From “think different “ to “Rethink nothing!”. It’s time for Tim to go!

[seek3r]

But then Apple discontinued the iPod. Where's my iPod with wifi and bluetooth so that I can connect it to my car or airpods or sync it with a NAS or use Spotify on?

The Apple Watch + Airpod Pros is basically literally the device you’re describing

In 2005 we had all sorts of neat gadgets. In 2025 we have slate style screens, and in the case of the MBP, a screen with an attached keyboard. There's nothing else besides that. There's no phone with a keyboard. There's no dedicated music player, there's hardly even dedicated cameras anymore.

Because phones have absorbed most of that except for very high end devices. ever heard the phrase “the best camera is the one you have on you”? Yeah, that

I dont miss the era of carrying my pmp (walkman, then discman, and then iPod), cell phone, camera, notebook and pen for notes, a camcorder if I wanted to record video, a flashlight on my keychain, having to bring an alarm clock with me when I traveled, and keeping a dedicated GPS and a calculator in my car, etc

Do you really actually miss that? Really? Or is just nostalgia talking? Think on that

Edited to be a more thorough response

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I remember a bold Apple / changing Apple’s motto from “Think Different” to “Rethink Nothing.”

Thoughts?

Every time this comes up for discussion it goes the same way. People who remember the regular surprises of feature rich hardware wondering if Apple will ever be Apple again, shouted down by an army of low-expectation having apologists content to ignore the value that was lost in their excitement that zomg chips got faster with the passing of time. Apple computer ended years ago. Apple Inc is a sponge designed to absorb student loan money from uncritical teenagers and redistribute it to shareholders and that is all. So goes the culture, so goes country.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

The Apple Watch + Airpod Pros is basically literally the device you’re describing

...

Do you really actually miss that? Really? Or is just nostalgia talking? Think on that

I miss the form factor, but more than that I miss having a device that doesn't constantly try and give me notifications. The Apple Watch, or iPhone, mac, you name it, they are constantly ping-ing me. I don't miss carrying a bunch of devices, but I do miss having devices that weren't constantly vying for my attention.

Unfortunately, turning off all notifications on my phone isn't an option.

 

[seek3r]

I miss the form factor, but more than that I miss having a device that doesn't constantly try and give me notifications. The Apple Watch, or iPhone, mac, you name it, they are constantly ping-ing me. I don't miss carrying a bunch of devices, but I do miss having devices that weren't constantly vying for my attention.

Unfortunately, turning off all notifications on my phone isn't an option.

if you cant turn off notifications you also couldnt be getting by with the very devices you’re talking about.

You can make an Apple Watch do exactly what you want, if you cant do it because you need the notifications an old school ipod wouldnt help you either (btw there’s nothing stopping you from picking up an old ipod and using it, I just replaced the battery in the 2nd gen iPod I still use around the house sometimes)

 

[seek3r]

Every time this comes up for discussion it goes the same way. People who remember the regular surprises of feature rich hardware wondering if Apple will ever be Apple again, shouted down by an army of low-expectation having apologists content to ignore the value that was lost in their excitement that zomg chips got faster with the passing of time. Apple computer ended years ago. Apple Inc is a sponge designed to absorb student loan money from uncritical teenagers and redistribute it to shareholders and that is all. So goes the culture, so goes country.

I’m just gonna ask yet again: what would you want of Apple that they arent providing?

 

[123123123]

I think this stance greatly undervalues what Apple brings to the table.

I had smartphones and PDAs before the iPhone. I had a Sony Clie device running Palm OS that I totally adored. I used to download games from a proto-AppStore (a website run by Handspring IIRC?). It had a MemoryStick full of MP3s. It could just about handle heavily compressed video. It was effectively a web-less iPod touch but 3 years earlier.

As the iPhone took off and Apple was getting credit for the revolution, I thought it was a little unfair to the platforms that came before. My Clie did similar stuff years before, right? What about Palm, and BlackBerry, and Nokia (Symbian etc.), and Windows Mobile? etc. Apple is just doing the same thing! I found myself pushing back on that narrative at the time.

