ brigade, but for the workhorse laptop, the MacBook Pro, Apple’s decision to prioritise a thin design – notably the fragile butterfly keyboard – has allowed the competition to catch up with and overtake the MacBook Pro in terms of hardware options and software flexibility.

One obvious lucrative area where macOS has fallen behind is in gaming. MacOS

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may have a significant share of the market, but where are the gaming options? They’re all using Windows 10, with access to a wide range of graphics cards, super processors, and fast refreshing densely packed 4K screens.

This speaks to another area where Apple’s obsessive nature has hindered the MacBook Pro. The inability to open up the system to graphics cards vendors is a poor choice at best, yet one where you could – if you look hard enough – understand why Apple is restricting the options inside the hardware. But is that any excuse to lock out some of the biggest names when using external graphics card caddies?

Apple has decided on the one true way to use your laptop, and has forced that through. If you want to do something outside of that definition, then the closed nature means you are out of luck.

Take the removal of the SD Card reader. Photographers are a notable demographic in MacBook Pro ownership and regularly tote a ridiculous number of cards around. It was an easy matter to pop these into their primary machine as required. Nope, that’s not the way forward that Apple sees it, so the SD card reader is removed.

And frankly, for a professional machine, the answer of using an external card reader in the USB ports or connecting through the camera is an embarrassment. And that’s before it leads to counting the number of available USB ports.

Apple CEO Tim Cook presents new products, including new Macbook laptops, during a special event at... [+] the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Photo by Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

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Finally, there’s Apple’s attitude towards the Mac machines in general, and the flagship MacBook Pro laptops specifically. While Tim Cook and his team are happy to sell them, and happy to remind developers about the machines, when it comes to the consumer events, the MacBook Pro is simply left in the wings.

WWDC saw the launch of the Mac Pro, and a focus on high specs and how it works for the multimedia creative (presumably focusing on the companies that are going to be supplying content for Apple’s subscription TV business). The real line items from WWDC were iOS and the reveal of iPadOS. The Mac was well down the running order and the MacBooks were nowhere to be seen.

Apple’s September event is the key consumer event for the year. It sets the tone for the year to come, it focuses the attention of the public on Apple’s core devices, and that was the iPhone and the Apple Watch. The side order of iPad was a kick in the teeth for those waiting for the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The obsession of preserving September for just the iPhone and any supporting peripherals weakens the MacBook Pro. And yes, Apple has the option of an event in October where the MacBook Pro can be revealed, but I suspect that even if the 16-inch MacBook Pro is given a public reveal (rather than a humbling ‘launch by press release’) the priority at the october event will be the iPad Pro.

Apple CEO Tim Cook presents new products, including new Macbook laptops, during a special event at... [+] the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Photo by Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

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Tim Cook’s Apple is in the middle of a move towards software and services. At some point that means the focus on the iPhone and the iPad as standalone hardware will fade away and they will become little more than conduits for content. It means that there will come a point where Apple does not have to keep up with other platforms and manufacturers that are pushing the limits of technology – there are some would say that Apple is already following this model given the lack of change in the iPhone over the last few years.

What does that future look like? It looks a lot like the present day MacBook Pro. Unloved by management but continuing to perform vital tasks in the ecosystem; unnoticed by consumers who are lured into more profitable machines with software lock-ins and walled gardens that offer Apple’s accountants a thirty percent rake on everything; and unable to respond to competitors who are developing laptops and desk-bound machines for a new generation.

Now read why Apple is not just ignoring, but is afraid of your new MacBook…

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.

Ewan Spence

I am known for my strong views on mobile technology, online media, and the effect this has on the public conscious and existing businesses. I’ve been following this space for over ten years, working with a number of publishers, publications and media companies, some for long periods of time, others for commissions, one-off pieces or a series of articles or shows. As Scotland’s first podcaster, I continue to be a prominent voice in the rise of podcasting and new media online, and picked up a British Academy (BAFTA) nomination for my annual coverage of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, alongside contributions to Radio 5 Live, the BBC World Service, presenting Edinburgh local radio’s coverage of the General Election. You’ll find me on Twitter (@Ewan), Facebook, and Google Plus.

Source: Apple’s Obsessive Behaviour Is Killing The Macbook Pro

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After many years using MacBook variants I’ve made the switch to Windows. I’ve used every version of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air that have been released. My current laptop of choice is the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon / Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme.Turns out switching from Mac to Windows isn’t as painful as I expected. FOLLOW ME IN THESE PLACES FOR UPDATES Twitter – http://twitter.com/unboxtherapy Facebook – http://facebook.com/lewis.hilsenteger Instagram – http://instagram.com/unboxtherapy

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Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Other Tech Leaders Share Their Favorite Summer Reads

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  • When they’re not busy ideating in Silicon Valley, tech execs like to settle down with a beach read.
  • NBC reporter Dylan Byers rounded up book recommendations from tech CEOs in a summer reading list for his newsletter.

For folks seeking an elevated beach read this summer, NBC reporter Dylan Byers asked six tech executives for summer reading recommendations in his newsletter.

Read on for book recommendations from Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Tim Cook, and more.

Mark Zuckerberg — Facebook, CEO

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The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore.

A novel about who really invented the lightbulb by the screenwriter behind the Oscar-wining film “The Imitation Game.” It features the intertwining stories of Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and George Westinghouse.

Zuckerberg, who is under fire for Facebook’s dominance, is getting roasted for recommending a book about an inventor who drives his rivals out of business to protect his monopoly.

Sheryl Sandberg — Facebook, COO

Reuters

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

Philanthropist Melinda Gates writes about the importance of empowering women, and how that action can change the world.

Tim Cook — CEO, Apple

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When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

When a young Stanford neurosurgeon is diagnosed with lung cancer, he sets out to write a memoir about mortality, memory, family, medicine, literature, philosophy, and religion. It’s a tear-jerker, with an epilogue written by his wife Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, who survives him, along with their young daughter.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

A memoir by the creator of Nike, Phil Knight.

Dawn Ostroff — Spotify, CCO

Richard Bord/Getty Images

Educated by Tara Westover

Westover, raised in the mountains of Idaho in a family of survivalists, didn’t go to school until she was 17. She would go on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. This memoir chronicles her path towards higher education.

Evan Spiegel — Snap, CEO

Mike Blake/Reuters

Mortal Republic by Edward Watts

A history of how ancient Rome fell into tyranny.

Jeffrey Katzenberg — KndrCo

Getty Images / Larry Busacca

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

Written in 2018, Harari addresses technological and political challenges that humans will have to tackle in the 21st century.

White Working Class by Joan C. Williams

Williams, a law professor, writes “Class consciousness has has been replaced by class cluelessness — and in some cases, even class callousness.”

Rebecca Aydin Business Insider
Source: https://www.inc.com
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