You must not know any of them. I do, they exist, and they behave as described. Not every Apple user is like that (I'm certainly not, I own a MacBook Pro and I love it, but have no interest in pretty much anything else Apple makes), but those people do exist and they're vocal enough that they appear to be the majority, whether they are or not.
I am a huge Apple fan; I know the difference between their products because I am forced to use other brands at work, and from time to time elsewhere. But don't attempt to paint all Apple fans as fanbois. You're right, I don't know any of those, and have many, many friends that USED to use other brands, until their first Apple product...
And if you really go around analyzing the posts on Slashdot, what you will find is mostly others ANTICIPATING Apple knee-jerk fanboyism, with zero actual "blind adulation". Think about it.
I post in a lot of Apple threads here; but pretty much always to "correct the record" using facts, not opinion. Like the post I just answered elsewhere to this article, where the person accused Apple of using a proprietary connector with USB-C, even after the article about the new Pixel Chomebook appeared on Slashdot!!!
yes that is exactly what he meant by calling it an industry connector you dink
How can you even think that, with the new Pixel Chromebook sporting USB-C, too?
If you can even read, here's a nice article with lots of pretty pictures and small words that explains USB-C in terms that even a dink(sic) like you can understand.
You live in some sort of fantasy world if you think APL *WILL* act responsibly, even if they were aware of the situation.
No other company is makes huge margins and: misleads UK citizens about LTE. Yes, it had LTE... US band LTE, so it wouldn't work inside the UK? Price fixing e-books?
There's corporate greed, then there's the standard APL sets...
Overall, they have a better record of responsibility than most, and this thread was about a news story that Apple didn't even CREATE.
The Newton was a turd that nobody bought. The Palm developers had to leave Apple so they could innovate.
Even Jobs knew the deal with Newton. He killed it.
You are really sad, you know?
You have run all over Slashdot just gainsaying every post I make, and completely without offering anything to the discussion whatsoever.
It's already starting to backfire; so why don't you quit while you're still ahead?
Now to the point. Compared to today, EVERYTHING was a turd that nobody bought. That's why there are ZERO "PDAs" on the market, and the preeminent maker of PDAs (Palm ) got bought and sold and bought and sold and finally just parted-out into oblivion.
Excuse me, but now it's Apple's fault that CNN can't do research?
They're partially complicit, they could have contacted CNN to point out that they were wrong. They could have dumped out a press release on their website saying it was incorrect, but they didn't. They simply rode the train because it was the easiest thing to do.
Can you prove they even knew about one random news story among literally millions? And just how many of those news stories contained inaccuracies both big and small? How many hours of tracking down the right people at those news organizations do you think it would have taken, only to have them return a call several days later, after Jobs' death was already a non-story? And can you imagine how it was at Apple in the days following Jobs' death?
You live in some sort of fantasy world if you think Apple acted irresponsibly, or in a way contrary to any other company on this planet.
I was using an Amiga when you Mac faggots were jizzing all over your black-and-white screens and fiddling with your 1 button mice. Macs4all? Fuck you. I prefer real computers.
Amigas had some spectacular hardware. I was even going to embed an Amiga 500 into a stage lighting controller I was designing while you were busy playing Battle Chess on your Amiga.
However, the Amiga OS was just an unstable piece of shit, and, well, we know what happened to Commodore...
And really? A one-button mouse joke and a run at sexuality is the best you can do? Are you mentally challenged,Mir what?
Apple does whatever they think will benefit them the most. See USB-C for an example of using an industry connector. For that matter, Thunderbolt's an industry standard (just as Firewire was) -- but those don't really count, as Apple holds some of the patents and has a very vested interest in the adoption.
They use thunderbolt cables? Or their phones and tablets don't have external memory cards or proper cables? Maybe it's because they treat their entire business model as a closed system locked up tighter than North Korea yet their customers are super happy despite their monopoly; the apple business model isthe envy of CEOs around the world so why ruin a good thing?
No.
The cables used by the iPhone and iPad (only) are called "Lightning" cables, and are nothing like Thunderbolt. They were created to replace the 30-pin cable used previously. The main goals were a reduction in the connector size, and for a connector that could be plugged in in either orientation, unlike any flavor of USB at the time.
PDA: you rememmber, those pocket computer with a touch screen that where here ago long ago before Apple 'rediscovered' the form factor).
