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I feel Apple has lost its alignment with me and other long-time customers

• Gualdrapo 1y ago
  A few days ago I tried to express a similar opinion here - regarding design and taking in account the liquid glass thing and the iphone air, it feels they are doing "innovation" for the sake of "innovation", and got downvoted. They're doing (arguably) huge improvements in processing and computing yet they want to disrupt user experience just because.
  • api 1y ago
    I kind of agree but I also can think of a counter argument. They don’t want to seem stale. The current macOS look is more than a decade old, so Tahoe shakes it up a little. I’m kind of indifferent to it so far but I can see what someone might have been thinking.
  • worthless-trash 1y ago
    You are experiencing the negative side of the apple reality distortion field. I too have experienced this. I expect that i have been too direct in my dislike of apple in this post. You have to come at the problem sideways. To allow for any real hope of not being down voted the crowd. I dont know what the root cause is.. if Cupertino corp has a really expensive pr team or apple devices are laced with some kind of mind altering drug.. the effect is the same.
    • worthless-trash 1y ago
      I'd like to say HI to the apple PR team! looks like you made it.
    • MangoToupe 1y ago
      Having an emotional beef with a brand is weird. Find a brand and I'll show you how you're getting fucked. Just pick how you like to take it
  • x0x0 1y ago
    Well, they're also desperate for anyone not to think of the absolute mess they've made of AI.
  • StopDisinfo910 1y ago
    I wouldn’t mind them innovating if Liquid Glass wasn’t so bad. It’s a clear step back in usability with all the things you can’t properly read. The updated applications which Just clearly copy Android are nice however.
• danpalmer 1y ago
  This pretty much sums up my feeling on the new generation. I too don't understand what's "awe dropping" about it, and have finally switched from an iPhone 15 Pro to the Android ecosystem, where a flip phone is somewhat "awe dropping". I'm not fully convinced about it, but it's different, it's fun, it's clever, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The only thing I disagree with here is about the Air. I think Apple's strategy with the Air is to split the Pro line. Previously the Pro phones were for people who wanted a premium feeling and who wanted premium features, but those are often in tension, and might hold each other back. Now the Air is for those who want premium feel (you might call it flashy, looks great, feels great, but has trade-offs), and now the Pro is an uncompromising set of features, at the expense of being bigger and having a comical camera ~bump~ ~plateau~ continent. This is the same as the Watch, where you have the stainless steel models for the premium feel, and the Ultra for the premium features. I suspect many on HN may not differentiate between the premium features and feel as much – I know it's not what I jump to – because "design is how it works" and many here aren't as fashion conscious, but a lot of folks buy new phones based on the colour, or how thin it feels, or other details that are easily written off when you know more about the hardware. I think the Air might be a big hit, while getting very little of the enthusiast market.
  • thaumasiotes 1y ago
    https://chainsawsuit.krisstraub.com/20161028.shtml https://chainsawsuit.krisstraub.com/20161028.shtml When "you can't use it outside anyhow" expands to phones, which are only useful because you can take them outside.
    • astrange 1y ago
      You couldn't really always phones outside until they switched to OLED because you couldn't see the screens in sunlight. They were still popular though.
      • bitwize 1y ago
        I wish transflective LCDs were a thing on phones.
• tra3 1y ago
  In the original announcement thread there was some speculation that the air is a precursor to folding models down the line. I hope that’s true.
  • avidiax 1y ago
    I want that speculation to be true, but I also don't think that the Air is a stepping stone towards that. The risky parts on a folding phone are the bending screen and the hinge and the software features. The iPhone Air tests none of those things.
    • hedora 1y ago
      It tests their assembly lines and supply chain by producing 100 million titanium cases. They did something similar when they transitioned the product line to aluminum. (As a product, it’s the opposite of what I’d want — worse battery, bigger screen, worse camera, but they’ll certainly sell enough to debug the assembly lines.)
      • MisterSandman 1y ago
        That doesn’t make sense, the 15pro and 16pro were already titanium, and they moved AWAY from titanium for those phones in the 17pro. I don’t disagree that it has something to do with supply chain, but it’s not the titanium cases.
  • altern8tif 1y ago
    Seems a possibility for the medium term. I've also seen speculation that it's an engineering experiment to see if they can squeeze all the essential components of a high-powered computer into a space the size of the camera plateau. Which may eventually lead to viable AR Glasses (or a cheaper Vision).
  • layer8 1y ago
    A foldable iPhone has been pretty firmly rumored for fall 2026 for a while now, I think you can take it as virtually certain: https://www.macrumors.com/guide/foldable-iphone/ https://www.macrumors.com/guide/foldable-iphone/ I don't think the Air is merely a precursor to the foldable, however. It's rather that the technological evolution that allowed for the 5mm thin iPad Pro last year allows for the Air this year and helps with the foldable next year (and thinner MacBooks are rumored as well). But the Air is probably there to stay as a separate form factor, assuming that it doesn't flop in terms of sales. The foldable will be much heavier and bulkier, more resembling a Pro Max.
• daemonologist 1y ago
  The title is appropriate, in that it feels to me that most of the awe has gone out of these products/keynotes. This is maybe down more to the maturity of the category(/ies) than any fault of Apple's though. Perhaps they can be blamed for failing to introduce exciting products in new categories. I do find that wireless earbuds actually last much longer than the wired variety, despite the non-replaceable batteries. Back in the day I went through one or two sets of earbuds a year because the wire failed internally, whereas I've only had two TWS pairs in ~six years (admittedly, it was the battery that became a problem in the first set). There's undoubtedly a lot more e-waste gubbins in each though.
  • piskov 1y ago
    Any decent earbuds have replaceable cables with standard two-pin connectors
    • astrange 1y ago
      Not good for exercise, it's heavy and has telephonic effects (walking/running sound transmit through the cable). Also ties you to the audio source. Does anyone actually make wired headphones with ANC?
      • userbinator 1y ago
        Look up "bullet MMCX IEMs". Plenty of options out there for cables too, some far less microphonic than others, and you can wear them over-ear to reduce that effect even more. No ANC but they already isolate sound very well.
  • avidiax 1y ago
    Apple is a hostage of its own marketing. A modular iphone that has an easy to replace battery, easy to replace screen and is maybe 2mm thicker to account for it? That would be a sellout. A convertible Macbook Air with a touch screen? It would be sold out. Neckband-style airpods with all-day battery life? Might not sell out, but would be popular. A best-in-class TV powered by Apple TV? Would probably sell well. But all of these products would cannibalize sales of some other expensive iDevice.
• catlover76 1y ago
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• jofzar 1y ago
  > As for the AirPods, and true wireless earbuds in general, I find this product category to be the most wasteful. Unless someone comes up with a type of earbuds that have easily replaceable batteries, I’m not interested in buying something that’s bound to become e‑waste in a relatively short period of time. I'm not a apple fan (been windows most of my life till moving to a new company that is Mac only, and have been on android for about 13 years at this point) but the airpods pro are maybe apples greatest product in a while (other then the M1 macbooks). The audio quality+noise cancellation+transparency quality made them a super easy buy and I would buy the app3 as soon as my app2 die that's how much I love them as a android user. This is coming from someone who owns multiple iems and very expensive over the ears. From everything reported so far, the app3 look like a solid spec bump at the same price, there isn't many products that keep that formula. Edit: I am disappointed that the OP didn't talk about how all the iPhones now have "pro-motion" aka high refresh rate screens. This is (personally) one of the biggest step up in quality, I would never buy a baseline iPhone because 60 Hz just looks gross to me now, it's immediately noticeable.
• chrisdelrosario 1y ago
  Re: “Sob stories” it’s easy to cynically dismiss this as just another marketing ploy, but I see two other ways to see it. 1. It’s primarily for the people at Apple and their partner manufacturers to realize and be reminded of the value of the work that they do. 2. It’s a message to the broader tech community that if you’re going to copy most of what we do, here’s a few that actually save lives. Now will it sell more watches… probably. Is it a net positive? I think so.
  • esafak 1y ago
    OpenAI did the same thing in the GPT-5 launch. https://youtu.be/0Uu_VJeVVfo?t=2079 https://youtu.be/0Uu_VJeVVfo?t=2079
• DecoPerson 1y ago
  Some small carriers in Australia don't support eSIMs, even though they're required for Apple Watches and other devices, and also second phone numbers in phones without dual SIM card trays. I'm hoping that the iPhone Air will make them prioritise eSIM support!
  • jofzar 1y ago
    Seriously? Which ones don't support it, I actually have found more that are "esim only" these days (but I am someone who churns through ozbargain deals)
    • DecoPerson 1y ago
      AussieBroadband (who use Optus wholesale). I love 'em, and literally my only complaints after years of using them are: - lack of eSIM support - invoice/statement layout hard to read - businesses can use the residential NBN plans but they don't display correctly on their Carbon business portal - some advanced mobile service control codes to configure message bank, call forwarding, etc, don't seem to work Everything else about them has been perfect. Great service, reasonable prices, perfect reliability (zero downtime AFAIK!), and Australian-owned. (Gonna chuck my AussieBroaband referral code here in case this convinces someone to switch! 13610811)
  • zeristor 1y ago
    Some carriers in the UK have been on the brink of providing eSIM support for several years, maybe Apple as often is the case can drive this forward. I’m not sure what the issue is though, could it be a standards issue? Government tracking phone users? Someone being cut out of the money? Answers please on a postcard.
