Let’s start with the truth. I don’t like Apple.
The company, not the fruit.
It would have been no secret to my students years ago. I spent much time explaining why Apple isn’t as wonderful as they think it is. I broke the news that Apple was always behind. Their technology had always been elsewhere first. They basically stole everything they did from Palm, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Android. The iPad was pitiful compared to Tablet PCs. Their ecosystem as well as their OS was a walled garden you paid a pretty high price to enter.
And, yeah, it’s worked out very well for them.
And now, I think I know why.
With the latest WWDC showing off new iOS 14 features… well… I didn’t see anything new. They literally are using widgets and app drawers just like Android has had for years. Their home screen full of app icons and widgets reminds me of Windows Phone’s live tiles. And apparently I’m not the only one.
//www.instagram.com/embed.js
But this is when I realized that Apple doesn’t just steal things and pretend like they came up with it. They do something much smarter…
I watched a video today on iOS 14. But I also watched a video today about the potential for Apple to release smart glasses. Everything in this video made me think about how Apple is answering questions people already asked about Google Glass.
Google Glass has a camera that was recording (in a way) all the time. The Apple glasses will not have a camera at all.
Google Glass contained a, well, micro computer that did all the processing. The Apple glasses will use the much more powerful iPhone to do all the processing.
Google Glass needed to be plugged in to charge. But the Apple glasses will be charged wirelessly.
Google Glass was designed to fit on your current glasses, or not to need glasses, and as such was obviously a thing on your face causing people to talk about it, but not in a nice way. The Apple glasses are designed to look like glasses that you’d never know were anything other than spectacles you use to help you see.
And now Apple adds all these features to iOS that have been features of other platforms for at least a decade.
Apple is not inventive.
Apple is not innovative.
Apple knows how to wait.
Think about it: Microsoft rebuilds their mobile operating system to utilize a feature they call Live Tiles. It’s sort of like merging the app icons with widgets from Android. It was very useful. However, many things went wrong there… but Apple sat on that feature for a few years and have now basically implemented the feature with their version of Android widgets; which in a way they also sat on until they could make it useful and enticing to customers.
Because you see, that’s Apple’s plan: sit on the technology everyone else failed at, while soaking in all the reviews and Tweets and Reddit posts, until they can figure out how to make it look pretty as well as useful, and finally sell it.
And it’s a much better plan than I would have ever given them credit for.
-Diggs out
P.S. – I don’t hate Apple. I hate how Apple says “ooooooooh look at the thing WE totally invented and never existed in any for before our product aren’t we awesome and just the best ever buy our stuff if you don’t you’re not cool enough to be cool don’t be a looser.” – That bugs me…
Adult Under Construction 