What Apple’s 50th Anniversary Misses
April 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the corporate founding of Apple Computer. Numerous entities have marked the event with articles, videos, gatherings, and even books. We’ve collected the most compelling of these in TidBITS Talk for those who are interested, and there are some great stories there.
However, I must confess to a distinct lack of interest in the event as a whole, even though most of Apple’s history overlaps with my own. The Apple I came before my computing years—I was only 9 when Apple was founded—but my first computer in high school was a Franklin ACE 1000—an Apple ][+ clone that Apple sued out of existence. I went to college in 1985 with an Atari 1040ST that provided more power than the Mac for less money, but Cornell University was an early member of the Apple University Consortium, so Macs were everywhere on campus. I became proficient with the Mac while working in public computer rooms, and in my junior year, Tonya and I purchased a double-floppy Macintosh SE, which we later upgraded to an SE/30 with an internal hard drive. That was the Mac I used when we started TidBITS in April 1990, and I’ve owned and used innumerable Apple products in the subsequent 36 years.
Why I Have Trouble Celebrating
Until April 1 rolled around and I realized that I should write something despite other deadlines looming, I hadn’t thought much about why I’m so disengaged with Apple’s corporate history. To an extent, it’s because Apple is work for me at this point, not a hobby. I can’t say when that switch flipped—computers were as much an entertainment as employment for many years—but these days, reading or watching pieces about Apple feels like a chore, not something I do for pleasure. Either I already know the material, or I have to evaluate whether it warrants coverage in TidBITS. Worse, when the time period covered includes events I know about, I can’t help but be slightly annoyed if my recollection differs or if the person writing had been given much better access than I received from Apple. It’s no longer enjoyable.
I also avoid revisiting the past to keep myself from feeling bad about it. There was a lot of idealism wrapped up in the early days of Apple and—even more for me—the Internet. From the perspective of the early 1990s, we are very much living in a science fiction future, technically speaking. Even the iPhone 17 I carry now is vastly more powerful than the Macs I used in the early 1990s—its processor is tens of thousands of times faster, its display packs nearly twenty times as many pixels, and its Internet connection is always available and thousands of times faster than the dial-up modems of the era.
But as much as I adore much of this technology, I’m not sure that it has made the world a better place overall. We were undoubtedly naive, but there was a distinct belief that technological advances would improve the human condition. That has undoubtedly happened in many places and situations, but I remain deeply troubled by the direct and indirect societal ills caused by the tech giants. We used to cast IBM as the industry’s “evil empire,” but in hindsight, its buttoned‑down monopoly looks positively staid next to the extractive surveillance machines of X/Twitter and Meta/Facebook, not to mention the social and environmental impacts of a consumerist culture. And then there are all the outright illegal activities that have forced us all to think nonstop about digital security—how many times per day do you enter passwords? Apple may be the best of the lot, but it’s a low bar, and even Apple is still clearly willing to put profit ahead of principle.
It Was Never Really About Apple
Much of my lack of interest in Apple’s history stems from a simple fact: companies have no soul, and Apple is no exception. What’s special about Apple for me is not the company as a standalone entity, but the products that Apple has produced and, even more so, the people who build, support, write about, and use Apple-adjacent products. I got into technology because I love explaining how things work and seeing people’s eyes light up when I show them what’s possible or solve a problem they couldn’t figure out. Much of my enjoyment of covering Apple came from the relationships I built through years of thoughtful email, along with in-person interactions at Macworld Expo, other conferences, and Mac user group meetings.
Very little of that came from Apple itself, and much of it is now gone. Discussion forums that once hosted in-depth conversations among people who made things happen in the industry have given way to snarky social media posts. Conferences have almost entirely disappeared, and those that remain lack the weight of Macworld Expo as a must-attend event. Most Mac user groups have folded or are a shadow of their former selves (the Naples MacFriends User Group is a shining counterexample). I keep TidBITS Talk going because it provides an important community, even if few of the participants will ever meet in person.
There may be a better path forward—one informed by looking back not at Apple itself, but at what grew up around it. The cliché is “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I prefer a version that author Rebecca Solnit ascribes to a poet and arborist named Joe Lamb: “We need to remember that we can learn from and repeat the successes of the past.”
What Comes Next
So, in keeping with Steve Jobs’s focus on the future, I suggest that those of us who struggle to dwell on the past take Apple Fellow Alan Kay’s advice to heart: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
I applied that idea to start TidBITS, come up with the first advertising on the Internet (which I’m now embarrassed by, given how exploitative a business model it turned out to be), write the fifth book about the Internet (Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh, which came with the first flat-rate consumer Internet account), and build a successful ebook publishing system with Take Control Books.
All of that was aimed at helping people use technology to improve their lives and the world around them. Now I—and anyone else who feels this loss of community—need to think about which lessons from the past are worth carrying forward and how best to do that. What would you do?
There’s a lot to think about here, especially with the call to action that ends the piece. I’m going to take some time to take everything in and figure out how I feel and what Apple’s history has meant to me.
Some things that popped into my head to mull, as I read the article today, are Patagonia’s history and how its founder handled his withdrawal from the company, things that gave me joy in the past but don’t any longer, things that gave me joy in the past and still do, and things that began giving me joy more recently.
