Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column , which includes all the Apple tidings you lose last week in a handy pungency - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it expire heavy with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea , but it ’s cool if you need to give it a read during lunch or dinner party hour too .
Slow starters
Over the years ( if slightly less often in recent fourth dimension ) Apple has racked up some of the greatest - ever product launches . Iconic machine such as the iMac , iPod , iPhone , and AirPods have delivered positive reviews , huge sales , and monumental cultural impact . At times it felt like the hits would never block off get .
But every successful product is successful in its own way , and some of the name above were quick out of the block than others . The common idea of a Cupertino conveyer belt belt , hit after hit in undifferentiated sequence , fails to appreciate the truly unparalleled nature of the iPhone . Never before has a single product made such an detestable amount of money , somehow combining thou - force acceleration in the first point of its creation with year - on - year eubstance for a decennary thereafter .
So when we look disapprovingly at latter - daylight Apple products and kvetch that they ’re not as successful as the lucky - years classic , it ’s important to be clear about which classics we ’re using for comparing . An ambitious innovation such as Vision Pro may not ever check the iPhone ’s winner by any imaginable metric unit … because nothing ever has and more than probable nothing ever will . But there are other analogies we could draw that would make Cupertino ’s accountants feel rather in effect .
The iPod , most would agree , was a frightful hitting . It made a lot of money , save Apple from the threshold of failure , and is so visually iconic that it ’s on the books at MoMA and the Smithsonian . But it was n’t always obvious that this would be the case , and it took a little meter , and multiple versions , before it became a phenomenon .
So let ’s look again at the point of similarity between Vision Pro ( flop ) and iPod ( all - clock time classical hitting ) . Both started out confront contention from rival companies more experient in the orbit : Compaq and Creative Labs in 2001 ; Meta in 2024 . Both come under criticism on damage : $ 3,499 is undoubtedly a lot for an augment - reality headset in 2024 , but $ 399 was super highfor an MP3 player in 2001 — albeit justified , in the belief ofour reviewer .
It was n’t until the launching of cheaper and more portable mini and shamble version of the iPod that it unfeignedly take off , and the same was always likely to be the case for the Vision Pro ( or rather , non - Pro ) . It is n’t the end of the worldly concern if you ’ve got deep air hole like Apple , for the first generation of a merchandise to be perceived as an interesting failure , a glimpse of what ’s possible rather than a unflawed fulfilment of it .
Vision Pro , like the iPod before it , is doing raw things , and that entails both risk and a need for fourth dimension so people can get used to its idea . The first iPod was innovative in its usance of FireWire , plentiful memory board , and clever computer hardware ascendance , so innovative in fact that following the launching of the iTunes Music Store just three year later , it would finally save the music industry . It was built for the technical school landscape of the future and help to usher it in . Just as Vision Pro is designed with an eye on the world a decade from now when the smartphone has been replaced as the basal computation chopine by … something else .
For every iPod , of course , there are a hundred other Cartesian product that tried to promise the future and got it wrong . It ’s completely potential that wearable computingisn’twhat ’s next , for all Apple ’s efforts to make it happen , and if so that would excoriate Vision Pro to genuine nonstarter . But the point is that it ’s too former to recount , and Apple could yet have another classic on its hands .
Foundry
The one equipment thatreally take Apple Intelligenceisn’t getting it .
WhySteve Jobswould havehated iOS 18 ’s biggest feature .
Apple ’s failuresshow thelimits of its ambition .
TheseApple Intelligence and Siri featuresare come after theiOS 18 launch .
Why Roman Loyolacan’t await to switchto athinner MacBook Pro .
Applediscontinuesits‘Pay by and by ’ serviceahead of expand loan offerings .
Podcast of the week
This week we continue our pursue - up coverage of Apple’sWorldwide Developers Conferencewith a discussion about iPadOS 18 , watchOS 11 , visionOS 2 , and the stuff Apple did n’t tell us about ! It ’s all in this episode of the Macworld Podcast ! Be certain to listen in !
you could overtake every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own website .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
slender is in ! Apple plans toslim down all of its productsto match theiPad Pro .
news report : Applekills Vision Pro 2to focus on low-down - monetary value headset for 2025 .
Tech breakthroughcould meanvastly improved barrage lifefor Apple Watch and AirPods .
TheApple Watch Series 10won’t have a small option anymore , report claims .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
serve ! My iPhone 15 Pro Max’sbattery healthissuddenly wither fast .
Apple Intelligenceand other key Io 18 featureswon’t do to the EUthis year .
iOS 17.6 beta arriveswithiOS 18already in testing .
ApplereleasesmacOS 14.6 beta .
