Mossberg:

Five years ago last week, the legendary Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO after an amazing 14-year run that took the technology company from the edge of disaster to the heights of glory. He personally selected his COO, Tim Cook, as the new CEO, and passed away six weeks later.

So, how has Apple changed in the first five years of the Tim Cook era? How is it different from the peak of the Jobs era?

The short answer is that the company has surged financially to heights Jobs likely never dreamed of. It has also refined its popular product line and retained most of its senior talent.

But Cook’s Apple has yet to produce the kind of new, game-changing product Jobs was famous for launching. Or, if it has, we don’t know it yet.

I think a better title for this article would have been, “Jobs’ metric of success is different than Cook’s metric of success. Both were critical.”

I think Walt Mossberg’s analysis is interesting, worth reading, but I also think it is couched incorrectly. Steve Jobs ran Apple in a startup mode. Just as most startups need different leadership as they mature, in my opinion, Tim Cook is exactly the kind of leader Apple needed to crush the supply chain and build up Apple’s presence around the world, exactly the kind of leader Apple needs to navigate the choppy tax waters ahead.

And I have no doubt that Apple has plenty of innovation in the hopper, some of it extensions to familiar forms, some of it in the labs, still being shaped.

Alphabet Inc’s Google unit plans to open its ride-sharing program to Waze app users in San Francisco this fall, pitting itself against Uber Technologies Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Waze app is extremely popular in the Bay Area, so I can see this Google ride-sharing service doing very well.

KARE11:

For most of the past 12 years, Bruno has been taking a daily walk of nearly four miles to Longville, making his rounds around town, then heading back home to his owners, Larry and Debbie LaVallee.

Bruno’s makes his rounds in Longville, with stops at city hall, the library, the ice cream shop, several real estate offices and Tabaka’s grocery store, where deli workers greet him at the back door with meat scraps they’ve saved.

I promise this will be the sweetest story you’ll read/watch all day. What a lucky dog and a lucky town.

Úll is an incredible conference that I attended for three straight years. The presenters are always great and it would be hard for me to say that there is a better organized conference anywhere in the world.

With a new iPhone arriving soon, many people will look to sell their old iPhone for some quick cash. But which places offer the best return and the smoothest process? To find out, Tom’s Guide tested seven services that buy and sell used iPhones.

I’m sure a lot of people will take advantage of this.

The Web site said his flight was delayed for 47 years, so he sarcastically asked customer service what he should do to pass the time. The answer is priceless.

Apple in a recent filing with Australia’s antitrust watchdog slammed a request from the country’s three top banks for collective negotiations over third-party access to Apple Pay NFC technology, saying a threatened boycott would not only harm consumers, but hinder mobile wallet adoption and innovation.

I was really hoping Apple would be part of this group, but no. Spotify users can just open their app and connect to the Sonos system.

Mark Gurman, Jungah Lee, writing for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is developing new features for the iPad to cater to professional users, along with new Mac laptops and desktops, according to people familiar with the matter.

Upcoming software upgrades for the iPad include wider operating-system support for Apple’s stylus accessory, while hardware performance improvements are also in development, according to the people. The refreshed Mac hardware line includes new versions of the iMac desktop, MacBook Air laptop, and a 5K standalone monitor in collaboration with LG Electronics Inc., in addition to a thinner MacBook Pro laptop.

The company hopes to ship the updated iPad software next year, while the Macs are expected as soon as late 2016, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products. Apple has not updated any Macs, besides the 12-inch MacBook, since last year. The company declined to comment.

This can’t come soon enough for me. I’ve long wanted a more powerful MacBook Pro, thought I wouldn’t care about thinner. But then I spent some quality time with the new MacBook. Thinness and lightness matter.

That said, I would sacrifice that thinness for power and, more importantly, for availability.

Follow this link, look at the picture. Typical Target merchandising. This approach works well for most Target merchandise, but it misses the mark in showing Apple products in the light in which they were meant to be seen.

Seems likely that’s a big part of why Target missed their Apple product sales projections.

[H/T Andrew Leavitt]

Quartz:

Using iPads to distract and lower anxiety levels prior to surgeries requiring general anaesthesia proved as effective as traditional sedatives, French researchers found.