The “golden” time for my “relationship” with Apple was initially in 1980, when I purchased an Apple IIE. Absolutely was so pleased by its power, usefulness, and “simplicity” via Apple’s adherence to the KISS philosophy: Keep It Simple, Stupid. That continued for me with my Apple IIGS, and then my first PowerMac 6100 I purchased in 1996. Through all those times, besides always being a pleasure to use, Apple was my trusted companion when I needed to perform my production support tasks for applications I supported. Those were the times!
Unfortunately, things started being disappointing for me in the early 2000’s, when Apple started getting more and more away from that KISS philosophy. It was then that using a Mac at home was not as much a pleasure as before. True, the machine remained my trusty production support partner, but the Apple “luster” was fading.
As for technology making the world “better”, it was, and is, the opposite. Folks started depending more and more on their calculators, and then their phones. I definitely witnessed that when I was teaching Mathematics courses on a part time basis, as students relied more and more on their calculators. (I had office hours while I was teaching, and for an Elementary Algebra course I was the instructor for, a student came in for assistance. She asked me to help her with a problem, and it eventually involved computing 32 - 17. When I asked her to compute it, she first said 19. I said no. Then she said 23. I said no again. Seeing the disappointment on my face, she admitted that she did such calculations on her calculator! I thought to myself, this is our future generation?). It seems that “innovative” thinking has gone the way of the doe doe bird.
Thanks Adam for this thoughtful combination of personal history and consideration of the state of things at this juncture.
For me it’s broader themes within society that give me pause and prompt many of the discussions with my students. When money, technology and people all meet… sufficient quantities of all of those come together and issues emerge. We get social media and, lately, AI. My students arrive passive consumers in my class and I try to shift them into being active producers, conscious of their choices. Sometimes it works.
On the Apple side… I miss the spark that Steve brought. Apple was a different company at a very different scale, I know, but while companies have no soul, agreed, there was his spark that enervated it.
I think you meant “innervated”. Darned auto-correct.
This is my litmus test for such books. If the telling of an event for which I was present is factually incorrect, it’s a no-read for me. Issacson and Pogue both fail quickly.
And, as Adam wrote, looking forward instead of back is much more in the spirit of Jobs.
We, each of us, have our own special needs for these tools we call computer hardware and software. For me it is maintaining websites, writing books and articles for the local history museum and newspaper, and coordinating a local middle school academic league’s competitions.
Compared to many others here, my needs are simple. BBEdit satisfies my website building text writing needs (even though I hardly scratch the surface of its capabilities), and GraphicConverter lets me manipulate the graphics that appear on those pages. I use Pages to write articles and books about local history, and have been mainly satisfied with its ability to help me produce them. And I depend on FileMaker Pro, BBEdit, and Transmit (along with various AppleScripts) to coordinate the academic league.
Back when my computer was an Apple //e, and then IIGS, I was perfectly happy with software like AppleWorks, and found an online home with other Apple users at GEnie (anyone remember A2-Charlie?). I even learned to program it starting with BASIC and moving on to assembly language. This was a tool that let me be creative. I remember resisting the idea of moving to a Mac for a long time until finally an AppleWorks database that I absolutely had to have grew so large that it was no longer practical to maintain it there.
Biting the bullet, I bought a Macintosh Powerbook 190 laptop second-hand from an Apple II friend. This was the beginning of my Mac adventure.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I’ve never really thought of Apple as a force for either good or evil. To me it has always been a toolmaker who made good tools that I could mostly depend on to do the things I wanted to do.
The community of like-minded users, such as I found on the Apple II forum on GEnie, and at events like KansasFest, were important for more than social gatherings. They were people I could count on to answer questions, and suggest better ways to accomplish things; people whose opinions I generally trusted.
I’ve found the same kind of community here, and I credit Adam with making it possible.
As for Apple the toolmaker, of course they make mistakes, and of course profit is their bottom line. They are a business, and we should never forget that. And as long as they continue to make superior products they will continue to be successful.
And of course we will continue to call them out when they stray from where we think they ought to go. But in the meantime, let’s remember our community of friends and enjoy the pleasure we get from being here.
On the one hand, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. On the other hand, Gell-Mann Amnesia is a real thing.
You know, I’ve had this fleeting thought more than once: “Wouldn’t it be fun to hang out for an evening with these folks?” Probably completely impractical (we’re all over the world, for one thing), but still…
I have a slightly different take on it, @ace. The Mac Plus & Imagewriter I got back in 1986 cost about $2400 in 1986 dollars.* That’s about $7100 today. The Apple of the 1980s was everything you mentioned – daring, irreverent, full of people doing fascinating things. But it was a world limited to people who could afford that kind of price. “The computer for the rest of us” was a lovely sentiment but the “rest of us” had to be rich enough to buy one (or in some sort of situation – university, business – where they could get access to it).
The Mac as a technology was not even remotely (small-d) democratic, in the sense of being universal and accessible to everyone. In some sense, the really democratic technology of the time was the Sony Walkman (200 in 1984 = $599 now), though it obviously did very different things.
