Apple's Tim Cook declares the end of the PC...

[humble3d]

Apple's Tim Cook declares the end of the PC... :lol:

and hints at new medical product

Exclusive interview: The Apple boss has two missions - taking on the office PC with his new devices and keeping his customers safe from cyber criminals

It is striking how little has changed in the average office over the past decade. There are more beards, fewer ties and the internet is even more central, but workers still sit in front of computers of one kind or other. Some use laptops; most others are wedded to their desktops, especially among the corporate rank and file. Unlike in the consumer world, where phones and tablets have revolutionised consumption habits, PCs remain kings of the workplace.

But time may finally be running out for the traditional computer. Looking at the shiny new super-sized iPad Pros tucked away in a special room on the third floor of Apple’s flagship Covent Garden store, complete with detachable keyboards, split view functionality and Apple Pencil stylus, it is clear that the world’s largest company has radical plans to change the way we work.

"I think it clearly created some cannibalisation - which we knew would occur - but we don’t really spend any time worrying about that, because as long as we cannibalise [ourselves], it’s fine"

Tim Cook

“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?”, asks Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, who has just flown into Britain for the launch of the iPad Pro. Cook, whose spotless tailored suit and red poppy belies the fact that he spent the night in a plane, is clearly in ebullient mood. Wall Street and the City are obsessed with the iPhone, the company’s dominant product, but Apple appears quietly confident that its new tablet and TV device are going to help power the company’s continuing growth.

“Yes, the iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones,” Cook argues in his distinctly Southern accent (he was born in Alabama). He highlights two other markets for his 12.9 inch devices, which go on sale online on Wednesday. The first are creatives: “if you sketch then it’s unbelievable..you don’t want to use a pad anymore," Cook says.

The second is music and movie consumers: the sound system and speakers are so powerful that the iPad appears to pulsate in one’s hands when one plays a video.

"We don’t want to put the watch through the FDA process, [but] I wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it"

Tim Cook

With the launch of larger iPhones 6 and 6S Plus on the one hand and now the larger iPads on the other, some analysts have argued that Apple’s smaller-screened iPad minis are going to get squeezed. Cook is refreshingly frank about the impact. “I think if you have the larger phone, you’re less likely to have the iPad mini”, he says, though he insists that the demand won’t fall to zero.

Some consumers use the iPad mini to read in bed, he says, finding it more relaxing than using a phone and the busyness that goes with it. That won’t change, he believes. “But I think it clearly created some cannibalisation - which we knew would occur - but we don’t really spend any time worrying about that, because as long as we cannibalise [ourselves], it’s fine," Cook laughs.

Apple CEO Tim Cook with Apple employees at the Apple store in Covent Garden, London

The Telegraph

The company hasn’t published a breakdown of the sales of the Apple Watch, but Cook says that “I think we will set a new [sales] record this quarter; so things are going well.” He is keen to highlight its health benefits - it contains sensors which allow people to monitor activity levels and heart rates -- and recounts how it saved a schoolboy. “He is an [American] football player, a senior in high school. He learnt from his watch that his heart rate was elevated; he mentioned it to his trainer who became very worried about it. He sent him to the doctor and the doctor told him he would have died the following day had he not come in. Basically his organs were shutting down.”

Cook hints that Apple may have more plans for the health sphere, in a revelation which will intrigue Wall Street, but he doesn’t want the watch itself to become a regulated, government-licensed health product. “We don’t want to put the watch through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process. I wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it -- maybe an app, maybe something else.”

"Any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone. Opening a backdoor can have very dire consequences"

Tim Cook, on weakening encryption

The other real excitement - apart from the iPad - lies with the new Apple TV, which has just been launched. You can talk to it, and search for your favourite programme. Early sales are exceptional, he intimates: “We got out of the shoot extremely strong; very strong in the first few days.” A key gauge of the success for such products is the number of apps being developed; Cook says that “it’s much larger than we would have predicted.” He also says that the apps being developed envisage a much wider variety of activities being conducted via the TV, which is another good sign as to the device’s future success and “will really change the living room entirely”. The apps already on offer include games, of course, but also property, home rentals, yoga and health.

Is Apple set to launch its own content subscription streaming service? “We will see. The key question for us is: can we do something better, that acts as a catalyst? If we conclude that we can, then we would. But I wouldn’t do something just to do something.” Cook believes that Chinese consumer demand for its iPhones remains strong. As to India, where the firm is in its “ early, early, early days”: it’s “the next huge market for us”, he says.

