News from Apple this week

[harshness]

My guess is it is all emotion and nothing factual. The rest of the world considers Tim Cook the smartest CEO ever, certainly the most successful.

What's factual about your claim that the World considers Tim Cook the smartest CEO ever? Forbes said that was Steve Jobs. CEO Today puts Tim Cook at #11. Where do you get your facts?

When did facts ever play into the stock value or success of Apple? Apple seems to be sharing fewer facts than ever so it would seem like the facts aren't part of the attraction.

I'm likely to make a wad of money off of the sale of Apple stock that I own, but I have no illusion that the reason that the stock is doing well is something that is easily measured. I'm of an opinion that it is largely intangible.

 

[TheForce]

Actually, Sundar Pichai was considered the top CEO until this past year. Pope Francis was considered top gun last year if we can consider the Catholic Church a business.

In 2019, Jeff Bezos is likely to win the prize for 2019.

However, Tim Cook has consistently created growth and wealth of the company since 2009, 10 years running even though he has not rewarded himself the pay as others have in their respective companies. As far as stock holders, employees, and customers are concerned Tim Cook is the best CEO, period. Before retiring, I would have said it was Bill Gates back in his day, but he disappointed everyone by leaving Microsoft in the hands of that bozo the clown Steve Ballmer.

While Tim Cook was not CEO until 2011 he had significant influence in the operation of the company as Steve Jobs' health declined. Here is a pull from Investopedia:

"Cook joined Apple in 1995 and became the chief operating officer (COO) in 2007, where he remained until his promotion to CEO in 2011.
At the beginning of Cook's tenure at the company, Apple was struggling to keep up with other computer giants, such as Microsoft and Dell. However, soon after he arrived things began to look up. Apple began to expand its influence abroad and reach further into international markets. The company was also preparing to release a new line of products that the world had yet to be exposed to in the late 1990s. The iPod and iMac were about to be released, followed by a series of computers, phones, tablets and endless accessories that made Apple the international technology powerhouse it is today. Cook's contribution to this expansion and growth came in his role as the head of Apple's Macintosh division and as a reseller and supplier strategist."

In a measure of how the company grew under one man's leadership, not how much money he made for himself or how many companies he owns, Tim seems to have risen to the top as has Apple.

 

[harshness]

So with qualifications you now assert that Tim Cook is the best Apple CEO ever versus the World's smartest CEO. I'm happy that you're talking more sense now.

 

[TheForce]

So with qualifications you now assert that Tim Cook is the best Apple CEO ever versus the World's smartest CEO. I'm happy that you're talking more sense now.

Actually, I didn't just consider Apple as a lone company. I compared Apple to over 70 companies I have invested in over the past 12 years and Apple has done better, especially since 2013 than all others by a wide margin. While I don't like to play the game of woulda coulda shoulda, if I had invested all in Apple back in 2007, I would have 6 times what I do today. Many of my bets on various companies, I thought were good turned out to be a range of disasters to just poor decisions that wrecked the growth of the company.
DishNetwork, DirecTV, Comcast, AT&T, AGNC, Microsoft, Nordic American Tankers, Exxon, British Petroleum, Ford, GM, are a few that were big disappointments. Some of these I am still invested in today, others I took a loss and waved bye-bye.

Yes, Tim Cook is the best Apple CEO, but maybe he couldn't survive in a company like GE and fix their problems, or US Steel. I think the comparison is more complicated so CEO's that are in their own element, which ones have excelled to manage that element to the top of the heap and at $1.2T market cap, it has to be Apple. But today, Microsoft is #2 in my book and Satya Nadella deserves much credit for pulling the company out of the ditch from Steve Balmer's failure. While I hold a nice position in Microsoft too, it's status has only risen very recently, not a 10 year track record of being on top.

This week Market Caps:

1. Apple- $1.18T
2. Microsoft- $1.16T
3. Google- $901B
4. Amazon- $871B

 

[TheForce]

Huge blowout 2Q from Apple this evening. Better than expected sales on iphone 11

But the big news is Apple will be doing a 1 to 4 split which will bring the share price to around ~$100. The reason is they want to make the shares more accessible to small investors. This is the second time Apple has done a split. The last time it was when Apple reached $700 and it split 1 to 7.

