Page 2 – News Debris For The Week of June 11th
The Mojave “Wow” Factor
Call me biased, but I think macOS Mojave was the star of WWDC 2018. So does Mark Sullivan at FastCompany. “Why I just started caring about macOS.” Combine that with this splendid piece from Jonny Evans at Computerworld: “Why has Apple put Mac users in the Mojave desert?” and you have a terrific recap of all the cool new features of Mojave.
And cool they are.
As I said on page one here: To put his much effort into Mojave and not bring forth a host of desirable new Macs would not only be a tragedy, but inscrutable negligence by Apple.
More Debris
• You’ve read a lot about the new “dark mode” in macOS Mojave. But did you know that Windows 10 has had a dark mode since 2016? Except, it’s awful. “Windows 10 dark mode sucks compared to the new one in macOS Mojave.”
• If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane with the evolution of Mac OS X/macOS, here’s a great slide show. It’s also a great research reference. “The evolution of macOS (and Mac OS X).” Each slide includes, notably, announce date and features.
• Time has proven that depending on Facebook for your political news is a bad idea. It’s far better to go straight to the sources rather than have an intermediary decide what you should see and read. This article at the New York Times punctuates the need to go straight to the sources. “Facebook’s New Political Algorithms Increase Tension With Publishers.”
• Finally, the recent Facebook privacy snafu has brought increased scrutiny regarding Amazon Alexa as well. See: “Senators Demand Answers From Amazon On Echo’s Snooping Habits.” U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) says, “The age of innocence is gone.” Really? Senator, where have you been for the past ten years?
Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holiday weeks.
I would think that since Mojave will only run on 2012 or newer Macs that they’ll have to start releasing updated Macs as they’re starting to catch up with themselves. New laptops and iMacs with Mojave installed. No new Mac Pros with Mojave. And, what of a new or upgraded Mac mini with Mojave?
That’s a good point. It’s always depressing to get excited about a new macOS, like Mojave, realize it won’t run on your old Mac, and then be faced with the prospect of purchasing a replacement Mac that’s well over a year old. Apple must know how we feel. Hence, the encouraging TV ads (I surmise).
>Apple is trying to create some Mac awareness just before an event that rolls out a bunch of new Macs.
We are talking about 3 months, 3 months ! from possible release or update. Create some awareness when you have problematic keyboard?
Quite frankly, Apple has hit such a low point with the Mac that it does even excite me that it might introduce new models. Why? Because I have no doubt that Apple will continue its obsession with thinness and planned obsolescence, a marketing strategy that leaves me numb, disheartened, and disinterested. I want the best user experience that Apple can deliver and it refuses to give it to me. I no longer even bother to update macOS any longer, and it’s free; there’s nothing new that attracts me more that what has been taken away, little by little, just like the hardware. Geez, I can hardly wait for Apple 4.0, when maybe we will see a return to greatness. And I will joyfully part with my money.
“Because I have no doubt that Apple will continue its obsession with thinness and planned obsolescence, a marketing strategy that leaves me numb, disheartened, and disinterested.”
That’s a very nice conspiracy theory you have there, Kelly. But when you introduce reality into the equation, that conspiracy theory is revealed to be just a baseless opinion.
There is NOTHING to indicate that Apple is “obsessed” with the thinness of its hardware products, in detriment to functionality and user experience. On the contrary, Apple’s focus has been on producing high quality, reliable products, and those products have been rated highest in their categories for customer satisfaction and a user experience, which has retained Apple customers more than any competing product lines.
And as for Apple being “obsessed” with planned obsolescence… That notion is laughable, since Apple is a leader among its competitors in providing products that have longer usable lives than similar products from competing companies.
A few examples of that:
– Apple’s iOS and macOS products are fully supported with free, automatic upgrades for up to six years from purchase, and those updates are available to all supported products IMMEDIATELY on the day that the updates are released. Compare THAT to what you (don’t) get with Android and Windows products.
– Apple’s upcoming iOS 12 update can not only be installed and run on an “ancient” iPhone 5S, but that iOS 12 update runs noticeably FASTER on iOS products than any previous update. In fact, there is a video showing the first beta of iOS 12 (which has not been optimized yet) running significantly faster on an iPhone 5S than iOS 11 on the same hardware.
– Apple hardware products (both iOS and macOS) outlive competing products from other companies, with an extremely low incidence of hardware failure or downtime. And Apple hardware products have the highest resale value, by far, than competing products. Compare the resale prices for a 3-year old iPhone or Mac, to a similar 3-year old Android phone or Windows PC.
I could go on… but you (should) get the point!
One other thing to note. It is expected that all of Apple’s laptops will be receiving major hardware updates (and probably entirely new models to replace the MB and MBA), which will likely be announced within the next few months. So you might want to hold off on your buying decisions for a little while longer, just in case Apple’s new hardware turns out to be a better choice for you.
NorthSaanichBC,
So there’s nothing to indicate that Apple is obsessed with thinness, huh? Yeah, there’s also nothing to indicate that Donald J. Trump is a pathologically lying, racist, sexist, delusional egomaniac, either I guess.
How about the fact that every time they introduce a new Mac they stress how many millimeters thinner it is than the previous model? How about the fact that they do that even when that thinness doesn’t matter and isn’t even noticeable in normal use (think the 2012 and later iMacs)?
And whether or not Apple builds in planned obsolescence is up for debate … I would argue that their trend of making fewer and few things about Macs in general – and laptops specifically – user serviceable and upgradeable is a form of planned obsolescence.
I’m not a Mac hater … I’m just someone who has gone from using Macs because they were far and way the best choice to someone who now uses them only because they suck less than the alternatives…
Old UNIX Guy
Kelly – You seem a bit confused… you moan that Apple is designing in planned obsolescence (because it would force you to buy new models all the time) and at the same time moan that they’re not giving you any new products – what would be the point of “forcing” people to upgrade if there is nothing to upgrade to?