Comparing the effects of the drug midazolam on 54 children, administered orally or rectally, with 58 others who played age-appropriate games on an iPad 20 minutes prior to anaesthesia, the researchers found that both the drug and the tablet equally blunted anxiety.

I can’t help but think that an iPad would always win against a drug applied rectally. But that aside, this is good stuff.

The Verge:

Twitter spam isn’t a new phenomenon, but over the past few weeks the amount of it has certainly increased. I use the social network on a daily basis, and not an hour goes by without a tweet of mine from months or even years ago being liked by a spambot. It’s a practice that generates a notification designed to make you click into the profile, where you’re met with what’s typically a pornographic pinned tweet and a link that will likely bury your PC into malware oblivion.

Yup. I see this on a regular basis. Always wondered what the end-game for the bot creators was. Are they rolled out by the bad guys in the hopes of sowing malware seeds? If I don’t click on the link, is there any other path to harm?

Twitter claims it has a variety of systems in place to detect spam on Twitter, and that the company responds to new forms continuously to combat spammers. Twitter also relies on users to report spammers, but it’s not clear how effective this route actually is.

If there was a UI for specifically reporting spambots, I’d definitely use it. But the spam reporting in the official Twitter client is buried under the … menu, then under the word Report, with the options:

• I’m not interested in this Tweet
• It’s spam
• It’s abusive or harmful

I think Twitter would get more feedback/responses if they let me press and hold on a tweet and select Spambot from a popup menu. Much more direct.

From Tim Cook’s Message to the Apple Community in Europe:

Thirty-six years ago, long before introducing iPhone, iPod or even the Mac, Steve Jobs established Apple’s first operations in Europe. At the time, the company knew that in order to serve customers in Europe, it would need a base there. So, in October 1980, Apple opened a factory in Cork, Ireland with 60 employees.> At the time, Cork was suffering from high unemployment and extremely low economic investment. But Apple’s leaders saw a community rich with talent, and one they believed could accommodate growth if the company was fortunate enough to succeed.

> We have operated continuously in Cork ever since, even through periods of uncertainty about our own business, and today we employ nearly 6,000 people across Ireland.

Apple has been in Cork since 4 years before the very first Mac was introduced. They’ve been in Cork through thick and thin. No possible argument there.

And:

> Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities and other professionals like a tax resolution specialist on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe.

And:

The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws, and upend the international tax system in the process. Trusted Chicago accountants can provide valuable insights in navigating such complex tax disputes on an international scale. Additionally, if you are looking for an ap cost saving calculator to help increase your cost savings, then you may check out this ap automation calculator. The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes. This claim has no basis in fact or in law. We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals. We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.

For expert guidance on navigating complex tax issues, consider consulting TaxPros online. Their expertise can help address such disputes and ensure that your tax affairs are handled with precision and compliance.

And:

> The Commission’s move is unprecedented and it has serious, wide-reaching implications. It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been. This would strike a devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters, and to the principle of certainty of law in Europe. Ireland has said they plan to appeal the Commission’s ruling and Apple will do the same. We are confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.

This is the essence of Apple’s argument. These are just a few excerpts from a much longer letter. Definitely worth a read.

Bloomberg put together an FAQ about the EU tax ruling. Here are a few of the questions and answers:

Q: Can Apple afford to pay the bill?
A: Easily. As of last month, Apple had $232 billion in cash, with about $214 billion of that being held overseas.

Q: Who receives the money if Apple ends up paying?
A: The money gets paid to Ireland, which puts those funds into an escrow account and leaves it there until any appeal process has fully concluded.

Q: Is the EU singling out Apple or forcing other companies to obey too?
A: It’s not just Apple. The EU authority has already ordered the Netherlands and Luxembourg to recover as much as 30 million euros ($33.3 million) apiece in back taxes from Starbucks Corp. and a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit. Vestager is also probing Amazon Inc. and McDonald’s Corp.’s affairs in Luxembourg and has signaled she’s willing to add Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s 130 million-pound ($184 million) tax deal with the U.K. to her growing list of investigations.

