Upside Down Apple Logo Revisted

Watch this video for 20 seconds starting at the two-minute mark.

That's me! This was an unexpected surprise that made my morning.

Backstory

Back in 2012, I wrote a blog post explaining why the Apple logo once appeared upside down on their laptops. John Gruber, the technology blogger for Daring Fireball, UI designer, and co-creator of the Markdown markup language, wrote about my blog post.

CNN then picked up the story with an article of their own.

It’s always fun to see an old idea find a new audience.

Big thanks to Greg at Apple Explained for the shoutout. 

iPhones Running iOS 18.1 Automatically Reboot and Lock Down After Being Idle for 96 Hours

This is an interesting new iPhone feature that causes an iPhone to automatically reboot if it's turned on but hasn’t been unlocked for 96 hours.

The thinking is that if your phone is taken from you then it’s harder to hack after it reboots, which is completely true.

Law enforcement has recently encountered this new feature from iPhones they’ve confiscated. The phones that law enforcement have been storing were inexplicably rebooting after 96 hours.

How It Works

When you turn on your iPhone, after it’s been completely powered down, or reboot it, your keys are still encrypted. Entering your six digit PIN unlocks the keys.

This is why, after you turn a phone on, but don’t unlock it, phone calls or text messages don’t display the names of who they’re from on the Lock Screen - rather the notifications simply show the phone number of the sender. The iPhone can’t decrypt a lot of things, like your address book, until you enter your PIN after turning it on or rebooting.

Once you unlock your iPhone for the first time, all the keys are decrypted and kept in memory until the next time you reboot the phone.

 Vision Pro Demo

I tried out the  Vision Pro demo at my local Apple Store, today.

BLUF: It's an impressively cool piece of wow. I'd equate it to a Tesla (separate the man from the machine). 

Today's 30-minute scripted demo highlighted most of its key features. When I put it on, it didn't feel like I was looking at a display... it seemed more like I was looking straight through the device at my surroundings. The 3D photos, movies, and the immersive experiences were phenomenal. I was impressed at how well the windows locked into place without moving in the slightest. However, I didn't get an opportunity to type anything or go off script. 

 Vision Pro demo area with eyeglasses Rx reader

At the end of the day, I can see where spatial computing is going. We're seeing tomorrow's ideas implemented using today's technology. This is Apple's worst version of any spatial computing device they'll design. Future versions will continue to improve, so I'm eager to see where this leads us. 

iPhone Announcement Anniversary

January 10, 2007

The first iPhone was announced 17 years ago, today, approximately 41 minutes into Steve Jobs's MacWorld Keynote address. This is the reason that Apple ads display 9:41 AM in their marketing materials. 

At the time, I was working as a software engineer at the Apple Online Store. Like everyone else, I was surprised and amazed at the product announcement. 

The next day, I printed out a color image of the iPhone, glued it to corrugated cardboard, and sent photos of me holding it to friends joking that I had an actual iPhone and pointing out that the photo wasn't photoshopped. (The iPhone wouldn't ship until six months later.) My coworker and I even took photos of us holding the cardboard cutout in front of 1 Infinite Loop.

I wouldn't see an actual iPhone in the wild until sometime later when I was in a meeting and Tim Cook walked in, pulled it out of his pocket and flashed it at us while saying, "This is so cool." We were all champing at the bit to get our hands on one.

 Vision Pro Observations

Apple's Vision Pro introduces spacial computing to consumers. But will it catch on?

Key benefit: Integration of a computer with multiple, large screen displays in a three dimensional, interactive environment. This is the first standalone Apple product introduced by Tim Cook, as CEO, that isn't an add-on like the Apple Watch.

Price: Starting at $3,500.

Adjusted for inflation, this is roughly the same cost as the Apple I computer released on April 11, 1977, which required assembly.

Price Comparison: Comparable to HoloLens 2.

