Tag Archives: Steve Jobs

Apple, iPad, iPhone, Mac, OS Software, Tech

The Vision of Steve Jobs for the Future of Apple has Barely Begun to Emerge

Apple’s innovation is not waning, it’s just getting started

Often the simplest ideas are the most powerful, and sometimes, the most popular idea is just plain wrong. But it can take decades to realize which is the better path. Take the outdated and barely-still-remembered rivalry between Windows / PCs and Apple.

Microsoft and Bill Gates were touted as being genius for seeing that the market for software, in the case of windows, system software, separate from hardware, and the associated costs and effort to build it, was an unnecessary burden.

Now Google / android uses the same playbook, allowing a variety of hardware makers to build that hardware around the freely available software.

The “genius” of this was simply put, money. Not just getting paid to build software ( or in the case of android finding hidden ways to monetize system control) but the “brilliant” concept of creating code only and then selling it infinitely with not cost of manufacture.

In 2021, 2022 and beyond Apple will prove, definitively, that this idea, far from brilliant or genius, was simply short sighted and wrong. As most ideas are that are based on greed alone.

Greed, plus a lack of a drive to innovate, but rather being satisfied to stagnate creatively as long as the bottom line is satisfied, turns out to be a failure of monumental proportions.

It can even be argued that virtually all massive tech firms would not exist without apple innovation.

Though a subject for another article, this belief that greed as a business model could be genius and is superior to the old fashioned idea that creating a “whole widget” was, ultimately, better will eventually die across the board (Hello facebook and google search).

Apple is doubling down, with the M1 and soon M2 chips and in the end through creating a better product will also win in the marketplace, bigly.

Apple, in contrast to MS and Android, has never charged for system software. Every year, like clockwork the various systems; macOS, iOs, iPad OS, watchOS, tvOS and now, soon, homeOS (rumor) are all upgraded, sometimes in a major way.

Starting on Monday June 7th, 2021 and running until the 11th, WWDC2021 went into great detail regarding just what the completely free updates hold in store.

Example: iPhone influence has barely started to have its impact felt

Even if you don’t accept the fact that android devices are knock-offs of the iPhone or that Windows was literally plagiarized from early versions of the Mac system (and the pending law suit to that effect was settled by Microsoft in 1997, out of court for peanuts, ironically saving Apple from bankruptcy) the influence of the iPhone since its initial appearance in 2007 has been immense.

As big as the impact has been until now, the facts point to this influence having barely begun. There are entire categories of communication and interaction that could not be imagined without a world of iPhone owners out there learning about and using each new upgrade and improvement.

Nearly all of social media, but especially apps like TikTok rely not only on the high end features of the iPhone but even more so on the growing sophistication of the user base, and the desire to get more and more out of the potential that Apple has unleashed in order to express themselves more fully and communicate with each other more successfully.

Indeed, it is that idea of making the whole widget that is beginning to take this unending progression toward more and more quality and features to a whole new level.

And this is happening across consumer level and semi-pro to pro simultaneously. Try to imagine how another company would try to monetize each small software feature – such as the new “center stage” feature that was just rolled out the the iPad pro.

This feature, while it is, in some respects, designed to boost sales for the new iPad Pro, is also one that uses machine learning, the power of the new faster 8 core cpu on the M1 chip (75x faster) and the upgraded system to give the millions that are now communicating via video, and in particular a self-facing camera to publish to YouTube and TikTok.

More than the whole widget

By following the path first laid out by Steve Jobs when he held fast, against all odds at the time, to the belief that the only path toward real progress and innovation will always lie in the power of being able to create, design and control the “whole widget”.

This concept has not only not been abandoned or watered down by Apple under Tim Cook but with the new Apple Silicon and the massive dividends that are emerging out of the deep integration between software and various hardware enhancements (machine learning , AI and the intersection of the hardware and software that power them) it is becoming all encompassing.

After decades to being characterized as wrong about the necessity of this approach for any real innovation, the fruits of Steve Job’s vision have only just barely begun to grow.

User adaptation is bigger than technical progress and will become even more important in the future

The way we live and work has already been changed massively and rapidly, and that change accelerated after 2007 and the iPhone.

Now there is talk of living in a metaverse which at a “stone-age” level people already do. It is Apple that is pointing the way, in terms of building the tools to make this possible and a more expansive reality, more than any other company or entity.

The shift to some kind of metaverse is one that would have far reaching and almost incomprehensible meaning for nearly the entire globe. It also, perhaps not coincidentally, comes at a time when the very existence of humanity on the planet is being treatened.

While many could see it as a diversion or escape from a dying, depressing reality, Steve Job’s vision and belief was building tools for human beings.

“When we invented the personal computer, we created a new kind of bicycle…a new man-machine partnership…a new generation of entrepreneurs.” — Steve Jobs, c. 1980

New jobs and new lifestyles to reach a new ideal for humanity

This original vision has never changed but only become all pervasive in the Apple path of innovation.

