It ’s say that the greatest trick the devil ever pull was convincing the reality he did n’t exist . Well , it ’s said inThe Usual Suspects . It ’s not like it ’s a quote from Wittgenstein or Descartes or Oprah .
But perhaps the capital trick Apple ever pulled is convert the public that it ’s an advanced company .
In one sense , this is an argument so well - worn it ’s actually a mo silly we ’re still blab about it . No , Apple was n’t the first to make a personal music instrumentalist , a smartphone , a tablet , even a figurer with a GUI . Its magic is and always was in enfold the right set of compromises up in something that calculate resistless to the discerning , affluent , and often mildly technophobic interview it wanted .
InMonday morning ’s keynote , though , there was something else at play . Despite being keep aloft on a frothing fount of bombast , some of what Apple launched at the scuttle of WWDC was … old - fashioned .
WithNews , we got yet another attempt to show and package up newspaper and mag - dash content , and it will strike anyone who works in those industries as perplexing , if welcome , that Apple is still devoting meter to puzzle out that problem , given that we ’ve been told for a decade or two that newspapers and magazines are history .
And late in account , as it happens , is where they derive from . We ’ve had newspaper since the 17th century , and it ’s a testament to the robustness of the introductory idea that Apple , a company that for most would be synonymous with the most advanced consumer technology in the macrocosm , still thinks newspapers are relevant .
seem too atBeats 1 , Apple ’s new radio station . A receiving set place ? ! Is there a less sexy mass communication political platform in the humanity ? For me , it conjures up images of a bloke in bow standoff digest behind a plate - sized microphone , informing you in a cut - chalk accent mark that the onetime King has go .
For all Apple ’s ballyhoo about how innovative Beats 1 is — it ’s 24/7 ! it ’s come in at you from three cities!—it ’s still basically a format that we ’ve had since we kids . Sure , there are frills around the edges that are new — I’m look forward to seeing what happens when millions of people all over the macrocosm listen to a song at the same time . But there ’s no getting aside from the fact that , again , the core technology and model here is hardly new . bad , if like me you ’re in the U.K. , thus far it looks and smells exactly and specifically like aBBCradio post — something between Radio 6 Music , 1Xtra , and Radio 1 .
Even one of the welcome new feature article oniOS 9 on an iPad , picture - in - motion-picture show , has a distinct whiff of the retro about it .
Picture in picture : For watching your stories while you do electronic mail .
One one hand , of course of study , none of this matters a damn . A good idea transcend the basic logistical technology that originally delivered it , which is why we ’re still reading newspapers even though we do n’t habituate hot metallic element case , and why we still listen to “ radio ” stations even though they ’re deliver over the internet rather than using radio waves . ( Pleasing aside : Of course , if you listen to an net radio post wirelessly over Wi - Fi , youareusing radiocommunication waves . And a second : My parent ’ generation would have called a radio place “ a wireless . ” )
But on the other hand , man , Apple has to be careful here . engineering science companies are pour down not because they make bad products but because they fail to recognise and embrace wider societal changes traverse everything along . Famously , Bill Gates acknowledged that Microsoft never reckon the internet coming , and you could argue the troupe never quite regain from that misstep .
My favorite Apple exec is Phil Schiller . Dude await like he went on a journeying of ego - breakthrough and liked the amiable , denim - wear off uncle figure he found . And yes , even if they pluck their eyes , lots of people like Craig Federighi ’s daddy jokes , and oh my word I ’ve just remembered Eddy Cue’sactualdad dancing . Everyone bonk their dad , right-hand ?
Stay hungry , though , Apple ; stay foolish . quell young . stay on curious and open . Stayrelevant .
This is n’t an “ Apple is doom ” piece ; I am bullish as always that the companionship generally fuck well what it ’s doing than some schmo on the cyberspace , and I will happily impute to coincidence the peculiar conservatism of some of Apple ’s next big patronage plays contained within a single tonic .
I wish things that are old - fashioned , include but not limited to Old Fashioneds themselves . And “ introduction ” does n’t mean you dogmatically defy to incorporate anything that existed before you sat down with a caffe latte and a Moleskine notebook , ready to shift the cosmos . Just be sure you ’re building on the best of the past , not retreat to it .