Personal Thoughts: This is version one of a prosumer product in an entire new area of personal computing and human-machine interactions. Keep in mind that the Pro designation implies it's not a low-end consumer device. While smartphones have virtually connected while physically isolating individuals, the Apple Vision Pro certainly does an impressive job of making remote people feel more present while interacting. Apple also has been thoughtful about how others see and interact with the user. Specifically, when people approach a person using the Vision Pro, the user can see them. Additionally, a person can see the eyes of the Vision Pro user they're interacting with. In other words, the outward facing display is solely for the benefit of others. A nice touch.

Will it catch on? Time will tell.

Depth-first Recursion with AI in 103 Seconds

Once, when I was interviewing with the iTunes U team at Apple, I was asked to write a depth-first search, using recursion, in a language of my choice. I chose Java and proceeded to sketch out a tree on the whiteboard while keeping track of my stack on the side of the board.

It took about 10 or 15 minutes. Then the hiring manager and I walked though the code and I was thrilled that I passed, especially since recursion is not my strongest area of coding.

Today, I used ChatGPT which was released eight days ago. It came up with three different solutions in less than two minutes. This is fascinating.

iPhone 13 Pro Order Experience

It has been many years since I ordered a new Apple product on launch day. My old iPhone was long in the tooth and the camera on the iPhone 13 Pro is a perfect reason to upgrade. So, I pre-ordered my iPhone, yesterday, and then set this morning's alarm for 4:40 AM PDT.

Yesterday's pre pre-ordering yielded nothing since it couldn't be found, this morning. So, I went ahead and started an entirely new order.

There were plenty of reports from people who couldn't use their Apple Card to make the purchase. Although this wasn't as bad as the iPhone 4 launch disaster, it was still a significant cause of concern since the Apple Card will give you back 3% as cash when you use it for online Apple orders.

After my order was placed with a confirmed delivery date of next Friday, I made multiple attempts to change my credit card payment from my debit card to my Apple Card. That was not a fun experience.

The first CSR I spoke to was amazingly helpful, but she just didn't have the capability, in her system, to make the adjustment for me. She recommended calling back later when my order had moved to the next step, after processing the initial authorization.

About an hour later, I called back. The CSR I spoke to told me that changing payment options wasn't possible. She said that I'd have to cancel my order and reorder the new iPhone 13. That was obviously not an option because I wasn't willing to wait an additional three weeks due the delay from all the orders that had stacked up since the time I had originally placed my order.

Then I tried something that has always worked for me: tweeting to @AppleSupport. Unfortunately, this was the one time they couldn't help me.

Next, I texted Apple via Messages. They recommended that I call Customer Service specialist at 1-800-676-2775. That did the trick. I could immediately tell that the CSR I was speaking with was highly energized and engaged in solving my problem which only took about five minutes. Persistence pays off.

macOS on AWS. Finally!

One of my "server farms" (more like a server garden)
with 4 Macs and 1 GSM modem

Finally, after nearly 15 years, macOS comes to AWS. I used to maintain two server farms totaling 11 Macs, mostly Mac minis, running OS X Server with 10 static IP addresses. Configuring and replacing Mac servers was my least favorite and most expensive task.

Amazon's AWS VP for EC2 shared a fun video about how macOS on AWS came to be.

Why the App Stores Takes a 30% Commission

Why do both the Apple App Store and Google Play stores take a 30% cut from apps they sell?

The answer is simple. When the Apple App Store launched in 2008, the going revenue share comission for content delivered to mobile phones was about 50%, give or take a few percent depending on the mobile network.

Back then, a 99¢ ring tone or $1.99 wallpaper, delivered over-the-air for mobile phone consumption, would net the developer about half of the price paid by the cell phone subscriber. The other 50% went to the mobile network provider. These charges would show up on a subscriber's phone bill as a premium SMS (PSMS).

In 2008, the PSMS market was worth about $5B/year. So, Apple's 30% take was a welcome 40% savings compared to PSMS.  