As the importance of global networked communication grows exponentially, Apple is at the forefront of building the tools to make that communication more accessible to people everywhere.

Ultimately it is the human interface, that technology must adapt to and mirror, not the other way around.

The increasing complexity of the process of building the “bicycle of the mind” derives its importance from the need to make the role of the human being ever simpler and more intuitive.

Having the creation of appropriate tools for enjoyable and more expansive human communication as the end goal of all, rather than the bottom line of greed and pride over charging as much as possible while delivering as little as possible, is turning out, in the end to be more than just a more successful business strategy, it is a strategy that may be a part of the last hopes for our planet.

Utopia or Oblivion

Few would argue, unless working for the fossil fuel industry, that sustainable energy solutions are essential to reverse global warming and the ever expanding climate threats we face.

Soil regeneration, solar power, sustainable energy transportation systems, these are all the future of our technology if we are to survive as a species.

But what about the internet, the idea of the metaverse and the potential social, political and educational that could come from more evolved, more intuitive and more powerful communication systems, systems that trace back to the first personal computing devices and the first networks. Do they have a role to play?

While Apple has pursued innovation and Steve Jobs vision of the whole widget for business reasons and as a part of a belief in building tools, being a major force for a potential path toward a more utopian world, rather than part of the lemming-like decent to oblivion, is surely one that Steve Jobs would approve of, if we were able to ask him what his thoughts are today.

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Apple, Elon Musk, Tesla

Steve Jobs & Elon Musk: Apple is the Tesla of Communication

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Elon Musk believes he is saving the world: are others worthy to claim the same?

Tesla is a luxury car company with an impeccable green pedigree. Even with attempts at a car with mainstream entry level pricing, owning a Tesla is still beyond the reach of many.

Yet the belief in it’s sustainable energy mission, and the far reaching master plan to back it up, make this fact, for many, “forgivable” at least, and in many ways even a boon.

After all, surviving in the face of an extinction level threat of our own making, has to be for a reason. The reason is the beauty and luxurious success of being alive. These are the twin messages that Elon Musk created that led to a business triumph that is about more than money and power.

Apple makes expensive luxury gadgets that facilitate communication, education and entertainment. It could be argued that these, no less than a pleasurable acceleration of a Tesla in “Ludicrous Mode”, are essential to our continued survival and are desperately needed to help us meet the ever growing challenges of our world and its future.

Apple, since the premature demise of Steve Jobs, has not had the same kind of heroic branding of Tesla’s sustainable energy mission. But the iPhone company should be seen in the same light. The many tools for communication and education make Apple just as important as Tesla in creating a more positive future.

With the ongoing success of Apple’s brand, and the rapid and accelerating expansion of its hardware, software and services, the company will undoubtedly have a central role to play in our success or failure as a species going forward. Apart from the mundane marketplace triumphs, there is a deeper story of a mission that should not be overlooked.

Bad guys make good guys look even better

Look at Zuckerberg and Bezos. Would anyone ever mistake either for a savior? Does anyone believe that Zuckerberg wants to build the metaverse to save the world?

Or that Bezos has ambitions toward space travel for anything other than self-aggrandizement and commercial exploitation?

No one does, of course not. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk can (could) emanate natural sincerity and engender the belief that they are on a “holy” mission. And perhaps that ring of truth succeeds because of it’s honestly and authenticity.

Bill Gates just wants to sell you overpriced, inferior software. And lock you into a never ending billing cycle.

America has had a sad history, for the last century, of celebrating charlatans and hucksters like Zuckerberg, Bezos and Gates, and misunderstanding Steve Jobs until he was gone. But it was his vision, finally, that brought Apple to the pinnacle of business success where it stands today.

Elon Musk’s ‘saving the world ethos’ is important to recognize, acknowledge and adopt. We need more visionaries with an explicit aim to improving and uplifting not just winning a battle between equality corrupt adversaries.

Apple is the Tesla of communication and it’s innovative DNA inspired and created by Steve Jobs is just as essential to building a sustainable, and better, world as Tesla & Musk.

The days of celebrating empty, temporary monetary “success” achieved by scurrilous business models must end, now.

The future heroes of sustainable tech, blockchain innovation, Web3 and, yes, even the metaverse must be lauded, supported and acknowledged as they emerge, while the truth of the shortcomings of evil men must be taught to every child.

Because the choice is not between Coke vs. Pepsi, Tesla vs. Ford or Apple vs. Microsoft. The choice is between Utopia or Oblivion. And there is no third way forward.

