oh yeah, noble 'tech world' Apple was just about to roll out USB-C across all its devices, and then pesky EU jumped on the bandwagon with its mandate, you really have to laugh.
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Apple Continues to Fall Behind
- Thread starter DougiePhresh
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oh yeah, noble 'tech world' Apple was just about to roll out USB-C across all its devices, and then pesky EU jumped on the bandwagon with its mandate, you really have to laugh.
The design for the USB‑C connector was initially developed in 2012 by Intel, Apple Inc., HP Inc., Microsoft, and the USB Implementers Forum. Apple stuck to lightning for market and profit reasons, they always knew they would go to usb c at some point in time. They were among the first to implement usb c and thunderbolt in their computers. In fact, the whole Apple dongle trope came from them switching to the usb c form factor early on.
The EU mandated USB C, so that -probably- accelerated the switch to usb c. I don't recall Apple viciously fighting the EU on this. They lobbied, they released some statements, but that was it. Nothing 'vicious' I believe 🤷🏻, just protecting their profit margin. They are a for profit company after all. But Apple most assuredly did not push the EU to mandate usb c 😂
I'm in principal happy with having one cable to charge everything... however now all usb c cables have different protocols and power specifications, so 'yay' for single standards 🥳.
The AVP is much more than a headset for putting screens directly in front of your eyes. It's a standalone computer with its own operating system, gesture recognition, etc.
Your phone is a standalone computer. A smartwatch is a standalone computer. The ZX Spectrum ( in 1982 ) was a standalone computer with its own OS. Devices have been standalone and have had OSes for a very long time.
I first used „gesture recognition” in 2010 with the Xbox kinect - it was a terrible implentation of gesture recognition, but it was gesture recognition. I first used a „VR headset” in 2013, the oculus Rift dev kit. I first started seeing AR apps coming out on iPhone from the iPhone 4s onwards - so about 2012.
Google Glass was originally released in 2013.
I’m not saying Apple hasn’t pushed these technologies forward, but these concepts are not newer and not more revolutiinary than smartphones, like than smartphones, which was the opinion put forward in the post I was replying to.
AR, gestures and headsets are not new, revolutiinary concepts. Devices with foldable screeny, are new concepts. You can’t say one is „new and revolutionary” but the other is not „new and revolutionary”. That all just emoty marketingspeak.
The Vision Pro is a very good iteration of concepts that has been around for decades. It’s good, but it’s not a new concept, it’s a combination and finessing of a lot of not-very-new concepts.
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You’re confusing „invent” with „design and produce”. I made a pizza today, and it was a very nice pizza, but that doesn’t mean I can claim to have invented pizza.
Sure, Allen's comment that the AVP is truly innovative is somewhat hyperbolic, but I'm addressing the fact that the AVP, even if it's a refinement of mostly pre-existing technology, isn't just a headset for putting screens directly in front of your eyes. There are headsets like that, of course, which connect to a desktop or laptop and just mirror that computer's display, but the AVP with its own OS and other features is more than that, which is significant even if other types of devices with their own OSs and related features have been around for years.
The way I look at it is that both the AVP and folding phones are >somewhat< innovative advancements on prior technology, in the sense that the iPhone was somewhat significantly innovative for its time, despite smartphones already being on the market before its release.
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However a spoon is not a smartphone, and a properly done folding phone would presumably be both a phone and a tablet.
At the same time it’s both and neither. An average phone that unfolds into a terribly fragile tablet with worse battery life than both. You’d still be 99% better buying an iPhone/Galaxy S alongside an iPad/Tab S.
I think it’s a cool product, really just an R&D flex much like the Vision Pro.
I know the OP felt like Apple were falling behind but if this were an Apple product they’d be ripping them apart for the inevitable crease/s and knocking their QC.
Ah, you miss my qualifier of "a properly done folding phone" and instead specify "An average phone that unfolds into a terribly fragile tablet with worse battery life than both." We agree that a lousy product will fail. However the likelihood of Apple delivering "a terribly fragile tablet" are about zero.
If Google can hit IP68 then Apple's should be indestructable by comparison! There is a reason the iPhone Air was such a toughness statement I suppose: its that classic Tim Cook idea of seeding the market first then watching things grow.
The only thing stopping an iPhone running iPad apps is the software keys inside. Apple could release a foldable tomorrow with iOS on the outside and iPadOS on the inside and it would have millions of compatible apps day-one. I constantly carry my iPhone and iPad. Maybe I'm the target market after all?
Is the entire market not like this though? Foldable phones are certainly an engineering feat but they're still just phones.
My arguement is that it is not Apple being left behind but tech enthusiasts like us avidly clinging to how things were 10 years ago, ignorant of the fact that phones have become commoditised and unexciting, less gadgets and more appliances.a Now there may well be a Dysonrumors or HotPointrumors forum out there somewhere for other everyday tech but thats where phones are now: with the washing machines and toasters.
We keep going on about AI as some sort of loss for Apple but they survived perfectly well licencing somebody elses' internet search engine instead of building their own. What makes an LLM any different?
(In fact Spotlight is a lot more useful. The device search on Android is atrocious. On a Pixel it just brings up web pages 50% of the time)
Sorry do you not know ANYTHING about how Apple has operated over the past 25 years?
Apple is rarely the first to market with any new technology, they take time to develop and perfect ideas so they actually work as an integrated whole with the system. They take existing hardware technology and perfect it so it is user friendly and just simply works through integration with OS software, other hardware, and they take time to refine the aesthetics so it not only works but looks great as well.