Steve Jobs User Stories: Start With the Customer Experience

Agile software development typically begins with user stories which are informal descriptions of software features from the customer's perspective (UX). When I worked at the Apple Online Store, my boss's boss would meet with Steve Jobs. Steve would tell us the user experience he wanted without trying to solution it, himself. In other words, he left the development details to the talent (developers and designers).

You got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it. And I've made this mistake probably more than anyone else in this room and I've got the scar tissue to prove it.

– Steve Jobs

Start With Customer the Experience

In 2006, the iPod was booming along with the third party ecosystem it created. In a meeting, Steve Jobs let it be known to us that, when he was at the Apple Online Store website, he wanted to be able to see any product within three clicks. How long and how many clicks it takes to find what you're looking for is a good base metric for usability.

The challenge with three clicks, back then, was that Apple sold about two hundred different types of headphones. Displaying all of the headphones that Apple carried, at once, on a single web page would overload our servers. (Back then, there was no cloud computing.) Alternatively, paginating the results into batches of 10 or 25 wouldn't satisfy Steve's customer experience requirement. So, what to do?

One of my coworkers came across a new UI solution, infinite scrolling. Infinite scrolling allows content to load continuously as the user scrolls down the page, below the fold, eliminating the need for pagination. We now take infinite scrolling for granted on account that it's ubiquitous on popular social media sites. But, back then, it was new and it turned out to be the perfect solution for Steve.

Apple Card Credit Card Signup

I signed up to receive an Apple Card, today. The entire process, from applying, through approval, to receiving the new card in my Apple Wallet took less than ten minutes.

Once I received it in my wallet it was active to use with Apple Pay. I also requested to have the physical titanium card sent to me which should take about a week.

Customer support via text message

I was wondering if the Apple Card had a virtual account number similar to my Citi Mastercard. There was a button to call or text for help which was great. Nothing better than getting customer support via text message – no wait or hold time.

Unfortunately, the Apple Card can only generate one number at a time which can be easily changed by pressing a button. So, at this time, it seems that I can only have a single credit card number active with Apple Card.

Another disappointment was that Apple Card interest rate depends on credit worthiness, somewhere between 12.99% - 23.99%. My FICO score is over 810, so I would have hoped for something lower than 17.99%. But it's been more than a decade or two since I've carried a balance from, month to month, on my credit card. So, this shouldn't be an issue for me.

A nice thing about the Apple Card was that I could tap one button any all of my Apple bills (iCloud, iTunes, etc) were switched to my Apple Card which returns 3% cash, daily. Let's see how it works.

Apple's Pivot into Services

After giving my Apple Talk, I do a Q&A with my group on their tour bus as we head to Apple Park. Some of their questions are light hearted, such as, "Why did the Apple logo used to be upside down on laptops?" or "Why does the Apple logo have a bite taken out of it?" But my latest group asked some deeper questions about the future of Apple.

My group, on Wednesday, asked me about Apple's It's Show Time event held a couple days earlier. Monday's event at Apple seems to be a pivot for the company in that no new offerings were revealed that are now available.

It's a pivot for Apple because the company is moving more and more toward services delivered via Apple products. We last saw Apple make a strategic pivot in 2007 when Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone. Near the end of his presentation, Steve Jobs said he was changing the name of the company from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc. to better reflect that Apple was moving away computers and into consumer electronics.

Now, once again, as the smartphone market becomes saturated, we see Apple staying relevant by increasing their services offerings. Of course Apple has a lot of potential offerings in R&D, but many never see the light of day if they're not up to Apple's standards. 

Friday's announcement that they were killing off its never-to-market AirPower charging mat is a rare premature misstep by Apple. Rumor has it that this product, after being announced more than a year and a half ago, was running too hot to provide a decent customer experience. And that's what Apple's all about. I describe the company's mantra as best possible customer experience. 