Apple had one of those too, remember? But if you are comparing the likes of a PDA to the touch UI renaissance brought on by the iPhone (and yes, by the iPhone first, you're just sad.
Then bluetooth started gaining traction and its OBEX feature was even more popular
Charging isn't the only thing the cable does. When you want to sync those multi-GB's of pictures, music and videos or do an iTunes backup, you'll want the cable.
Are we talking about the Apple Watch? Because I don't recall that from the Keynote, nor from any of the nearly dozen reviews I have read.
Their social zeal and Apple's marketing will overwhelm the field, and at some point everyone will call all wireless chargers "iChargers" even if only half of them are, and the others are actually other brands / technologies that work similarly but pre-dated it.
Sadly, that is probably actually what will happen.
When Steve Jobs died, major news sites like CNN ran stories proclaiming that he "invented the computer mouse". Steve Jobs. Now granted maybe someone typed "Jobs" when they meant to type "Engelbart" as a mere innocent slip of the fingers. Could happen!
Excuse me, but now it's Apple's fault that CNN can't do research?
Yup, and then all the Apple-heads will flock to it, talk about how amazing it is (ignoring the fact that the same capabilities existed before, from other companies). Their social zeal and Apple's marketing will overwhelm the field, and at some point everyone will call all wireless chargers "iChargers" even if only half of them are, and the others are actually other brands / technologies that work similarly but pre-dated it. Such is the power - the evil power - that Apple exerts in our dark age...
Real Nerds know that you need AC for wireless charging, DC just won't cut it.
Seriously though, my opinion as a physicist/engineer is that wireless charging is a little dumb. It wastes a lot of power in an age where energy conservation is paramount, for what exactly? It's not like you can charge your phone from a distance. Inductive charging is a sensible tradeoff in things like dil^Welectric toothbrushes -- just because it can be done, doesn't mean it's great for everything.
As a practical matter, the efficiencies are affected by the frequency of the AC Signal. At 50/60 Hz, there are significant losses to heat, due to poor power-factor numbers as well as problems with core saturation (esp. At 50 Hz). However, if you crank the frequency up to about 100 kHz, like a lot of SMPS designs, things begin to look a lot better. Crank it up again, to a few MHz, and the efficiencies get really good, and the components get pretty damned small.
But, as a "physicist/engineer" (which no one who was really either of those would call themselves), you should already know all this.
And beside all that, the measly few Watts that are needed to charge a phone in a reasonable period of time aren't going to deplete the planet's energy reserves anytime soon. Even a poor transformer operating in the 60 Hz world typically achieves over 80% efficiency in it's energy transfer from Primary to Secondary. So, extrapolating from the real-world example of the original 10W iPhone "cube" charger, you would only have to increase that to around 12W to overcome the 20% loss from a small air-gap.
I am NOT talking about charging-at-a-distance. The inverse-square law gets you pretty quick when doing that!
Calling the Pixel "weak-ass" is unfair. The specs are good for an ultraportable laptop, which is what the Pixel is. It can't match the computing power of a 17" behemoth but it also doesn't weigh 8 pounds.
Sorry.
Maybe I'm just a bit annoyed at all the bitching about the new MacBook, which, other than one less USB-C port, seems to have as good, or in most cases, better, specs than the Pixel.
That would require getting very political with the "gnome" developers who are the ones that are making things that will only work is systemd is present. They are an odd bunch so doing so would be like diving head first into student politics at a white only, male only third rate deep south Bible college. While I am both male and white things do turn to shit when an org gets too inbred, especially when the "elder statesman" they hold in awe started coding in 2003.
Holy Sh**!!! *I* started coding in 1976!!! I'm a frickin' FOSSIL!!!
Great analogy, BTW...
What is happening is that servers and workstations are on distros without systemd, apart from a tiny minority on RHEL7/CentOS7, so the "train" hasn't even turned up on the timetables of many. Commercial software on *nix is developed very slowly - I'm currently waiting for an important addon for a geophysical package to be updated so that it can run on RHEL6/CentOS6 - 7 isn't even on the radar of most.
Interesting. So, in reading/., people who are NOT Linux Devs. really get a somewhat skewed view of the imminent nature of the systemd (and likely other) "nerd-fights" involved with Linux, right?