    • Gigachad 1y ago
      Australia has like 100 reseller phone networks. There are only 3 real network providers and these as well as the majority of the resellers support esim, but when every single retail brand and supermarket has it's own mobile network offering, there's always going to be a couple that haven't put in even the smallest amount of work to support it until it's absolutely forced.
• rd 1y ago
  Not a huge believer in belittling an author's points, but the author makes absolutely not one objective point in this entire article. Genuinely every single thing he describes is an opinion, nothing more, nothing less. And those opinions, at that, aren't even very accurate. AirPods becoming e-waste? Seriously? Pick a better idea to make your point, because pretty much everyone I know has had their AirPods for 2-3+ years, and even if that was _when_ they decided to move onto another, that's an _incredibly_ long amount of time to have wireless earbuds of those quality at that price point. And as for disabling features on the Apple Watch - again, seriously? Most techie, HN'y complaint ever. There's a reason the Apple Watch and AirPods sell as well as they do - people love them. As for awe at new features - AirPods live translation, standard iPhones being ProMotion, one of the thinnest phones ever created? This is just a terrible opinion piece.
  • ipv6ipv4 1y ago
    I agree. It's objectively nonsense with regards to AirPods and Apple Watches in particular. Both are extremely dominant in their respective categories for many years at this point. Objectively, Apple is not alienating its "long-time customers". Someone raging about his perceived wastefulness of AirPods is out of touch with the vast majority of people. But people love to rage and be enraged on the internet. So anyone pointing the vacuity of the enraged is downvoted and cast aside.
  • asdff 1y ago
    I'm always surprised to see people on here talk about refresh rate. I can't see it with my eyes. I even just tested based on your comment with this m3 pro. Power settings are such where on power its pro motion and on battery its 60hz. I tried scrolling this thread really fast while plugging it in and unplugging it and I could not discern a difference. I'm not saying you can't, I'm just surprised I can't, given all I hear about it.
    • abhinavk 1y ago
      It depends on people and their age (of eyes). None of my parents/elders (except an uncle; he's the only one who's had LASIK) could see the point of my 240Hz monitor.
• kristjansson 1y ago
  > these [AirPods and Apple Watch] are the Apple products I care the least, together with HomePods and Apple TV. I won’t defend HomePods much, but skipping the other three misses a lot of the ecosystem value less technical consumers are getting. Turn your lights off with your TV remote. Go to a run with just your watch and headphones and take a call at mile 3. Approve a payment (or a sudo!) by double tapping your watch. Start a channel on your TV from Siri. And so on. I’m not sure if Liquid Glass (that iOS 26 just insisted on capitalizing) is going to be worth anything, and definitely doesn’t merit the marquee. But the some of the design thinking is still there, beneath the surface, in the delightful interactions between parts of their ecosystem.
• busymom0 1y ago
  I think that the awe actually dropped when Apple stopped doing in person live events instead of recorded ones.
• loughnane 1y ago
  I feel like these posts started popping up with increasing frequency over the last 10 years. At this point its almost a rite of passage to realize that Apple---though good in many ways---is far less than it's cracked up to be. At least in tech circles.
  • jfengel 1y ago
    Tech circles have never particularly liked Apple. Sometimes they're right; sometimes they're just grumpy that non-techies like things that they don't. I've been hearing that since before Slashdot dubbed the iPod lame. So I just kinda tune it out and wait to see whether people buy it or not.
    • BirAdam 1y ago
      I started using Linux in the 1990s, and I flirted with Apple through out the 2010s. I finally switched full time to a Mac Studio this year despite the UI, despite the read-only root and kexts no longer being a thing and inconsistencies and stupid settings app and everything else. For one, M4 Max is awesome. For two, every other OS is now more annoying to me. Linux is more inconsistent, and the changes being made by major distros make little sense. Windows is a dumpster fire. The BSDs don’t work on anything I own, and the M4 is better anyway. Finally… pricing. For the price of my M4 Mac, there is no PC with as good a spec considering the price of GPUs. RAM and SSD? Yeah, Apple is nearly criminal… but the price of an NVIDIA GPU? Actually kinda criminal.
    • ben7799 1y ago
      This says it. Actual "tech" circles were historically not super into the Mac. Of course there were some people who loved it, but the bulk of the classic Mac fanbase was design type people and people who were mostly recreational PC users but had way more money to spend than typical PC users. More hardcore tech folks were turned off by inflexibility and OS instability by the mid-90s. This has of course changed over the past 20 years as all the OS limitations with the Mac were lifted and all PCs have kind of matured and you don't have massive increases in speed every year. So Apple's better quality, closer price parity, and better software support started to look better and better to actual tech people.
• Animats 1y ago
  Awe? Come on. These are all minor improvements on existing products. Yawn.
• hsuduebc2 1y ago
  I understand authors sentiment. It's hard to be fascinated by another revolutionary thinning of a device once more.
• ksec 1y ago
  On iPhone Air The C1, while slower, was a little more energy efficient. Signal Reception seems to be ok too. I am expecting the C1X to be even better. Combined with A19 Pro, C1X, N1. I would expect Air to be more efficient than 16 Pro. So with that in mind, The Air ~3100 mah, the 16 Pro ~3600 mach should have similar battery life, or may be just slightly less than 16 Pro, a little bit better than iPhone 15 Pro with 3274mah. If that is the case I say Air is actually not bad. And we can look forward into the future for even more energy efficiency OLED, SoC and newer Battery Tech. That would make Air perfect. Not to mention iPhone Air is a required training for foldable iPhone. Their competitors are already making foldable phone with one side at less than 5mm. And is currently being held back by USB-C port. Apple needs at least one or two generation of learning to move in that direction. And iPhone Air is exactly that. I am really looking forward to al the iPhone review this year. It has been a long long time since the iPhone produce range was exciting. List of iPhone Battery Capacity. Model/Battery Life Battery Capacity (mAh) iPhone 17 Pro Max: 5088 mAh (100%) iPhone 16 Plus: 4,674 mAh iPhone 15 Plus: 4,383 mAh iPhone 17 Pro: 4252 mAh (84%) iPhone 17: 3692 mAh (73%) iPhone 16e: 4,005 mAh iPhone 16 Pro: 3,582 mAh iPhone 16: 3,561 mAh iPhone 15 Pro: 3,274 mAh iPhone 15: 3,349 mAh iPhone 14 Pro: 3,200 mAh iPhone Air: 3149 mAh (62%)
  • TheJoeMan 1y ago
    Reading the criticism, I just came to a completely opposite conclusion regarding the magsafe battery: is the iPhone Air the answer to the people complaining about no removable battery? Make the body thinner, still waterproof, and you can have multiple “external” batteries to clip on. Boom, battery life is “infinite”.
• AIorNot 1y ago
  As a counterpoint: Apples has gotten so big that its user and customer base is not techies, they have moved into supporting our mainstream society as it operates today. They don't care about techies (at least primarily)
  • SoftTalker 1y ago
    Apple has never cared about techies. They have always been consumer-focused, at least since the original candy-colored iMac days.
• dcchambers 1y ago
  > What really got on my nerves during the Apple Watch segment of the event, though, is this: Apple always, always inserts a montage of sob stories about how the Apple Watch has saved lives, and what an indispensable life-saving device it is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad those lives were saved. But this kind of ‘showcase’ every year is made in such poor taste. It’s clear to me that it’s all marketing above everything else, that they just want to sell the product, and these people’s stories end up being used as a marketing tactic. It’s depressing. Yeah, the trauma porn in Apple events has become quite annoying. We get it - if you don't have an Apple watch you're going to die.
  • bigglywiggler 1y ago
    Sure, but how many other products have a feature like that? I live in a very remote area. I NEED Starlink because it's my only choice for internet. I NEED a big 4x4 because if there's some particularly bad rain I'd be trapped in my home. If a tree falls in the nearby forest and nobody is there to hear it our power still goes out because it fell on a powerline and we NEED solar panels with battery backup or we can't flush the crapper because the water pump doesn't work without power. If my wife has a breakdown of her car or, god forbid, an accident on her way home from grocery shopping there is no cell service. No way to call me or the breakdown company or the police or an ambulance. I'm also not the only person who lives here. There are a few hundred people spread out across the general area and they all have these issues too. Apple's atellite communication could literally save my life as I go about normal, non-adventurous humdrum day-to-day tasks. Informing consumers of an actually useful standout feature unique to your products is good marketing and they're doing it at a marketing event they host to market their products. This guy's whole article was just the same tired applebashing that has actually become quite annoying. We get it - you don't think Apple products are good value for money in your use case and you don't understand the people who buy them.
    • pastureofplenty 1y ago
      Sounds like you'd be better off living in a less remote area.
• wrs 1y ago
  I think the only way you can consider iOS “amateurish” is according to a ridiculously high standard for phone software that Apple itself is responsible for normalizing.
  • n8cpdx 1y ago
    Unfortunately, the only real comparison for iOS is past versions of iOS; until that changes I don’t see things getting better in any stable way. iOS 26 actually has a lot of great features and convergence with the rest of the ecosystem (e.g. preview is awesome). But it lacks the polish that Apple has a reputation for; unfortunately 50% worse polish for Apple is still significantly better than Android and Windows. There just aren’t greener pastures to move to.
    • bigglywiggler 1y ago
      This is it, the grass is not greener on the other side unless you're moving over here. I don't understand why people who live on those less green pastures continuously wish for the greener pasture to be more like what they have now.