Future Apple Products

The groups I speak to frequently ask me about Apple's future offerings, so I speculate...

1. Car: Apple is working on a car (codename: Titan); or, perhaps, autonomous software for automakers. It's not a secret what they're working, but they don't yet know what will became of their research.

2. TV: Apple's Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, who reports directly to Tim Cook, has long wanted to unbundle TV channels from cable TV packages. In a nutshell, he wants to do for TV cable subscriptions what the iTunes Music Store did for music... unbundle content to give customers more options. 

3. Medical: This is a long term play that's clearly humming in the background. Apple was the first company to get FDA approval for a consumer EKG product via the Apple Watch. Earlier this month, when visiting my doctor for a cold, he asked to look at the recent data on my Apple Watch. Apple's foray in to healthcare will continue to become more important. Perhaps a future Apple Watch will allow noninvasive glucose monitoring.

Obviously, we never know what secrets Apple has under wraps, but I suspect that the best is yet to come. 

Interesting Apple ID Issue

Problem

A friend called me this morning because he was having an issue with apps on his iPhone. After resetting his Apple ID password, the App Store wouldn't authenticate him so he couldn't update any apps on his iPhone. My first suspicion was, since this problem happened soon after he updated to iOS 12.1.3, there was a bug preventing his credentials from propagating to all of his devices.

Solution

The actual problem is my buddy originally downloaded some apps with a different Apple ID than the one he's currently using on his iPhone. The apps continued to run fine until it came time to update them. The solution was simple. The current apps only needed to be deleted on his iPhone and then re-downloaded. An easy fix, especially since all of his apps were free. If his apps weren't free, it would have required a bit of help from Apple's billing department.

Lesson

The lesson learned is be very cautious of changing Apple IDs. I've been using the same one since I worked at Apple when Steve Jobs introduced iTools and every employee was automatically assigned our original Apple ID. The second lesson I learned many years ago is if you've ever worked for Apple then you will be the first call that a friend or family member makes for Apple tech support. A calling that I do enjoy. 

Needed: 55 - 60 Person Venue in Silicon Valley

Apple Park

Ask

I'm looking for a presentation venue in Silicon Valley that can hold 55 – 60 people. An ideal venue would be a college classroom with A/V.

Details

For nearly four years, I have been giving my speaking engagements in Silicon Valley. My talk focuses on Apple's design and marketing philosophy and why that makes Apple different.

The venue I've used for my presentation is no longer available. I found a similarly priced venue, but it only holds about 40 people. So, now, I need a new space which could be any professional location such as a large conference room, classroom, auditorium, etc. Do you know of a space that's available which isn't publicly advertised?

Requirements

1. Seat 55 – 60 people in a classroom setup with a screen and laptop projector.

This great venue, that I used for years, is no longer available

2. Located within 15 – 20 minutes of Cupertino for our visit and warm welcome at Apple Park.

A group photo during my group's warm welcome at Apple Park

3. Competitively priced with my previous venue ($200 – $250 per 1/2 day).

I had a great time presenting to billionaire Lu Junqing
and his philanthropic daughter, Jennifer.
Since I'm not a billionaire, I need an inexpensive venue.

Caveat

Over the years, I have looked at many venues near Cupertino, so I'm aware of hotel ballrooms and salons, but their costs can easily be 3x – 5x what I'm currently paying after adding in service fees, tourism and city taxes, A/V equipment rental, setup costs, etc. So, please let me know if you're aware of any large space that typically remains unused since that might be a good fit.


Plan B
What if I can't find a Silicon Valley venue that meets my requirements? Well, then, it's on to Plan B, which isn't all that bad... a full-time job in tech, ideally located in San Diego.
This is me: http://joemoreno.com.

I'm Excited

Only twice has my Apple Watch warned me that my heart rate was elevated above 120 bpm while I was inactive. Now this may sound ridiculous, but both times it was caused by a personal "Apple" event.

