Here is what I’ll be looking for at the Apple Silicon Macs introduction: the story they will tell for their introduction. Remember when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone or the iPod? There was a story to hit so people could understand the “why’s”. Now, in the age of smartphones, what is the relevancy for Apple Silicon Macs? Why now? What pain points do they address? Can’t wait for November. Photo credits.

This is my Micro.blog.

Using the popular Newsify RSS feed reader, I used my own feeds to see how it would look through it. I was pleasantly surprised by the end results. It’s been a while since I found the best way for me to post on Micro.blog. All posts have a title, hashtags, a picture and use at least 280 characters so the boundary where a title becomes available. Without it, Micro.blog cross-posts the whole text on Twitter which I don’t want to happen; I prefer a summary titled.

According to the New York Time regarding the antitrust lawsuit in the works, Google is paying between 8 to 12 billions $ a year to be the default search engine on iOS. That is a lot of money, but apparently, that’s the price to pay for Apple to bend over their privacy stance.

If there is one reason why Apple should get out of this deal and build their own search tech or buy DuckDuckGo altogether: put the walk behind the talk.

This short clip showing Steve Jobs introduce the iPod is a pure joy to re-watch. It is 9m 11sec of presentation mastery. The way he set the stage, draw attention to pain points, show the “solution” is perfect. This is how you do it. This clip should go in tech and marketing history books.

Now, let’s try to imagine how he would do it for the introduction of the first Apple Silicon Mac in a few weeks.

The more I read comments on Twitter about the iPhone 12, the more I’m happy to skip this upgrade cycle: wireless network performance (spotty), battery life (highly hit by 5G usage), finger prints magnet (Pro edges), mildly controversial colours (not as unanimous as last year’s colours), weak cameras upgrade (from the 11 Pro), MagSafe design and performance (too weak magnets). I’ll be waiting for the iPhone 13 patiently.

_“Enduring design doesn’t need constant reinterpretation. It needs tweaking, polishing, and subtle improvement” _— Om Malik

Great take by Om Malik on the the significance of timeless design in “Why great design is timeless”. As I wrote in my previous post, to me, the iPhone 5 was the best Apple design before the iPhone 12. Om Malik refers to the iPhone 4 as being an example of timeless design that was later only tweaked, refined and polished in following iPhone iterations. I find it a bit surprising as the iPhone 4 metallic edges never really came back after the iPhone 4S.

Looking back at the iPhone design genealogy, we can infer six major groups of iPhone design language: the original iPhone up to the iPhone 3GS is group #1, the iPhone 4 and 4S is group #2, the iPhone 5, 5S and SE is group #3, the iPhone 6 and 6S is group #4, the group #5 encompasses the iPhone 7 up to the iPhone 11 including the SE 2. Finally, group #6 is the iPhone 12. I expect Apple to iterate within that group for at least another year.

The iterative polishing, refining process of Apple is in full glory since the iPhone 7. The latter is heavily based on the iPhone 5 heritage. The iPhone 12 is heavily inspired by the iPhone 5 era and the group #5 of designs.

If Apple plays their card well, next year’s iPhone could surpass this year’s line up by fixing the Pro glossy edges, removing the notch (it won’t happen), thinner bezels and less controversial colours selection, just to name a few attributes.

In my opinion, this year’s black iPhone 12 is now their best design of all time, surpassing their previously best design, the black iPhone 5. It took them 8 years. I can’t wait to see that in person, for now, this tweet by Brian MacDuff is enough to convince me. Blacks are deep blacks, the edges mat finish is way better than on the Pro models. What could come next to beat this? A notch-less design. Maybe next year or in 8 years. Who knows. Picture from Mr. MacDuff.

For as far that I can remember, I won’t go to an Apple Store to see the new iPhone this year. Thank’s to… well.. you know, it’s 2020. Twitter threads like this one I’m sure is not doing justice to the look and feel of these new devices.

I recently got this notification on my iPhone. I didn’t know the exposure feature would keep the user informed about its “behind-the-scene” work. Interesting.

I wonder how Apple will remove that from iOS in a post-pandemic world. Will they keep it and make it usable for other types of highly contagious deceases? My feeling is that they will generalize it and keep there.

I don’t remember seeing Apple posting photos of behind-the-scenes workers working at distribution centers to make it all possible and magic for the first day of availability of a new iPhone. It’s an interesting move. We tend to forget how massive the required logistic is needed for these roll outs to happen smoothly, year after year. This year is special, the pandemic is certainly increasing the difficulty level quite a bit for Apple. We’ll see how Apple’s bottom line is affected, later this year.