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Apple, Business, iPhone, Mac, OS Software, Tech

Apple Innovation in 2021 and Beyond

Video

Apple had a big year – but how big will first become apparent in 2021…

By now, it is not unexpected for the latest iteration of the iPhone, iPhone 12 in this case, to do well and even best the competition across the board in any given year. While it is nearly an automatic ritual that doubt will be cast, and the demise or at least diminution of the iPhone and Apple are predicted, nearly every year the opposite in the case.

Read More: Apple 32-core M1X chips for Mac Pro are just the tip of the tip of a very important iceberg…

This year was different. There was plenty of doubt – but the surprise announcement of the M series of chips for mac and the even more surprising benchmarks and performance improvements pretty much obliterated the doubters. 

Not only that, but a layer beneath that headline news was a secondary layer of innovation and areas where long planned improvements came to fruition.

The first steps into a massive multi-year system software transition, one that will eventually merge the mobile operating systems of the iPhone, iPad, Apple watch, etc with the mac, moved seemingly ahead of schedule, with the huge improvements in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur.

And all the various services such as Apple TV+ and many other offerings made huge strides as well. 

As a matter of fact, a list of all the upgrades, added features and new services and products would be so long and varied that the transcription is beyond the reach of a simple article such as this one. 

However, that alone is not where some of the biggest changes and most surprising evolutions have occurred. The real “action” so to speak is in the integration and unexpected by-products of the merging and deepening of all the new features and settings. 

Take for example the macs that feature the M1 chip. It is not the chip itself, not even the new operating system that has the most impact on the performance or usability of the machines. 

It is the integrated functionality of the various elements of the chips – Apple M1,  the first ARM-based system on a chip – composed of several different components including the CPU, GPU, unified memory architecture (RAM), Neural Engine, Secure Enclave, SSD controller, image signal processor, encode/decode engines, Thunderbolt controller with USB 4 support, all of which are made more powerful by the continuously upgraded software system.

This – a kind of invisible interactive and synergistic ecosystem – not only has at it’s heart the “whole widget” philosophy legacy of Steve Jobs, but also a new and insanely futuristic definition of “whole” which now includes these proprietary Apple chips (CPU, GPU, NE), plus A.I. / machine learning and system core operating as one continuously evolving and reinforcing “unit”. 

The future is already here, we just don’t see it like fish, maybe, never heard of a thing called water…

This new concept of the constantly increasing potential advancement in efficiency and power is not only the new standard basis for what constitutes computing technology at Apple, but will emerge as the ultimate re-definition of what “power” in computing means at all.

Similar to the internet – where the evolution and development is at stone age levels compared to where it will (and must) eventually reach in decades and even centuries, computing (or “personal” computing as it was dubbed in the last century) is also in very early and very primitive stages of evolution and this next step represents an early beginning, not a destination or accomplishment of a goal. 

Even Apple has stated that the initial transition of a unified operating system shared by mobile and desktop / laptop devices, iOS / macOS, will be years still in development and implementation. 

Meaning, in 2024 we may see the first real life trails and dissemination of a new kind of computing system, and, more importantly, computer assisted communicating, made possible by the complete integration of these hardware, software and A.I. advances. 

Just in time, because the threats of global warming, pandemics, political upheaval and economic disaster need, more than anything, enhanced learning and communication that can be aided, we must fervently hope, by improved digital tools. A better bicycle, so to speak. 

Fortunately, Apple has our back on this. And in 2021 more, much more will be revealed, if 2020 was any hint, of an exciting future not just for technology, but for the creative uses of it for the betterment of humankind. 

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Apple, Cutting Edge, Observation, Tech

How Apple Created the Tech Universe and it Finally Makes Sense

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Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

The Origin of Everything is Shrouded in Mystery – looking at Apple’s history yields many clues, however…

PART I of a 3 PART SERIES:

Given the sheer size, breadth and power of the various “Tech Giants” as they have become known, many, if not most would be skeptical if an assertion were put forth that all of them were a direct product or outgrowth of Apple.

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Although there is almost constant complaining that Apple is not the innovator it once was, or that they sell overpriced and overrated products, with more marketing than substance, tracing back through the history of tech a very different story emerges. Further, all the way to the present a pattern holds true that traces all big tech back to Apple in a direct route from at least 1984 or earlier.

The whole story is long and somewhat hidden; and it diverges from the accepted notions of how the massive empires of tech came about. In the end it is almost impossible not to see the behemoths now known as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others as little more than incidental occurrences, spawned the wake of Apple’s growth and innovation.

Apple is an entirely different company from what it seems from the point of view of the masses & the media. For example, just as now we have Biden vs. Trump we once had Jobs vs. Gates. You can decide which is which. Perhaps today it seems like a stretch, but up until around 1998 the two were considered opposites and as compatible as oil vs. water.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1326262361900998657/pu/vid/1280x592/4NJDOGbF7eYtHJBu.mp4?tag=10

Above: vdieo Clip from the “One More Thing 2020 Event and Video Still Photo Collage / Lynxotic

There have always been a huge number of people who are offended by the high-price high-quality ethos that Steve Jobs created and that the company carries forward to this day. 

Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak with the Apple 1 prototype

Much like Tesla owners are heckled by Toyota, Ford and Chevy pick-up truck owners, Apple has always had an army of detractors. And while for many years it was Windows / PC users now it is Android and Samsung. But if you set aside the Apple-derangement Syndrome, sister affliction to the fabled “Reality Distortion Field” there are some fascinating theories that could be put forth showing that Apple and Steve Jobs are the ultimate source of all tech since the Garden of Eden, or at least the 70s.

[Readers note: there are many accepted truths and fabled stories that will be addressed in this article. These are, at times considered “fact” and at other times questioned openly. If it bothers you when either of those choices are made to suit the narrative, you may, of course, opt-out at any time. All attempts have been made to remain true to historical fact, but no claims or guarantees are made of perfection.]

In The Beginning there was… XEROX?

In the beginning there was Xerox Parc. From that private think-tank of a copy-machine company emerged two incredible discoveries; the Graphical-User-Interface (GUI) and the Mouse (mouse). In the fable Steve Jobs is invited to visit in late 1979, to gather knowledge from the computer scientists and R&D gurus and later decides to “steal” everything he sees. Xerox, on the other hand, continues to believe that copy machines are the real future.

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This fable / anecdote is often used to illustrate that Steve Jobs and Apple deserve no credit for the ultimate ubiquity of the software that emerged from the GUI concept and, the mouse that came about cause of the… mouse. It is also said, or at least implied, that Microsoft was fully justified in stealing anything and everything they could from Apple software innovations because “Steve did it first to Xerox”. These kinds of rationalizations are the reason why Apple is still, to this day, not recognized as the source for all tech in the universe. 

The more accurate take on this origin story is that Steve Jobs was the first to recognize the ultimate importance of the GUI and mouse combo (after all Xerox never made any real commercially viable attempt to make and market the discoveries from its own R&D) and that the future of the tech world would be built on the bedrock of these early innovations. 

“…In fact, turning expensive, hard-to-use, precision instruments into cheap, mass-producible, and reliable commercial products requires its own ingenuity and creativity. This marketplace intelligence is different from, but not inferior to, the intelligence of the laboratory; it just gets far less attention by journalists and historians. In the case of the relationship between the work at PARC and the development of the Macintosh, this blindness leads us to underestimate the originality of Apple’s own work, and the differences between the Alto and Macintosh. “

— Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of “Making the Macintosh“

Further, at the time Bill Gates was madly in love with the wonders of MS-Dos and in particular the money he could bank in licensing it to IBM and all bidders… It was only years later in 1985 when he famously decided to steal the GUI_ Mouse based system software apple was using, in spite of his promises to refrain from stealing when he was shown the secrets during his fabled meeting with Steve Jobs to discuss word and excel, early versions of which were already on the Macintosh. Hence the echos of “Steve did it first to Xerox” became the rallying cry for all those that seemed to justify the direct theft of Macintosh OS to create the clunky-named system called “Windows”. 

This story carried on throughout the 80s and 90s and, all the while, a 1988 lawsuit was pending resolution, which has at its center the accusation, by Apple, that Windows 1, released in November 1985, was directly copied, a.k.a. inspired by the Macintosh OS. In the end, in another famous fabled incident, the suit was settled out of court in 1997, by then obscenely rich Bill Gates, for $150 million, thus rescuing Apple from almost certain Bankruptcy.

Moral of the story? Windows, PC’s and everything Microsoft ever became, can be directly traced back to Apple.  This is the most obvious of the various lines of creative attribution leading back to Apple and Steve Jobs.

The next saga: Google’s connection and the debt owed to Anti-trust and Apple, will be more subtle but all the more timely. Timely as in right now this minute. Stay tuned for Volume II of “How Apple Created the Entire Tech Universe and it Finally Makes Sense”

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Apple, Observation, OS Software, Tech

Apple Search is Coming: Google, Facebook & Amazon Surveillance facing US scrutiny

Apple will expose the worst of predatory surveillance by Facebook, Amazon and Google with new privacy features

While wrong is wrong regardless of the perpetrator, when it comes to gargantuan tech behemoths, a company with a clearly defined mission such as Apple or Tesla are in a different category than Amazon, Facebook and Google.

While Tesla’s stated mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” and Apple’s original mission statement, written by Steve Jobs was “to make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind”, predatory vultures hide behind ridiculous slogans like “aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company” (while decimating partners and competitors by any means necessary) and “don’t be evil” (don’t get caught) and “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” (…all while stealing data for profit from every person on earth).