The democratization of Apple came much later. The Performas & clones were a disastrous attempt. The iMac G3 (1300 in 1998 = $2600 now) a much better one. But the really democratic technologies from Apple were the iPod and then the iPhone. These were products that were expensive compared to other products in the same space, but still in the range of lots and lots of people. They were much more accessible than Macs ever had been. They continue to be much more accessible than Macs were back in the 1980s (a current 17e costs $599, which would be about $200 in 1986, 1/10th of what I paid for my Mac Plus and about the same price as the Walkman). The Apple of today sells products that really are accessible to an enormous range of people; expensive in their product space, but still accessible and still with the quality for which Apple is famous. And now they’ve extended it to the Mac, with the Neo (which costs about as much as a Walkman did in 1981). To his credit, Steve Jobs started that transition. To his credit, Tim Cook continued it,** and I think the Apple of today is better for it. It has genuinely become a moment when just about anyone can have an Apple computer, phone, tablet, whatever. That was never true in the 1980s. We’ve lost the Mac Pro but gained the Macbook Neo.
Has Apple lost the irreverence and wild ferment of innovation? Probably (though what level of credit do we give them for Apple Silicon, among other things?), but they’ve gained a democratic accessibility. That’s got to be worth something.
*And that was with an education discount
** It’s notable that Jony Ive was a holdover from the pre-Performa Apple and seemed to want to push things up in price. Cook pushing him out may have been as much about that demand for luxury products as it was for, eg, the butterfly keyboard.
Interesting perspectives from many of you. For myself, my computing needs (especially these days), given that I am retired, are not that demanding. Mainly EMails and surfing the web. (I actually prefer to be outside, doing various things). However, I do make a concerted effort to keep both of my Macs “lean, mean, and clean”, and also do two backups for each machine to 2 separate external SSDs once a week. I do not trust “the cloud” for the storage of any of my information. While that may seem old fashioned, better safe than sorry! And it works well for me.
Regarding the backups, that is where I definitely feel Apple has abandoned the KISS philosophy. For the past few years, they have “messed” around with its replicator software, creating fits for Bombich Software (developers of Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC)) and Shirt Pocket Software (developers of Super Duper! (SD)). It actually has resulted in CCC not being able to support bootable backups. Fortunately, I use SuperDuper!, and thank god there are developers like David Nanian (owner of Shirt Pocket Software). He “thinks different” and has been successful in getting around those replicator issues. And bootable backups have been (and still are) supported.
Other than that, Macs are still somewhat a pleasure to use. I actually relish my M4 Mac Mini (great “little” machine), and my M3 MacBook Air. And there is still some excellent third party software (alot of it free!) available.
“I keep TidBITS Talk going because it provides an important community, even if few of the participants will ever meet in person..”
I truly appreciate that decision. Talk has helped me solved dozens of computer-related problems. It has also provided some light-hearted relief at a time when we are bombarded with dire news, views and ads.
I agree with you overall but if you widen your view beyond the Apple ecosystem as immense as it is there is much that is better. Apple is a part of it of course but the difference between now and 1980 is stupendous in some areas. In particular, I’m thinking of the impact of high-speed internet across the world. It is now true there is a single world-wide laboratory whose nodes are connected by incredibly fast data connections and this has had a force-multiplier effect. Innovations in material science, physics, medicine, and on and on are happening at gob-smacking speed because your lab in Ithaca is daily chatting, collaborating, and sending monstrous data dumps to that lab in Pretoria.
Add to that the incredible effects of placing iPhones or Android phones in the hands of simple farmers for weather updates, local trading, banking, and so on. Their lives have been transformed for the better. They’re holding the supercomputers of 20 years ago in their hands and those phones are making their lives much, much better.
It’s easy to be mislead by the media/blogosphere to think that these technologies and their social components (as truly dreadful as the social stuff is proving to be) should result in wholesale condemnation. Acknowledge the harms that have surfaced from something so universally powerful but don’t forget the incredible MRI image of your thankfully clear lungs on the iPad your doctor shows you is a product of this astounding change to which Apple has contributed.
Can’t get too excited about another 3% gain in GPU speed for this year, meself but I am agog at the good things that Silicon Valley has made possible over the last fifty years.
Dave
@Dafuki
Question: how much would you say DARPA and non-Silicon Valley/SF Bay Area universities and research institutions contributed to the development of the Internet versus Silicon Valley?
Their contributions are huge. Silicon Valley may be the shorthand for such developments but in truth it’s the lens that focuses the light from institutions across the world.
Dave
I still think it has. Without Apple, I’m not sure that other companies would be making relatively long-lasting computers, tablets, and smartphones made with high-quality materials. Even devices at the low end have benefited from Apple’s work on more expensive devices.
I’m not sure that there would be at least one major company devoted to user privacy as a core principle (even if its cause is partly due to marketing differentiation.)
I’m not sure that people in developing nations would be living lives as good as they are now - not that Apple is directly responsible, but the development of technologies that allow people to carry so much important information, which can communicate privately and securely with other people, carrying devices able to do commerce, might not have happened without Apple.