While splits do not change the value of the stock the idea that small investors can own shares at a lower price is more psychological than economical. When more small investors buy Apple shares it tends to drive the price per share up and smaller investors are less inclined to sell on daily news, so this stabilizes the stocks volatility.

When share price is very high, the stock is more inclined to be owned by professional traders and hedge funds and they tend to rush to sell and buy more frequently and force larger swings in the stock. Good if you are a day trader, but not important to the smaller retail investor.

 

[TheForce]

iOS 14 was just downloaded to my iphone. I think I will wait on installing it to see how others are doing for a couple weeks.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have been running it since its first beta. Its nothing really special, more like bug fixes for iOS 13 then an exciting new operating system.

 

[klang]

I installed 14 everywhere yesterday. Big thing for the phone I guess is the new widgets. Not sure what if anything to do with those yet.

 

[harshness]

I have been running it since its first beta. Its nothing really special, more like bug fixes for iOS 13 then an exciting new operating system.

It has a whole list of features (at least ten) that have been popular on Android for years. Otherwise, early reports suggest that it has a considerable number of issues. What is it with public beta programs that makes them so incredibly ineffective?

 

[TheForce]

It has a whole list of features (at least ten) that have been popular on Android for years. Otherwise, early reports suggest that it has a considerable number of issues.

Can you list those, at least ten?
Can you list a considerable number of issues?

Sorry, but absent anything actually I can watch out for tells me you really don't know.

Here's a few personal items I wish for-
I would not consider myself a power user of my iphone but I can say I haven't had any, zero, problems, with what I would call a bug in iOS 13. There are some parts of it that annoy me but that is just having to dig deep into the menus to get to something and it may not be obvious to me where to find it. Setting up security on a new wifi isn't always that intuitive either. My Facebook app sucks so bad I get annoyed anytime I use it, but that's probably me not learning it.
Face recognition works very well but I wish I could add one for me wearing a face mask. It sees me with or without glasses.

 

[Foxbat]

I’m holding off on updating my iPhone until a week afterwards since it’s my daily driver. I have tvOS 14 on my AppleTV and it’s running fine. I don’t have HomeKit cameras so I can’t see who’s at the door while watching TV, so I haven’t tried the PiP function yet.

My iPad is too old (first-gen Air) for iOS 13, let alone 14, so nothing to report there, either.

Like Scott, I’m looking to order the Apple Watch 6. With our local Apple Store closed, it makes it more difficult to make a decision on size and strap feel.

 

[TheForce]

I was disappointed that rumors/leaks says there will not be a 120Hz screen on the iphone12 but is now set for the 12s next year. And if you were looking forward to the milimeter wave 5G that too will be reserved for next year. Very few places that will have access to it until next year anyway.

I got word today that my new Apple Watch was shipped so looking forward to it next week.

Roland- Don't worry about the AW bands as there are many more at better prices on Amazon. On watch size- go with the larger 44MM size as the battery lasts much longer and the display being bigger is easier for all the stuff you can build in the custom faces. I even have one dedicated to my Electric Vehicle Apps. I can control lots of stuff on my Tesla and my Leaf right from my watch. Like at any time I want to see the range in miles my Tesla has left on the charge, it's always right on my watch face at a glance.

 

[harshness]

Can you list those, at least ten?

Off the top of my head:

Widgets
App Clips
App Library
Cycling directions in Maps
PiP
Wind-down mode
Translate

Can you list a considerable number of issues?

The last one made my brain hurt so I'll provide a link here:

10 Common iOS 14 Problems & How to Fix Them

The current list of iOS 14 problems includes abnormal battery drain, Wi-Fi issues, UI lag, crashes, issues with Touch ID, and installation issues. A lot of the problems are brand new, others have carried over from older versions of iOS. While some of these issues might require a chat with...

www.gottabemobile.com

I think the key here is that the actual release version if iOS 14 wasn't released until the day of the show so app developers were likely caught off guard by some of the latest "enhancements" (bug fixes often result in problems).

