Podcast

Former Apple Senior Director Michael Gartenberg (#7) - Background Mode Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Michael Gartenberg spent three years as Apple’s Senior Director of Product Marketing, reporting directly to Senior VP Phil Schiller. In his seventh appearance on Background Mode, Michael and I analyze Apple’s September 10, 2019 iPhone event: “By Innovation Only.”

We started with a discussion of the overall content and tenor of the event. Was the scripting more evident than usual? Is the format wearing thin? Why were there no success numbers touted as is customary? In the second segment, we looked at some of the new products announced. Michael and I also pondered whether some of the traditional inspirational and aspirational elements were in too short supply. And, crucially, why was Phil Schiller’s shirt tucked in? Michael is well versed in Apple marketing strategies and is always a delight to have on the show.

Cool Stuff Found

iPad 7, Apple Watch Series 5 Available for Preorder

Andrew Orr ·

News that might have gotten lost in the new of iPhone 11 is that the Apple Watch Series 5 and iPad 7 are available to preorder now, while we have to wait until tonight/tomorrow to preorder the new iPhones.

Apple Watch Series 5: Starting at 32GB of storage, Series 5 has an always-on display, a Compass app, and available in more finishes, colors, and materials, like titanium and ceramic. Preorder it here starting at US$399.

iPad 7th Gen: This is an updated version of what became known as the education iPad. It has a 10.2-inch display with thin bezels like the old 10.5-inch iPad Pro. The 10.2-inch Retina display has almost 3.5 million pixels, an A10 Fusion chip, and for the first time, an 100% recycled aluminum body. Preorder it here for US$329.

Both will be officially out on September 30.

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New Exploit Shows We Should Just Skip to iOS 13.1

Andrew Orr ·

A contacts exploit was discovered in iOS 13 that lets a person bypass Face ID / Touch ID to see an iPhone’s contacts.

Relatively little is at stake with this exploit. Beyond the inherent danger of an assailant having your iPhone, this method only allows someone to view the contacts within the target iPhone, provided that they have physical access to the target phone and can complete the VoiceOver exploit.

Little is at stake, but there have been so my iOS exploits in the news lately that we might as well go straight to iOS 13.1.

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T-Mobile Offers iPhone 11 for 50% Off With a Trade In

Andrew Orr ·

T-Mobile has an aggressive strategy for the iPhone 11: People who sign up for a plan and trade in an old iPhone can get the iPhone 11 for up to 50% off.

Here’s the full pricing break down from T-Mobile: Save $550 when you trade in an iPhone XS Max 64GB or 256GB; save $500 when you trade in an iPhone XS 64GB or 256GB; and save $350 when you trade in an iPhone XR 64GB or 128GB, X 64GB, 8, 8 Plus, 7 or 7 Plus.

Those are great deals, especially for people with older models like the iPhone 7.

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Uber Pushes Back Against New California Contractor Law

Charlotte Henry ·

Uber pushed back against a new employment law in California, Wired reported. The law was designed with ride-hailing apps in mind, trying to get them classify drivers as employees not contractors.

The company’s argument rests on a premise that’s been a cornerstone since its early days: that Uber is a technology company, not a transportation one. The California law, called Assembly Bill 5, reaffirms a 2018 California Supreme Court decision that established a three-part test to separate independent contractors from employees, who are eligible for minimum wage, health care benefits, workers’ compensation, and other protections. A worker is only an independent contractor if she is not under the control or direction of the company while she’s working; if her work is “outside the usual course” of the company’s business; and if she is “customarily engaged” in the same kind of work that she does for the company. This three-part test is already in limited use in Massachusetts and New York.

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NSA Publishes Threatening Letter Calling for Encryption Backdoors

Andrew Orr ·

Glenn S. Gerstell, general counsel for the National Security Agency (NSA) published a letter in the New York Times, writing about how a “digital revolution threatens to upend our entire national security infrastructure.” He thinks backdoors into encryption is one answer (of course he doesn’t use the word backdoor), as well as the agency collecting even more data from citizens. Read his letter by clicking the link below, then read this take by Nefarious Laboratories.

Make no mistake, this letter is a thinly-veiled threat to every major corporation around the globe: provide the U.S. government with access to all of your data or else, “there is another path, and it is the one taken by authoritarian regimes around the world”.

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iPhone Naming Conventions Are a Mess

John Martellaro ·

Ken Segall writes (Sep. 9) that it’s time to dump both the “i” in iPhone as well as the alphabet soup.

I think it’s amazingly cool that the i-thing happened, but everything has a beginning and an end. The trick is knowing when to end.

Smarts and forward-thinking always beats clinging to the past.

The truth is, Apple has already made the i-decision. It’s been years since a new i-product appeared. Apple Watch, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple Card—all would be i-things under the old rules.

Apple dropped the alphabet soup on Sep. 10 along with the bizarre “X” vs. “ten.” Will the “i” be next?

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Hotel Lobbyists Fight Airbnb by Undermining the Internet

Andrew Orr ·

Hotel lobbyists don’t like Airbnb and its competition, so they’re introducing a bill to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

And they’re not just focused on pushing this loophole for Airbnb. It appears they’re going all in on stripping Section 230 protections from any internet service hosting 3rd party content. As part of this, they recently released what can only be described as a push poll to mislead people about Airbnb, the laws around these issues, and Section 230. Each question in the poll is at best actively misleading and at worst, completely bullshit.