I also think that having personal computing in nearly everyone’s lives is better than the old centralized mainframe computers in the hands of governments and companies rather than people. Apple wasn’t solely responsible for this, but the development and movement to powerful computing in everyone’s hands/pockets (even wrists, fingers and earlobes) is thanks in many ways to Apple.
I don’t care all that much about anniversaries for companies like this one, but I do think that for all the bad things we can lay on the sword-edge of developing miniaturized computer technology, it is wrong to downplay the other edge of that sword.
“I still think it has. Without Apple, I’m not sure that other companies would be making relatively long-lasting computers, tablets, and smartphones made with high-quality materials. Even devices at the low end have benefited from Apple’s work on more expensive devices.”
What you say about Apple is, for the most part, valid. Yes, their innovations have helped the world become a somewhat better place. But again, as I stated above, in many instances, they have strayed away from the KISS philosophy: Keep It Simple Stupid, and created unneeded barriers. The replicator software issue mentioned above is a prime example, but I am certain there are others.
But in a more general sense, what Adam says is right on the money. The earlier availability of calculators, and now cell phones, has resulted in the decrease in innovation and “thinking on one’s feet”. Many, many folks these days are just about constantly on their phones doing things that used to come naturally. My earlier description of what I directly witnessed when I was teaching Mathematics courses part time is just one of many, prime examples. Even these days I see cashiers get flustered when I am paying cash for an item (or items). And I have definitely witnessed where folks can not even figure out what 10% off amounts to for an item! Such a simple calculation, but they need the calculator on their phone to figure it out!
Call me old fashioned, dated, etc. I’ll take the “old ways” anytime. I do not need to be on my phone constantly to find out something, do not need (nor trust) the “cloud” for any of my computing needs, and I can think on my feet. Probably one of the most glaring examples of all this is when wants to buy a car. As has been reported many, many times, car dealerships, and their sales people, are constantly finding ways to inflate the cost of the car. Many of those tactics involve some rather simple calculations which one can easily spot with some simple “thinking”, but most folks get “rolled over the coals” via those negotiations. (The best way, of course, to avoid such “traps” is to do one’s homework and be prepared before going to the dealership. Such advice is available on line to read about, but a lot of it is just plain common sense). This also applies when making other purchases, including buying a home.
In any event, yes, I am pleased that Apple is still around, and in many aspects, is still somewhat innovative, But they need to get back to the KISS philosophy. And on a more general level, folks just need to stay off their phones for doing even simple tasks, and become more able to think on their feet.
Well, sure, but every technological advance ever has shifted human abilities. Reading and writing destroyed a lot of oral & memory abilities; agriculture severely reduced hunting skills; engines killed horse-riding and sailing abilities. Telephones reduced letter-writing. I could go on and on and on. Every generation panics that the next generation is losing something fundamental because of [insert technology here]. And yet here we are.
To turn this back to Apple (and social technology in general), I will note in the 1980s when I went to college, my communications with my parents dropped to 1 / week or so on the phone for a brief time. Now, with instant messaging, I have a daily ongoing conversation with my daughter at college. She’s handling herself fine (so no, no panic necessary there) but we exchange news of the day, dumb memes, and just generally talk to each other about our lives. That’s an excellent, wonderful thing, and so much better than 30 years ago.
Dealerships have been using deceptive tactics to overcharge their customers since cars were invented.
But a lot of that is that software and computers today are 100x more complicated than in the past. While I agree things aren’t as simple as before, I am still impressed with how Apple has made incredibly complex things easy: FaceID, ApplePay, even AirPod pairing – all trivial.
The “replicator” issue you describe is a side effect of better security. Sure, Apple could make it easier to create bootable backups, but that’s a lower priority to them than ensuring a stolen Mac can’t be broken into (which effects far more people than the backup thing).
Yeah, but none of those you mentioned resulted in a severe decrease in innovation, along with folks not being able to use even the most basic of skills. Again, read what I described about that office visit from a student. And I also saw such calculator dependence in MANY other instances. And if someone cannot figure out what 10% of something is, shame on them! To carry that example further, suppose one sees something on sale for 15% off (but is not given the eventiual price). 10% is bad enough, but they will really struggle with 15%. However, a simple concept one learns early on is either 5 is 1/2 of 10, or 15% = 10% + 5%. You can’t tell me that folks will try and figure that out without the calculator on their phone. If you believe folks will do that, dream on!
I am willing to agree with you regarding the improvement, via social media, of communications. But for required/needed calculations (even simple ones), it has gone backwards. It is a given and proven fact that most folks can not think on their feet, and more so when it comes to even simple calculations.
Yes, dealerships have always been (and will continue to be) deceptive. But folks just need to be able to spot such tactics, and also be able to do the associated calculations, even without their phone! There are numerous sites one can learn about that, but the ability to use even basic mathematics for those calculations is what is lacking. And thus more and more folks get ripped off.
Additionally, similar things can (and do) happen with other purchases. And the most devastating one for most folks is in buying a home. Again, when doing negotiations and completing necessary paperwork, folks really need to be able to apply basic mathematical skills without their calculator or phone, ie, use their brain and even the most basic of skills and concepts they learned early on. And remember, one’s brain never runs out of batteries.