I always wanted a Clie, especially one of the ones with a keyboard. (I never liked Palm's Graffiti handwriting system.). To be fair, the early smartphone market was a zoo, and I think people who weren't paying close attention to it at that time might not remember that the first blockbuster smartphones weren't iPhones, but rather Blackberries. By the time the iPhone hit the market in 2007, smartphones had been around for nearly a decade – the Palm VII came out in 1999. (I have vague memories of some devices even earlier – maybe early Windows CE devices?) Apple had the benefit of watching everyone else explore the feature space before bringing anything to the market. IMHO, what Apple did right was a) select the right set of features that existed, and b) add in the right set of features that didn't really exist in the marketplace (e.g., dumping physical keyboards and making a really effective touchscreen-focused device, rather than a keyboard/stylus-focused device). Yes, they got it right, and obviously much work went into that, but they didn't really invent the smartphone industry de novo (although I think it's fair to say that they turned them from business-oriented devices into everyday life devices).

Apple’s achievements with silicon are huge too. It’s easy to forget how bold the investments into silicon were because we’re so used to it, but going in-house was a huge and risky bet. Naysayers thought they would fail (no one can compete with mighty Intel, right?), but the team has been delivering industry leading silicon for well over a decade by this point. Think back to Apple A7 - the first ArmV8 architecture and the first time an Arm chip was truly competitive with x86 on performance - it was huge and, in retrospect, marked a turning point. Apple’s designs are the blueprint the competition follow now - Qualcomm/Nuvia Oryon would not exist without Apple Silicon, Arm Cortex-X architectures wouldn’t exist, Lunar Lake and Strix Halo copy Apple’s SoC formula etc.

The M1 was the biggest eye-opener of a CPU I've seen in decades – maybe ever. My M1 MacBook Air was the best laptop I've ever had, and I'd buy another one in a heartbeat if they were still available new. (I'm pretty unimpressed with the M3 I got to replace it.) I'm going to respectfully disagree with you that everyone's following Apple's blueprint, though. Rather, I think that the M-series desktop chips have helped normalize the notion of integrated, non-upgradable RAM for the consumer and manufacturers, which widened the market gap for the SoC approach, and is probably a major impetus behind Intel rolling out Lunar Lake. However, I don't think other industry players are following Apple from a technical standpoint, but rather from a commercial standpoint. ARM Cortex predated Apple Silicon by years, and some of the A-series chips were actually based around Cortex. From Intel and AMD's standpoint, there are performance benefits to be had by integrating RAM on chip, as well as money to be made (why have Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. sending money to RAM manufacturers when it could go to them instead?). I think that it's fair to say that Apple's had an effect on the commercial side, but from a technical standpoint, AMD was selling SoCs before Apple was. Architecturally, I think we're still looking at the RISC vs. CISC wars that started decades ago, and although the M-series processors were a huge breakthrough in performance and energy consumption compared to Intel/AMD's offerings at the time, the gap is pretty narrow now. To put it in perspective, the lowest-tier Lunar Lake processor (the 226V) is on par with the base M3 on multicore benchmarks, pretty close on single-core, and actually has a TDP 15% lower than the M3 8-core. Basically, the performance per watt differential between the 226V and the base M3 (and base M4, which has a TDP 10% higher than the M3) is negligible.

None of that is meant to diminish the M-series chips, because they're phenomenal, and I think they really did open the door for other manufacturers to start focusing more on efficient, cool processors, but given the lengthy times involved in CPU development, I'd be very surprised if Apple were the inspiration for recent CISC processor developments. (I bet it definitely helped Qualcomm expand across the PC market, though.)

Just my two cents.

 

[XboxEvolved]

Keynote after keynote, they get less and less exciting. Apple no longer dares.

I started using a Mac back in 1993 — I loved it. But by 1995, everyone was declaring Apple dead.
Back then, Apple was run by financial managers with no vision, no creativity, and no interest in pushing boundaries. They focused solely on revenues — and nearly killed the company before Jobs got back.

