Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
Apple charts a bold new course for Mac OS, office apps
Apri 1, 2021
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, announced a new direction for the MacOS and the Mac-based office apps that are provided with the Macintosh operating system (Pages, Numbers, Keynote).
"We have realized that providing high quality software with carefully tested user interfaces is not returning enough value to shareholders. We took a long careful look at our software development process and realized we are spending entirely too much time and money on producing a quality product."
"When we looked around, we realized that Bill Gates became a multi-billionaire by simply having Microsoft shovel out poorly designed, half finished software to users, and letting them find all the bugs, mistakes, and errors in the code."
"It really gave us pause, and we realized the brilliance of the Microsoft strategy--instead of spending time and money on internal software design and quality assurance teams, outsource a huge chunk of that effort to our loyal and unsuspecting customers."
Cook went on to indicate that in fact, Apple has been pursuing this approach for some time, but that it has been so successful that the company is now making a public announcement. Cook noted that the company's most recent OS release, Big Sur, has incorporated many of the ideas that have emerged from the company's new approach to software development.
"With Big Sur, we decided that our thoughtful use of color and other visual interface features could be removed. The Big Sur interface is so much more like something from Microsoft: a bland grey color imposed on everything so that it is really hard to identify individual items that a user might want to click on. We stopped using interface design elements like drop shadows because those make it easier to find icons and interface elements. Everything is now just one amorphous gray blob. And we hid lots of stuff that used to be easy to find, because nothing spells frustrating like hidden interface elements. Now customers have to spend lots of time just mousing around their screens, hoping hidden interface elements magically appear."
Cook also noted that they have applied the new philosophy to the Mac office apps that compete with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. "Over the past several years, we decided we could make more money by simply removing handy features and interface elements from Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. It saves us a lot of money not to have support useful software. And we have stopped trying to fix bugs, which also saves a lot of money. For example, users have complained for years that in Pages, tables and images randomly jump around from page to page for no good reason. We have not bothered to fix that problem because we re-assigned all our experienced software engineers to other project years ago. Now we just get some job shop in Bangalore to do maintenance. It saves tons of money."
Cook, when questioned about customer loyalty and the possibility of declining sales, had an answer for that as well. "Look, our apps and OS are still waaaay better than Windows and Microsoft Office. As long as Pages is slightly better than Word, we will be fine."
When Cook was questioned about the billions and billions of dollars of cash that Apple has stashed away and why a tiny fraction of that could not be used to produce better software, the Apple CEO had an answer for that as well. "Our job is keep the stock price high and the dividends low, and sitting on a literal mountain of cash is the way we do that." Cook ended the interview on an upbeat note about the Macintosh platform. "Sure, we admit it, we don't really care that much about the Mac platform, but let's get real, when we can get people to pay two hundred dollars for ear buds that cost twelve dollars and forty cents to make in a Chinese gulag factory, why waste time on Mac software?"
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Who needs a Gig?
The incumbent telephone and cable companies must be really scared of competition from new fiber networks, because they are still peddling the old, tired "Who needs a Gig?" baloney to elected officials and regulators.
It is really a red herring argument, for two reasons:
If you are building a modern fiber network, Gig service as the standard or base offering is the cheapest way to go. I'm not even sure you could buy slower gear, like 100 Meg equipment, because I have not bothered to look in many years. The way the question is framed, it pre-supposes that there is a less expensive alternative out there. But again, Gig fiber equipment is the least expensive way to go.
Second, the only other reason to float this question is because you can't compete with symmetric Gig/Gig networks, so you try to argue that "nobody needs it." The idea they are trying to plant is that their ancient, wheezing copper networks, much slower and highly asymmetric, are just fine.
It would be laughable if they were not so successful in convincing decisionmakers that they are right and everyone else is wrong.
Fiber can be an economic development powerhouse
Chattanooga's city-owned fiber network (via the City electric utility) is now ten years old, and they have published some results. The Gigabit fiber network delivered, on average, $261 Million PER YEAR in new jobs, retained jobs, lower unemployment, and reduced electric outages. Read the whole article for all the benefits.
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A great discussion of LEO broadband and Starlink
The always thorough and analytical Steve Ross has a great discussion of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband and why Elon Musk's Starlink is not going to be a one size fits all replacement for fiber in rural areas.
Make no mistake about it: LEO/Starlink systems are a game changer for rural residents--for the better--but rural fiber is still going to be better and possibly less expensive over the long run.