The first time it happened I was standing still for awhile when I received a text message that my HomePod had been delivered to my doorstep on release day. I was initially concerned about my elevated heart rate, since this had never happened before. After some thought (and no chest pains or palpitations) I concluded it was the good news about the HomePod delivery that spiked my pulse.

The second time it happened I was halfway through a flight from San Jose to San Diego. I was reading several articles where Jony Ive was detailing the excitement he feels when tackling new problems as he explained his design process and philosophy. While reading his words, I could sense his excitement without realizing it and my Apple Watch alerted me to my spiked heart rate. I quickly reached the same conclusion as the previous time, plus, I tend to have a very high max heart rate that's over 200 bpm.

I guess I truly and deeply get excited over Apple. I'm sure there are others. 

Beautiful iOS Keyboard Editing Feature

For years, I've wanted a simple feature for the iOS keyboard which let me reposition the cursor without lifting my finger off the keyboard. It turns out this exact feature has been in iOS, but I don't know for how long. Regardless, it's very handy. Simply press and hold on your iOS keyboard and it will turn your keyboard into a virtual trackpad. 

Apple Logo History: Why a Bite? 

During my Apple talk about what makes Apple different in terms of design and marketing, I'm frequently asked why there's a bite in the Apple logo. Now, I incorporate the following answer into my talk.

Bible?

It's been said that the bite in the Apple logo comes from the Bible story of Adam and Eve. In the Garden of Eden, Eve took a bite out of an apple and gained additional knowledge. Therefore, if you bought an Apple computer, you too could have additional knowledge. It's a colorful tale, but it's not true.

Apple II?

It's also been said that the Apple logo has a bite out of it since the first Apple II had an Apple logo with a lower case "a" slightly overlapping the logo, taking a bite out of it. This seems like a more practical story, but it's also not true.

The Real Reason

The real reason that the Apple logo has a bite out of is because the original graphic designer, Rob Janoff, needed to show scale. Without the bite, people could mistaken it for a cherry or tomato. Since no one would take a bite out of either of those two, it wouldn't be confused with any other type of fruit.

After Janoff came up with the Apple logo, it was immediately noticed that the bite was also a play on words with "byte" which reinforced its memorability. 

Are Logos Important?

While I don't attribute a business's success to its logo, it's always better to have a simple, memorable logo. And, even though what a logo looks like isn't critical, how a logo is used for branding and marketing-communications is of paramount importance. Today, at Apple, you'd never see what we saw with the Apple II; today we'd never see the Apple logo next to the word "Apple" because that's redundant (Apple = Apple Apple).

Why a Multi Colored Apple Logo?

The reason there are six different colors in the Apple logo is because, in 1977, when the first three modern personal computers were introduced, only the Apple II had a color display. The TRS-80 Model I had gray/white characters on a black screen and the Commodore PET has the traditional phosphorescent green characters, like an oscilloscope, on a black screen.

Out with "i" – in with 

We will probably see the Apple logo appearing in more product names since Apple can't trademark the letter "i." Apple TV is now branded as TV and iBooks was rebranded, this past June, as Books. This will avoid the branding confusion we saw with the iHome product line. The iHome was one for the first combination iPod docking speakers and alarm clock, all in one. Many consumers mistook the iHome for an Apple made product, especially since it was sold in Apple retail stores. Preventing brand dilution is key. 


PS: On macOS, you can generate the "" character simply by pressing option-shift-K at the same time.

Talking about Apple on KUSI News

It seemed highly likely, this past Thursday morning, that Apple's market capitalization was going to break through $1 trillion. When I saw that milestone quickly approaching, I sent an e-mail to a local news station which opened with the following:

I am a retired Apple employee (1998 – 2007) here in San Diego and I’d like to make myself available to KUSI for an interview about Apple since that company reached, and surpassed, a $1 trillion market valuation, this morning.

Nine minutes later, I received a response, "Thank you for your email. Would you be available to appear on our 5pm newscast tonight?"