Take for example - in the early 2000's other companies had 'all in one' flat screen computers (remember the Gateway Profile) , but they all had horrible specs, poor thermal performance and just looked awful in chunky heavy industrial looking cases, Apple perfected this when the launched the eloquently designed flatscreen iMac, which set the standard for all such all in one computers going forward. Same with the Mac mini - not the first - but the first that worked well.
At one point the market was flooded with cheap barely operable mp3 players from dozens of companies (remember the Diamond RIO?! or the Nomad Jukebox), all had horrific interfaces with monochrome dot matrix displays that showed little more than a partial song title, barely enough memory for more than a few albums worth of music, and all but non existent content management for loading songs, then Apple launched the iPod with large capacity with usable full color displays and iTunes to easily manage music libraries and load songs on to the iPod, a system which literally changed the entire course of music distribution worldwide and is widely responsible for the demise of music distributed on 'physical media'.
There were numerous 'smart phones' on the market before Apple launched a phone (remember Blackberry are they even still in existence ?!), but all had terrible displays, poor UI's, touch screens that required a stylus to use if it even worked at all, poor application support, spotty hardware integration through a mishmash of barely comparable components with performance specs that made them all but unusable. Then Apple launched the iPhone and forever completely changed the way we all use personal technology, with a tight level of integration of hardware, software and usability that every other smart phone company has since copied in their designs.
Same with iPad - not the first handheld touchscreen computer - but certainly the first that really was usable and practical with a significant battery life and a functioning touch screen to use all aspects of the device, a standard by which all other able devices are measured to now.
Same with AirPods - not the first bluetooth earbuds but they are easily the most recognized and widely used wireless earbuds on the market.
Same with Apple Watch ... not the first (remember FitBit) currently the best selling wearable device on the market and the best selling watch worldwide - smart of otherwise.
Same with the Apple M series SOC, and Mac Studio not the first SOC integrated computers with the processor and graphics combined on one chip, but refined to the point where they are watt for watt the best personal computers on the market, the Pro and Ultra versions of which smoke all but the highest end Rayzen chips and 5090 graphics cards made for workstation tower PC's - at a fraction of the power consumption, size and cost.
One of the biggest misses in recent years is the Apple Vision - which failed not because the technology is not good, spec wise and performance wise it is without a doubt the best VR headset on the market at a cost of being the most expensive - the biggest issue with Apple Vision besides the cost but the fact that Apple clearly misread the market for people who actually want to use these headsets for anything other than gaming.
But like other major failures in Apples' past (the G4 Cube, Apple Newton, G5 PowerBook) they WILL learn from this going forward.
Bringing it back to your point - Apple does not have a 'foldable' iPhone because EVERY foldable phone on the market has issues with the seam / bend visible showing in the display showing and has issues with the hinges. I know because I have seen this for myself. Apple has apparently solved these technological issues with new screen and hinge technologies so when it does launch it will likely be the best performing and best looking version of a folding screen on the market.
Despite being a heavy Apple devoted fan boy, observing how behind Apple compared to Samsung technology like the Deck and capabilities to use a phone as a computer with monitor, my love to Apple fading away especially with the upcoming release of trifold, which is a big step for phablet design. As someone who really wants ultra portable 10 inch tablet and phone in one device that can be put in my pocket pant, this innovation cannot be underestimated. I LOVE it. Changing side is becoming apparent and strengthening and difficult to be ignored and pressed each day.
No, that’s just being lazy, elitist and overly entitled. It’s bad writing. If you’re being sarcastic, signal you’re being sarcastic. Don’t expect other people to do your job for you. Because other people are not your servants.
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Arguably with Apple Silicon, his statements are more true today than they were in 2007.
In 2007, when he made that statement, the cheapest MacBook was $1099, 5 Lb in a plastic shell with significantly worse specifications than the $2000 MacBook Pro.
Today you can get a MacBook Air for $750 and it has the exact same chip as the $1600 MacBook Pro, the exact same high-quality unibody aluminum design in even more color finishes, same amount of RAM as the MacBook Pro, same everything really outside of ports and screen.
Same with the Mac Mini, $499 for undoubtably the best Mini computer that can fit in your palm.
Even less impressive low teared devices like the iPad 11 and iPhone 16e are far from “junk”, they’re still made out of the same high-quality aluminum and glass as most of the other models are, they still have high-resolution screens and fine specs.
I think when products like the M4 Mac Mini and any M series MacBook Air exist it’s hard to say Apple ships junk.
I think you need to clarify where or how Apple is ‘falling behind’. Because whilst I agree there are product lines that they have left to go stagnant, others are flourishing.
You want to know what falling behind is? Steve Jobs once justified an NVIDIA 320 graphics chip in a 13” MBP by saying it had killer graphics.
You want to know what falling behind is? Steve Jobs once justified an NVIDIA 320 graphics chip in a 13” MBP by saying it had killer graphics.
Almost 700 comments later; I still laugh at to this day. No wonder we were mocked.
Earlier today, Apple launched updated MacBook Pro models (…) The new 13" MacBook Pro, however, continues to utilize Intel Core 2 Duo processors with a custom NVIDIA GeForce 320 integrated graphics solution Some observers have questioned why Apple did not make a more substantial upgrade to the processors used in the 13" models.
One interested party even went so far as to send an email to Apple CEO Steve Jobs about the decision, and shared Jobs' response with us. According to Jobs, Apple chose to focus on the graphics
Article Link: Steve Jobs on 13-Inch MacBook Pro's Use of Intel Core 2 Duo Processors