So Lennart's solution to the "problem" of linux not having a single unifying structure under his own control is likely to mean old distros hang around a bit longer than they otherwise would. If Wayland (Mac and MS style dumb framebuffer for local only use instead of X) actually gets to be useful that may make gnome irrelevant and the problem may get leapfrogged over.
Wait! Ya lost me! I admit that most of what I know about Linux comes from reading/. ; but I REALLY don't understand what a [display?] framebuffer has to do with a kernel-level daemon like systemd.
But beside that, it STILL sounds like you (not necessarily "you" personally), are just kind of hoping that systemd will go away. And if Linux wares are as slow-to-change as you say (which doesn't seem to be the case with systemd!!!), then it still seems like there is time to start changing hearts and minds in favor of launchd (assuming SOME change from INIT is inevitable).
The high-end Apple Watch is $10k (which is definitely not that high in the watch-as-a-fashion-statement-world) and actually has a solid 18k Gold-Ceramic "alloy" housing.
It's definitely high when the company it comes from is the maker of common computers and smartphones though, particularly when the device itself is identical to the $349 version just in a different colored (let's be honest you're not noticing that it is actually a different material in any circumstance, which is exactly why no other version comes in a gold color unlike many of Apple's other products) case.
What in THE hell are you talking about???
The three versions of the watch probably have the same guts; but they definitely have different case materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel and Gold. Of course Apple would want to distinguish the actual Gold case from the others; to do otherwise would be utterly ridiculous, and would actually devalue both the lower-end AND the premium SKUs in the eye of the (potential) customer.
This is Marketing 101. Can someone with some actual Marketing experience please explain this simple concept to the Parent?
Personally, I hate gold-anodized or gold-plated products. To me, they just look like they are made for those who would like others to THINK they can afford actual Gold (like the high-end Apple Watch), but in actuality, they can't.
Oh, and how many mechanical watches that cost as much, or even more, than the $10k Apple Watch do you think have some generic parts in their high-priced cases? I would be willing to bet that it is a lot more common than you would think.
More ports. Runs Linux. I agree about the touchscreen, though. Don't really quite understand that for a laptop.
Not more ports than a MBA (which is a similar price, and has more storage and a faster CPU, and doesn't have Google datamining your every word). And it runsLinux, too.
As a Pixel 1 owner here, you can just crack open the Chromebook, screw tight the write-protect screw for the BIOS and flash a replacement ROM that removes the whole ChromeOS boot capability and delay.
It does have drawbacks, but you can work around them. Good for tweakers.
Excuse me; but a $1k laptop with those weak-ass specs shouldn't require "workarounds".
<sarcasm> Yes, but don't forget, it's running everything through a web browser, so it NEEDS the beefier specs. </sarcasm>
Besides, their next version will be $17,000 and have a fake gold-ceramic housing. Give them credit, though - it'll still be more useful than an Apple watch.
Barbara, I'm surprised at you.
The high-end Apple Watch is $10k (which is definitely not that high in the watch-as-a-fashion-statement-world) and actually has a solid 18k Gold-Ceramic "alloy" housing.
I must admit though; I probably wouldn't buy that model even if I was loaded...
And I don't know if you watched the Keynote the other day; but they really do make some compelling use-cases for it (and I don't mean stupid-shit like sending your heartbeat or flower-scribbles).
And a year from now, nobody will care about the Apple watch. It's a company chasing after the notion that they can on a whim create a whole new product category, in a niche that doesn't even exist.
Steve would have killed it very early on. It's a shark jump product.
Don't kid yourself; St. Jobs probably initially approved the project. Seriously, how long do you think the development cycle is like for a product like this? Jobs had only been dead 3 years by the time Tim Cook was wearing one last Fall. I would be very surprised if there weren't at least some preliminary prototypes floating around Apple before Steve went to his Reward.
Slashdot Mirror
The Apple III should have been evidence enough of that years ago.
Really? Still brining up the Apple ///? That was 1979, man.
/// was the result of "design by committee". Jobs was only one voice.
and according to Woz, the Apple
You must not know any of them. I do, they exist, and they behave as described. Not every Apple user is like that (I'm certainly not, I own a MacBook Pro and I love it, but have no interest in pretty much anything else Apple makes), but those people do exist and they're vocal enough that they appear to be the majority, whether they are or not.
I am a huge Apple fan; I know the difference between their products because I am forced to use other brands at work, and from time to time elsewhere. But don't attempt to paint all Apple fans as fanbois. You're right, I don't know any of those, and have many, many friends that USED to use other brands, until their first Apple product...
