If You Build It Well, They Will Want to Come

In response to Tim Cook’s speech on the importance of privacy and encryption, The Verge had this to say:

Arguably, Google Maps is better than Apple Maps, Gmail is better than Apple Mail, Google Drive is better than iCloud, Google Docs is better than iWork, and Google Photos can “surprise and delight” better than Apple Photos. Even with the risks.

If Apple truly cares about our privacy then it should stop talking about how important it is and start building superior cloud-based services we want to use — then it can protect us.

Just within that list above, I use Apple Maps, iCloud Mail (and calendar) over their Google counterparts, though I still use Google Docs. I can say without a doubt that the Google counterparts are better.

The only reason I switched over is because I reached a tipping point between my wariness of Google’s practices, and my desire for quality services on the web. Apple’s offerings got better, Google’s business practices became shadier, and I ended up feeling Apple’s services were good enough that I wanted to switch.

It shouldn’t be like that. I should want to use Apple’s products because they both respect my privacy and they’re the best services. It’s unacceptable for a company with Apple’s size and prowess to still be lagging behind when it comes to services in the cloud.

“Wels Fargo”

A lovely spam email

How do people still fall for these obvious phishing attempts?

I count a few spelling mistakes, many grammar mistakes including improper capitalization, “value customer,” and so on, plus the URL itself is secureupdate-welsfargo.us.pn…

Not to mention, I’ve never had a Wells Fargo account in my entire life.

Marco Arment’s MacBook

Marco Arment’s impressions on his impulse purchase of a MacBook:

Instead, we have major compromises on previous invariants. Until now, since I started buying Macs 11 years ago, Apple had never shipped a laptop with a keyboard or trackpad that was less than great. They recognized that a laptop without a good keyboard wasn’t a good laptop, even if a lot of people would be OK with it and buy it anyway.

Now, Apple’s priorities have changed. Rather than make really great products that are mostly thin, they now make really thin products that are mostly great.

This concerns me more than you probably think it should. Not only does it represent compromised standards in areas I believe are important, but it suggests that they don’t have many better ideas to advance the products beyond making them thinner, and they’re willing to sacrifice anything to keep that going.

He perfectly sums my impressions of recent Apple devices up. Between the MacBook, and to a lesser extent the iPhone 6, Apple seems to be struggling with the diminishing returns in the pursuit of thinness.

I couldn’t believe how bad the keyboard on the MacBook felt in person at the Apple Store. Short of an engineering miracle of some sort involving the complete rethinking of a keyboard key, this problem cannot be fixed due to physical limitations. There just isn’t enough space to make the key travel far enough.

Houston Coffee and Cars

I spent a few days in Houston, and went to the local Coffee and Cars event. Highlights included a LaFerrari, 2 McLaren P1s, some Porsche 918 Spyders, and my personal favorite, a yellow Enzo. I was pretty impressed with the turnout.