If Apple truly wanted to keep it simple, they could design whatever “improvements” they make to avoid that issue. David Nanian has been successful in getting around those issues with the replicator by “thinking different”. Apple used to be that way, but that seems to be no longer the case, at least in this instance. And I suspect there are others.
In actuality, you said it yourself: “Sure, Apple could make it easier to create bootable backups”, ie. keep it simple. But seems like laziness and non-innovation are at play here. Thank god there are folks like David Nanian still around who can devise reliable methods to get around Apple’s shortcomings.
Some really interesting thought expressed here, which highlights, to me anyway, part of the high value of the TBT experience.
I haven’t been able to bring my thoughts on the subject to any succinct post yet but I think they revolve around the Big Picture idea of the meaning of any new tool introduced to human society, in this case Apple software and hardware.
Initial attraction for me, as a visual person, was the GUI, attractive hardware, software that let me do interesting things and be more efficient, all enhanced with a feeling of shared values, that is, attention to detail and quality, care for the user experience, development of helpful community (user group/developer) spirit. That’s all gradually faded for me (exc here at TBT) especially since I worked in an Apple Store and since its massive growth.
Marco Arment wrote in the same vein on Weds.
Ultimately, any new tool can be used for good and bad, so what matters, what brings meaning to a tool, is how human society puts it to use.
All of those things I mentioned led to people not being able to use what were (at the time) seen as the most basic of skills. That was my point. Every generation thinks the next is losing something crucial, without the self-awareness that the previous generation thought exactly the same about them, and that perhaps the lost skills aren’t as crucial as thought.
And I think we’re actually in a period of great innovation. In the past 20 years, I’ve acquired a supercomputer in my pocket that keeps me closely linked to the world, and that connects to a constellation of satellites which locate me precisely so I always know where I am. I’m resistant to an entirely new disease because of a new way of making vaccines. There are genuinely reusable rockets going into space and coming back. On the horrible side, drones and cyberattacks are completely remaking warfare. Whether one likes it or not, AI is remaking entire economic sectors.
(Historically innovation has two sequential periods. The first, where the new capabilities are invented / created and the second, where those capabilities are democratized / universalized. The latter is often much more important than the former. Cell phones existed in the 1980s but were rare, expensive, and barely portable. It’s only the universalizing of the capability in the 2000s – by Apple among others – that really changed the way society worked).
People (for the most part) have never been able to apply basic mathematical skills in the way you’re hoping. Throughout my life, I’ve had cashiers struggle to make correct change quickly, seen car dealerships use deceptive math to rip off customers, and students get flustered when a professor starts chiding them for not being able to handle a “simple” question.
That is true, but my point is that by not applying those basic skills, it leads to non-innovation. People cannot think on their feet, even though their brain never runs out of batteries! And thus it is crucial. Fortunately there are still some folks like Dave Nanian around who think differently, and obviously knows all too well how to even apply those basic skills.
What you say about innovation is true in many industries, but for the most basic one, thinking on one’s feet (and using their brain), there are so many instances where it is lacking. And I, at least for now, cannot embrace AI. That is definitely in its very “infant” stages, still prone to numerous issues and mistakes. Also, you are missing another phase of innovation: making it easier and better. That needs to be the second phase. Unfortunately, with the third stage, making it universal does not always make it right or useful.
Same with me. When I was teaching I avoided humiliating someone who could not do even simple calculations. I did not want to inhibit their chance for improvement. That is just common sense, which again a lot of folks these days lack. But again I point to the wide availability of calculators (and now cell phones) for making that even worse! You can not me that is not a by product of those devices. People mostly want the easiest way of doing things, but ignore the consequences.
MG Siegler, “A Conversion to Apple”:
Agree 100% in that was the way it used to be, and including from a software perspective. But unfortunately Apple started moving away from the KISS philosophy, especially with their software, back in the early 2000’s, and it unfortunately continues today. Macs are, for the most part, still somewhat easier, and a pleasure, to use. But not as good as earlier.
OK, let’s stop repeating the same positions—the points have been made.
I particularly appreciate @ddmiller’s post for offering an optimistic alternative to my pessimism. I acknowledged the good that Apple-adjacent technology has brought to the world more briefly than the topic deserves.
To be clear, I am not in any way suggesting that we should go back in technological time. Aside from the fact that it’s impossible to turn back the clock, I like exploring and deploying new technology.
The challenge, as I see it, is to figure out how we can continue to advance the technology while focusing on its best aspects for improving the human condition and mitigating its deleterious side effects.
I’m all for that, as long as others do the same.
Good luck with that! You could have tough challenges from Apple.
I missed this the first time around. Companies may not have a soul but they have a culture and it’s the people in those companies that hand down and build that culture. You do an enormous disservice to not recognize that. Company cultures make a massive difference in how they deal with people. By your logic, both Meta and Apple have no soul. So, no difference, right? I say Apple’s culture, built by all the people we might imagine (Bill Atkinson!) and shepherded by Jobs, Amelio, Jobs, and Cook, is better than Meta’s. Apple’s culture is what drives it and it’s a culture that built the Mac, the iPhone, Apple Silicon, etc. There are only a tiny number of number of companies whose culture I trust by (default with wariness): Costco, Honda, Ben and Jerry’s, Bombas, LL Bean. Apple is in there, and it should be.