Wow! That was quick. Of course I accepted their offer.

A few people asked me if I was paid for my appearance. News organizations do not pay or compensate guests for information to avoid any conflicts of interest – that's basic journalism ethics. However, many news organizations will pay for photos or videos. 

 One Thousand Billion Dollars 

In June 1997, a pray request was sent out for a company that was within 90 days of bankruptcy.

It seems that enough people prayed.

#1,000,000,000,000.00 #OneThousandBillion AKA #OneTrillion

Apple Design. Apple Marketing. Apple Talk.

Apple Park

1. Apple Design
2. Apple Marketing
3. Apple Talk


1. Apple Design
A good base metric for usability is both how long it takes to accomplish a task and how many actions it takes (clicks, taps, etc). Although good UX, involving human-machine interactions, typically involves familiarity, it doesn’t necessarily have to be familiar to be intuitive. (Think about the first time you saw the rubber band effect on the iPhone as a user scrolled to the top or bottom of a list – that was unfamiliar, yet intuitive.)

Fitts’s Law, named after USAF Lt. Col. Paul Fitts, puts a finer point on usability and ergonomics using simple formulas that relate the distance to a target with the size of the target. Fitts’s formulas date back to the mid-1950s and they apply nicely to computers and cockpits.

Fitts’s formulas:

Index of Difficulty = log₂ (2 x distance to target / target width)

Throughput = (Index of difficulty) / (Average time to complete the movement)

Throughput is important with computers because you don’t want a user to hit the wrong button and then have to backtrack to fix their mistake. While a computer can be very forgiving, in an aircraft, you don’t want to put the ejection button next the landing light switch so as to not accidentally hit the wrong one. 

Thanks to Fitts’s Law, this is why, on macOS, the menu bar for the active window is along the top of the screen, whereas, on Windows, the menu bar is attached to the top of each window. Having the menu bar on the top of the Mac’s desktop screen gives the target (File, Edit, View, etc) an infinite height because a user can’t move their mouse pointer beyond the edge of the screen, no matter how much they try. This is why macOS’s four corners of the screen make great hot spots. It is extremely easy to move a mouse pointer to any of the four corners to, say, lock the computer (requiring a password to unlock it). This, effectively gives the pixel, in each of the corners of the desktop, an infinite width and height, off the screen.

And while Fitts’s Law is great, design does have a bit of an artistic aspect to it. Good UX is designed with people in mind.

2. Apple Marketing
The goal of marketing is to match customers with products to generate revenue. A novice mistake new entrepreneurs make is to focus inward on what they think is important, instead of focusing on the customer experience. For example, many entrepreneurs will spend a lot of time and money designing their logo. Customers don’t do business with companies based on what their logo looks like. In other words, “No One Cares About Your Company Logo.” However, how you use your logo is very important; it’s critical to stay on brand in order to prevent brand dilation.

There’s a lot of noise out there, so a company’s marketing communications have to be clear and concise. This starts by leading with a product’s benefits before its features.

What’s the difference between a benefit or feature? The key features of a product (or service) enable the benefit for the customer. In other words, use a product’s key features to summarize its key benefit.

One of the best examples of leading with the benefits before the features was the introduction of the first iPod in October 2001. I believe, if any other company had created the iPod, such as HP, Dell, or Microsoft, they would have marketed it as “a 6.5 ounce MP3 player with a 5 GB hard drive, measuring 4” x 2.5” x 3/4”.” Even as a software engineer, I would have to breakout a calculator to figure out how many songs a 5 GB hard drive could hold.

Instead of touting the features, the slogan for the first iPod was, “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Elegant.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Lead with the benefits, before the features.

3. Apple Talk
So, what is it I do? I've detailed that here:
http://blog.joemoreno.com/2018/06/the-apple-way.html

More info on my talk, The Apple Way of Design and Marketing, here:
http://joemoreno.com/talk