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Post by rezonate on Dec 15, 2016 5:06:26 GMT -8
On the Eighth Day of Apple...
Day 8: When in comes to cash generation, Apple is king. Is it just pure greed? Or an unseen long game?
Of course this is the big mystery. Kind of like improbable political candidates who end up winning the election, Apple (to me) seems like they are a victim of their own success. They built a hamster wheel and can't get off.
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Post by rezonate on Dec 16, 2016 10:01:24 GMT -8
On the Ninth Day of Apple...
Day 9: Apple is all about ease of use. Give an example where they pass the "grandmother test" and where they really didn't get it right.
The early editions of iTunes with iPod seemed to be magical integration. Sadly as iTunes got more complicated, and Apple stumbled content into the cloud, I have been less enthused. The cloud music thing has gotten a *little* better recently. I also have loved gestures on the track pad, a great acquisition that yielded real benefit to the UI. Siri to me is the back of this coin - great potential and gave Apple a jump start, but the silos have slowed them down, I think. Might have been better for Apple to architect their own AI solution from the start.
Recap:
Day 1: What was your FIRST Apple product? How did it change your perspective on work, life, technology, creativity? (1 partridge)
Day 2: Tell us about a time you made a HUMAN connection around a piece of Apple technology. (2 turtle doves)
Day 3: What was a cool Apple product that you WANTED but never owned? (and don't tell us "iPod Socks.") (3 french hens)
Day 4: When you think back to Apple advertising campaigns, which one sticks out the most? Which was a complete bomb? (4 calling birds)
Day 5: How have you used the Apple ecosystem to make money? (5 gold rings)
Day 6: Of all the "high priced" Apple products, which felt like a "steal" to you? (6 geese)
Day 7: If you could go behind *any part* the operation at Apple for just one day, what part would you like to see? (7 swans)
Day 8: When in comes to cash generation, Apple is king. Is it just pure greed? Or an unseen long game? (8 maids)
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Post by PikesPique on Dec 16, 2016 13:41:16 GMT -8
Day 8: Cash generation - greed or unseen long game?
I don't see it as either. It's more like the grandparent who has lived through tough financial times, learned how to save money to provide protection against future hard times, and then even after having saved a million bucks, still fears spending it "just in case."
Having just transitioned from the active saving mode to the drawdown mode (I.e., retirement), I understand the reluctance to spend the money.
Of course, sometimes you just have to spend the money to replace the twenty year old car...
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Post by PikesPique on Dec 16, 2016 14:02:01 GMT -8
Day 9: Ease of use successes and failures:
Successes: many aspects of the cloud - keeping documents, calendars, notes, books, etc in sync (though not perfect by any means). Ease of Facetiming - given a good connection. For me recently, the amazing amount of functionality one can include in the software I develop without a lot of work.
Failures: From Mobile Me, Ping, and Apple Music to the constantly changing Apple branded software like iTunes, Aperture, Photos, etc., while making some things easier for casual users those changes often make things harder or impossible for pro users. Another failure, though this isn't limited to Apple by any means: networking - both configuration and security. Definitely not "grandmother" ready.
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Post by rezonate on Dec 20, 2016 6:12:46 GMT -8
On the Tenth Day of Apple...
Day 10: Let's talk Apple's Board of Directors. What's the most colorful BOD story you remember from the last 40 years?
The efficacy of Al Gore still baffles me. (ducks) I'm interested to hear from anyone who has observed a shareholder meeting in person!
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Post by hledgard on Dec 20, 2016 11:35:13 GMT -8
Never have. Would love to. Have no idea what value added Al Gore gives.
PS Thanks for mentioning this in the Intraday thread. Did not know this was here. Cool questions!
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Post by PikesPique on Dec 20, 2016 13:20:19 GMT -8
Day 10: colorful BOD story
How about when they took the Mac division away from Steve Jobs, effectively "firing" him?
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Post by rezonate on Dec 24, 2016 7:27:05 GMT -8
On the Eleventh Day of Apple...
Day 11: At the end of time, the Museum of Humanity will have an Apple exhibit. Which products will be included?
Undeniably, the iPhone first generation will be in there. Probably show a couple incremental iPhone generations like the 4, 6, and whatever the final device was before EOL'd.
What about the Pixar Lamp iMac?