I agree that companies have different cultures, and that they can absolutely be better and worse. And I agree that Apple is likely better than the rest of the big tech companies. But I also think that a lot of Apple’s public image is carefully managed and promoted for marketing reasons, particularly in the last decade or so, with some of the more controversial stuff swept under the rug. But even back in the mid-1990s, there was a saying among developers, “Apple is not your friend,” meaning that you could be invited to a keynote one day and Sherlocked the next. And there are plenty of ex-employees with stories about problematic working conditions. Steve Jobs may have been many things, but he has seldom been accused of being a nice guy.
I don’t know enough about most of the companies on your list of trusted by more-or-less default, but Ben and Jerry haven’t been at all happy about how the company has been run by Unilever recently. I still see Jeff Furman, a major B&J figure who lives in here in Ithaca, at the Turkey Trot every year, but I didn’t have a chance to ask him about it last year.
@ace We get so caught up in critiquing Apple that we forget to remember the massive difference between them &, eg, Meta. So I’ll go with actions – how much Meta technology/software/presence do you have in your life compared to Apple? Given your past comments, I’m guessing the difference is massive.
That’s the point I’m making.
I miss the gee-whiz excitement of the opening of a new Apple store. I stood in line to go early, see the new stuff, and get a t-shirt (which I still have in tatters). I miss MacWorld, even though I never actually went. I’ve been with Apple since the IIe. I have a couple of Newtons. Apple still makes good, great stuff. I hate Liquid, though. And…I wish Finder had true two-pane windows.
I would add Toyota to your list. They have been consistently steady and worthy.
And of course thousands of mom’n’ pop and small enterprises everywhere. Such as TidBITS of course. But anyway…
I don’t know if anyone has read Apple in China, the recent book by Patrick McGee, but it’s worth reading to consider how big an impact a corporation such as Apple can have. Essentially he posits that Apple trained China to be the China of today, moving from being the worlds producer of the bottom end of every market to being a technology powerhouse, making not just the cheapest but frequently the best and the cheapest. China is now their second largest market.
As companies like Apple become the equal of major nations in terms of impact, the interaction with regulators comes to the fore. China, the UK and the US all have had issues with privacy, Apple’s stated core principle, with varying outcomes. The EU has tackled them on transparency, charging cables, and the closed nature of the App Store, with a mixed bag of results. Most geeks I know complain about these encroachments even while they complain about the issues too. It seems no one can be happy. But it strikes me that at some point a strategy for dealing with the problems technology presents needs widespread agreement or we will be swept up in a solution that only benefits a few.
I feel for you, having Tidbits be a job vs a fun hobby. But I need you to keep up the good work. Tidbits is my main contact to the apple world. As another poster mentioned the world of today’s tech is wonderful (but I am not on social media). What we can do, find out about and experience is positive and immense. I know social media is a tarnish on this view, but it is not so large as to overwhelm the positives.
Adam, I could not agree more.
For me, the golden age was around the ‘Think Different’ era, when Apple was the plucky, but often beleagured, underdog. It’s products were definitely different to everyone else’s, and owning an Apple product was a statement. You saw yourself as taking the path less travelled, and in the process, enjoyed computing more.
There was even a sort of cameraderie with other Mac users in a world where IT support meant Windows support, so if your Mac wasn’t working, you got help from one another. Mac magazines, then mailing lists, and eventually personal websites, were at the heart of this, and I remember the fun to be had sharing new tips and tricks.
Apple is everywhere and everything nowadays, and while I’m glad my trust in the company wasn’t ill-founded, something was definitely lost on the way.
TidBits is the last tangible connection with that era, Adam, and I for one appreciate you continuing with the project. God speed to you all!
Take what you need and leave the rest!
Adam, I share some of your general sentiments, but on a close and personal level, I can say that your publications have taught me a lot and helped me tremendously to better understand this tool I am using and has saved me from days and days of headaches. So, I for one, am very thankful that you went on this journey and you certainly made my world a better place (Both my son and I even use the same backpack to this day that you had discussed in some long ago article and we love it). Marc
The community, thin as it may be at this point, is appreciative of all the things you and Tonya have done for us as a whole. Many of us used the Internet Starter Kit to get ourselves going, to understand the world of communicating with others and the network of how our computers relate to each other.
As time rolls on, Apple the company reaches its 50th Anniversary, it’s true — who cares, at this point? At least it’s something to comment on, an event (or non-event) to promote discussion as to how far we’ve come or haven’t come.
I’m a baby boomer, and read that book early on. In some ways, it set my direction though I bought my own Apple computers and devices decades after their use at work. I was phototypesetting on a Compugraphic 7500. During my career as typesetter / typographer / graphic designer Apple computers brought us so much further along. We entered the digital age. It’s been a long way, baby. That career is long past but I really got somewhere with it.
I’m looking down a long lens towards the idealism of the community. We felt a wondersome sense of creation, and did what came to us accordingly. I felt it and grew through it so many times. It’s a drop in the bucket, but many decades ago on a cross-country USA trip I created one of the first ‘blogs’ writing about the journey and uploading every night from a hotel. Probably had twelve followers.