Here’s a link to the FAQ.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. was ordered to repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest after the European Commission said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone maker’s tax bill.

The world’s richest company benefited from a “selective tax treatment” in Ireland that gave it a “significant advantage over other businesses,” the European Union regulator said Tuesday. It’s the largest tax penalty in a three-year crackdown on sweetheart fiscal deals granted by EU nations.

And:

Apple and the Irish government have both vowed to fight the decision, which also risks stoking a fight with the U.S. over taxation policies — with the U.S. having already complained that Europe is unfairly targeting American companies and threatening global tax reforms.

And:

“I disagree profoundly with the commission’s decision,” said Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan. Ireland’s tax system is founded on the strict application of the law “without exception,” he said.

The commission left him with “no choice” but to move toward an appeal before the EU courts. “This is necessary to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state-aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation,” he said.

This will certainly add pressure to the unity of the EU, still working through Brexit terms. If the European Commission ultimately prevails, I can’t help but think it would impact Apple’s operations in Ireland.

Apple:

See you on the 7th. Join us here on September 7 at 10 a.m. PDT to watch the keynote live.

While the invites have gone out to the press, Apple has updated their site with the live stream location. For those of you who are forgetful, they’ve also included a helpful “Add to your calendar” link so you won’t miss it.

According to a proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit filed on Saturday, Apple has long been aware of the defect, which often surfaces after a flickering gray bar appears atop the touchscreens, but has refused to fix it.

I had a number of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices and never saw this issue, but I have read the reports of the problem last week. I’m not sure why Apple wouldn’t fix it if there was a hardware flaw, but I guess we’ll find out in the lawsuit.

Apple will on Tuesday be hit with Europe’s largest tax penalty after Brussels ruled that the company received illegal state aid from Ireland.

The company will have to pay billions of euro in back taxes to Dublin as the European Commission moves to redraw the boundaries on aggressive tax avoidance by the world’s biggest corporations.

It’s important to note that Apple has paid every penny it owed in taxes. Based on Tim Cook’s previous comments, an appeal to this decision is certain.

Neil Cybart:

The two most powerful people at Apple are Tim Cook and Jony Ive. While Cook is tasked with making sure the Apple machine is being run by the best team possible, Jony’s role is much more abstract.

And:

However, the one area Cook does not have complete control over is product strategy. That distinction belongs to Jony. It may seem hyperbolic to consider Jony the most powerful person at Apple. He no longer spends much time managing anyone on a day-to-day basis. He doesn’t speak on Apple’s earnings conference calls. Wall Street knows very little about him, and neither does Silicon Valley. In fact, following his recent promotion to Chief Design Officer, Jony doesn’t even spend as much time at Apple HQ these days. Yet Jony has such a significant influence over Apple’s product strategy, it is safe to say we are firmly within the Jony Ive era at Apple.

And:

Jony holds an incredible amount of power because Apple is a design-led company. Apple’s functional organizational structure and culture are set up in order to give the Industrial Design (ID) group absolute power. ID holds more power at Apple than any other group.

And:

Much of the criticism pointed towards Apple today is a by-product of Apple executives doubling down on Apple’s design-led philosophy. The logic behind the move is pretty clear: The strategy works. Jony, Richard Howarth, VP of Industrial Design, and the rest of the ID team have more power today than at any other point in Apple history. Jony grabbed additional power during the first major management reshuffle under Tim Cook in 2012. His promotion to Chief Design Officer in 2015 reflected Jony receiving even more control. In fact, Jony has so much control, he now is able to spend more time away from Apple HQ (which I suspect is related to Project Titan).

Really interesting piece, full of specific examples.

Kirk McElhearn, writing for Macworld:

I recently checked my iPhone’s Storage & iCloud Usage settings, and it said that I didn’t have a lot of space left. On this 64GB device—which, according to the iPhone, only really has 55.5GB—there was only 696MB available.

But then I synced the iPhone with iTunes. The latter showed me how much free space it thought I had: 2.68GB. And it also said that the iPhone’s capacity is 55.7GB, or 200MB more than what the phone itself says.