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Mediacom "network stress"
Mediacom essentially has confirmed what I and many others have been saying for more than a decade, which is the cable HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) network is twentieth century technology that is not able to support the growing demand for bandwidth.
Stop the Cap! recently cited a Mediacom customer who got a letter and a phone call from Mediacom to complain that the customer was using too much bandwidth.
So you sell an Internet service. Customers like it, and use a lot of your service, and so you punish them.
That's quite a business model.
That's why WideOpen Networks is designing and building networks based on future needs, not last century technology.
Does your community want a future-forward network? Give us a call (540-552-2150) and ask for Dave Sobotta.
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Is Starlink a game changer for rural areas?
Early reports from beta tests of Starlink, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Internet service are very promising, with excellent bandwidth and lower latency than the traditional Viasat and Hughesnet systems. Lower latency is important because it means that some voice and video services like Skype and Zoom may be more usable. It could be a game changer for rural and remote rural areas of the U.S. There are many rural areas that it is going to take time to deploy fiber. In the meantime, Starlink could be a good bridge solution.
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Have Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube made a mistake?
The "big three" of social media--Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube--have become the targets of increasing criticism around the way they choose to allow some users to post "acceptable" content while censoring other types of content. The companies' defense is to claim the protection of Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. The statute provides a shield for Web sites and other Internet-based media to not have to be responsible for policing the content submitted by their users.
In essence, Section 230 says that Internet-based media sites may not be held responsible (i.e. subject to law suits) for content posted on their sites. In 1996, no one envisioned the rise and eventual near-monopoly of a few tech giants like Facebook and Twitter. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube simultaneously claim the protection of Section 230 while managing what content is available on their platforms, using the rubric of "enforcing 'community standards.'"
At this time, it is not at all clear if the Federal government and the FCC will make any changes to Section 230, but in the meantime, the free market is bringing competitors. Social media sites like MeWe, Parler, Gab, GabTV, and Bitchute are gaining users rapidly as people migrate to platforms that have a stronger commitment to free speech. If the competitors are successful, no legislation may be needed to reduce the influence of the tech oligopoly.
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Comcast is rolling out data caps
Stop the Cap points out that Comcast is rolling out data caps in many parts of the East Coast. If you want to keep your "unlimited" plan, you can pay an extra $30/month. Bandwidth is so cheap for a company the size of Comcast that the only reason for doing this is to hike profits.
What is driving this is the growth of heavy data users, and certainly Covid work from home users are part of that phenomenon. Ars Technica lays it all out.
I have been saying for years that the ISP business, in the four hundred year history of modern commerce, is the only business that punishes users for liking their product.
WideOpen is pioneering a different approach to broadband and Internet, one where we do not punish our customers for using our network. Give us a call (540-552-2150) or drop us a line (info at wideopennetworks dot us) if you want to learn more about how we are changing the industry.
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Alex, I'll take "Things I never knew I wanted" for $500
I would like to meet the person that convinced Google that there would be big demand for a phone app that lets you hum a song and have the Google InnerTubes tell you what the name and artist of the song is.
This strikes me as yet another example of bored Google software engineers without enough to do rolling out stuff that no one really wants. Does this really make anyone's life better?
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When coffee makers attack: Hacking the Internet of Things (IoT)
Alex, I'll take "Things I never thought I would write about" for $500. A network security researcher has successfully hacked a coffee machine and was able to take control of it, make it beep constantly, have it refuse to make coffee, and spill water all over.
Yes, you read that correctly. You can buy a coffee machine that connects to the Internet so that you can use an app on your phone to make coffee. Why, I have no idea, because you still have to put water and coffee in it to, you know, "make coffee."
I suppose there is some very weak argument for being able to stay in bed and turn the coffee maker on with your phone, but as I say, that's a weak argument, since most coffee makers that cost more than $10 have a timer so you can set it to turn on in the morning.
Aside from the pure insanity of putting a single board computer in a coffee machine, the lack of security controls that the researcher found is unfortunately typical of many Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The coffee machine connects to your home WiFi network and then to the Internet so it can get updates (don't get me started on why a coffee machine needs "updates).
This hack was done on an older coffee maker, and the manufacturer has indicated the security has been improved on the device. But as more and more people add IoT devices into their home and office networks, the potential for mischief, innocuous and serious, just increases.
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