  • stellalo 1y ago
    The transparencies and slightly laggy animations (at least on iPhone 15: this overall hurts usability for me) do bring Windows Vista memories though
  • AlexandrB 1y ago
    I just want them to fix bugs and stop with the unnecessary redesigns. Each redesign seems to increase the focus on aesthetics at the expense of usability. And the bugs remain.
    • bigstrat2003 1y ago
      That's what I want from software development in general. Stop redoing the UI because your designers got bored. It is good like it is, leave it be. Literally nobody likes when the UI changes drastically overnight, stop it!
• daedrdev 1y ago
  I do feel like there is some man shaking fist at cloud here. The post dismisses airpods, yet they are one of the most popular products in the US, with like 75% of young people owning a pair, great quality, features, and battery life. I dont think a swappable battery is even a good feature, the parts would be tiny and break easily given their size not to mention how often they could get lost
  • bombcar 1y ago
    AirPods are one of Apple’s best products in forever and their size forgives them battery complaints, to me. Even phones and laptops I’m willing to give a pass on, ever since USB-C got “good enough” and the battery life long enough. If I had one complaint it’d be that they should sell one fat phone with no camera hump (because it has more battery). Edit: I should have clarified as AirPods Pro are the ones I have experience with; no idea how the original AirPods are. But the Pros are phenomenal.
    • MangoToupe 1y ago
      Airpods are very, very expensive compared to competitors with 90% of the same features. I've been using a $30 set for several years and the main drawback is it's difficult to switch devices—because apple doesn't allow third parties to use access the proprietary comms that allows this for airpods. Also, I think the white is ugly. But kids seem to love it.
      • hedora 1y ago
        AirPods (and Bose QuietComfort) make me dizzy/nauseous. Also, they don’t have decent passive noise cancellation, so they’re not appropriate for mowing the lawn, etc. My Sennheiser ear buds solve all these problems for a much lower price, and their sound quality is much better than the last pair of AirPods I tried. To each their own, I guess.
        • lurking_swe 1y ago
          well to be fair, some people simply don’t tolerate ANC well. Likely due to a more sensitive vestibular system. I believe this group often (not always) also struggles with motion sickness.
• 4b11b4 1y ago
  I'm just getting back into Apple after having the first iPhone, but then Android/Linux since then. Now I'm all in on Apple silicon... For the next decade at least.
• j3s 1y ago
  wonderfully written article -- my thanks to the author. there's a heavy amt of cynicism, but i enjoyed the argument, and i believe it's well reasoned. i do think that modern tech companies have lost all sight and attachment to the products that customers actually experience. it feels dissociative & much like another step of our broader culture shifting towards "bend-the-knee-ism", thanks to our current cabinet of clowns. companies like Valve & Panic! remind me that focusing on producing high quality, enjoyable software/hardware experiences is not only still doable, but highly desired. it's a beautiful art form - the exploration of human computer interaction. we're only really touching the surface, even still. it's exciting. i thought tech companies were exciting? that they cared about this future? when did Apple & co start becoming IBM? when did the shareholders that Jobs despised win?
• mpalmer 1y ago
  With Apple, the bloom is off the rose, and as with a lot of big business lately, the prose misses the mark. Its copy was once great. Now we get "Awe-dropping", the latest example of marketing professionals coming up with the most basic rhyming wordplay that fits in a three word sentence. Smack a big period on it so it looks like a fact, then head to the bar.
  • thehyperflux 1y ago
    What are some examples of past copywriting / slogans you remember as being markedly better? As far as I can tell Apple have always gone in for this kind of wordplay when promoting new products. Some of it is better, some is worse... but it's always tended to be a bit groan-inducing.
• raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  The part about AirPods is just…dumb. If you have seen the teardown of how AirPods are made… https://nebula.tv/videos/realengineering-the-hidden-design-of-the-apple-airpod/ https://nebula.tv/videos/realengineering-the-hidden-design-o... There isn’t any way that you could have replaceable batteries and still make them as lightweight and comfortable in your ear without other tradeoffs. We can argue about the case - maybe. The AppleTV is by far the most responsive set top box and the least slimy as far as privacy and invasive ads [1]. If you like classical watches, the Apple Watch isn’t for you. But there are enough people that disagree that they sell like crazy. The iPhone Air is probably going to sell like crazy in places with low iPhone adoption where it’s only affordable by the wealthy minority like China where it will be seen as a status symbol. Ben Thompson of Stratechery has been documenting for a decade about the biggest driver of iPhone sells is models that look new. But if you already have an iPhone 16, Apple doesn’t expect many to upgrade. The replacement cycle has been around 3 years for awhile now. [1] yes I realize the default Home Screen of the AppleTV has Apple’s apps in the top navigation bar and when you are on the icons it is advertising for Apple services. But you can put any apps up there and those apps control the hero image when you on them. They usually show what you have been watching
• mvkel 1y ago
  Corporations have no interest in making things that no one will buy. To change Apple's behavior, consumers need to change theirs. Given the lines out the door at China at Apple stores today, I don't see Apple changing their behavior anytime soon.
• travisgriggs 1y ago
  Huh. It’s been a while since Apple has “one more thing” awed me. So… “the awe tapers” sentiment, I can agree with. The rest of the article I found full of non-sequitur, for me personally. I think the Apple Silicon laptops are just about right. About the only thing that would fill an itch: I angsted for years after the discontinuation of the 17” models. Since what was 15 can now be 16, I’d put cash down for an 18” model. I’m not much of a power photographer, but I really like the orange of the pro, and the trickle of feature improvements between my 14 and this one are enough to get enthused about. My Pro ‘Pods (2) are going strong after a few washes, and I look forward to replacing them with 3s when they give out. Here’s the thing for me I guess. I develop/maintain native apps on both platforms for my employer. I test with a couple of Samsung devices (why Samsung? Because 85% of our Android customers in ang tech are using Samsungs). And I just hate the experience. The hardware is ok, at times. We use them for testing (so not much daily driving) , and the failure rate is worse than the iOS devices. But the Ux is the worst. Apple will have to turn liquid glass into muddied frosted glass in a storm before the hodgepodge that is material, ui one, and the weirdest apps, make me want to switch.
  • musicale 1y ago
    Apple transforms product categories from time to time, and the rest of the time improvements are incremental (though usually good). In the last 5 years or so Apple Silicon has transformed expectations, not just for Apple products but for the whole industry, starting with the M1 MacBook Air, then with the M1 MacBook Pro, and more recently with the M4 Mac mini. (Meanwhile Mac Studio refactored Apple's desktop lineup, perhaps echoing the G4 Cube, and the iPad Pro M4 was a milestone product that leapfrogged Mac laptop hardware by including an OLED display and next-gen SoC. We may see something similar with an iPad Pro M5.) I think AirTags also transformed their category. Vision Pro was a new product line for Apple but has not been a success so far.
    • adastra22 1y ago
      Vision Pro's only problem is the price. At $1k I think we would see a lot more adoption. I say this as a former skeptic and who gets VR sickness from other AR/VR devices, and hates the idea of strapping a device to my face and being isolated from my surroundings. I got an AVP for work (long story), and was blown away. No VR sickness. I can work from anywhere with my laptop while enjoying a massive, wrap-around high resolution (virtual) display. I can relive vacation photos in full 3D. I can watch For All Mankind projected on a drive-in movie theatre screen in a lunar crater, while laying in my bed. I think I'd have to go back to the original iPhone to think of a product that is so innovative and visionary that you just KNOW from first use that it will completely transform the way we interact with computers. But at $3,500? Nobody can afford that, and only a small subset of the 1% would even consider buying one.
• freetime2 1y ago
  Regarding the iPhone 17 Pro: > People who have no use for all these pro video recording features shouldn’t waste their money on it. Unless they want a big chunky iPhone with the best camera array and/or have money to burn. I feel like people who “want the best camera array and have money to burn” probably describes a significant percentage of HN readers. I’m honestly pretty excited that they’ve finally put the larger, high res sensor in all three iPhone cameras - which should result in pretty decent image quality across the entire 13 - 200 mm equivalent range. It’s a nice upgrade from my current iPhone which uses smaller 12 MP sensors for the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras - resulting in images that are noticeably soft and noisy. I personally don’t consider the iPhone 17 Pro to be too big or chunky. I’m generally happy to sacrifice an extra millimeter of thickness for better battery life, and enjoy the usability of larger screen sizes. I know that a lot of people really want smaller phones, though, and I think it’s unfortunate that Apple cancelled the mini (and the smaller SE design). I guess it just wasn’t selling that well. And finally, I’m at a point in my life where spending $1100 on a new iPhone every few years isn’t going to break the bank. And I also am able to give my current iPhone to family members, who should be able to enjoy it for many more years to come.
  • hedora 1y ago
    The air is too big and clunky from me. Sent from my iPhone 13 mini, which is also Too Damn Big. I’m got above average size human hands, which are too small even for the mini.
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    • DanHulton 1y ago
      I, too, am still rocking the 13 mini, which they made good enough that nothing they've made since has made me wish to upgrade, though the fact that every phone since is Too Damn Big has made me happy I haven't yet. We've got about three years left before these things are unsupported. Three years of hope for them to release _something_ a little smaller than "uncomfortably large."
