And yet I still ordered a 7.

Deal was to good to pass up.

Traded in my 6 leaving me with $65 out of pocket and my bill reduced by $20 per month.

Phone will ship 10/11 or sooner.

Yes Jobs genius was having an interface a monkey could pick up and use.

Common mistake many people make, equating difficulty of use with superiority of product.

Kind of like, "it costs more so it must be better".

While "you get what you pay for" often applies it's not true all the time.

When **** starts going wonky and gets unreliable we'll know for sure Microsoft has influence in Apple.

Agree. The soul is gone.

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Let's see. When Jobs went to Berkley to school he took a class in caligraphy on a whim. He thought the screen and fonts on a computer should work like caligraphy. That is why when the Mac first came out it was miles ahead of PC in graphic arts producing wysiwyg artwork. Which saved tons of money and time not having to do multiple printer proofs when producing printed materials.

When the Macintosh was conceived and even before it was official Apple hired Microsoft to write a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database for the new Macintosh. It was called Word, Multi-plan, and Database. The information used to develop that software is where Microsoft got the code to write Windows, was sued for it and Apple won. The only things left are Word, and multiplan which is now called Excel. Everything else in Office was bought from other companies, especially Powerpoint. They didn't even bother to rename it like they did Foxpro to Access.

When Jobs left Apple for Next the Next box which is basically now the Mac did not have a floppy drive. It only had a CD re-writeable drive and ethernet.

The day after Apple announced the iMac without a floppy drive floppy manufacturers announced they were not going to produce any more floppies. At the time people were using Zip and Syquest drives that held 100mb or 500mb instead of just 1.4mb floppies.

Had a Windows 2000 phone when the iPhone came out. It had a keyboard and I was thrilled to get an iPhone to get a phone that was half as thick because the keyboard was on the screen. I still miss Graphiti for using a pen to enter text on a touch screen before the Windows 2000 phone.

As for the headphone jack...tried the first pair of ear buds that came with my first iPhone. They made my ears itch and fill with wax. Immediately found a set of good bluetooth headphones had have used them ever since. Not much of a music listener though don't really need a soundtrack to my life. Mainly only listen in the car when driving so car stereo works great.

Have a good friend that worked pretty far up at Apple in the 90s. He was the person at Apple that put up their first web site (it wasn't really public). He also worked with Microsoft to get them to write Explorer for the Mac instead of porting the Windows software (which is what they were doing with the office apps.) It was a test and was so successful they changed from porting windows office apps to the Mac (which sucked) to putting together the Macintosh Business Unit that changed back to writing the office apps for the Mac on the Mac.

His official title and job was Internet Evangelist. It was his job to keep up what was going on with the internet and put together people with their ideas with people at Apple to make things happen. Hence the Exlporer thing. He also spoke at event and trade shows on the behalf of Apple and at the stockholder meetings to inform them what was happening on the internet.

In 93 he also worked on the specifications for what he thought would be a really cool cell phone. This was just after the Newton was killed and palm pilots were very popular. It turned out to be most of the checklist used for development of the iPhone. This was pre-iPod and iTunes by 8 years. And that was just ONE of MANY employees.

Steve Job's vision wasn't all just Steve's. He was the charismatic driving force, but nothing was all his ideas.

As for what they are working on now?

I'm thinking the key word is integration. Everything working together from anywhere you want to interface with it. Communications, work, media, home, appliances, car...The only thing slowing that all down now is the IOT or Internet Of Things. Horrible secruity and too many separate systems with no basic standardization. There is a LOT of stuff out there that hobbyist can put together really cheap, but it takes a lot of work. And security is still an issue. Once security is not an issue it needs an affordable hub that integrates it all together so no matter what you have it will talk to whatever else you have. And an easy to use and understand interface (Apple's Forte).

This is a very interesting thread. I agree Apple has lost it's "It just works" mojo. Apple's NBT should be splitting iTunes up into separate apps that perform specific functions (device management, entertainment, purchases, etc).
I haven't backed up my iPhone in two years because the process is such a nightmare. I am very, very concerned about security, and this business of Apple wanting to integrate all my devices and all my data terrifies me. I do not want my bank account number available on my phone, I do not want 300 GB of work photos stored on my phone. I want to be able to easily determine what gets stored where and do not want the default to be everything everywhere.
After fixing iTunes, Apple's NBT would likely be iHome, with devices that can turn a home into a smart home without a ton of rewiring, everything from your nightlight to your TV, AV system, coffee maker, door locks, lighting, HVAC, water pressure, gas and power usage, your car's fuel and maintenance status, lawn watering, can be monitored and controlled from your phone. I would not participate until the security issues are solved and Apple has demonstrated it can make a better piece of software than iTunes, but it would be a useful function.

That trademark is owned by SDI Technologies.

One of my dearest friends is their VP of Marketing.

This, pretty well nailed it. They are riding on the coattails of Jobs' innovation and are now just followers in the marketplace. Most of the new features in iOS10 and the iPhone 7 were previously introduced on Android phones. I've had iPhones for a LONG time, along with multiple iPads. With each new iOS they move farther away from the simple, intuitive UI that made them unique. Really the only area where I still see them as leaders is in industrial design, their products still have much greater perceived quality than competitors. Though some of the recent physical interface upgrades have also given me pause, and removal of the 3.5mm jack will be a huge PITA for me. I travel frequently, and pretty much every flight will find me with my phone plugged in and charging along with my Bose noise-cancelling headphones plugged in to the 3.5mm port.

Still have two of these and hands down my all time favorite chassis.

As far as PC chassis go it is the pinnacle.

http://www.everymac.com/images/other...-open-2008.jpg

I still have one of those. I suppose I should do something with it. It was diagnosed with a hard drive issue and I didn't have time to mess with it. I replaced it with an iMac and haven't looked back.

iHouse? iDigs? iCrib?

Will we ever figure out they are all just boxes full of electronics shuffling 1's and 0's?

I work with PC's and Apples... both periodically crash... IMHO I don't see one being inherently better than the other.

Kinda reminds me of the Ford/Chevy/Dodge guys arguing about who makes the better car.

Just my two cents.

Apple died along with Steve Jobs. Its just a matter of time now.

I know someone who until recently worked under Ives in the design lab. He says its a complete cluster f*&(k there. He couldn't wait to leave.