And if you really go around analyzing the posts on Slashdot, what you will find is mostly others ANTICIPATING Apple knee-jerk fanboyism, with zero actual "blind adulation". Think about it.
I post in a lot of Apple threads here; but pretty much always to "correct the record" using facts, not opinion. Like the post I just answered elsewhere to this article, where the person accused Apple of using a proprietary connector with USB-C, even after the article about the new Pixel Chomebook appeared on Slashdot!!!
yes that is exactly what he meant by calling it an industry connector you dink
How can you even think that, with the new Pixel Chromebook sporting USB-C, too?
If you can even read, here's a nice article with lots of pretty pictures and small words that explains USB-C in terms that even a dink(sic) like you can understand.
You live in some sort of fantasy world if you think APL *WILL* act responsibly, even if they were aware of the situation.
No other company is makes huge margins and: misleads UK citizens about LTE. Yes, it had LTE... US band LTE, so it wouldn't work inside the UK? Price fixing e-books?
There's corporate greed, then there's the standard APL sets...
Overall, they have a better record of responsibility than most, and this thread was about a news story that Apple didn't even CREATE.
Nice strawman.
The Newton was a turd that nobody bought. The Palm developers had to leave Apple so they could innovate.
Even Jobs knew the deal with Newton. He killed it.
You are really sad, you know?
You have run all over Slashdot just gainsaying every post I make, and completely without offering anything to the discussion whatsoever.
It's already starting to backfire; so why don't you quit while you're still ahead?
Now to the point. Compared to today, EVERYTHING was a turd that nobody bought. That's why there are ZERO "PDAs" on the market, and the preeminent maker of PDAs (Palm ) got bought and sold and bought and sold and finally just parted-out into oblivion.
Excuse me, but now it's Apple's fault that CNN can't do research?
They're partially complicit, they could have contacted CNN to point out that they were wrong. They could have dumped out a press release on their website saying it was incorrect, but they didn't. They simply rode the train because it was the easiest thing to do.
Can you prove they even knew about one random news story among literally millions? And just how many of those news stories contained inaccuracies both big and small? How many hours of tracking down the right people at those news organizations do you think it would have taken, only to have them return a call several days later, after Jobs' death was already a non-story? And can you imagine how it was at Apple in the days following Jobs' death?
You live in some sort of fantasy world if you think Apple acted irresponsibly, or in a way contrary to any other company on this planet.
AC transformer PF is 1.0. AC Transformer efficiency is generally between 95%-99%. See a novice primer at https://www.physicsforums.com/....
I stand corrected. I was pulling stuff out of distant memory, based on a comment saying power transformer efficiency was AT LEAST 80%.
So my point that the GGP was full of it is even more true.
I was using an Amiga when you Mac faggots were jizzing all over your black-and-white screens and fiddling with your 1 button mice. Macs4all? Fuck you. I prefer real computers.
Amigas had some spectacular hardware. I was even going to embed an Amiga 500 into a stage lighting controller I was designing while you were busy playing Battle Chess on your Amiga.
However, the Amiga OS was just an unstable piece of shit, and, well, we know what happened to Commodore...
And really? A one-button mouse joke and a run at sexuality is the best you can do? Are you mentally challenged,Mir what?
Apple does whatever they think will benefit them the most. See USB-C for an example of using an industry connector. For that matter, Thunderbolt's an industry standard (just as Firewire was) -- but those don't really count, as Apple holds some of the patents and has a very vested interest in the adoption.
Are you implying that USB-C is proprietary?
Hahahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
They use thunderbolt cables? Or their phones and tablets don't have external memory cards or proper cables? Maybe it's because they treat their entire business model as a closed system locked up tighter than North Korea yet their customers are super happy despite their monopoly; the apple business model isthe envy of CEOs around the world so why ruin a good thing?
No.
The cables used by the iPhone and iPad (only) are called "Lightning" cables, and are nothing like Thunderbolt. They were created to replace the 30-pin cable used previously. The main goals were a reduction in the connector size, and for a connector that could be plugged in in either orientation, unlike any flavor of USB at the time.
PDA: you rememmber, those pocket computer with a touch screen that where here ago long ago before Apple 'rediscovered' the form factor).