But now, I feel Apple is heading down a similar path under Tim Cook. He lacks vision. The only boundaries he seems interested in pushing are how much revenue he can squeeze from a product. The number of products that haven’t significantly evolved in the last decade is astonishing.
Even the successful ones, like the Mac Mini, feel like an update from the 25-year-old G4 Cube. iOS 26? another back to the past.

I remember a bold Apple — the one that killed off legacy ports in favor of USB, that declared “we’re going wireless” long before anyone else. The Apple that looked at MP3 players and thought, “We can do better.” The Apple that dared to take on giants like Nokia and BlackBerry and annihilate them.

Tim Cook lacks the qualities that made Steve Jobs great, and while he compensates for some of Steve’s weaknesses, he doesn’t inspire the same spirit of innovation, quality and focus on user experience and satisfaction. Alone, Tim risks changing Apple’s motto from “Think Different” to “Rethink Nothing.”

Thoughts?

Another one of these kinds of post. While I understand that Apple doesn't seem like it does anything "new" nowadays, I would say WWDC was pretty impressive in that they and only they, are able to not only juggle six unique operating systems but also nearly completely sync them up all in the same year. I think you need to calm down and enjoy your toys. Or go buy different toys. You are spoiled.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I’m just gonna ask yet again: what would you want of Apple that they arent providing?

Anything. They are providing as little as possible. Make the effort to try. Under the bean counter in chief, Apple has removed every hardware component they possibly can from every product they make, every year, reducing costs to increase profit. This is the death spiral of a price-driven product. Eventually you run out of extremities to chop off, and you go from a 15 year old MacBook Pro packed full of tidy, unique, thoughtfully designed user-friendly hardware features that make it the most beloved computer on earth, to the bare minimum of a screen, keyboard & trackpad, or phones without headphone jacks, SIM cards, & chargers, iPads still using neutered iPhone OS. This is the miserable end of product lifecycle mgt, when the new owner comes in & the hatchetmen wring every last penny of value they posssibly can out of the cash cow.

 

[Cicada101]

Apple is too profitable for Tim to go, he'll retire in the next few years and hopefully Craig takes over.

 

[JuanAntonioA]

Times have changed. Tim is not the problem. He is actually a great CEO, highly qualified too.

Those people who keep repeating the same thing over and over about this…

The thing is that back in the day changes to innovate were "easier" and tech was not advancing at the pace it is doing it now. Why the other companies are not doing what Apple did with the iPhone? They can't. Twenty years ago there were a lot of blank space to innovate. Things have changed so quick the last two decades... Now we are stuck...?

 

[MacBH928]

Keynote after keynote, they get less and less exciting. Apple no longer dares.

I started using a Mac back in 1993 — I loved it. But by 1995, everyone was declaring Apple dead.
Back then, Apple was run by financial managers with no vision, no creativity, and no interest in pushing boundaries. They focused solely on revenues — and nearly killed the company before Jobs got back.

But now, I feel Apple is heading down a similar path under Tim Cook. He lacks vision. The only boundaries he seems interested in pushing are how much revenue he can squeeze from a product. The number of products that haven’t significantly evolved in the last decade is astonishing.
Even the successful ones, like the Mac Mini, feel like an update from the 25-year-old G4 Cube. iOS 26? another back to the past.

I remember a bold Apple — the one that killed off legacy ports in favor of USB, that declared “we’re going wireless” long before anyone else. The Apple that looked at MP3 players and thought, “We can do better.” The Apple that dared to take on giants like Nokia and BlackBerry and annihilate them.

Tim Cook lacks the qualities that made Steve Jobs great, and while he compensates for some of Steve’s weaknesses, he doesn’t inspire the same spirit of innovation, quality and focus on user experience and satisfaction. Alone, Tim risks changing Apple’s motto from “Think Different” to “Rethink Nothing.”

Thoughts?

thats not Apple. Thats Steve Jobs. Thats why Steve Jobs is a genius and not replaceable.

Be glad you were there to enjoy the time he was around.

Apple was all about simplicity of use, but today even I who have been using mac for over 20 years have to fight with the settings menu in ios to find what i want.