The world has become vastly inter-connected from our use of computers, we being Apple-based is just one neighborhood of all that. What a collection we now have, we’re fortunate, I guess, with a now-constant collection of devices. The wrong people have grasped the reins of the country. Apple never was our friend, nor most any of the corporations. What remains is the community of people we know through tech and life experience as well as those we’ve yet to meet and get to know face-to-face — knowledgable and open people, feeling people, kind people.
Adam, I tend to agree — It didn’t approach the ideals we had. I hope we still have hope.
My cat calls for breakfast.
Take care.
The only thing I can add here is that, to be fair to Apple, they obviously have to celebrate such landmarks for marketing purposes. It’d be rather odd if they didn’t, wouldn’t it.
The company does a few celebration events, while a few third-parties do things for the enthusiasts (like Pogue’s book, and various journalist’s articles) that the rest of us may watch or read a couple of things to learn about how we got here. Then we move on with our day.
Companies are vehicles for money-making of course, not people with souls, but they can still have some interest in venerating the people within them, rather than the thing themselves. But yes, certain aspects of the tech we use have had as many negative results as positive ones, making it somewhat difficult to be completely happy about how great any of these companies actually are – even if you think Apple are the least bad.
That’s totally true—I actively refuse to use Meta products because I consider the company to be a blight on the planet. Same with X/Twitter and anything associated with Elon Musk. (Made choosing an EV a little easier since I could eliminate Tesla instantly.)
Part of why I—and I hope many people—offer constructive criticism to Apple is that I want the company to be even better than it is. One aspect of being “good” is being open to suggestions for improvement, and I think Apple could do better at that.
Thanks Adam. I was going to write about my feelings on the 50th anniversary, but after 41 years a Mac user, I am so tired of what Apple has become, I just can’t conjure the enthusiasm. I’m so glad I have retired from this business. Perhaps a new CEO, who cares about it, will restore some confidence in their software. Or is Apple now too big to care?
I do not use any Meta or Google in my daily computing life. I have not for many years, despite the enticement of being in touch with relatives and past classmates. I guess I do use the Google product known as YouTube at times, but even that gives me uneasiness. Is this the only place that people host videos online? I do trust Apple with anonymization of my data and even though their Apple News has junky ads on it, it does not require me to watch a video or engage with it in any manner.
Definitely not, although it is one of the most popular. Other sites people use for hosting videos include:
There are dozens of others. They all have different policies, both for content and pricing.
It’s also worth noting that many video-bloggers post their videos to multiple services. So you might not be stuck watching content you want on a server you don’t like.
Plus, most social-media sites (including various Meta products, TikTok, X, Mastodon and others) allow video sharing.
This touches a nerve — looking at the course of the world today you can see the danger in this - and we are indeed in a bad place.
Many years ago when I was promoted to a senior management position, I told the MD not to expect a ‘yes man’; I would tell him what I thought, even if was not what he thought. He said something alongs the lines of “If I only wanted you to agree with me, I wouldn’t need you”.
We had some amazingly intense ‘debates’, but at the end of the day we respected each others opinions, and we also got a lot done.
My boss used to say “I don’t just want yes men - I want enthusiastic yes men”. He then went on to crack a Monty Python jioke.
A dictator with good taste in comedy
Splunge
I agree to an extent, but those were still dark times. I’d trade that “feeling” for Apple being hugely successful and in no danger of going bankrupt or bought out.
Just think of the disaster if Apple had been bought by Sun, IBM, Dell, or any of a dozen companies with a different culture that would have utterly destroyed the house that Jobs built.
I don’t have a problem with that and fully agree. It’s all about the product.
What I don’t like is people being critical of Apple not for technical aspects, but political ones. Like who cares if Tim Cook gives money to Trump’s inauguration? I read tons of “Apple is doomed” articles because of that, which makes no sense to me. I go far enough back with Apple to remember when it was run by liberal hippies and I don’t recall that being a purchase factor.
If people want to personally choose to send their money elsewhere – like Adam not buying a Tesla – there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t tell me not to buy a Tesla (or iPhone) because you don’t like Musk or Cook.
I don’t think Apple as a company has changed that much in 50 years. It’s gotten bigger and it is harder to have a unified focus when you’re so large. But they’ve done that better than just about any other company I can think of.
Totally agree, Adam with this comment. Except I use Facebook & Instagram to keep up with my local, regional, & national Indigenous/Native American friends. I’ve heard many of them refer to these platforms as the modern “Smoke Signal” as they can keep connected across Turtle Island and beyond. I’d gladly pay subscriptions to any progressive platform that would offer similar connectivity & ease of use services. I try to open Safari with any links provided in these Meta apps.
And, also agree on Elon, another meglomanic!!!
And, yes, we need to encourage Apple to be better overall!!!
Actually, for me it actually began in 1980, right after I purchased my Apple IIE. Those were the days! And Apple definitely did “Think Different” starting then, even though that philosophy was not officially stated until way later. But sure glad they did!
Yeah, those were. Glad, though, that Microsoft “chipped” in during the latter part of the 1990’s with that $150 million investment. Still was somewhat tough even after that, but Steve Jobs continued to “light the fire” so to speak, starting with the highly successful iMacs.