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It’s just not the same – particularly as Steve Jobs, while at Apple, pushed himself and his company to invent and build many powerful examples of “tools for the mind” and Elon Musk’s Tesla brought the electric car back from the dead (after it was nearly snuffed out by big oil) and is making incredible headway in revolutionizing battery and solar technology, all with a view to literally save the planet from a climate catastrophe.

Bezos? Became the richest living human via the destruction of millions of small business and jobs all while undercutting competitors by selling virtually anything he got his hands on at a significant loss; simply to cause the demise of any competitor or partner that might threaten his rise to idiotically massive personal wealth.

Zuckerberg? Pioneered ways to suck data from virtually every human with a view to monetizing every living soul exclusively for himself and his company. Illustration? Dividing Facebook’s market cap by the number of employees it has yields the sum of $14,906,500.00 per employee. Macy’s? That’d be $16,829. (Thanks to Scott Galloway for the numbers)

Read More: In Understatement of the Century, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says Amazon “destroyed the retail industry”

Google merely owns (91.75% as of June 2020) the search entryway to all web sites. It decides if you should or should not find them. If it can boost profits by hiding one and featuring another, either through “paid search” or by pointing you toward its own properties while hiding competitors from you, it will do exactly that. Ask the European Union’s anti-trust investigators. For them, this company is a convicted law breaker.

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EXCERPTs FROM APPLE PRESENTATION FOR privacy settings FROM WWDC 2020

The Beginning of the End for Infinite Tracking: Apple’s EcoSystem will Protect Users Privacy

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Announced at WWDC 2020, Apple is adding serious features to its various new operating systems. One big feature in Safari is the ability to track, and block as desired, all manner of data intrusions. These are not only identified, but shown and tracked and analyzed with a kind of professional dashboard, showing just how invasive and persistent these invisible spies are.

Apple is big, with more than 1.4 billion devices. Starting in around 2021 they will all be able to identify and block data surveillance by Amazon (the largest of all spies), Google and Facebook, among others. Thanks that’s not a big deal? Think again.

Read More: Cracks in The Wall: Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook Silently Declare Wars Against Each Other

…the overall stance being taken regarding online tracking and surveillance should be seen for what it is: the first step to correcting the mistake of history that allowed the internet to be kidnapped and held hostage by a handful of companies that pretend to be “free” or “customer obsessed” while they are, in fact, Robber Barons that make the Standard Oil monopoly look like Santa Claus.

– D.L.

Tracking the Trackers will Change Your Life

Tracking the trackers is a clear and aggressive privacy stance, taken by the one company among the big four, that does not have a huge stake in you being the victim of online surveillance and tracking.

Not to say that Apple is blameless. Many are complaining about its fee structure for software sold by third parties via the app stores. While this issue is certainly a valid one, the overall stance being taken regarding online tracking and surveillance should be seen for what it is: the first step to correcting the mistake of history that allowed the internet to be kidnapped and held hostage by a handful of companies that pretend to be “free” or “customer obsessed” while they are, in fact, Robber Barons that make the Standard Oil monopoly look like Santa Claus.

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Breaking News, Tech

Cracks in The Wall: Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook Silently Declare Wars Against Each Other

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Virtually every day a targeted feature or software change is announced in an attempt to damage the monopoly next door

Competition is the cornerstone of capitalism. Except, sometimes, when monopolies take hold. This week CEO’s of the largest tech firms will be grilled (or at least questioned) on just how each of them got so big, and why they should not be broken up or regulated, in order to improve competition in the online marketplace that is now the world’s lifeblood.

The mistake of history that allowed Google, Amazon and Facebook to emerge from the dot-com era of zero profit companies as winner-take-all trillion dollar behemoths is finally being questioned by the masses, which has led to government investigation and inquiry.

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Apple was not founded during the 90s, actually produces products and does not rely on the monetization of user data as it’s main revenue generator; it does not sell below cost in a loss-leader system designed to cripple any competition and has a completely different business ethos, all of which separates the three mentioned above into a different category for this writer.

Nevertheless, in a world where giants from an earlier time are dwarfed by the sheer size and power of these 4 (Microsoft and Tesla are excluded from this article since each has its own backstory and are best looked at separately), a situation has arisen where only one giant has the power to even touch, let alone threaten, another giant.

There are many ways that these giants have always fought one another, yet as they staked out territories and empires, there seemed to be, at times, a tacit agreement that the domain of one would not be violated by another, like an unspoken mafia code or territorial claim.

Those lines between the giants are getting blurry as a silent siege is building and those previously “untouchable” areas of commerce are being targeted.

The fight may be about dollars in the end, but it is the essential control of data and user behavior that leads to all power, and therefore value and income. And each giant has staked a claim to a method or means to control and influence the behavior of billions of eyeballs and souls. Any change in that status quo is a big deal for these entrenched companies, and potentially good news for small businesses and consumers who are, without a doubt, little more than victims of the current insanely evil system.