Apple had one of those too, remember? But if you are comparing the likes of a PDA to the touch UI renaissance brought on by the iPhone (and yes, by the iPhone first, you're just sad.
Then bluetooth started gaining traction and its OBEX feature was even more popular
OBEX was first developed for IrDA, not Bluetooth.
You're an idiot.
Charging isn't the only thing the cable does. When you want to sync those multi-GB's of pictures, music and videos or do an iTunes backup, you'll want the cable.
Are we talking about the Apple Watch? Because I don't recall that from the Keynote, nor from any of the nearly dozen reviews I have read.
Peltier cooling
Talk about inefficiency...
Their social zeal and Apple's marketing will overwhelm the field, and at some point everyone will call all wireless chargers "iChargers" even if only half of them are, and the others are actually other brands / technologies that work similarly but pre-dated it.
Sadly, that is probably actually what will happen.
When Steve Jobs died, major news sites like CNN ran stories proclaiming that he "invented the computer mouse". Steve Jobs. Now granted maybe someone typed "Jobs" when they meant to type "Engelbart" as a mere innocent slip of the fingers. Could happen!
Excuse me, but now it's Apple's fault that CNN can't do research?
Yup, and then all the Apple-heads will flock to it, talk about how amazing it is (ignoring the fact that the same capabilities existed before, from other companies). Their social zeal and Apple's marketing will overwhelm the field, and at some point everyone will call all wireless chargers "iChargers" even if only half of them are, and the others are actually other brands / technologies that work similarly but pre-dated it. Such is the power - the evil power - that Apple exerts in our dark age...
If you really believe that, you need help.
Real Nerds know that you need AC for wireless charging, DC just won't cut it.
Seriously though, my opinion as a physicist/engineer is that wireless charging is a little dumb. It wastes a lot of power in an age where energy conservation is paramount, for what exactly? It's not like you can charge your phone from a distance. Inductive charging is a sensible tradeoff in things like dil^Welectric toothbrushes -- just because it can be done, doesn't mean it's great for everything.
As a practical matter, the efficiencies are affected by the frequency of the AC Signal. At 50/60 Hz, there are significant losses to heat, due to poor power-factor numbers as well as problems with core saturation (esp. At 50 Hz). However, if you crank the frequency up to about 100 kHz, like a lot of SMPS designs, things begin to look a lot better. Crank it up again, to a few MHz, and the efficiencies get really good, and the components get pretty damned small.
But, as a "physicist/engineer" (which no one who was really either of those would call themselves), you should already know all this.
And beside all that, the measly few Watts that are needed to charge a phone in a reasonable period of time aren't going to deplete the planet's energy reserves anytime soon. Even a poor transformer operating in the 60 Hz world typically achieves over 80% efficiency in it's energy transfer from Primary to Secondary. So, extrapolating from the real-world example of the original 10W iPhone "cube" charger, you would only have to increase that to around 12W to overcome the 20% loss from a small air-gap.
I am NOT talking about charging-at-a-distance. The inverse-square law gets you pretty quick when doing that!
Calling the Pixel "weak-ass" is unfair. The specs are good for an ultraportable laptop, which is what the Pixel is. It can't match the computing power of a 17" behemoth but it also doesn't weigh 8 pounds.
Sorry.
Maybe I'm just a bit annoyed at all the bitching about the new MacBook, which, other than one less USB-C port, seems to have as good, or in most cases, better, specs than the Pixel.
That would require getting very political with the "gnome" developers who are the ones that are making things that will only work is systemd is present. They are an odd bunch so doing so would be like diving head first into student politics at a white only, male only third rate deep south Bible college. While I am both male and white things do turn to shit when an org gets too inbred, especially when the "elder statesman" they hold in awe started coding in 2003.
Holy Sh**!!! *I* started coding in 1976!!! I'm a frickin' FOSSIL!!!
Great analogy, BTW...
What is happening is that servers and workstations are on distros without systemd, apart from a tiny minority on RHEL7/CentOS7, so the "train" hasn't even turned up on the timetables of many. Commercial software on *nix is developed very slowly - I'm currently waiting for an important addon for a geophysical package to be updated so that it can run on RHEL6/CentOS6 - 7 isn't even on the radar of most.
Interesting. So, in reading /., people who are NOT Linux Devs. really get a somewhat skewed view of the imminent nature of the systemd (and likely other) "nerd-fights" involved with Linux, right?