• 999900000999 1y ago
  Or course. Case in point, iPads don't have headphone jacks. While these devices are very capable of audio production, that's a joke while using Bluetooth. But that's not Apple's concern. Airpods sell billions of dollars worth every year. Every other phone manufacturer said ooh, cool and instead of getting pro level audio in my 1000$ Android phone I have to settle for Bluetooth which still hasn't caught up. Airpods, and there cheaper friends are , as the article mentions, e-waste. Maybe you get 2 years out of them. My analog headphones, with some light maintenance ( and a detachable cable) may last decades. At this point Apple could come out with a 2000$ Audiophile line of phones with the jack and I'd buy one. But they won't.
  • freetime2 1y ago
    Couldn’t you use a dongle?
    • ambrose2 1y ago
      Yea, I literally just bought an OEM dongle 20 minutes ago for this exact purpose.
  • etchalon 1y ago
    They make USB-C EarPods.
  • stalfosknight 1y ago
    I'm sure the USB-C port is more than sufficient.
  • raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    You can use any USB C device that supports the industry standard USB c audio profiles.
    • 999900000999 1y ago
      It's just annoying to have to carry a USB Dongle for something that should be built in.
• snowwrestler 1y ago
  > it’s a company that I feel has lost its alignment with me and other long-time Apple users and customers. When OS X debuted there was a daytime radio talk show in my area called “The Computer Guys.” They capably covered all sorts of computing topics, but were clearly long-time Apple dudes. And they spent weeks complaining about what a disaster OS X was. The Dock was useless and violated Apple’s HIG. The Finder made all the same mistakes as Windows did. And a text terminal? Like DOS?? Who the hell is ever going to want to use that on a Mac? Going even farther back, it was long-time dedicated Apple users who booed when Jobs announced the deal with Microsoft. Being a long-time dedicated Apple user is a shitty job. You don’t get paid, have no input, and are constantly disappointed. And Apple does not care about you. I strongly suggest people should throw this notion away. It does not matter how long you’ve bought from a big company, they owe you nothing. If the latest product seems good, buy it. If not, don’t. Any more emotional investment than that is going to cause pointless unhappiness. Save your customer loyalty energy for businesses where you can actually establish a connection, like a restaurant you like, or a local handyman.
  • ars 1y ago
    > And a text terminal? Like DOS?? Who the hell is ever going to want to use that on a Mac? Me. I have to use a Mac at work, and I use the text terminal more than anything else on the computer. It doesn't help that Mac's don't have a good UI, everything is hidden behind extra key-presses, and switching between windows is a PAIN. On a mac every window for an app is considered the same, so there's no concept of switching between windows (except with special hidden key presses). When a window is in the background it doesn't receive clicks, so you have to click on it twice. The menubar of a non-active window doesn't exist, so you need an extra click, first to activate the window, then to go find its menubar and do an action. It's just a bad UI.
    • dylan604 1y ago
      > When a window is in the background it doesn't receive clicks, so you have to click on it twice I get hit by this all the time. I have multiple monitors and I can scroll in a window without the window having focus. The scrolling leads you believe it has focus so when you hit cmd-w to close the window the window with actual focus closes instead.
• modzu 1y ago
  im glad you don't worship a corporation anymore bro
• c141charlie 1y ago
  The iPhone X had Apple’s best camera. Every version since has over processed its photos. Like an E30 BMW, I wish Apple would have never stopped making that device.
• Animats 1y ago
  To some extent Apple is now a "lifestyle brand", like Rolex. Rolex was originally a rugged, waterproof watch for people who needed such a watch. Pilots, divers, mariners, and military officers wore the things. Rolex had the accuracy of a marine chronometer in a small package. The Rolex Submariner was introduced in 1953 at $150. That would be $1,820 today. But the base price for a Rolex Submariner today, the same watch, is around $9,200, plus a few thousand dollars of "additional dealer profit". As the CEO of Rolex once said, "We are not in the watch business. We are in the luxury business." The people who need a rugged, accurate watch today get a G-Shock. That may be Apple's path - to fashion themselves as a niche luxury brand.
  • CamperBob2 1y ago
    See also: Porsche. Being a "lifestyle brand" works great, right up until it doesn't.
  • uni_baconcat 1y ago
    I don’t think Apple continues trying to be a “lifestyle brand” after their attempts with iPhone X, Apple Watch Edition. Apple products are not cheap but also not too far away from customers electronics.
  • tonyedgecombe 1y ago
    >That may be Apple's path - to fashion themselves as a niche luxury brand. You can't have a niche product when you have 55% market share (iPhone in US).
  • blitzar 1y ago
    I think the problem is deeper than that. Apple Employees are "lifestyle employees". They can't imagine why someone wouldn't just buy the $5,000 spec of a laptop if they want a modest quantity of storage or memory, and then get another one in a few months time when that one gets old. They are too rich, too comfortable and too out of touch with the common person - and in many cases what people actually use their products for. At the same time they try and squeeze every drop of money out of developers the can, Apple is owed for making their market available to others.
• dangus 1y ago
  I agree with a lot of what this author says but they’re so wrong about AirPods. The AirPods Pro 3 or really any of the recent AirPods are magical products. They’re the rare modern Apple product that Steve Jobs is smiling down upon. Not only are they great for music but they are absolutely killer conferencing and phone call earbuds. From early reviews it sounds like the Pro 3 has astounding microphone quality on top of the wide versatility and portability that the product already has. The e-waste stuff, honestly, is nonsense. Maybe they’re a waste of money to need to be replaced somewhat frequently, but when you throw out AirPods you’re throwing out mere grams of total material. A replaceable battery would barely help that impact, it would mostly save you money to not buy the product all over again. And if you’re like me spending hours a day in meetings, AirPods are downright cheap for the utility they provide. The average person is throwing out a pair of AirPods’ worth of fuel weight and carbon emissions every time they drive 10 minutes down the road or buy one hamburger with all that packaging from McDonald’s. Throwing out a pair of headphones smaller than a deck of cards every 4 years is basically nothing compared to typical consumer waste. Much lower hanging fruit to pick.
• victor22 1y ago
  They're worth trillions already, but the truth is Apple knows the market will collapse long before they lose their leadership, so they don't really give a fuck. Notice how their most important event ever has been mostly pre-recorded corporate slop for the same phone for the last maybe 10 years?
• beardedwizard 1y ago
  You lost me at "traditional horology"
• xyst 1y ago
  you would think a trillion dollar company would be able to innovate, but as it turns out. It really just goes into fancy marketing, C-level executive pockets, and shareholders. Got to think of the shareholders, bro! Disgusting.
• CharlieIsAHero 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • kelnos 1y ago
    It's bizarre to me that we've gotten so used to disposable things these days that we're conditioned to think of replaceable batteries as an odd feature. I remember when Powerbooks had batteries that were not just user-replaceable, but field-replaceable.
    • CharlieIsAHero 1y ago
      In headphones? I think it’s a bit dump. The form factor is more important. I would be happy for replaceable battery in MacBooks tho.
      • asdff 1y ago
        It used to be replaceable in the macbook without any tools. Then that was whittled down to requiring a phillips head, and eventually taken away entirely.
    • swiftcoder 1y ago
      The PowerBook G3 with dual hot-swappable battery/drive bays was peak fucking laptop design.
  • chubs 1y ago
    I largely agree with you. I used to work at Cochlear (hearing aid implants) - their "headphone" equivalents actually had neatly replaceable batteries 10 years ago, it's doable! Larger than airpods, to be sure, however i'm sure Apple could shrink them nicely. But... would anyone want the ability to replace batteries? I wouldn't know. I suspect most people misplace them before the batteries go bad.
    • asdff 1y ago
      Batteries go bad in like a year or two. They aren't so easy to lose as you'd assume since they go right into the case after you take them out of your ears due to the relatively short battery life.
• bradleyjg 1y ago
  Can we get text to speech better than twenty year old dragon naturally speaking please? People can tell when I’m texting by voice because it reads like I’m drunk. Siri is neither awe inspiring nor delightful.
• kelnos 1y ago
  > I found a lot of reactions to these products to be weirdly optimistic. Either I’m becoming more cynical with age and general tech fatigue, or certain people are easily impressed. I think it's both. There's a loud cadre of Apple fans who will always fawn over whatever comes out of Cupertino, no matter what. That group shifts its membership over time, but they're always there, and they're, well, always loud. Maybe some of us have been a part of that group in the past, or at least perhaps looking at things with less of a critical eye than we do now. But it's normal to shift your attitudes on things, and normal for those rose-colored glasses to fog up after a while.
• bowsamic 1y ago
  I find it weird how often these takes act like the AirPods are some kind of terrible failure rather than one of the most successful Apple products
• OhioMan2943 1y ago
  Despite living in an age of supposedly transformative brainstorming and creative technologies, we’re also paradoxically inhabiting in a time with less creativity and vision than ever.
  • amelius 1y ago
    I don't feel the "creative" and "individuality" vibes when I look at Apple products. They all look the same!
• jsemrau 1y ago
  I really liked the tactile keyboard on the BlackBerry. Would be nice to have an iPhone with a keyboard and a weeklong battery life.