Those lines between the giants are getting blurry as a silent siege is building and those previously “untouchable” areas of commerce are being targeted.

– D.L.

Here are a few of the new fronts where this hidden and secret battle is being fought:

Google Shopping, following Walmart, is trying to lure 3rd party sellers and sales away from Amazon

Already under fire for rigging search results to favor itself, Google is doubling down, in a sense, via drastically lowering fees for 3rd party sellers to use Google Shopping to get direct sales from Shopify or other non-Amazon sources.

Since Amazon’s fees can approach 30% for some lower cost items (such as books) this will be a powerful incentive for sellers to shift focus away from Amazon’s predatory fee structure and to a platform that potentially could bring in sales with less cost to the seller (and therefore a better end value to the buyer).

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Google is offering zero commission listing and, in a big announcement, also currently charging zero, in the US, for the “buy on google” checkout system. This is in the process of expanding and rolling out, and, potentially, by the fall and holiday season, could provide an interesting shift in how small business can operate online.

Walmart started allowing 3rd party sellers onto its online store several years ago but, recently, kicked that process into overdrive with a new system that allows all Shopify accounts the choice to sell on Walmart.com via a direct link between the two.

Bookshop.org, with whom Lynxotic is affiliated via our sister site Cherrybooks.org, is also a company that is attempting to break the stranglehold Amazon has had on online book sales. Surprisingly successful already, with its B Corp non-profit-like structure and alliances with independent bookstores sale have exploded. Affiliate advertising from huge media companies such as the New York Times have climbed on board and the largest book distributor in the US is a partner for fulfillment. Bookshop.Org has been able to put a tiny dent in the largest, most powerful competitor imaginable, showing, perhaps, that there are cracks emerging in the corrupt business models of these giants and they are not 100% invulnerable after all.

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Live iPad OS 14 exampleS & Excerpt from Apple’s WWDC 2020 Presentation

Apple’s iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 (along with mac 11 OS Big Sur) will begin to break Google’s search monopoly with direct links in Safari and Spotlight

For companies wanting to bring traffic and customers to their web sites for many years there has been only one very big game available, so-called SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which refers in the words “search” and “engine” to one that controls over 90% of search traffic: Google (91.75% as of June 2020).

So it could be called GEO or just GO for Google Optimization. And this is a massive industry in and of itself.

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Increasingly, however, this monopoly is also being challenged. Not only in Europe where massive fines against the search giant have been levied, but in the growing options for sites to be found in ways other than qualifying for a first page placement (paid for or otherwise) in Googles search results.

Soon, for the billion + apple device users worldwide, there will be a new way to find news sources and other web sites. Both search in Safari and Spotlight, which is the device level search system on iPhone, iPad and Mac computers, will soon have results that link directly to the source, bypassing google in the process.

This is a small statement but will have a huge effect in the real world. The reason is simple but mind-blowing: a search result choice not controlled by google, available on one billion plus devices, has the potential to begin to break the monopoly, and Google’s ability (and how much) to charge for the privilege of being found through its search results.

How the Apple search results are generated and what companies would be featured in those direct results is as yet unknown and may never be released (like Google’s proprietary algorithm). The emergence of ASO (Apple Search Optimization) notwithstanding, just the fact that there is a new player presenting new opportunities for news outlets and eCommerce companies to be found by Apple device owners, is very interesting news indeed.

https://video-lynxotic.akamaized.net/Safari-Privacy-BigSur.mov
EXCERPTs FROM APPLE PRESENTATION FOR privacy settings FROM WWDC 2020

Apple will expose the worst of predatory surveillance by Facebook, Amazon and Google with new privacy features

Announced at WWDC 2020, the new operating systems are coming with serious features that track, and block as desired, all manner of data intrusions. These are not only identified, but shown and tracked and analyzed with a kind of professional dashboard, showing just how invasive and persistent these invisible spies are.

…the overall stance being taken regarding online tracking and surveillance should be seen for what it is: the first step to correcting the mistake of history that allowed the internet to be kidnapped and held hostage by a handful of companies that pretend to be “free” or “customer obsessed” while they are, in fact, Robber Barons that make the Standard Oil monopoly look like Santa Claus.

– D.L.

Tracking the trackers is a clear and aggressive privacy stance, taken by the one company among the big four, that does not have a huge stake in you being the victim of online surveillance and tracking.

Not to say that Apple is blameless. Many are complaining about its fee structure for software sold by third parties via the app stores. While this issue is certainly a valid one, the overall stance being taken regarding online tracking and surveillance should be seen for what it is: the first step to correcting the mistake of history that allowed the internet to be kidnapped and held hostage by a handful of companies that pretend to be “free” or “customer obsessed” while they are, in fact, Robber Barons that make the Standard Oil monopoly look like Santa Claus.

