Looking at Angela Ahrendts's Time at Apple

The news of Angela Ahrendts’s impending departure from Apple came as a surprise to many outside the company. I can only assume the same was true for people on the inside There can be little doubt that the company’s outgoing Senior Vice President Retail has made a real impact during her five-year tenure. AppleInsider provided an incisive look at how Ms. Ahrdents’s came to be at Apple, and the legacy she will leave.

While Apple does also earn money from services and other business activities, the alterations that she’s made in the stores are central to the rise of the company into being the world’s most profitable firm.  These Apple Stores have been lauded as retail successes since their very beginnings, and externally they had appeared to be doing well even before Ahrendts joined. Yet in practice, the years before her arrival were marked with problems.

iOS 12.2 Will Remove 'Do Not Track' Option

In the next update of iOS and macOS Apple will remove the Do Not Track option from Safari. This is okay.

Removed support for the expired Do Not Track standard to prevent potential use as a fingerprinting variable.

Before I see a headline from Forbes titled “iOS 12.2 Has a Nasty Surprise” let me say that removing Do Not Track is good. It never did anything anyway because obeying it was completely voluntary. Which of course means that every website ignored it. And now it can be used to fingerprint your browser. Good riddance.

Why Don't Airlines Board Us Most Efficiently? Money

There are some very slow and inefficient ways to board passengers onto an airliner. Most airlines use some variation of them. But there are also some mathematically proven efficient, optimum ways. Why don’t the airlines use those? Money. This video analysis uses great graphics and demonstrates the problem.

Environmentally-Friendly High-Tech (Paper) Notebook

Dr. Mac says when he first heard about Rocketbook, a line of “endlessly reusable digital notebooks,” he was sure that “environmentally friendly high-tech notebook” was an oxymoron akin to “jumbo shrimp” or “exact estimate.”

After trying them, he admits he was wrong.

Huawei Needs 3-5 Years to Address UK Security Concerns

LONDON – It will take 3 to 5 years for Huawei to deal with security issues raised by the UK’s National Cyber Security Council (NCSC). Reuters saw a letter to British lawmakers from the Chinese firm in which it responded to the NCSC report that found it had exposed the UK’s telecom networks to security risks. The NCSC commented that it was in “regular dialogue with Huawei about the standards expected of their products.”

In a letter to lawmakers last week, Ryan Ding, president of the company’s carrier business group, said it would take up to five years to see results. “Enhancing our software engineering capabilities is like replacing components on a high-speed train in motion,” he said in a letter to the chairman of the British parliament’s science and technology committee.“It is a complicated and involved process, and will take at least three to five years to see tangible results. We hope the UK government can understand this.”

 

Hey You, Stop Buying Microsoft Office 2019

In a weird new commercial Microsoft pit Office 365 against Office 2019 in an obvious ploy to sell more subscriptions.

Unsurprisingly, in the new ads, which give the actors twins various challenges to perform in the likes of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Office 365 beats Office 2019 every time. Yawn. The ads aren’t very good and you will cringe a few times…

Hint: You can directly buy Office 365 in the new Mac apps.

The MOFT 'Invisible' Laptop Stand

MOFT launched what it called an “invisible” laptop stand on Kickstarter in January 2019. The stand is attached to a laptop with an adhesive and folded out wherever and whenever someone wants to work. I think it looks rather slick, and can certainly see how it would be useful for people who work in cafes or at conferences. The product comfortably cleared its Kickstarter goal of $771. At the time of this writing, it had raised $275,026 from 13,111 backers. The MOFT laptop stand currently has an $19 Early Bird offer. It will be on Kickstarter for 30 more days, with shipping expected in April 2019.