So Lennart's solution to the "problem" of linux not having a single unifying structure under his own control is likely to mean old distros hang around a bit longer than they otherwise would. If Wayland (Mac and MS style dumb framebuffer for local only use instead of X) actually gets to be useful that may make gnome irrelevant and the problem may get leapfrogged over.
Wait! Ya lost me! I admit that most of what I know about Linux comes from reading /. ; but I REALLY don't understand what a [display?] framebuffer has to do with a kernel-level daemon like systemd.
But beside that, it STILL sounds like you (not necessarily "you" personally), are just kind of hoping that systemd will go away. And if Linux wares are as slow-to-change as you say (which doesn't seem to be the case with systemd!!!), then it still seems like there is time to start changing hearts and minds in favor of launchd (assuming SOME change from INIT is inevitable).
The high-end Apple Watch is $10k (which is definitely not that high in the watch-as-a-fashion-statement-world) and actually has a solid 18k Gold-Ceramic "alloy" housing.
It's definitely high when the company it comes from is the maker of common computers and smartphones though, particularly when the device itself is identical to the $349 version just in a different colored (let's be honest you're not noticing that it is actually a different material in any circumstance, which is exactly why no other version comes in a gold color unlike many of Apple's other products) case.
What in THE hell are you talking about???
The three versions of the watch probably have the same guts; but they definitely have different case materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel and Gold. Of course Apple would want to distinguish the actual Gold case from the others; to do otherwise would be utterly ridiculous, and would actually devalue both the lower-end AND the premium SKUs in the eye of the (potential) customer.
This is Marketing 101. Can someone with some actual Marketing experience please explain this simple concept to the Parent?
Personally, I hate gold-anodized or gold-plated products. To me, they just look like they are made for those who would like others to THINK they can afford actual Gold (like the high-end Apple Watch), but in actuality, they can't.
Oh, and how many mechanical watches that cost as much, or even more, than the $10k Apple Watch do you think have some generic parts in their high-priced cases? I would be willing to bet that it is a lot more common than you would think.
It's really evil and a money grab in my opinion.
Money grab by who? If Apple was the only source of USB-C adapters, then you might have a point.
But they're not.
Next time: Think; THEN Post.
I happen to know a lot more about USB Type-C than the average punter who hasn't authored specs for the USB SIG.
It's good juju. But compare with an Intel NUC, where you can plug in a PCIe SSD.
That would be a good thing to be available on the motherboard.
$500? for 512 GB? Are you KIDDING me?!? If SSDs are going to cost THAT much, platters will spin for quite a while in my computers...
More ports. Runs Linux. I agree about the touchscreen, though. Don't really quite understand that for a laptop.
Not more ports than a MBA (which is a similar price, and has more storage and a faster CPU, and doesn't have Google datamining your every word). And it runs Linux, too.
As a Pixel 1 owner here, you can just crack open the Chromebook, screw tight the write-protect screw for the BIOS and flash a replacement ROM that removes the whole ChromeOS boot capability and delay. It does have drawbacks, but you can work around them. Good for tweakers.
Excuse me; but a $1k laptop with those weak-ass specs shouldn't require "workarounds".
You Linux guys are sooooo funny.
<sarcasm> Yes, but don't forget, it's running everything through a web browser, so it NEEDS the beefier specs. </sarcasm>
Besides, their next version will be $17,000 and have a fake gold-ceramic housing. Give them credit, though - it'll still be more useful than an Apple watch.
Barbara, I'm surprised at you.
The high-end Apple Watch is $10k (which is definitely not that high in the watch-as-a-fashion-statement-world) and actually has a solid 18k Gold-Ceramic "alloy" housing.
I must admit though; I probably wouldn't buy that model even if I was loaded...
And I don't know if you watched the Keynote the other day; but they really do make some compelling use-cases for it (and I don't mean stupid-shit like sending your heartbeat or flower-scribbles).
And a year from now, nobody will care about the Apple watch. It's a company chasing after the notion that they can on a whim create a whole new product category, in a niche that doesn't even exist.
Steve would have killed it very early on. It's a shark jump product.
Don't kid yourself; St. Jobs probably initially approved the project. Seriously, how long do you think the development cycle is like for a product like this? Jobs had only been dead 3 years by the time Tim Cook was wearing one last Fall. I would be very surprised if there weren't at least some preliminary prototypes floating around Apple before Steve went to his Reward.