This is a valid point. It’d be nice to have a single take on iOS storage, one that starts with your phone’s size, then shows what is used for what. A view that showed me my device’s full storage, similar to the Manage Storage setting or the iTunes bar of storage, but one that lets me drill down for actual details, one that lets me delete things I don’t need.

For example, if I have old updaters I no longer need, let me delete them. Let me delete videos from that same view. Or music I have backed up elsewhere. As is, I get snippets and clues from various places, and have to visit different apps, deal with wildly different schemes to delete things. And sometimes, I can’t figure out how to delete things, or simply can’t delete them.

Lara Williams, writing for The Guardian:

Is there a more divisive valediction than the default “Sent From My iPhone” sign-off? When the iPhone first appeared, users were roundly condemned for their thinly veiled humblebrag among the mounting popularity of Apple products.

The message was clear: having an iPhone was so much more than having something on which you could make calls and browse the internet. It was a gorgeous trinket and elite lifestyle marker that signalled both sophistication and technological know-how. Membership of the club was something to be boasted about, and you could feel the conceit as users pressed send. The backlash was immediate.

And:

Recently, however, the refrain has returned to our correspondence, but those using the sign-off can no longer be accused of not knowing how to switch it off (it’s easy) or gloating (it’s not a big deal). Rather the phrase has become an important part of online decorum. Including the sign off contains an innate apology for the brevity of the message. It begs forgiveness for any spelling or grammatical errors. It allows a little wiggle rooms for errant emojis. It is a nod of acknowledgement that you are on the hoof and doing as well as can be expected.

Nice writeup, solid read. Not to mention the genius of whoever thought to include that feature in the first place. My money is on Steve.

Jake Kanter, writing for Business Insider:

Ben Winston, the co-founder of Fulwell 73 Productions, told us that the Apple show will be about “broadening out to different talents” in a way they are reluctant to do with “The Late Late Show With James Corden.”

And:

“If a movie star was to call up and say ‘can I do ‘Carpool Karaoke’?’’ the answer would always have been ‘no’ because it’s specifically for musicians. Now on this new show, we’re broadening that out to different talents. More in a documentary-based way,” Winston told Business Insider.

And:

“I’ve come to know Jimmy Iovine quite well and Apple Music is looking for more and more content. They’re big fans of James and the work that we’re doing and we started talking about ideas we could do together.

“We had an idea of how ‘Carpool’ could be a series without James, which we’re working on at the moment, and Jimmy was very insistent that Apple has first option on that. I was very happy with that. I think it’s an amazing brand.”

It’ll be interesting to watch this unfold. This is one of Apple’s first forays into this sort of original content, a bit like the rollout of Beats 1 Radio. Apple is bankrolling the venture, but putting control of the creative end in the hands of the people who created the content in the first place.

Jonny Evans, writing for Computerworld:

If we take ComScore figures for January 2016 we see that around 198.5 million people in the US own smartphones. 52.8 percent of these use Android and 43.6 percent use iPhones, ComScore claims.

If we use ComScore’s figures as base we can make some estimates based on Fluent’s research. Fluent believes 29 percent of all iPhone users will definitely buy a new phone this year, and while 87 percent of them will stick with Apple (21.8 million), 6 percent will switch to Android. This suggests that around 1.5 million US iPhone users will make this switch.

And:

22 percent of Android users will “definitely” upgrade their device this year, and while 76 percent of them will stick with that platform, 17 percent will switch to iPhone. This works out to mean 3.91 million Android users seem likely to switch to Apple’s new iPhone this year.

1.5 million leave, 3.9 million arrive. Clearly, the wind is blowing from the Android shores toward the iPhone.

The Verge:

The starting line is just ahead of us, and the guy behind the wheel of this 650-horsepower muscle car is showing off for the crowd. We’re spinning the tires, doing burnout after burnout. Ostensibly it’s warming them for a quick blast up the 1.16-mile hill climb, but really it’s to show off. This is what the Goodwood Festival of Speed is about.

It’s glorious. And I think I can safely say that this event, held every year in the south of England, is the greatest car show in the world. I’ve been to a lot of car shows, and none of them are like this.

Goodwood is high on my automotive bucket list.