Welcome to our weekend Apple Breakfast column , which includes all of the Apple news you missed this hebdomad in a ready to hand bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it go great with a morning time cup of coffee tree or tea , but it ’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
Testing the limits of loyalty
For a tech diary keeper , there is a pathological fascination with the tedious - motion car clash currently shoot piazza at Twitter HQ . The incoming possessor is discovering to his toll that loyalty , from both employee and users , takes a foresightful time to earn and a very short time to lose .
One would guess that billionaires are at a disadvantage when it get to dig the nature and limitation of trueness , pass on how rarely they need to call up a teammate and ask for bond money or a rise to the airdrome at short notice . But the truth is that allegiance is both weirdly lively and alarmingly delicate . Like so many things , loyalty runs out step by step , then very suddenly .
Apple is just probable to nosedive as badly as Twitter , not least because it ’s run by an all told less erratic leading team . ( It ’s hard to imagine Tim Cook tanking the stock price because he could n’t resist posting a unhinged meme . ) But I do hope someone at Cupertino is pay care to Twitter , because Apple is taking similar risks with its users ’ allegiance , and stands to lose far more .
Apple depend on steal - in from client far more than any of its close challenger . While other company build their business models around advertising and data solicitation , or on sell ironware with the best specs or the humbled prices , Apple sharpen on the experience . Its products are very popular and often excellent , but more importantly , you ’re buying a modus vivendi too .
That might sound cynical , but I do n’t mean it to be . The occasionally cult - like tendency exhibited by Apple and its fans can rankle at times , but that unusually user - rivet business model — which depend above all on win over customers that Apple is cool and honourable and you ’re coolheaded and honorable for buy its Cartesian product — incentivizes behavior you would n’t bear from other companies . Likerefusing to unlockan allege terrorist ’s iPhone , orlobbying against billstargeting gay and transgender multitude , or ( kind of , and slowly ) pivot away from fabricate its intersection in China , where there have been numerous allegations of worker mistreatment andforced childbed .
Cook once say mood change sceptic to sell their shares in Apple , and magnificently narrate an investor , “ When we work on draw our twist approachable by the blind , I do n’t consider the fucking return on invested capital . ” I do n’t entail to suggest that he did these thing cynically in orderliness to curry party favour with prospective customers , but merely that the “ convince everyone we ’re cool ” job fashion model Apple operates means it can afford to utilize a chief executive officer with a strong ethical compass .
Taking the user for granted
The problem with depending on user good will , however , is that it can be capricious , and is easily taken for granted . And I worry that Apple is taking it for granted right now . Indeed one senses that over the preceding few years , Apple ’s leading has start to marvel if more money could be made if the companydidn’tprioritize user welfare all of the time , and user are starting to notice .
Take Mary Leontyne Price , for example . Apple has always been known for high prices , but in the past , the ware broadly vindicate this ; they were expensive , but they were reasonably good value . And the company generally did its best to offer at least one lower - priced option in each family . But this twelvemonth Apple has been dropping some budget exemplar and removing feature from others in ordering to drive customers towards the expensive option . The budget 9th - gen iPad was superseded by the higher - price 10th - gen model and did n’t even get the traditional Leontyne Price cut on its first birthday . The same goes for the MacBook Air . And the less say about Apple’soverseas Mary Leontyne Price rebel , the better .
This is the sort of behavior you ’d look from a troupe that urgently needed more money and compute that its customers were in no posture to say no . ( In other words , a business concern selling an inelastic product , as Stringer Bellwould explain . ) permit ’s put up the terms , somebody must have say . What are they go to do , notbuy an iPad ? Maybe Apple is currently finding out the resolution to that doubt .
A more serious problem come , however , when a company neglect panorama of the user experience it has specifically point to as a reason to buy its merchandise . Apple has positioned itself asthepro - privacy company for years , and thanks to its business model was in the perfect position to deliver on that . But now itfaces a lawsuitover “ privacy concerns ” on the App Store , where user data has allegedly been collected by the company in defiance of privacy configurations .
And that brings us to the increasing preponderance ofadverts on the App Store , which is a huge ruby flag when it comes to Apple ’s priorities . Which does it care more about : helping the drug user or making money from advertisers ? You ’ve got your answer .
Quitting Apple
It would be somewhat intelligible if Apple ’s leadership thought they could n’t put a substructure wrong . The company has just posted yet anotherrecord - breaking financial report : the client are n’t going anywhere , veracious ? Maybe not . But it ’s best not to take that for granted .
For years Twitter ’s user complained about pretty much every scene of the web site while continuing to utilise it , joking about their addiction to the “ Hellsite . ” Presumably , Mr. Musk simulate he could raise the price , exchange a bunch of feature , in the main diss everyone , and they ’d stick around – and maybe it ’ll work out that he was right . But as I write , huge numbers of regular Twitter users are making their leave-taking and posting links to other societal networks in preparation for a mass exodus .
Like Twitter , Apple ’s fans are a patriotic crowd , but they ’re noticing the changes . And all of a sudden they might decide not to be so fast anymore .
IDG
Apple has foretell itsBlack Friday shopping eventfor 2022 – and it ’s somehowworse than last year .
The problem is that wedon’t take gift cards , we needactual price cuts .
Why does Applehate the Mac miniskirt , wonders Roman Loyola .
Android ’s next - genSnapdragon 8 Gen 2chipcan’t compete with Apple ’s A16 … or even the A15 .
The unreleasedApple Magic Chargerhas appear on-line . Butwhy was it canceled ?
Apple just dodged aMeta Watchbullet . The Apple Watch wasthisclose to beingdoomed to failure .
Applefaces a lawsuitover‘pervasive and unlawful’iPhone trailing .
ForgetMeta Quest , Apple want to makeits own ‘ metaverse’a reality
We explore thestrange limitationsof theUSB - C to Apple Pencil Adapter .
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The rumor mill
Reports evoke Apple will release aniPhone 15 Ultranext class , complete withexclusive young featuresand a higher price tag .
The humbleiPhone 15 , meanwhile , is likely to have a USB - one C port wine that’sas dull as Lightning .
The year2022 is almost over , and it count increasingly like Apple will missthese launching deadlines .
Apple is reportedly developingits own search enginetotake on Google .
Podcast of the week
Black Friday is coming , and in this instalment of the Macworld Podcast , we ’ll talk about how to get the practiced deals on Apple products , how to forefend getting ripped off , and what you need to look out for so you could have thebest gift - devote season .
you’re able to get every sequence of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own internet site .
Software updates, bugs & problems
This week a bug impress the128 GB Apple TV 4Kmeant you could only usehalf the storage . But Apple quicklyrolled out a while .
Rapid Security Responsesare being tested as part of Io 16.2 andcould make it next calendar month .