• ripped_britches 1y ago
  You’ll have to come up with a better counter factual than “I would have sent a notification to all Apple customers to gain political support.” You would alienate so many customers by being political. Jobs’ Apple was not political except in narrow issues. It sold a product for everybody, not just one party. Cook leaned into the least political possible way to handle this very delicate situation: made in the USA is positive for everyone (in the US) without alienating any group directly. And if he really screwed the pooch and got worse tariff outcomes, I definitely think his job could be on the line. You know their stock lost $300b in value when tariffs were announced right? That was the entire market cap of Apple when jobs died. I agree it looks very pathetic, but honestly it’s a tough situation too
• pi-err 1y ago
  Clickbait built on 2 fantasy notions: 1- that Jobs would somehow be the hero of a mythical arab/syrian culture and diversity politics who would have behaved differently than Cook towards Trump. If anything, Jobs cherished the white working suburban middle class of the west coast that has been destroyed in the last generations. He _never_ behaved as a white knight and nobody knows what he would have done (and nobody knows how hard Cook's political equation is) 2- that Apple is due for perfect, idealized products that fill 100% of people's void. This guy explains that iPhones make too many compromise and the OS is just "good enough". Would be curious to hear of _one single_ previous or current OS platform or hardware at that scale that matches Apple's 2026 line up.
  • rsanheim 1y ago
    uhmm... wat? where was there any mention in the OP of Jobs about diversity or his Syrian background?
    • pi-err 1y ago
      That's one is first point: "don't buy anything Apple" based on the linked Anil Dash's post, itself based on Arab Steve Jobs fantasy and Cook's supposed betrayal.
  • Apocryphon 1y ago
    Jobs seemed mostly apolitical, but a joke could be that he would've bankrolled RFK Jr. to victory in 2024, while forcing him to stick to the moderate position where he was in 2008 when Obama considered making him head of the EPA.
• moooo99 1y ago
  I personally do not buy an iPhone, but this is more of an ideological choice than a technical one. Yes, the phones are boring, but aside from a few exceptions, all smartphones are. I am right now on a 4 year old iPhone and it served me well, but this is going to be my last iPhone for a while
• pjmlp 1y ago
  In the old days Apple were super expensive and hardly present in Iberian Penisula, Portugal only had Interlog in Lisbon, we saw adds on magazines, no one bought them. First time I actually managed to see some LC in person, I was already attending the university, and there were only used in two places, a single room on the computer lab building, and the administrative assistants on the IT department, no one else across the whole campus had them. I got to use and learn NeXTSTEP, because my thesis was to port a visualization software away from it into Windows, as my supervisor was the only owner of one, and they were getting rid of it, as NeXT wasn't having a great future on those years, already having pivoted to software only. So the turn around with OS X felt interesting, and kind of revigorating, given how close Apple and NeXT were to be gone. That Apple is long gone.
• ur-whale 1y ago
  > it’s a company that I feel has lost its alignment with me and other long-time Apple users and customers. I have been forced, for professional reasons, to use Apple laptops for close to 10 years of my professional career, about half of which was actually spent being a full time employee of Apple itself (and absolutely not by choice, M&A + golden handcuffs type situation). They never, ever, did care about their customers other than ensuring that all of their products had an inescapable vendor lock-in built-in (and that is both and insider view and that of someone who had no choice but to be a user because my next employer after Apple was an effing osx-only shop) They are most excellent at pretending that they care though, I'll give them that.
• d--b 1y ago
  Note that OP is in Spain, where the iPhones are quite more expensive than in the US, and where the wages are quite lower. iPhone 17 is $799 in US, but 950e in Spain (=$1130) ie 40% more expensive. average wage is 80k in US and 35k in Spain. So clearly it's not the same investment...
• aborsy 1y ago
  Why do people develop relationship with companies? :) These entities do what needs to be done to make money.
  • hu3 1y ago
    Psychology tries to answer this. To most, criticizing a company or product implies in criticizing their buying decision and by consequence, their intellect.
• xlii 1y ago
  Living in Poland I cannot agree more. Almost no features from last 2 years in available here. Not even Genmoji toys (because iPhone language has to be set to English). Siri still doesn't support Polish and it cannot even discern between Polish and English - it cannot read text messages at all, even though it's possible if done manually, still worthless in CarPlay/airpods. And come on, this is low hanging branch. Local models can do speech to text easily and most of the voice fronts can keep fluid conversation. Lately I've been considering Linux laptop for work (since I live in Emacs anyway and I still yearn for the trackpoint) and just skip over generations iPhone/iPad generations until I'm ready to migrate my family's photo library elsewhere. I can understand lack of novelty (outside of revolting, in my opinion, new look), but I'm really starting to feel like a completely neglected customer.
  • self_awareness 1y ago
    Talk is cheap. Action is what matters.
  • kroaton 1y ago
    Consider self hosting your family photos with Immich.
• frizlab 1y ago
  I’m gonna be honest, after having used Liquid Glass for the whole time of the beta, I like it a lot actually.
  • frizlab 1y ago
    I’m curious if the people downvoting me actually tried the damn thing or just downvoted because they read articles that explained why it’s bad…
• DeathArrow 1y ago
  >The more Apple talks and moves like other big tech companies I don't get the rant. Apple is just a random big tech company. It doesn't care about users more than any other company does and it optimizes for profit like most businesses do. It doesn't have anything magic, and I don't get why people get sentimental when they talk about Apple. Apple doesn't owe users more than they are required by laws and users don't owe Apple anything. It's a business relationship, not a romantic one. If you like the products and find them useful, buy them. If you don't, you have alternatives.
• 8fingerlouie 1y ago
  The rant feels more like "old man yelling at cloud" than an actual valid complaint. The "issue" is probably more like smartphones are yesterday's technology. They're no longer the shiny new toys they were a decade ago, and the amount of innovation you can realistically do with them, as a physical device, is more or less limited. That doesn't mean Apple isn't innovating, but most innovation right now is happening behind the scenes. New chips for connectivity. I remember a time before the H1 chip (AirPods). I remember keeping my phone in my left front pocket, and for some reason most wireless headphones at the time had the receiver in the right side, and I remember sound clipping every time I moved. Enter AirPods and the H1 chip, and I could suddenly leave my phone at my desk and go get coffee, and I would still have perfect sound. Before the H1 chip, having Class 1 bluetooth in a wireless headset was thought of as if not impossible, then at least impractical due to the power requirements, and then Apple proved everybody wrong. They're currently doing the same with chips for mobile and desktop usage, where their CPU power to Watt ratio continues to be the benchmark to beat. While things right now feels like a "standstill" I have no doubt we're in for an interesting ride in 3-5 years. All signs point to mobile and desktops converging, meaning in a relatively short time your phone could become your desktop also. Apple has been working on unifying apps across platforms, with iPadOS being the latest development. iPadOS 26 apps have menus, and window controls (traffic lights) like desktop apps, and yet can still run as legacy iPad apps, and most of them will also run on iPhones. The major hurdle to making a "single device for mobile/desktop" is not technology. We have the technology, and the A19 Pro processor has as much power as an Apple M2 chip, which is certainly no slouch. The major hurdle is that nobody wants to use "desktop apps" on their phone, and nobody wants to use "mobile apps" on their desktop. So, Apple may not innovate in a way that "you" like it, but it doesn't mean they're not innovating. As always, nobody is forcing anybody to buy products, so vote with your wallet. Apple is still a "for profit" company, and they will go where the money is.
• pqs 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • shiftyck 1y ago
    Thanks ChatGPT!
• resonious 1y ago
  I'm kind of an Apple outsider (I've used Mac a little bit, never owned or wanted an iPhone). Honestly, I think their new stuff looks pretty cool. I thought Liquid Glass looked cool. I thought the iPhone Air looked cool too. When I read articles like this, it's hard for me to get what the actual problem is. Apparently "the very introduction of the iPhone Air proves that Jobs’s words are falling on deaf ears on the hardware front ..". So I guess it's bad in some way? There's been months of criticism about Liquid Glass too it seems. I don't really follow any Apple-focused media, so I've never heard them at all (battery life concerns make sense, sure). Even the Brownlee quote seems to answer its own doubt about iPhone Air: "it is surrounded by other iPhones that are better than it in basically every way, other than being super thin and light". What is wrong with making a new class of phone that prioritizes thinness and lightness? To me, Apple is just as despicable as they've always been. Their "developer program" is as draconian as always. And lately is seems they're possibly more hypocritical than usual (e.g. super tight notification restrictions on app devs, then using notifications for their own marketing). Every time someone joins a Google Meet and can't talk, I know they're a Mac user because it seems they have to restart the entire browser (Chrome) to allow mic access. Anyway, per the above paragraph, I have plenty of complaints about Apple myself. But it seems my complaints and the author's complaints are completely non-overlapping, which I found a bit surprising. It seems there's some emotional thing going on with long-time Mac users. In general I kinda get it. Most great things seem to teeter off after awhile of greatness.
  • rramon 1y ago
    He makes the point that the thinness and lightness have no effect because it's not really pocket friendly because of the size, so you won't get the advantage where it matters most, in your pocket.
• Havoc 1y ago
  Phones in general just feel like theyve topped out. All the specs inch upwards sure but if I swop my 14 for a 17 there doesn’t really seem to be some big new feature/use case that would enable. Browse hn 40% harder?
  • thehyperflux 1y ago
    iPhone 14 to 17 is still a solid step up. +10 hours battery. 120hz display. 48mp cameras vs 12, way better front camera... and USB-C. But if this is too minor a bump for you then just hold onto the 14? One of the great things about these recent phones is how long they last if looked after. I'm getting 17 after skipping 6 generations with my XR and it's been great this whole time. Only really upgrading now due to crappy battery life and no longer getting the latest OS versions, which I need to run. And with 6 generations skipped the step up seems major.
