I just heard Jack Johnson on the radio (the actual radio) and I want the old Apple back

[johnnytravels]

Basically, I felt a surge of nostalgia listening to Johnson’s Never Know and thought, I really want the old Apple back.
They are still a lifestyle company but I think their focus has changed: With Steve I always had the feeling that all the stuff Apple made was there to save you time so you could spend it on pleasurable activities. Now I have the feeling that all the lifestyle enhancements Apple peddles are there to make you more productive members of a supposedly highly functioning capitalist system. Whereas back in the early 2000s Apple’s tech suggested that it would help you in your daily tasks, now it has the double function to optimize you for your daily tasks and then to distract you from them. There is a crucial difference between ‘helping’ and ‘optimizing’ and I think that difference is the reason why I am sometimes (writing this from my M1 Macbook Air with an iPhone and iPad next to me) so appalled by Apple. People tell me to vote with my wallet but that would never bring old Apple back. What I am looking for is a change in morals and aesthetics that cannot be induced by monetary incentives. I want Apple to do well. I just don't want them to be so ugly and so morally complacent with the predatory individualism that is slowly destroying the world.

 

[Arctic Moose]

What is it specifically you’re missing? (Or, what is it that has been added that you cannot disable or ignore?)

Personally, I’m overjoyed that my laptop and monitor wake from sleep instantly, that the battery lasts for days, that keychain, clipboard, messages and lots of other stuff syncs automatically between my heap of devices, that I’ll soon have cloud-first shared photo libraries and that there are so many other small details that make my life simpler and more enjoyable.

Apple has always been a lifestyle company, but the state of the technology is so much better now than it’s ever been.

Besides, a company that is costing Facebook $12 billion due to its privacy standards is doing something right in my book.

 

[Juicy Box]

As Apple introduces new devices, services, features, SW, etc., they now tend to be a fix to a problem that Apple has created. Also, they tend to create new problems with their solutions to the old ones.

I also think that the Apple of old had much better products compared to the competition in general. While I am unsure if that is no longer the case, I think the gap in which Apple's products are superior has closed to the point that there isn't that definitive distinction from Apple and everyone else anymore.

Quick story of Apple from 20 years ago:
I remember an old friend of mine in the mid 2000's, he was a huge MS Windows fan, and like Sony HW. I would have parties at my house, he would comeover and fiddle with my various Apple devices. He decided to give one a try, and got the cheapest PowerBook G4.

For almost two weeks, he would call me with complaints, like "how to do this" and "why can't I do that" saying that he was thinking of returning it, but then about two weeks in he was hooked.

What hooked him was a camera that his parents got him. He tried on his parents' PC and on his Sony to connect his new camera to get the photos, and after hours with both, he couldn't do it.

He went home, and tried with his new PowerBook G4. It worked in only a few seconds, and all he did was connect the camera with the supplied USB cable to his PowerBook, and iPhoto popped up asking him if he wanted to import his photos.

He was amazed at how easy and simple it was, and became an Apple guy after that. I haven't talked to him in over 10 years, but last time I checked, he was still an Apple guy.