 

[seek3r]

Anything. They are providing as little as possible. Make the effort to try. Under the bean counter in chief, Apple has removed every hardware component they possibly can from every product they make, every year, reducing costs to increase profit. This is the death spiral of a price-driven product. Eventually you run out of extremities to chop off, and you go from a 15 year old MacBook Pro packed full of tidy, unique, thoughtfully designed user-friendly hardware features that make it the most beloved computer on earth, to the bare minimum of a screen, keyboard & trackpad, or phones without headphone jacks, SIM cards, & chargers, iPads still using neutered iPhone OS. This is the miserable end of product lifecycle mgt, when the new owner comes in & the hatchetmen wring every last penny of value they posssibly can out of the cash cow.

None of that was an actual answer to my question, it’s a rant that Apple should just invent ****. Which, btw they are, you dont think the AVP was a massive step towards a different type of computing?

As for the laptops… My M1P MBP is certainly a helluva lot more capable than a 2006 Powerbook G4 was (15 years prior to the MBP), what hardware features are you actually missing?

As far as headphone jacks go, that’s kinda become the trend for everyone. Pick up a $9 Apple USBC—>3.5mm adapter, which happens btw to be one of the best DACs on the market at any price, may honestly be the best priced product Apple has ever made.

 

[seek3r]

Apple was all about simplicity of use, but today even I who have been using mac for over 20 years have to fight with the settings menu in ios to find what i want.

this is like the first legitimate criticism in this whole thread, 9 pages in

The settings are a damn mess, and when they iOSified the settings on MacOS it got even worse than it is on iOS. I dont know what happened to the UI/UX folks that used to work on that but they need them back, yesterday

 

[I7guy]

this is like the first legitimate criticism in this whole thread, 9 pages in

The settings are a damn mess, and when they iOSified the settings on MacOS it got even worse than it is on iOS. I dont know what happened to the UI/UX folks that used to work on that but they need them back, yesterday

That’s choice in action.

 

[CyberDavis]

this is like the first legitimate criticism in this whole thread, 9 pages in

The settings are a damn mess, and when they iOSified the settings on MacOS it got even worse than it is on iOS. I dont know what happened to the UI/UX folks that used to work on that but they need them back, yesterday

I’m sure for many users having the same menu options across iPhone, iPad and Mac makes it easier to know where certain settings are.
Personally, to me it made sense to have some harmonisation. At first I was a little confused, but when I thought about it it all made sense.🤷🏽

 

[JoeDezibel]

We can not expect from Apple to change the world every time they release something new.
They do good things. More stability, less power consumption, good and stable computers etc.
You can not please everyone. I personally don’t like the new Design „liquid glass“

 

[jwolf6589]

Keynote after keynote, they get less and less exciting. Apple no longer dares.

I started using a Mac back in 1993 — I loved it. But by 1995, everyone was declaring Apple dead.
Back then, Apple was run by financial managers with no vision, no creativity, and no interest in pushing boundaries. They focused solely on revenues — and nearly killed the company before Jobs got back.

But now, I feel Apple is heading down a similar path under Tim Cook. He lacks vision. The only boundaries he seems interested in pushing are how much revenue he can squeeze from a product. The number of products that haven’t significantly evolved in the last decade is astonishing.
Even the successful ones, like the Mac Mini, feel like an update from the 25-year-old G4 Cube. iOS 26? another back to the past.

I remember a bold Apple — the one that killed off legacy ports in favor of USB, that declared “we’re going wireless” long before anyone else. The Apple that looked at MP3 players and thought, “We can do better.” The Apple that dared to take on giants like Nokia and BlackBerry and annihilate them.

Tim Cook lacks the qualities that made Steve Jobs great, and while he compensates for some of Steve’s weaknesses, he doesn’t inspire the same spirit of innovation, quality and focus on user experience and satisfaction. Alone, Tim risks changing Apple’s motto from “Think Different” to “Rethink Nothing.”

Thoughts?

I like Apple better under Tim and he certainly has made Apple very profitable!!!!

 

[Cod3rror]

I am, literally, going to keep asking this question in this thread: what visionary guiding, what innovation, are you expecting from Apple that Cook isnt providing?

