Month: September 2014

Apple and organizational change

There’s one thing about Apple that has been in the back of my mind since WWDC: Apple has done a fantastic job at organizational change in the last year or so. Every organization I’ve worked at has handled change poorly. Either people refuse to accept the change, or the leaders don’t change enough, or, sometimes they change too much.

It’s pretty much a given: Large organizations handle large changes poorly. Look at Blackberry and Microsoft. Both of these companies saw their markets were being disrupted, but still did a piss-poor job at reacting to it.

Apple, on the other hand, is a market leader and on the outside had little need to change how they did things. Yet they did, in some key ways.

Opening up the betas

Up until earlier this year, it was laughable that Apple would ever open up the OS X betas. Yet, starting with a dot release for Mavericks they opened up the betas. Even now, there is a public beta for their new OS, Yosemite. Hopefully, this will clear up some issues like the whole Gmail Mavericks issue.

That said, I don’t think Apple will open up the iOS betas. There are too many risks for key systems. Apple had enough problems with a small subset of users having problems with a failed 8.0.1 update. Imagine if a bad beta got out for an OS Apple isn’t actively supporting.

Opening up iOS

I don’t’ know if iOS 8 extensions and keyboards would have happened if Jobs and Forestall were still with Apple. Part of me can see it happening if Jobs were still alive (he did accept that sometimes Apple needed to change). If Forestall still stayed on after Jobs died, I doubt it.

At WWDC, it was announced that now 3rd party keyboards would be available for iOS, and now apps can talk to each other in a more logical manner without the need for some crazy workarounds.

Gizmodo is off the shit list

Gizmodo got an invite to the September 9 event. This is the same organization that got their hands on a stolen iPhone and told Jobs to shove it. I thought the odds were better I would get an invite to an Apple event before Gizmodo would. Lo and behold, both Gizmodo and Brian Lam got invites. Even with Jobs and Cotton gone, I thought someone at Apple would have a long enough memory to still stick it to them.

Final thoughts

I look at some of the changes other organizations have tried to make and seen how they have failed first hand. That so far, this hasn’t blown up in Apple’s face is remarkable. So far, a few bugs in iOS have given them egg on their face.

Egg is far easier to clean up than shit, though.

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Thoughts on the 6 Plus, a few days in

After the initial pre-order mess where I was promised delivery on the 19th, and then in the October 1-6 range, I picked up my white, 64 GB iPhone Plus on Thursday. Now that I’ve had a few days to play with it, here are some thoughts on it.

Size matters

Typically the first reaction when someone sees the phone is, “Damn, that’s a big phone.” Immediately followed by, “Does it bend?” The bend issue is certainly in the mainstream. I’m a 6’4 man with  decent hand size. While the Plus is large in my hand, it’s not unwieldy. I do have to use it with two hands, but that’s the point. It fits comfortably in my pants. I don’t think I’ll need to worry about needing to take it out and rest it on a table when I’m at a restauraunt. The extra screen real estate is nice. Once more apps support it, I’ll be loving it.

Battery

Originally, I set up the phone and restored from iCloud. Following Myke Hurley’s comments about starting from new and getting the most battery life, I reset it Friday night. I haven’t charged it yet and I’m at 60%. Now, this is the weekend and not normal usage by a long shot. My iPhone 5, however, would have needed a charge by now.

HealthKit

HealthKit is what I hoped it would be. Unfortunately, the reset killed all of the data I had been tracking, but, the step and stairs counter is working out fab. I don’t even have to have the device in my pocket. It it’s in my bag, it’ll still track it.

Other stuff

At some point I am going to get a case. I’m leaning towards the Apple Leather Case, in Red. I want one that gives it a little bit more stick so it doesn’t fly off the table or my car mount. The car mount is something I’m trying to figure out. It fits ok, but I have a claw-style mount with no bottom and it’s a bit slidey in there. I have some shelf paper to help grab it. Once more apps use landscape mode, I might just throw it in there landscape and see how it does.

I’m glad I got it. What I’m hoping to do is use little found moments to either write or do a little reading while I’m away from my iPad. After looking at a coworkers 6 Normal, I knew the smaller device wouldn’t fit my hands.