Above: Photo / Bansky

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Tech

2019 Was a Huge Year for Apple: Here are some Milestones that will Lead to the “Apple Decade” in the 2020s

Apple’s Greatest Innovations Lie Ahead in the New Decade: 2019 Laid The Foundation

As is so often the case with Apple, the perennial over-achiever, nothing seemed to be quite enough to truly wow the public in 2019. That is not to say that monumental things were not happening at an astounding clip; they were. Early in the year, skeptics pounced on “weak” iPhone sales and then used one-dimensional linear extrapolation to predict Apple’s slow demise, as they have done many times in the past.

Once again, it was Apple that responded with a barrage of ideas and products that not only turned the year around but point to a new decade that has the potential to outshine even the 2010’s, which brought Apple to heights no one could have previously imagined.

As for 2019, the iPhone 11 Pro series “only” brought smartphone based photography to a whole new level, beyond the level, in some cases, that pro gear can provide. Obviously there is the convenience of a powerful photographic tool that resides in your pocket, but with Night Mode and Deep Fusion, alongside the improvements via 3 dedicated cameras (each with it’s own lens) and iOS 13’s editing and photo management features, for a broad swath of users the 11 pro series is a game changer, perhaps even life changing for some.

The Mac Pro upgrade, fittingly, with 2019 being the year that “pro” emerged and took over for Apple, was nothing short of monumental. There is a slow, currently unformed, realization that computational power and beauty of function will be essential in the next decade, possible even for the survival of the planet, if not at least the enjoyment of our world while we still live and breathe. Our upcoming series on the link between Sustainable energy and enhanced human networked communication, along with AI and machine learning, and how the rapid and profound development of these are the only hope for meeting the challenges that are looming, will begin in early 2020 and Apple has added the perfect exclamation point with its incredible addition at the top of the Mac product family. Expense is no object with everything, literally, in on the line, so, as time goes on, the prices will be seen to be justified.

MacBook pro upgrades, AirPods Pro, iPad and iPad OS, MacBook Air, the list goes on and on and that is only the hardware. Software and services are the real breakthrough story. There is literally so much that was launched this year that it would take a dozen articles to scratch the surface.

If nothing else, at least we can scratch that surface here and then, add links below to our in-depth coverage. Apple TV was huge, with “The Morning Show” getting a nomination for Best TV Series, Best Supporting Actor (Billy Crudup) while both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon got a nod for Best Actress. As with most Apple projects Apple TV+ is a long term, serious commitment to production with, reportedly, a budget over $6 Billion. Apple Music expanded its offerings, and don’t forget the Apple Card which, added to Apple Pay, expands the foray in to Fintech.

The Next Decade will be about the Increased Benefits of the Total Apple Ecosystem

As we detailed in a thread running throughout our 2019 coverage, ultimately, it is the entire Apple ecosystem, Hardware, Software, Hardware Components, Supply Chain, Services and the innovative ways all the desperate elements are so skillfully integrated that sets Apple apart, now and even more so in the future.

And, further, all of Apple’s brilliance and success can be traced back to something that will be a huge story in 2020 and beyond. After the decade of WeWork and other scams, the shame of surveillance business models from Google and Facebook and the convoluted Pseudo-Ponzi-Scheme Monopsony that is Amazon, the 2020’s will be the decade that companies built on a higher purpose, such as Apple’s devotion to creating better tools on behalf of the entire human race, as envisioned by Steve Jobs and carried out to this day, will rise and the others decline and collapse from the weight their own corrupt conception. Only Tesla is among the largest companies that also have altruism at the heart of their business model.

Without further ado, our picks for the most significant and forward looking products and ideas from Apple in 2019:

iPhone 11 Pro Max/ Leading the Way to the Future of Media and Photographic Innovation:

The War is Over: The Good Guys Won – WWDC Day Explodes with Software and Hardware For The Ages:

Above: Photo Link to Article

8-core MacBook Pro and iPod Touch with A10 chip Released to Coincide With iOS and macOS Upgrade Announcements at WWDC

Above: Photo Link to Article

New AirPods Pro: plus Memes and a Deep Dive into the Innovative Auditory Technology:

Above: Photo Link to Article

MacBook Air and Pro Upgrades Harken Back to Steve Jobs Heroically Simplifying Apple Line Up in 1997

Above: Photo Link to Article

iPhone 11 Pro Max: Night Mode for all and Elon Musk’s Cyborgs come to life

Above: Photo Link to Article

Photo and Video examples shot with the iPhone 11 Pro Max: Manhattan Beach, CA

Above: Photo Link to Article

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Tech

Apple Special Event: Expect the Unexpected? Again?

Everybody Knows Everything that will Happen? Let’s Hope not and Expect the Unexpected…

What about the vaunted world class secrecy that Apple used to be famous for? Aside from a fiasco or two many years ago, and the attendant bru haha, shouldn’t there be some sense of dramatic reveal?