    • Havoc 1y ago
      Looked at the monthly payments and seems I’m getting a 17 too after all. Gap between that and SIM only payments is small. Which feels suspiciously rigged in itself but ok whatever > skipping 6 generations Nice. Haven’t ever managed more than 5
• InMice 1y ago
  I read the article but feel I dont walk away with whats actually (supposed to be) wrong with ios 26 or tahoe, besides the apple watch has too many in your face features. As well -Steve jobs died almost 15 years ago now, yet everyone seems to know a reason why Apple has since disgraced what his vision was for Apple the next 15 years after he died? Like anyone really knows what Jobs would say today. - The new iphone iphone this year sucks it's not "revolutionary" this year. This complaint is standard every year. The only thing I agree with is the disappointment they won't make an macbook air smaller than 13"
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• fergie 1y ago
  > the dimensions of the iPhone 5/5S/SE make this iPhone more ‘Air’ than the iPhone Air. If you want a slightly more recent example, the iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini have the real lightness that could make sense in a phone. I strongly agree. Many tech people who I know personally strongly agree. I feel like St Steve Jobs would have strongly agreed. I really, really want a new iPhone with iPhone 5 dimensions.
  • argsnd 1y ago
    They made the mini phones and it turns out nobody bought them because the people who cry out for them are very loud but very few.
    • madeofpalk 1y ago
      I would guess that Apple sold more mini phones than other android manufacturers sold of their phones. Apple's problem is it's own success. Unless each product brings in sales rivalling the GDP of countries, it gets cut.
    • fergie 1y ago
      I had one. Loved it. So did many tech people who I know and respect. I believe that this is firmly within the design ethos of Jobs/Ive-era apple, and so it surprises me that they don't continue to offer this in order to keep their brand strong even if the grasping masses don't actually want it.
    • philipwhiuk 1y ago
      The actual problem is that the sort of people who buy them aren't the sort of people who upgrade every year.
      • rkomorn 1y ago
        Most people don't upgrade their non-Mini iPhones every year either. The average seems to be between 2 and 3 years.
    • bigstrat2003 1y ago
• madeofpalk 1y ago
  > As for the AirPods, and true wireless earbuds in general, I find this product category to be the most wasteful. Unless someone comes up with a type of earbuds that have easily replaceable batteries, I’m not interested in buying something that’s bound to become e‑waste in a relatively short period of time. Aren't the batteries the most wasteful, least recyclable/reusable part of the airpods? They're so small I can't imagine that still throwing the battery away and putting in a new one nets to much gain. I would guess that the old wired airbuds was responsible for more waste than airpods. So much more disposable and less durable.
  • jercik 1y ago
    I’ve had the same thoughts about this. I checked, and a MacBook Pro battery is about 30 times larger than the batteries in AirPods Pro. The environmental costs probably don’t scale perfectly with mass, but still, you’d need a lot of pairs of AirPods to leave the same mark as a single laptop.
• ofisboy 1y ago
  Honest question from someone with no hardware knowledge: How technically possible and commercially feasible would it be to make these huge lenses and camera components removable? For example, imagine if Apple made a phone with no built-in camera, where the camera is instead a separate magnetic component that you attach to the phone only when you want to use it.
  • exitb 1y ago
    These days the camera bar holds much more than just the camera-related components.
  • philipwhiuk 1y ago
    I mean just look at the repairable phones with hot-swappable components. It's massive and not very.
  • Theodores 1y ago
    You must be young! We have had modular phones already, and I wish I bought one for posterity. Time travel back to 2016 and get yourself an LG G5. There was also Google's 'Project Ara'. Whilst you are in your time machine, pick up one of Amazon's smartphones with a 3D display and stereo cameras (or did they have four?). It all made sense in theory, but we went the other way, to make it so that not even the battery could be swapped out. I am no Apple fan boy, however, my hunch is that they know their customers and that the iPhone Air is perfect for people that want to show how high status they are primarily by taking photos that are exclusively of themselves. Programmers in basements are not the customer for these gadgets. A particularly genius move of the new iPhones is the square image sensor, which is what you want if your life has to be documented on Instagram. Image, and status, is never about practicality, it is all about peacocking, and there is nothing wrong with taking money from those that want to peacock.
    • amelius 1y ago
      > there is nothing wrong with taking money from those that want to peacock. There _is_ something wrong with using that money to buy up supply chains and thereby undermining the viability of alternatives for more sensical people.
• basisword 1y ago
  I swear we get these articles every single year. I tried to read this but it lost me pretty quickly. Apparently the 'sob stories' where Apple Watch is shown to have literally saved peoples lives are just a 'marketing tactic'. And AirPods, arguable the most widely popular and innovative product in Apple's recent history is 'wasteful'. Given the popularity of the Watch and AirPods it seems like it's the author that has lost alignment with society and now Apple losing it's alignment with him.
• dev_l1x_be 1y ago
  The issue is that the barrier of entry for a new company taking Apple's space is too big.
  • NaomiLehman 1y ago
    Apple is the only company that controls both the hardware and the software. It's absolutely impossible to compete with them on UX for regular users. A completely new paradigm of computing would have to be created and popularized. You can't compare macOS with Windows or Linux. These are entirely different games they are playing. I'm a power user, I would say. I have a Windows workstation at home just because I need to use 2 apps for 3D printing that only exist on Windows. I have a Raspberry Pi 5 with 2 displays plugged in for monitoring my systems. I have a Ubuntu server at OVH. And 2 MacBooks that I use for everything else (running my business). My primary reason is that there are about 10 apps crucial to my business, and they do not exist on other platforms, such as Vellum for book publishing. Yes, there are alternatives on other platforms, but nothing comes close to the simplicity and speed of work we can achieve using that app. And this is, unfortunately, consistent among many niche apps.
• Simulacra 1y ago
  It's often said that Apple gives you features that you didn't know you wanted, but at the same time, Apple forces features on people who absolutely do not come did not, and did not ask for them. And there's nothing you can do about it. Why bother updating an Apple device if it's just going to make the experience worse. Apple may have decided that the user of yesterday is not their future market, focusing more on users coming of age now. They don't have to really care what older people think and how they use phones, because those people will eventually go away, and they need to be prepared for this future customer.
• self_awareness 1y ago
  Apple is not Apple since a long time. What you're using is NeXT. NeXTStep, NeXTSTATION, etc. Apple machines ended when Steve Jobs re-joined Apple. After he did that, he rebranded NeXT as Apple. Jobs took the policy, target audience, configurability, whole company culture from NeXT. If it wasn't for this, Apple would probably go bankrupt, so it's not like there was some other choice. It is what it is.
• fredsted 1y ago
  This blog post evokes feelings of deja vu. It's the same blog post every year by some guy with a pixel-perfect blog that's used macOS since the nineties. The author, like lots of people in this thread are really triggered by the headline "awe dropping", and sure, whatever, but what did you expect? If they launched a foldable phone, the blog post would be all about how foldable phones don't make sense or that another brand already did it. Then the author just skips over the new AirPods, a huge part of Apple's profits (but it's the products he "cares about the least", so nevermind, I guess) which are probably the best Apple has ever created with cutting edge improvements to sound and noise canceling, who cares about that, right? Then he whines about the Apple Watch doing too much. He just wants it to be a heart rate monitor. Turn everything else off, dammit! Too many features! Yeah, this is the guy complaining about the lack of awe. Then he goes on to say that it's tacky that Apple includes a segment about it saving lives (oh the horror). That's why I bought one for my parents! It's a primary use case for many. Why wouldn't you advertise that? Because sans-serif font blog guy says it's tacky? No, I'd say that's awesome – technology is saving the lives of my family. Then he goes on to having some difficulty understanding why people would want a thinner, lighter iPhone. Yes, and where's the damn serial port, am I right? Yes, sure, the Mini was great, but apparently people want the Air, but the blog guy doesn't so I guess Apple is doomed? Then there's some paragraphs about the declining software quality, and, yes, again, sure, while there's plenty of annoyances... have you tried using Windows? Android? If you like the Apple experience – and yes, it's its own thing, it's not for everyone – you'd be hard pressed to enjoy the alternatives in their current state. So, summing up: Apple lacks awe but there's too many features. I don't understand why they create new products, but they're not innovative. They're doomed because there's some bugs in the software.
  • kesor 1y ago
    AirPods being a "huge part of Apple's profits" because people keep losing them, and they keep breaking, so you always need to buy a new pair every several months. Hardly a product worth praising.
    • fredsted 1y ago
      > Hardly a product worth praising. I get that some people don't like using them for whatever reason, but this is just a completely insane thing to say. AirPods are a technology marvel, there's a reason why they're so popular.
• deleted 1y ago
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• mschuster91 1y ago
  > As for the AirPods, and true wireless earbuds in general, I find this product category to be the most wasteful. Unless someone comes up with a type of earbuds that have easily replaceable batteries, I’m not interested in buying something that’s bound to become e‑waste in a relatively short period of time. My AirPods Pro that I bought five years ago are still going strong, the only issue I have is that the right AirPod got some water ingress and now every time I insert it, I'm greeted with about 5 seconds worth of white noise.
