Techinch, March 2011:

Looking just at the specs, a microwave didn't make sense to many. So manufacturers bundled them with cookbooks that detailed the many things you could cook in a microwave. Look, you can make this great Chinese dish in a microwave! Our microwave lets you bake a cake! Need a hot cup of this complicated spiced cider? It'll only take 15 steps in our microwave! They thought the microwave needed to be a full oven, and more.

But, wonder of all wonders, people started buying microwaves and using them regularly. In the store, a microwave didn't seem like a must-have item to many, but once you incorporated it into your daily life, it was irreplaceable. [...]

The microwave isn't easier for every cooking task, and perhaps it takes longer to prepare a complicated meal in a microwave. Perhaps no award winning meal will be created in one, unless it's a special contest for microwave cooking. But it simplified simple cooking, and consumers around the world saw it as a necessary piece of equipment within in years of it becoming popular. It didn't need to be an oven, and didn't need to be better than an oven. It just needed to be the best for some certain cooking scenarios, and that was enough to win the hearts and minds of people around the world.

Last year, Apple introduced the iPad, a computing device many have struggled to classify. It's bigger than a smartphone or iPod, smaller than a computer, but can do some things you'd otherwise do on both of these. You can type a document in Pages or find your way with GPS and Google Maps. So what makes it so special? From a specs perspective, tablets don't make sense. It cost just under $500, but if you've already invested in a computer and a smartphone, it's just another expense. Plus, netbooks only cost $300, right?

In 10 years, young adults will look at the tablet the same way we look at microwaves.

It's definitely an adjustment, sacrificing one-handed accessibility for a larger screen. It's a little harder to take food pics lol, and I found myself having to use both hands when reading while lying in bed. But because of my bad vision in my right eye, I can definitely appreciate the larger screen for reading.

I have yet to really play with the camera but I've definitely noticed it's improved ability for taking photos in low-light conditions.

I'm really excited to test out the quick autofocus with my puppy; taking non-blurry pics of a hyper pup is one of the hardest thing to do.

My only real complaint is a temporary one -- most third-party apps haven't been redesigned to support the larger screen yet, so they all look like blown-up zoomed versions of the 5S. Surely this will become a non-issue soon.

NY Times:

Steven P. Jobs established Apple University as a way to inculcate employees into Apple’s business culture and educate them about its history, particularly as the company grew and the tech business changed. Courses are not required, only recommended, but getting new employees to enroll is rarely a problem. [...]

Unlike many corporations, Apple runs its training in-house, year round. The full-time faculty — including instructors, writers and editors — create and teach the courses. Some faculty members come from universities like Yale; Harvard; the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; and M.I.T., and some continue to hold positions at their schools while working for Apple.

The program was devised by Joel Podolny, then the dean of Yale School of Management. Mr. Jobs selected him when the program was founded, in 2008, and he remains head of the effort. He is also a vice president of human resources at Apple.

This is why Apple will continue to live on long after Steve Jobs.

Sure, the company lost their master decision maker that took the company from rags to riches. But Jobs' greatest invention wasn't any one single Apple product; it was Apple itself. The company's mission, values, and corporate culture were all refined over 30 years by Jobs to grow Apple into what it is today.

While Steve is no longer around to give orders, he did something even better — he left the company with a winning formula so his generals could come up with their own answers. (Which is exactly what we're seeing now, with Tim Cook making un-Steve-Jobs-like decisions but still staying true to The Apple Way.)

Not only did he leave a winning formula; he established a year-round university staffed with professors from the prestigious colleges around to ensure his legacy will be firmly embedded into the hearts and minds each and every employee.

As the saying goes: "The goal isn't to live forever. The goal is to create something that will."

Depending on how techie you are, Apple's WWDC announcements last week left you with one of these impressions:

• “No new iPhone?! LAME.”
• “PATHETIC. Android has had all of that for years!”
• "HOLY. SHIT. MINDBLOWN."

If you're in the first group, you're most likely a consumer and not a developer. We have to remember, WWDC — short for World Wide Developer Conference — is a developer conference. For developers. Not consumers.

If you're in the second group, I got news for you: everyone copies. That's how technology moves forward. The best ideas are copied, remixed, refined, and evolve. As long as consumers win, why do we still need to argue about this?

If you're in the last group, you are either an iOS developer or an Apple enthusiast, and have a solid understanding/appreciation of how Apple does things.

As a developer and user experience designer, my job entails identifying specific user problems, researching/testing the right solutions, and delivering them to the right people at the right time. My passion lies in finding what makes new technology meaningful to real people, not just early adopting techies like me.

With that said, I'll try to break down all the developer stuff into real world examples for you.

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Buzz around the fabled "iWatch" has really hit fever-pitch levels since 9to5Mac's big scoop. Here's an overview of everything that we know, what we should expect, and what I think could happen.

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As part of my annual tradition, here is a list of my favorite apps, services, and tech products that I used throughout 2013.

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Rene Ritchie just nails it with this piece.

Just look at the top end of that China bell curve. That's a lot of fucking cheddar.

Tristan Louis, Forbes:

Every step of the way, the company focused on reducing friction and providing increased value for the user when its competitors asked the users to do more work. The net result is that users have voluntarily provided all the components Apple now needs to enable a payment revolution. And we’re about to witness the rise of the iWallet, maybe not this year but pretty soon.

While all the doubters are busy proclaiming "Apple is doomed without Steve Jobs" and "Apple doesn't innovate," Apple's been quietly laying the foundation for a major mobile payments revolution.

It might not seem like it now but the Touch ID fingerprint scanner has potential to be a real game-changer (assuming it works reliably, unlike Siri). We live in a world of multiple devices, countless apps & social networks...remembering all those logins and passwords is a huge pain in the ass.

I'm reminded of this every time my parents have to call me from the Philippines because A) they forgot their password or got locked out of their accounts for too many failed login attempts.

Identity & Authentication are two things that are due for innovation, and Apple just made the first step towards improving that for mainstream consumers. It might not be a feature that'll make your jaw drop or impress you, but it'll be something you won't be able to live without once you've had it.