Is Apple Evil?

Mac Long — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 11:16:09 +0000

Is Apple Evil?
I have experienced a lot of hate towards Apple online recently due to some recent ongoings with Apple and the EU. I understand some of those complaints are valid, is it really fair to chastise Apple for less than fair business practices when every company is doing the same thing.

At least the product Apple provide is damn good at what it does.

Obviously, Apple has a profit maximisation strategy, you don't get to be the first company to reach a trillion dollar value without a profit maximisation strategy.

I firmly believe they do this so they have the means to fund research and improvements to their current products. Due to having a large amount of revenue sitting in their back pocket, they are able to perform experiments such as the M-series chips. These experimental chips would be a huge risk to most companies. To Apple, this is a "Nah, we've been researching and fine-tuning this chip for years now, we know it's damn well ready".

I am also a firm believer of the future containing a significant downsize in the amount of peripherals we use. I personally use just a MacBook with a Tiling Window Manager, and that is more than enough screen real estate for a full stack developer. Plus, the screens are beautiful to look at.

I think it's impossible for any one body (human or corporation) to be truly benevolent or the malevolent. However, I think Apple understands that to remain on top of the market, they need to play capitalism effectively.

By remaining on top of the market, they are able to further what is possible in technology due to having the know-how, the funds, and the support.

They display a lack of malevolence due to the fact they aren't making inferior products. An evil company would be selling you the cheapest thing possible for the most amount of money, at the cost of the planet and it's inhabitants. As you can tell from the quality of Apple products, this really isn't the case.

Initial Reaction to Apple Vision Pro

Mac Long — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 14:18:28 +0000

Mild essay incoming. TLDR: Cool, Scary, Great Potential and Long Distance Relationships just got a whole lot comfier.

When I heard Apple were making augmented reality the first time I was hoping for a refined Google Glass.

Something that augmented normal vision with my notifications, todo list (like a video game mission list), arrows on the floor in front of me telling me which way to go and the track I'm listening to those kind of basic things.

The Vision Pro is interesting within the first few minutes I can see it being applied to sports, picture taking 50 free kicks with the ghosts/shadows of the shots being displayed so you can see on average where you are shooting, how frequently you apply too much top spin etc. This could be applied to a number of sports however I'm sure it would be a lot of fun to create something that could truly improve the way athletes learn and practice.

You could create onboarding for teams working with new equipment with directions and top tips built into the user interface directly in front of the learners eyes (I think this might have been what Google Glass actually ended up being used for in Warehouses and things, so that pickers could drop off goods in the right locations).

The classic VR desk setup, seems to have had huge clean up and overhaul. Almost seems usable now.

The Apple Pencil would be a wonderfully awesome accessory for this technology, imagine pulling up Pixelmator Pro and painting directly on the table in front of you, or manoeuvring the UI your building with the Pencil rather than a trackpad.

The eyesight feature definitely screams dystopian future where everyones heads are strapped into a VR headset from birth and the only time you can see people is through the lenses of your fancy eye screens.

The 100ft wide screen feature would make for some amazing sci-fi video games, you could captain a space ship like Picard in Star Trek, with the full ship diagnostics, a navigation ui, ship controls and all of your crew members stats and what they are up to, with the planet you are orbiting while awaiting permission to land encompassing the background. A true sci-fi strategy experience with as much realistic detail and cinematic space views as possible.

It also has the major plus of looking way comfier than every other VR solution on the market.

DEV Community: Mac Long

Is Apple Evil?

Initial Reaction to Apple Vision Pro