It seems to me that it’s more a lot of y’all yearn for an era when the internet was new and personal computers werent a mature platform, which has nothing to do with Cook vs Jobs

The obvious one is that he dropped the ball with the "AI". Even though Apple were the first with Siri. And at the time, it was pretty good and ahead.

I won't argue with your point though. Steve Jobs was the right person for his time and Tim Cook is the right person for his time.

Steve Jobs era saw paradigm shifts. Revolution. Tim Cooks era is of evolution, where the concept of a multi touch screen is established, and its just different incarnation of it in different devices, phone, watch, tablet, visor. This era requires organization, logistics. Those are Tim Cooks strengths.

Choosing Tim Cook as the CEO was the right move by Jobs.

I don't know what the next revolution is, what is there left to invent in consumer tech? Is it even possible for another to replace the touch screen?

I do think the next technological is probably in bio engineering, designer babies. I also think the next evolution, is your smartphone as your everything. And that change is something they are resisting hard, for obvious, understandable reasons.

I like the strides they are making with in cars with CarPlay though. I would like the iPhone to completely take car screens. You get close close your car, it recognizes you, unlocks. You get in, it recognizes that it's you behind the wheel and everything, screens, mirrors, seats, radios, adjusts to you. You get out, and it goes back to default.

I would like the iPhone to be the replacement for a laptop. So it can work as a desktop professional machine, as well as a mobile device.

On a smaller scale, I liked their experiment with pressure sensitive touch, I wish they had stuck with it.

 

[Scrooge MacDuck]

I wonder what could possibly make them keep iOS-like Settings on Mac with most users pushin' back against it. So much for their reading the feedback.

 

[kitKAC]

I wonder what could possibly make them keep iOS-like Settings on Mac with most users pushin' back against it. So much for their reading the feedback.

Most users? According to who?

 

[bushman4]

Apple should be concentrating on the iPhone as opposed to taking on projects like Project Titan etc. The iPhone brings in the big $$$$ and deserves the most attention
People refreshing iPhones every 3 years or more goes to prove the updates are boring
Apple holds so many patents on things they’ve innovated yet they haven’t made it into the iPhone.

 

[CyberDavis]

I wonder what could possibly make them keep iOS-like Settings on Mac with most users pushin' back against it. So much for their reading the feedback.

Personally I tink a unified UI across iPhone, iPad and Mac makes sense. Easier for new users to adapt.
Sure some things do not please everyone, but the status quo would equally have left people unhappy I am sure.

Apple holds so many patents on things they’ve innovated yet they haven’t made it into the iPhone.

I guess lots of patents are either not commercially viable or waiting for technology to evolve and stabilise.
I bet most large companies have many patents that do not work out in the short term, and only a few that go on to deliver commercial benefits.

 

[123123123]

Personally I tink a unified UI across iPhone, iPad and Mac makes sense. Easier for new users to adapt.

Microsoft tried a tablet-style interface on desktops with Windows 8 – it didn't go well...

 

[jclardy]

I remember a bold Apple — the one that killed off legacy ports in favor of USB, that declared “we’re going wireless” long before anyone else. The Apple that looked at MP3 players and thought, “We can do better.” The Apple that dared to take on giants like Nokia and BlackBerry and annihilate them.

I do agree it is Tim Cook's time to go and let someone else take the reigns, but I recognize he has done some decent things while in charge. We now have the best laptops in the world thanks to M-series chips. USB-C is now standardized across the Apple lineup (And Apple was the first to drop USB-A in favor of USB-C, do they only get praise for that when Jobs did it?) And in terms of "taking on giants" - Apple is the giant, there are no more giants to take on. Now the other companies are the underdogs taking on Apple.

 

[sunapple]

Apple should be concentrating on the iPhone as opposed to taking on projects like Project Titan etc. The iPhone brings in the big $$$$ and deserves the most attention
People refreshing iPhones every 3 years or more goes to prove the updates are boring

iPhone brings in so much $$ in fact that I'd argue the opposite and say that they should diversify.

The upgrade cycle proves mostly that iPhones have gotten really good and don't need to be bought every year.