Welcome to our weekend Apple Breakfast column, featuring all the Apple news you missed this week in a handy bite-sized summary. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes well with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning, but it’s cool if you want to read it over lunch or dinner too.
True Love Wait
In the 1980s, Steve Jobs famously said to the Macintosh development team, “Real artists ship,” an aphorism often taken as a paean to culture and an exhortation to get the product out the door no matter what. But it’s worth bearing in mind that he also told them, “Don’t compromise!” He wanted it done, and he also wanted it to be perfect. No wonder people found the man difficult to work with.
In reality, of course, “perfect” and “now” are often mutually exclusive, and Apple’s usual philosophy in such situations is that it’s better to be late than nonsense. Time and time again, from smartphones to wireless headphones, the company has sat on the sidelines bidding its time as rivals scramble to enter a new market, before entering late with a well-made and dominant product. But just as important are the times when Apple explored a market and decided not to bother: for example, we now know that there really was an Apple TV, but the company decided not to ship anyway. A fuller quote might be, “Real artists ship carefully crafted products that make sense in today’s marketplace, and cancel projects that don’t.”
The importance of this approach is, as always, proven by the exceptions. Sometimes Apple bursts into life with hope and naive eagerness, and the results are rarely pretty: Apple Maps, for example, was clearly not ready for the market at launch, while the TV+ service, despite being a late entrant to the streaming market, was not yet sufficiently supplied with content for a normal period, let alone the upcoming pandemic. In both cases, it’s understandable why Apple didn’t want to wait any longer (mapping services need user data to grow, for instance), but each in its own way demonstrates the dangers of rushing things and the risks it poses to a company’s brand.
It remains to be seen which category, late or never, will apply to Apple’s elongated mixed-reality headset, which was expected to debut this spring (we’ve heard that before), and has now apparently been pushed back to summer. After a certain point, delays begin to point to deeper issues, and the bitter experience of the AirPower saga means I won’t start counting my mixed-reality chickens until they’ve hatched.
Then again, I’d rather wait than see a rushed product, and if the engineers can’t fix the issues, I’d rather miss them altogether. What sets Apple apart from other tech companies is its greater willingness to say the most important word in business: no. And the ability, most of the time, to ignore the pressure to ship prematurely… no matter where it comes from.
IDG
Reviews corner
HomePod (2nd generation) review: Improvements, but not the one we wanted.
Trending: Top stories of the week
Does Apple make one Macpro no one wants, asks Jason Snell.
We round up 7 ways your iPhone could literally save your life.
When it comes to AImaybe Apple is smarter than it seems.
Forget Ventura. Run Mac OS 9 on your new Mac!
There have been delaysbut Apple still wants to rent you an iPhone.
Microsoft just got every chance at one Boot Camp Revival on Apple silicon.
Video of the week
Apple will almost certainly move from Lightning to USB-C when the iPhone 15 launches later this year. But why not both? A YouTuber shows how we can enjoy the best of both worlds:
The rumor mill
The iPhone 15 may get one new camera bump. Here are 4 radical possibilities.
Apple patents appear to confirm and tease a buttonless iPhone 15 Pro future foldable iPhone.
Should you buy one of the newest MacBook Rumors?
Good news: a new one 15-inch MacBook Air could be here as early as April.
Bad news: the 2nd generation Apple silicone iMac can take three years to arrive.
These iPhone 15 renders show off the new design and huge camera bump.
Podcast of the week
Apple would the new, larger MacBook Air this April. What’s new about this laptop and what does it mean for the MacBook range? We also talk about the latest updates for iOS, iPadOS and macOS.
You can watch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Software updates, bugs and issues
If you bought one Mac, iPhone or iPad over the past 5 years, you need to update it now.
If you own one M2 MacBook Air or MacBook Promeanwhile there is an update… for your cable.
And with that we are done for this week. To receive regular raids, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Twitter or on Facebook for discussion on the latest Apple news stories. See you next Saturday, enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay Appley.
