For #Apple's 50th birthday, I would like to point out that #SteveJobs was an asshole, but #TimCook has been even worse.
I was never a fan of the Apple I or II, but Macintosh, Newton, PowerBook, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch represented major paradigm shifts in consumer computing technology that far outstripped their competitors and forced the industry as a whole to change.
Under Jobs, we all got fundamentally the same technologies. Under Cook, we got stratification and "luxury".
Steve Jobs had a passion for making complex technologies beautiful, understandable, and usable for everyone. The iPhone 5 was the last project at Apple of which Jobs was fully in charge. There was only one iPhone 5. The only thing more money bought you was a little more storage.
Once Tim Cook took over, Apple started pursuing a strategy of hierarchy and stratification in the market, deliberately offering the latest technologies only to their wealthiest customers under the guise of "luxury".
Under Tim Cook, innovations in Apple products often do not even "trickle down" to affordable models after 5-6 years. Case in point: MagSafe was introduced with the iPhone 12 in 2020. It wasn't available in the cheapest iPhone until 2026, with the iPhone 17e.
MagSafe is just a cheap wireless charger coil with a magnet inside the phone case. It costs maybe a few dollars to manufacture, at most.
iPhones first got wireless charging in 2017, with the iPhone 8. All it needed was a magnet.
And don't even get me started on the Apple Vision or Liquid Glass, the two biggest product disasters the company has ever produced.
Liquid Glass is, for me, the straw that broke the camel's back. After 40 years of buying, using, and recommending Apple products as the best in class for almost every purpose, I can no longer in good conscience continue to support the company or submit to Tim Cook's whims.
I have already been forced for years to submit to a lack of a decent browser on iOS, and to go to extraordinary lengths to block ads and spyware on my iPhone and iPad, to the point where my iPad is mostly a paperweight, now, all because Apple will not allow third-party browsers, and I've uninstalled all proprietary apps I can on my iPhone.
Liquid Glass is the most awful, most ugly interface Apple has ever released. It's liquid garbage, and they refuse to listen to customers and get rid of it.
Apple has also removed the ability of anyone who installed iOS 26 and hates it to revert to iOS 18. I put iPadOS 26 on my iPad and immediately regretted it, but there's no way back. At least I can still refuse to install it on my iPhone.
The people who designed Liquid Glass should not have been allowed to graduate from art school, and definitely do not deserve their salaries. It breaks virtually every principle of good interaction design. But, ultimately, the CEO is responsible.
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