 

[TheForce]

Thanks for the bug report I will study it later. Not sure about those apps but there may be more options you aren't aware of in the App Store. such as language translators and alternative maps. But the biggest benefit to iphone is the Apple infrastructure and the ability to track other iphones. We use this all the time within our family.

 

[harshness]

Not sure about those apps but there may be more options you aren't aware of in the App Store. such as language translators and alternative maps.

But this translator can integrate with other apps and it is part of the base iOS and well all know what happens when Apple releases something that works well enough (Apple Maps may never be good enough)

But the biggest benefit to iphone is the Apple infrastructure and the ability to track other iphones. We use this all the time within our family.

There's been apps for that on all platforms for some time now and Apple made it part of iOS 13. What good does making part of the OS do? It appears that the GoKid app didn't survive it.

FamiSafe
Life360 Family Locator
Sygic Family Locator
Glympse
Foursquare Swarm
FamiGuard
Safe 365
Sprint Family Locator
GPSWOX Family Locator
Verizon Family Locator

 

[TheForce]

10 Common iOS 14 Problems & How to Fix Them

The current list of iOS 14 problems includes abnormal battery drain, Wi-Fi issues, UI lag, crashes, issues with Touch ID, and installation issues. A lot of the problems are brand new, others have carried over from older versions of iOS. While some of these issues might require a chat with...

www.gottabemobile.com

Good to know. Based on that article I will hold off on installing until reports claim Apple fixed these or show they are extremely rare occurrence.

 

[Foxbat]

Mrs. Foxbat has updated her iPad and iPhone to iOS 14.0, but for some reason her Watch Series 4 would not update. I eventually had to unpair the Watch from her iPhone and reset the Watch, then re-Pair the two together again. I'm not sure if it was a bad attempt on her part since she had her watch charging upstairs while she was downstairs (and on the other end of the house to boot) when she kicked it off. It was probably outside Bluetooth range. But I finally got it going after all the stubbornness.

This update is close to a Gigabyte in size, and with the less-than-stellar AT&T U-verse Internet, it says it has 45 minutes left. I just hope when it finishes downloading that I don't have anything further to do,

 

[tigerfan33]

It seems from other forums that the series 4 may be having more issues with the new update than other AW models.
The new solo bands seems cool but I would worry that they would eventually stretch out of size as the regular sports band has done on me several times so I now use primarily the sports loop bands.
I did several workout tests with the AW5 and 6. The optical sensor on back of the 6 is placed with 2 smaller sensors instead of 1 bigger on the 5 and series 4.
The good news while using both, results were identical.....still maintaining the gold standard with optical heart rate sensor compared to any competition to date.

 

[frank c.]

Mrs. Foxbat has updated her iPad and iPhone to iOS 14.0, but for some reason her Watch Series 4 would not update. I eventually had to unpair the Watch from her iPhone and reset the Watch, then re-Pair the two together again. I'm not sure if it was a bad attempt on her part since she had her watch charging upstairs while she was downstairs (and on the other end of the house to boot) when she kicked it off. It was probably outside Bluetooth range. But I finally got it going after all the stubbornness.

This update is close to a Gigabyte in size, and with the less-than-stellar AT&T U-verse Internet, it says it has 45 minutes left. I just hope when it finishes downloading that I don't have anything further to do,

My watch 4 had no problems after updating to WatchOS 7.0, the only irritating problem was it took just under 4.5 hours to update. The next time I’m just gonna update directly to the watch via WiFi, from what I read it’s supposed to be faster than updating thru the phone using Bluetooth.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys mobile app

 

[Foxbat]

My watch 4 had no problems after updating to WatchOS 7.0, the only irritating problem was it took just under 4.5 hours to update. The next time I’m just gonna update directly to the watch via WiFi, from what I read it’s supposed to be faster than updating thru the phone using Bluetooth.

I saw the WiFi option on her watch, but it wouldn’t update until I unpaired it, it just failed. So I had to go the slow route.