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Forests are a wonderful resource for cleaning air, purifying water, sequestering carbon, and sheltering wildlife. As part of Apple’s commitment to resource conservation, we designed and run a program to address the impact of our use of paper for packaging. The initiative started with a detailed assessment of Apple’s fiber use, which led to a three-part strategy: (1) use paper more efficiently and, where possible, use recycled paper; (2) source virgin fiber responsibly; and (3) protect and create sustainable working forests. The third initiative—though not an obvious course of action at the project’s outset—helped ensure that our efforts to source virgin fiber responsibly do not simply take away from the world’s supply of paper derived from sustainably managed forests, but also grow the supply. We hope this case study offers a model from which others can learn and inspires action to protect working forests and ther resources on which we all rely.
Apple did this in two ways: First, iPhones used to use two stacked plastic trays inside the box, one for the actual iPhone and one for its charger and EarPods. The iPhone 7 packaging only has one tray — and it's made out of a kind of paper, not a plastic.
Apple also simplified how it wraps its headphones. Before, your new white earbuds came wrapped in a plastic case. The case wasn't reusable, though, it was only to get the earbuds to the customer safely.
Now, Apple's headphones come wrapped around a stiff cardboard holder that's been folded and cut to perfectly fit into the iPhone box.
That ethos has slowly found its way into other companies too. “Everybody’s in the service business, they just don’t all know it yet.” says Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad, a company (later purchased by Best Buy) that glamorized computer repair before Apple did. That meant abandoning the commission-based sales model that has long motivated retail employees. Stephens cited Miracle on 34th Street, in which a Macy’s Santa Claus sends a customer to a rival department store to get what she needs. That, he said, was the “atomic birth of the honest service principle.”
This sense—that company employees are trying to help you, not sell you something—is also the ethos at the Genius Bar, whose cultish, proscriptive training manual is legendary for its emphasis on empathy and vibes in the service of sales. When Johnson and I spoke on the phone this week, he imitated the Yogi-like ethic of a modern retail employee: “I’m not here to sell food or sell computers. I’m here to enrich your life.”
Apple is zeroing in on a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories as one of its first series in its foray into original programming under Jamie Erlicht & Zack Van Amburg, heads of the newly formed worldwide video programming division.
The tech giant is nearing a deal for a remake of the cult Spielberg-produced anthology series, which aired from 1985-87 series on NBC. The project, written by Hannibal and American Gods‘ Bryan Fuller, was originally set up at NBC two years ago. It comes from Spielberg’s Amblin TV and Universal TV, with Amblin TV’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey executive producing the reboot alongside Fuller.
This is just the first of what’s sure to be a hail of announcements this fall and winter. This $50 million investment is a drop in the bucket. The Journal earlier reported that Apple’s expected to have $1 billion to spend on original content this year. That’s not much compared to the $7 billion Netflix is expected to spend next year, but a billion dollars buys an awful lot of programming.
But there’s no doubt that new, AR-focused products will come, from someone else if not Apple – the most obvious application of this technology is in glasses. The idea of eyewear that includes computers was undermined quite a little by Google Glass, and the “glassholes” that wore them, but once you start using augmented reality it’s clear that it would work brilliantly if it were strapped to your face.
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“But today I can tell you the technology itself doesn’t exist to do that in a quality way. The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face – there’s huge challenges with that.
“The field of view, the quality of the display itself, it’s not there yet,” he says. And as with all of its products, Apple will only ship something if it feels it can do it “in a quality way”.
The Supreme Court asked the Trump administration for advice on a consumer lawsuit that accuses Apple Inc. of trying to monopolize the market for iPhone apps so it can charge excessive commissions.
The request to U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco suggests the justices are interested in hearing Apple’s appeal. The company contends consumers can’t press the antitrust lawsuit because the 30 percent commission is levied on the app developers, not the purchasers.
An A&E doctor has designed an app which aims to give mental health patients help on the same day they need it.
Dr Julian Nesbitt has designed the app after finding that thousands of patients try to take their own lives and end up in A&E because they could not access the help they needed fast enough.
After 10 minutes, a New Guard engineer, Jordan raises her hand and asks, “Can we go around the table and introduce ourselves?” It is this moment that makes this meeting memorable.
The silence is deafening. It’s the Old Guard realizing there are strangers in the room. That’s never happened before. It’s the New Guard breathing a mental sigh of relief, “Finally, I am going to figure out who these people are and what they do.”
And, finally, it’s me realizing, “Oh, these people don’t know each other. They’re not a team, yet.”
I did enjoy Amazong Stories, back in the 80s.
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