• gigatexal 1y ago
  they're just a mature company doing mature company things ... still there's a lot of really strong inertia: the MacBook line of hardware is the best it's ever been the phones continue to improve year over year incrementally sure but they're solid -- I'm very keen to see what the rumored folding iphone gets us AirPods I can't live without idk -- macOS26's spotlight just stole a lot of good things from things like Alfred and other launchers -- it continues to become a more useful OS nothing I need to do for my day to day as a data engineer is hindered by being on a Mac -- linux and containers are useful and solved now (hello Colima) maybe I am just a lost fanboy but im very happy currently
  • whywhywhywhy 1y ago
    >the MacBook line of hardware is the best it's ever been Only after 5 years of the worst it's ever been, something triggered a complete change of course and it's easy to forget how utterly awful the butterfly era was. A lot of the rest of Apple feels like butterfly era thinking.
    • gigatexal 1y ago
      You can dwell on the past and be grumpy about it or you can enjoy the present and look happily towards the future. The latter is what I’m doing.
      • whywhywhywhy 1y ago
        Only got better because we complained about it so much. "How do you know its bad it isn't even out yet" is how things just get worse and worse
• eviks 1y ago
  All such criticisms would be much more defendable if the authors' view of the past weren't so rosy with a strong liquid blur of the Job's myth. > that are, once again, intuitive, discoverable, easy to use, and that both look and work well. Never was this the case! All these past OSes had a lot of the same fundamental flaws along all of those dimensions, from basic search ("discoverable/easy") fails in both iOS and macOS. Otherwise maybe it's indeed closer to > I’m becoming more cynical with age and general tech fatigue
• devinprater 1y ago
  At least they still drive towards accessibility, while Google wanders aimlessly in circles.
• diebeforei485 1y ago
  Apple still issues software updates for many years beyond the competition. I have a 9.7" iPad Pro from 2016 (mostly a youtube and music device now) and I received a security update today. That is dedication to long time customers. The products have matured. Comparing to last year's product makes no sense because most people don't buy new products every year A lot of people buying the 17 are coming from the 12 or earlier, and it is a significant upgrade.
• jwr 1y ago
  > Unless someone comes up with a type of earbuds that have easily replaceable batteries, I’m not interested in buying something that’s bound to become e‑waste in a relatively short period of time. Well, to be fair, my Airpods Pro show no noticeable signs of battery degradation after 3 years of use. If they get to 5 years, that will be longer than most headphones last, not because of batteries, but because of overall wear and abuse. I think the above is a knee-jerk reaction.
• Aeolun 1y ago
  Of course Apple has lost its alignment with you. It’s gained alignment with 2 billion customers around the world!
• tedggh 1y ago
  My big frustration with Apple particularly iOS is many of the most annoying UI design issues seem trivial to fix. It’s like anyone here with good taste and some experience leading teams could step into the product owner role for iOS at Apple and get them fixed in a couple of weeks. Siri may take longer but doesn’t look like it would be too difficult to fix either. Most of the issues are not constrained by anything but poor taste and dumb design. Give me a copy/paste functionality that works. How can this be so hard to do? When I go for a run and listen to a podcast, if I accidentally close the podcast view why do I enter the podcast app? And why do I need to go back to my apps, find my workout app, open it just to find again my podcast view then I need to swipe to go back to my workout view. Uh, huh?
• segfaultex 1y ago
  I don't understand how one would come to the conclusion that this is new behavior from Apple. The first MacBook Airs were wildly impractical and expensive. The first iPad suffered from the same issues. Various iterations of the iPod nano were functionally kneecapped. I see a lot of cherrypicking and not a lot of reasoning in this essay.
  • eloisant 1y ago
    Still, there was value in having a laptop much thinner and lighter than what existed before. But a phone even thinner that what we already have? It's completely pointless.
    • Shank 1y ago
      > But a phone even thinner that what we already have? It's completely pointless. I'm sure people said this about the Macbook Air. I personally find value in having a less obtrusive object in my pockets and I look forward to the iPhone Air. I checked my own personal stats and I rarely use the other pro lenses on the camera system, and the battery life is the same as my existing pro. For me, there's nothing exciting to upgrade for except for having a better in-hand feel, which the Air offers.
• amelius 1y ago
  Turns out that the RDF was really more an enshittification deodorant.
• prawn 1y ago
  This reminded me of a friend's Apple reaction in recent years, which went from fawning in decades past to more resentful and bitter. And I know nothing about this author's position and attitude, but my half-bakery guess at the friend's change follows: It was that they had gone from feeling like they were the professional catered for at the top of the Apple consumer offering (MacBook Pro, a nice phone, the big iPad) to being unable to justify the iPhone upgrade cycle, the Pro/Max line, or the top laptop or the best of the iPads. I supposed that going from a special segment of the cool gang to somewhere in the middle of the pack just didn't feel special.
• liampulles 1y ago
  If you find yourself concerned about whether a company aligns with the philosophy of a previous CEO, while not being an employee or investor of that company, then you might not realize the extent to which your mind has already been captured by their marketing efforts. You don't need to care about Apple's (or Google's, or Samsung's) "philosophy" about literally anything.
  • AdrianB1 1y ago
    This makes sense if the previous CEO is a regular "Joe the CEO". If that previous CEO had a very rare talent of designing or building great products, losing it is a concern.
• fridder 1y ago
  I wonder if some of this is a consequence of Apple executives having to spend time navigating the tariff and supply-chain waters thus distracting them from actual innovation.
• ungreased0675 1y ago
  What I'd really like from Apple is another iPhone mini. It could even be a bit thicker for TWO DAY battery life.
• nottorp 1y ago
  The thing is, Apple only has to be better than the competition. So they can shit on their 38 years of UI guidelines because what are the alternatives? At least so far. I'm sure they can iOS ify Mac OS enough to piss off developers completely if they try.
• threesmegiste 1y ago
  Liquid design is for Apple vision. That doesn't mean it's a logical choice.
• zschuessler 1y ago
  If anyone feels this way and wants to try an alpha I have 1,000+ hours in.. I've implemented a Windows 10-like UI for MacOS. Similar to uBar (ubarapp.com). The key distinction is it's built to be extended with third-party plugins (think Obsidian). I stopped using uBar because it had features I needed, but it's not actively adding features anymore last I checked. And of course, this will be fully open source. This solves a lot of problems I have feeling productive in any not-MATE UI. More here: https://progress.compose.sh/about https://progress.compose.sh/about It's in active alpha development but has all the core features you'd expect: taskbar works great, but only a basic system tray and start menu. And it'd be very much an alpha that needs feedback :-)
• everdrive 1y ago
  We're in a state of decline in a number of areas. I agree with you with regard to macOS, but Windows has degraded far worse than even the most cynical among us would have guessed just 5-10 years ago. Linux is great in my opinion, but there's no reason to think it's immune. What happens if corporate interests get even more invested in Linux? Just look at Android. Or, when Linus Torvalds passes, will there be good stewardship? Will the government require ID verification that simply won't run in Linux? The modern computing situation is quite fragile, and many options are receding on a yearly basis.
• deleted 1y ago
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• chupchap 1y ago
  The OS might be getting worse, but I can't think of a laptop that holds up to Macbook Air at ita price point.
  • ProllyInfamous 1y ago
    Until my 15" MBAir purchase last year, it had been seventeen years since I'd purchased a laptop (edit: M2Pro Mini was first new computer in fifteen years). CostCo had a $850 deal for an M3 Air, and as soon as I picked it up the sales clerk was printing my purchase ticket. It is so light, and the feet actually seem like they'll last a few years (unlike the solid-body designs since 2009). Keyboard is fantastic. Battery life is unreal. Screen is beautiful. I have been a full-time Macintosh user since 1991 (I remember fully 68k->PPC->x86->Silicon), and only recently set up my first Linux machine (because the modern OEM OS's are increasingly too invasive with AI'ification), a re-purposed MacPro5,1 #4evr
• t1234s 1y ago
  I think Apple is going the wrong way by not allowing you to easily remove all of the bloatware iOS apps from newer versions of macOS. They could easily use their App Store to redistribute these apps if pro users want to install them later on. With each new macOS version my Applications folder gets more and more junk from apple that I don't ever need to use. Would this make me go back to windows? Hell No Needing to use Adobe CS keeps me from switching to Linux. Makes me wonder if MS or Apple is paying Adobe to keep them from releasing a Linux version of CS.
• realaaa 1y ago
  what is Apple's motto these days? I am not sure actually it is hard for them of course, Steve is gone, but machine is whirring and wants to eat every day not very inspiring that's for sure
• op00to 1y ago
  > Personally, I’m too into traditional horology ... ok. I can stop reading.
• amelius 1y ago
  Apple lost me probably right around when Woz left.
• djmashko2 1y ago
  Having seen a lot of negativity around it, just want to say that the iPhone Air is the most exciting iPhone to me in a while -- I've been waiting for a big but still light option, but with the top-of-the-line CPU and a decent camera, for a long time. Will be curious to see how it pans out in the market, but I imagine I'm not the only one.
