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Thoughts on Apple (September 12, 2017)

Today Apple performed a 2 hour dog and pony show in the new Steve Jobs theater on the campus of the new Apple Park.  Apple announced a new Apple Watch that will allow you to listen to 40 millions songs (all at once?) when you phone is miles away.  The announced a new 4k Apple TV and they announced the iPhone 8 which is an upgrade from the iPhone 7 (no ’s’ models any more I guess).  They then announced the iPhone X (ten) and then they were done.  Then they gave iTunes 12.7 to everyone and this release of iTunes removed the App Store and the ringtone section.  iTunes is now a music and entertainment device.

The direction that Apple is going is simple:  Entertainment.  Games and music and movies and TV shows on all ‘I’ devices and music management on the new iTunes.  If Apple becomes the music destination for the whole world, they don’t need to innovate anymore.  They just sit back and collect $99 a year for apple music and all the residuals for the various games that people now buy and download on the their phones.  I guess Apple feels there is not problem buying and downloading a 2 gig AR game without having a backup copy stored on the computer.

I do not listen to much music.  I have 20k or so songs all ripped from CDs that I collected in the military and after.  I like hard rock, metal and guitar rock and Third Day.  I like classic rock from the 70s and 80s and discovering music is not something I do for fun or profit.  I play no games on my iPhone or computers.  Not even, or especially not even solitaire.  Three years ago I deleted all games from my phone and I have never looked back.  I do like to make custom ringtones, and apparently I can drag those to my iPhone through iTunes, without having a “tones section.”  Some time ago I bought iMazing and Waltr and it looks like these two apps will become my iTunes replacement.  iMazing automatically backs up my devices, and allows me to edit, adding or removing things, from the backup and then restored it.  Waltr allows me to drag and drop anything and I mean anything into my “I” devices and it converts it and figures it out.

So, if Apple is going to be a game and music company, selling and renting movies and TV shows, I will just not use those portions of their services.  To be assured, if I drop $1,000 on the new iPhone, I will not be paying $99 a year for music and untold hundreds of movies and TV shows.  The hardware costs enough.

Apple’s little shows are always entertaining.  They do a good job.  Craig had trouble with the facial recognition during today’s demo and the phone asked for the passcode.  He recovered and it was a good show.  Eventually I will get a new iPhone and I will enjoy it.  I have written other blog posts on how my iPhone is my portable office, not a music store or a movie theater.

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