Yeah, that would have been terrible and disastrous! But fortunately due to Apple’s subsequent success, especially financially, that will never happen.
A fun premise for an alternate universe sci-fi book!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
Willam Shakespeare
No, I’ve come to praise Apple, not to bury it.
Apple enriched my past. The Apple ][ and the Mac were gateways to a new world. However, computers and electronic gadgets during those years, for me, served specific purposes but weren’t an inescapable part of daily life. I used my Mac for classwork. I had a TV and VCR for entertainment. My Walkman and, later, Discman provided a soundtrack to whatever I was doing. Losing any of those, though, would have been inconvenient but not catastrophic.
I think Apple will continue to enrich my life, but in different ways than before. Apple’s main product—the iPhone—has allowed Apple to reach the goal of the original Macintosh team: to make an appliance that people use every day without really thinking about it. My iPhone is a multi-tool that plays a key role in my professional and personal lives. Instead of making certain tasks, such as writing a term paper, more efficient, the iPhone and, to a smaller extent, the other Apple products I own, are integrated into pretty much everything I do.
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Leo Tolstoy
Apple makes me happy when I’m getting something done and its technology fades into the background. That’s what “it just works” means to me. Apple makes me unhappy when form and function are not balanced. There seem to be more and more examples of this recently (see: butterfly keyboard, MagSafe charging on the Mac removed for awhile, macOS Liquid Glass) but I also think human memory tends to make the past seem better than it really was. After all, living with an ever growing store of negative experiences isn’t very nice, right?
He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
George Orwell
Unfortunately, Apple often embodies “Big Brother” culture, despite its most famous advertisement. It is extremely secretive, isolates and separates its corporate workers from each other, often suffers not-invented-here syndrome, and not infrequently seems to take its customers for granted. I don’t feel, however, that using Apple products requires a “true believer” or “sycophantic” attitude. I have no interest in being an influencer and my living does not depend on remaining in Apple’s good graces. So as long as the benefits of, say, my Mac, outweigh the pain points, I will continue using Macs. But given Apple’s position as one of the largest and wealthiest companies on the planet with little risk of going out of business, I no longer feel there’s much need to evangelize or sacrifice on Apple’s behalf. In other words, Apple stuff has gone from being a personal passion to more of a utilitarian thing for me.
And in the end, the love you take/Is equal to the love you make
The Beatles
Adam challenged each of us to “think about which lessons from the past are worth carrying forward”. I chose the lyric above because it encapsulates how I think we should treat each other on TBT and because the Beatles have been woven into everything Apple from the very beginning.
So, my personal guideposts on TBT are, hopefully, to:
If anyone had the pleasure to use Apollo Computer Inc workstations and remembers its demolition after being bought by HP, this is a sobering thought.
@ace - Thanks for expressing what many of us feel. I will only add that David Pogue’s book was a bittersweet read. The first part, about the early years, conveyed the excitement we all felt back then. (I was born the same year as Gates and Jobs and lived through it all.) The latter part is all about corporate expansion. The early part brings to mind the famous Jobs quote: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers… The ones who see things differently… Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”. The latter part brings to mind something more like “Here’s to the bean counters and Wall Street.” So, yeah, now it’s about the the community, and the products, as they fade into into a (liquid) glass darkly.
Thanks for writing pretty much exactly my thoughts for the last few decades.
I was a dealer so maybe had more direct contact with Apple than most, but your points hit hard. I hardly talk to anyone at Apple any longer as the company has grown from an unmanageable family business with a tyrant as head, to a faceless corporation where decisions are made by bean counters.
The key thing in those early days was that we thought we would change the world. And for varying definitions of ‘change’- we did.
Thanks for keeping TidBits running. I think I still have a copy of ‘Building Stores on the Internet’ somewhere.
Just remember that Microsoft received Apple stock for that $150 million, it was not a donation/gift/bailout as so many mistakenly say.
Good attitude! As for myself, who has used Apple products every day since 1984 and who has also worked in Apple Retail from 2004-2019, I still have that excitement about the company on its 50th anniversary. I was very depressed when I had to leave Apple in 2019 due to serious health issues that I am still struggling with, but I continue to cheer on the sidelines for Apple’s continued success.
Thanks for the correction. Still though was an eventual infusion of cash. Definitely helped!
Iirc, Pogue’s book states the Microsoft realized a gain of ~50% on that stock purchase, so it worked OK for them…. as opposed to spectacularly for Apple.
Agree with you about feeling a bit let down by technology. Idealism, wanting to make the world a better place, is often missing nowadays.
Adam, absolutely great remarks!!!
Dozens here will surely applaud! (Or ought to
)
The DuckDuckGo browser might be an alternative, depending on what you don’t like about YouTube. It opens YouTube video in its own “DuckPlayer,” which lets you watch YouTube without targeted ads and keeps what you watch from influencing your YouTube recommendations. And the browser’s built-in video player protects you from tracking cookies and personalized ads.
I too miss the MacWorld conferences. The keynotes just seemed to be more dramatic there & have more impact than having them at the Apple campus. They were really “events”.