Recap:
Day 1: What was your FIRST Apple product? How did it change your perspective on work, life, technology, creativity? (1 partridge)
Day 2: Tell us about a time you made a HUMAN connection around a piece of Apple technology. (2 turtle doves)
Day 3: What was a cool Apple product that you WANTED but never owned? (and don't tell us "iPod Socks.") (3 french hens)
Day 4: When you think back to Apple advertising campaigns, which one sticks out the most? Which was a complete bomb? (4 calling birds)
Day 5: How have you used the Apple ecosystem to make money? (5 gold rings)
Day 6: Of all the "high priced" Apple products, which felt like a "steal" to you? (6 geese)
Day 7: If you could go behind *any part* the operation at Apple for just one day, what part would you like to see? (7 swans)
Day 8: When in comes to cash generation, Apple is king. Is it just pure greed? Or an unseen long game? (8 maids)
Day 9: Apple is all about ease of use. Give an example where they pass the "grandmother test" and where they really didn't get it right. (9 ladies)
Day 10: Let's talk Apple's Board of Directors. What's the most colorful BOD story you remember from the last 40 years? (10 lords)
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Post by PikesPique on Dec 24, 2016 15:52:24 GMT -8
11. Apple in Museum:
Newton, Pippin, 20th Anniversary Mac, Cube, and Steve Job's head (or, maybe bust).
(Just to prove Apple, though it "put a dent in the universe" (as well as our wallets) was not infallible.)
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Post by elmar on Dec 27, 2016 5:42:27 GMT -8
11. Apple in Museum:
I would certainly include the "iLamp". It is the only computer which stands really out of the crowd.
I do still own one of them!
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Post by Apple II+ on Dec 27, 2016 9:17:44 GMT -8
11. Apple in Museum:
Early Apple, humanizing computing:
Apple 1, Apple II, Mac, Powerbook 100
Apple 2.0:
An exhibit featuring NeXT and Pixar (with a nod to George Lucas for American Graffiti and Star Wars, without which there would be no Pixar), where Steve Jobs became the leader Apple needed.
iMac bondi blue, MacBook Air
OS X, Safari, iTunes
iPod, iPhone
Time will tell on more recent and future Apple products and services.
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Post by rezonate on Jan 1, 2017 15:45:27 GMT -8
The 12th day of Apple: easy one.
What did you get from Apple over the holiday break? Do tell!
With the new job I was issued an iPhone 7 Plus. A nice piece of hardware. Sadly they also issued me an Otter Box. Total waste of money for the increased volume and added weight. In the early part of December the credit card elves also brought me a new iPad Pro 9.7 and Apple Pencil. Next mac purchase in the fall. What did *you* get?!?
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Post by rezonate on Jan 6, 2017 3:43:34 GMT -8
Forgot to mention: AirPods delivered yesterday! Sadly, I'm two states away at work. Be home tomorrow, then time to play and perhaps a review here. Anyone else get the untethered ear candy?
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Post by ono on Mar 22, 2020 15:45:09 GMT -8
Since the board is stagnant with frustration, I'm going to post some questions to fight Scrooge, the Grinch, Steve Balmer, whatever. So take 3 minutes every day and please reply. On the first day of Apple...Day 1: What was your FIRST Apple product? How did it change your perspective on work, life, technology, creativity? ~[  Aaa d. |
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4aapl
Moderator
Posts: 2,909
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Post by 4aapl on Mar 23, 2020 10:05:56 GMT -8
On the first day of Apple...Day 1: What was your FIRST Apple product? How did it change your perspective on work, life, technology, creativity? I worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories the summer after junior year in high school, and was in my own tiny office with a Mac IIci, running Mac OS 6.04 or 6.07. Somehow I was in the Hazardous Waste Management department, but was too young to be anywhere near that stuff. I played and learned on the computer a lot, upgrading it to OS 7, putting fun little things like Oscar the Grouch Trashcan. I duplicated LabView a couple times to fill up the 80 meg hard drive. With 10,000 employees onsite, and networked, and before much computer security, you could connect to a large percent of the computers, either as a guest or with the default password of their name. The screensaver Toasters on AfterDark was popular. And I worked with the couple computer techs to update and fix people's computers, learning how to use Norton, playing with SCSI chains, and other fun things. I also got to fix a huge spreadsheet document that was scanned in, where about every 8th character was wrong. OCR software still had a some progression to make. In the fall I bought a used Mac SE, which I took to college a year later, upgrading the ram from 1 meg to 4 meg, and someone down the hall in the dorm gave me a 2400 baud modem. Things progressed from there. |
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