> All of these are tweaks The word "tweak" does not mean the same thing to hackers as it does to the general public. To the average person, "tweaking" means ma

> All of these are tweaks The word "tweak" does not mean the same thing to hackers as it does to the general public. To the average person, "tweaking" means making minor modifications to an essentially finished product. This of course would do a huge disservice to Apple's accomplishments, and I think that's what Gruber is trying to fight, considering Gladwell and Isaacson write for a general audience. To put it another way, it took Microsoft and others several years to tweak the Macintosh operating system, and this despite Apple essentially resting on their laurels until the return of Steve Jobs. There were tons of MP3 players before the iPod, and they were pretty much decimated. iTunes is not just music on the Internet, it is also the first music service that got the music majors and labels on board. Where are the iPod/iTunes tweaks? Microsoft failed twice with PlaysForSure and Zune. Amazon, Google and Spotify are doing interesting things in this space, yet most people are still going to listen to music they download from them... on their iPod. Similarly, the iPhone is much more than a pre-2007 smartphone without buttons, and the iPad is much more than a Dynabook or a pre-2010 tablet with no stylus. And I think you are mischaracterizing his observations about Gates.