Sure, Ming-Chi Kuo, is known far and wide as predictor extraordinaire and has an uncanny ability to spill the beans with great accuracy. And, it seems, practically any Apple News Outlet seems to be able to tell you exactly what to expect. Or are they?

This year, we have a tile-like gadget which sounds pretty fantastic – and the rumor stems from iOS 13 code so there must be something there. Somehow Kuo and macrumors have determined that the findable gadgets will be “circular”.

imaginary concept for findable bluetooth device (Lynxotic)

Names, Specs, Features and Performance

As far as iPhones, the consensus is 3 models. Possibly called “iPhone 11” and “iPhone 11 Pro” and with better waterproofing, better camera with both hardware and software upgrades as well as video recording improvements related to the camera changes, appear to also be likely.

The list of changes to the specifications include items such as battery performance (with a larger battery), navigation and more ram and so on and so on. And this tiny partial list of what has been debated and discussed does not even include the already well known changes that iOS 13, macOS Catalina and iPad OS will all bring, and how those will interact with the new devices and new device features.

Naturally there are many possible and likely upgrades to the iPhone but also to a whole array of products, software and services.

As we detailed in a recent story the Apple TV+ launch is due, in all likelihood this month. iPad, MacBook, Mac Pro availability, much that was partially or fully announced at WWDC in May is bound to get some attention again.

As a matter of fact, 2019 is a year during which almost every non-iPhone product has been upgraded already. MacBook Air is another recent example. Even an emoji upgrade was announced recently!

Is Excessive Love A Crime?

Although further speculation towards more and better smacks of greed or at least excessive love, what if there are surprises that even the great Ming-Chi Kuo and Macrumors are not yet aware of?

What if the once formidable Apple security and anti-leak team was actually successful in keeping something under wraps?

Perhaps just even better secret details on the changes and improvements to the hardware, particularly the iPhones? Maybe the camera and its increasingly AI based software has something big in the offing?

Or, what if there is actually even one piece of hardware or one aspect of the iPhone “11 Pro” that literally no one has warned us about yet? If the one thing that we will all be talking (and writing and tweeting and posting) about Tuesday afternoon is not on the radar of any of the “what to expect” pundits that have already weighed in?

That is a “what if”, not only to keep in the back of our wide-open minds, but truly, for the faithful, as was in the days of Steve Jobs keynote addresses of yore, it would be one more thing, devoutly to be wished.

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Business, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Tech

MacBook Air and Pro Upgrades Harken Back to Steve Jobs Heroically Simplifying Apple Line Up in 1997

Video
https://video-lynxotic.akamaized.net/MacBookPro-Air.mov

On September 17, 1997, Steve Jobs took over at Apple as Interim CEO and immediately set about to right the ship by removing both products and people that had sent the company nearly to the brink of oblivion. 

It’s easily forgotten that, at the time, the product offerings included literally dozens of desktop computers, servers and laptops as well as printers, digital cameras and, of course, the “MessagePad 2000” which, although ahead of it’s time, was surely better off dead. 

He created the “4-square grid” to simplify and focus the computer product line up. Two categories for consumer machines and two for pro machines.

Fast forward to July, 2019, and once again Apple is choosing to re-focus the line up. With the MacBook line now gone, only the MackBook Air and MacBook Pro laptop product categories remain. 

The MacBook Air models designed before 2018 have been removed from the Apple Store as has the 12-inch MacBook.

The remaining machines have improved specifications and, in the case of the new entry level MacBook Air, a $100 price cut to go along with the improved stats. The entry level portable has a new price of $1099 ($999 for students and teachers).

https://www.apple.com//105/media/us/macbook-air/2018/9f419882_aefd_4083_902e_efcaee17a0b8/films/product/mba-product-tpl-cc-us-2018_1280x720h.mp4
MAcbook air Video promo, provided by apple

The new entry level Air sports a 13.3 in. Retina True Tone Display, sort-of new keyboard design (which appears to be an attempt to reassure that this is better than the infamous original “butterfly” style, which was widely complained about), 1.6 GHz dual core 8th Gen processor and 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports. It also comes with Touch ID.

The lowest cost for a MackBook Pro model, which now features the Touch Bar and will set you back an additional $200 more than the Air at $1299. It has the same display specs, other than additional brightness, but with higher powered quad-core processor and the Touch Bar.

Storage options have also been upgraded and re-priced across the entire Mac product line. 

The simplifications of the full Mac lineup, now comprising 2 laptop categories, then the consumer and pro iMac all-in-one  desktops, and finally, the Mac mini at the low end, contrasted with the mighty Mac Pro, coming in September, at the high end, are all revealed . The overall refresh for 2019 feels solid and complete and, as one biased observer put it, it borders on being wildly satisfying. 

A good sign, from on high? Perhaps…

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