• browningstreet 1y ago
  During every OS, design, logo, website update.. there are the common complaints. The new is worse than what came before. When the thing that came before was launched, it was worse than what preceded it, but is now the thing the complainer can't live without. I usually try and sit out those initial waves of time where all the emotioning happens.. but I have to admit, I'm pretty unhappy with Liquid Glass. Too many "daily use" features are now hidden beyond secondary UI elements (iOS Safari tabs). I don't really care that watch faces are now hidden beyond a link in the Watch iOS app, because I only use them occasionally. But I use Safari tabs all day long. Same thing when they got rid of the swipe for watch faces. There was enough of an outcry that they returned it as an option. Apple isn't following their own HIG. They seem to have relied on telemetry that tells them a lot of users don't use browser tabs so they decided they can make it an additional tap away. My Ubuntu Gnome machine has a more consistent, simple, and pleasing interface than my updated Macbook Pro (though why does Linux still have copy-and-paste issues in 2025..? I'm losing focus here..) Makes me consider dumping my Apple Watch for Coros, dumping me Windows desktop for Linux, and dumping my iPhone for a Pixel (well, not really, I can't warm up to the Android issues). I don't know what laptop hardware I'd switch to, though. I don't really want to have one company disappointing me across my major platforms again and again. They're sinking the platform advantage -- they need new software leadersip.
  • montagg 1y ago
    In Safari settings (Settings > Apps > Safari) there’s an option to use “bottom” vs “compact”, which brings back the tab button. Much better interface tradeoffs.
    • browningstreet 1y ago
      Hmmm, yes indeed. And thank you. It does take up two lines, where in iOS 18 it accomplished that feat in one line. At least it reduces when you scroll down. I can live with that. The other behavior I really can't stand is the search icon behavior in Apple Music. You click on it and it swipes into a search bar that you can't use, then swipes up on top of the keyboard. It's very jarring.
  • 1y ago
• cutthegrass2 1y ago
  First time i've had to enable "reduce transparency" on iOS. I have near perfect vision, btw.
  • kps 1y ago
    I have astigmatic halation¹ so my phone is set to ‘light mode’. Despite this I'm seeing iOS use white on black or grey in multiple places, notably including notifications. (And in one case, white on very light gray.) ¹ similar to https://jessicaotis.com/academia/never-use-white-text-on-a-black-background-astygmatism-and-conference-slides/ https://jessicaotis.com/academia/never-use-white-text-on-a-b...
• graemep 1y ago
  > The more Apple talks and moves like other big tech companies, the less special it gets; the less special and distinctive it gets Special and distinctive to whom? Apple is a mass market consumer brand. They are half of the mobile phone duopoly. Most consumers buy "oh shiny", they buy status symbols. They do not read HN. They do not think about UI. They do not really care about technological or design innovation. They stick with brands (especially in technology) rather than compare alternatives when they make a new purchase. Apple is well aligned with them, that is why Apple is successful
• thehyperflux 1y ago
  I think the author's real issue is that times have changed and that the type of groundbreaking behaviour he expects from Apple is no longer possible/practical in the era of evolved technology and mass-adoption.
• markmoscov 1y ago
  [dead]
• amai 1y ago
  Apple is the worst IT company, except for all the others.
• _1tem 1y ago
  Also a longtime customer. I think Apple nailed it with this update. I love Liquid Glass, and not just because it’s sexier, it actually works better. The in-place context menus are far better mobile UX. Previously these were dropdown menus inherited from desktop environments which didn’t translate well to small screens (lots of fat fingering potential). The best part of the update was EMTE or the memory security feature. That’s exactly the kind of deep hardware and software integration with privacy protection that I expect from Apple alone.
  • skylurk 1y ago
    I agree about the layout, not sure about the skin. First thing I did was "Reduce Transparency" in Accessibility settings.
• deleted 1y ago
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• jajuuka 1y ago
  This article is dripping with Steve Jobs worship. Way too many long term Apple users have this attitude that Jobs was perfect and always right. He wasn't. He made a lot of bad decisions through his entire time at Apple. The man has been dead since 2011. His influence and the world has changed. However people like this author want to view the world through the Steve Jobs lens. It's okay not to like something. To go "hey, I don't think this is useful or good." But the chicken little attitude of "Apple has lost its way" or "Apple has abandoned its long term customers" grabs headlines and will be forgotten in 3-4 months when most people either embrace the current market or reject it and go somewhere else.
• blindriver 1y ago
  iPhone Air is just one side of the iPhone Fold. The people who bought the Air this year will feel really dumb when the Fold comes out next year.
• ben7799 1y ago
  The writer seems to be one of the older crowd that made being a Mac user a huge part of their identity in the 80s and 90s. In the 80s that was tied in with the Mac being a pretty superior computer only accessible to the wealthy. In the 90s the Mac became a bit of a disaster as the decade went on and these guy stayed in utter and complete denial about it. Then when OSX (-> Mac OS) started becoming really great in the 2000s I think they complained about stuff changing but then felt recognized when developers started flocking over to the Mac. But then you've got all these average people jumping on buying iPhones and iPads and Watches and AirPods and now they don't feel special. It is pretty hard for me to get worked up about it. Some of the glory days were nowhere near as great as they remember, it's just they were a special club back in the day and now they're not really. The rest of us will just keep getting our jobs done using Macs. One other aspect is a lot of these people were not particularly technical and as such were pretty inflexible in their thinking. They often seem to have built up extremely rigid and complicated ways of wanting to organize everything on their system because they are the kind of people who are used to following an exact set of steps to do everything on the computer, and they perhaps learned that at great pain. So they become extremely sensitive to UI changes as they perceive any change they have to get used to as wrecking their perfectly tuned productivity. As an example they get super upset about the finder. They seem to have frequently built up some really complicated way of using the finder and then will get really upset, whereas an even more technical user will just go update their script/macros/whatever in 5 minutes if something changes and not get up particularly bent out of shape. The guy (and I've only ever met guys in this camp) who gets upset is probably not building a script that would have saved 100x more time over the years.
• paxys 1y ago
  > The more Apple talks and moves like other big tech companies [...] My brother Apple is a $3.5 trillion dollar company, and has been in this league for multiple decades now. I don't know why so many communities of people online have convinced themselves to buy into them like they are a scrappy group of hackers/tinkerers fighting "the man" or even some religious movement. Apple's target audience is rich people buying the latest iPhones and Macs every year.
• kasuu 1y ago
  > it’s a company that I feel has lost its alignment with me and other long-time Apple users and customers. When OS X debuted there was a daytime radio talk show in my area called “The Computer Guys.” They capably covered all sorts of computing topics, but were clearly long-time Apple dudes. And they spent weeks complaining about what a disaster OS X was. The Dock was useless and violated Apple’s HIG. The Finder made all the same mistakes as Windows did. And a text terminal? Like DOS?? Who the hell is ever going to want to use that on a Mac? Going even farther back, it was long-time dedicated Apple users who booed when Jobs announced the deal with Microsoft. Being a long-time dedicated Apple user is a shitty job. You don’t get paid, have no input, and are constantly disappointed. And Apple does not care about you. I strongly suggest people should throw this notion away. It does not matter how long you’ve bought from a big company, they owe you nothing. If the latest product seems good, buy it. If not, don’t. Any more emotional investment than that is going to cause pointless unhappiness. Save your customer loyalty energy for businesses where you can actually establish a connection, like a restaurant you like, or a local handyman.
• Kon5ole 1y ago
  I honestly think Apple was interesting because of Steve Jobs. Whatever you think of him he was clearly an strong leader who was able to make a bunch of otherwise unruly geniuses cooperate towards a common goal. He also overruled any other ego in the hierarchy so the goals that were worked on actually shipped. This is rare, and made Apple different from other corporations, for a while. Without a person like that at the top, corporations are money-making machines that will gravitate towards bland and predictable. Egos will battle for resources for no purpose other than being the boss of the most resources, geniuses will be increasingly bored and disillusioned and whatever special sauce there was will go stale. Corporations can exist in that state for a long time and sometimes still make nice products of course.
• Terretta 1y ago
  As of 17 hours after post, 510 comments, there are no top level comments about the "root cause" he blames, Apple's "integration" decreasing: “This widening gap between their hardware and software … is going to be really damaging if the course isn’t corrected. The tight integration between hardware and software has always been what made Apple platforms stand out.” This alignment with the user, offering a well integrated experience as "the product", is the very thing Apple's competitors are funding lobbyists to get regulator help to tear down, and Apple is indeed having to make compromises to accommodate. Living in Spain, the author should write to EU governance if the author cares about this.
  • thor-rodrigues 1y ago
    This is not the point of the author. The author is criticising the new redesign of the latest iOS/MacOS/WatchOS 26, as being of poor choice with an over focus on form in detriment of function. Also, to which aspects are you referencing exactly, that “Apple’s competitors are funding lobbyists to get regulator help to tear down”?
• deleted 1y ago
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• 1970-01-01 1y ago
  Steven Jobs was an absolute beast at devouring consumers and generating (flooding) the company with cashflow via yet another handheld device. With Steve at the wheel, that flood of cashflow was able to directly fuel the next device R&D with very few market misses. Welcome to the end of that long road. Tim has nothing on the horizon that comes close to the lighting-in-a-bottle, handheld revolution that Steve started with the iPod. What you are finally witnessing is the common thread in Apple's 'alignment' over a very long time is simply APPL.
• Vegenoid 1y ago
  I don't give a fuck about Apple not innovating right, or releasing the right lineup of product options, or not giving off the right vibes. I buy an Apple phone and computer because they work great for a long time, and because the computer is unix-like. My main computer and smartphone are both 6 years old and they are still fantastic. I don't expect to buy new ones for at least another 3 years, and it could honestly be longer. I'm free from having to know what's going on in laptops or smartphones and looking at products, because I have products that just work. As long as Apple keeps doing that, I'll keep choosing their hardware.