One area there is clearly of big concern to Apple, a company that has been unusually passionate in its defence of privacy, is the prospect of any legislation that could make it harder for it to encrypt consumers’ communications end to end - in a way that even it cannot read -- or that would create loopholes that could be hacked.

Theresa May's Investigatory Powers Bill - the Snoopers’ Charter - wouldn’t ban encryption but would enforce a requirement on tech firms and service providers to help provide unencrypted communications to the police or spy agencies if requested through a warrant. There are fears that it could be used to demand that firms terminate end to end encryption, allowing them to read people’s communications and pass them onto the authorities.

"To protect people who use any products, you have to encrypt. You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on. These things are becoming more frequent. They can not only result in privacy breaches but also security issues. We believe very strongly in end to end encryption and no back doors," Cook warns. “We don’t think people want us to read their messages. We don’t feel we have the right to read their emails.”

“Any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a backdoor can have very dire consequences.”

The Apple boss doesn’t believe that it is possible or sensible for a country to go it alone; technology and systems have become too globalised. “We are all connected, whether we like it or not”.

It would also be wrong to pick on a few big players, he says. “It’s not the case that encryption is a rare thing that only two or three rich companies own and you can regulate them in some way. Encryption is widely available. It may make someone feel good for a moment but it’s not really of benefit. If you halt or weaken encryption, the people that you hurt are not the folks that want to do bad things. It’s the good people. The other people know where to go.”

Data and identity theft has a very real human cost, he argues. By jeopardising “people’s financial security, it can affect their psychology and health.” Worse, cybercriminals and cyberterrorists could hack into the IT systems that control our infrastructure and transport systems, with potentially devastating effects, “including our trains.”

He is confident that May and the government will do the right thing. “I’m optimistic. When the public gets engaged, the press gets engaged deeply, it will become clear to people what needs to occur. You can't weaken cryptography. You need to strengthen it. You need to stay ahead of the folks that want to break it.”

On that note, Cook is off; but in Britain the battle between libertarians and authoritarians has only just commenced.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11984806/Apples-Tim-Cook-declares-the-end-of-the-PC-and-hints-at-new-medical-product.html

[Ballistic Gelatin]

Whatever you say, Tim. Whatever.... :rolleyes:

[HX1]

and I quote..

"The second is music and movie consumers: the sound system and speakers are so powerful that the iPad appears to pulsate in one’s hands when one plays a video.​"

..great now we have an office *enis.. LOL.... ROFLMAO great business plan... I will never put my iPad Pro down now... :P I mean we know people are *******-off and around half the time in the office, but now... well we are empowering office associates around the globe....LMAO.. Nevermind how it sounds, did you feel that.. oooo woah.. uhmm.. LOL

Seriously though... sounds like they are trying to go the same route that MS did... personal opinion here is that Windows RT and Surface were really used in the office they were viable to do actual work on.. ( except in the case you have to have an x86 or x64 version of a program ) and they fixed that with the Surface Pro 3.. by changing the chip architecture.. Taking down the PC is going to be hard for several reasons for a business.. MONEY and ECONOMIC side effect...even when a business has the money, what does it take to upgrade a company.. and when an iPad or even a Surface can cost more than a laptop ( and I do not mean a MacBook or Surface Book )... When your company does not invest in that tool for you and you buy one to be a tool you pick something cost effective.. like when I bought a Tablet for work that also doubles as a laptop.. is small and convenient for travel.. and can do everything I need it too.. minus what I stated above.. on top of that people get comfortable with tools... but yeah taking on the PC.. big job... I also see the angle of debate against things in the wild like the backdoor theorem... and few other things mentioned as targeting MS right off from a media/propaganda POV..

Myself... I would never go for the hype either way.. what I need is what I need.. using an iPad for work.. thumbs down.. ( right there with trying to use an Android Based device as well ).. One thing that MS did do right... Good to see Apple finally making a change in that direction.. Most Mac users I know only use them because it is what they started out with learning on in school.. Unlike my time when we used Windows.. and DOS... ( and still had huge floppies.. )

Targeting the old market where DOS run programs with little compatibility.. and barebones where some some systems are not vulnerable because additions and extensions of the OS are concerned would be a challenge period....

Will be interesting to see..

[smallhagrid]

The appleheads, devotees and other followers of the i-church have been singing the same old 'dead PC psalm' for ages already.

It gets a bit tiring to remind folks that there is now - and has not been for some time - any such thing as 'apple' anymore;

It is merely another stage prop to keep the SEC from looking up mikr0$0ft's butt with an oversized flashlight.

All their devices with their cute little symbol ceased to be REAL Apple stuff when the i-things came out.

Why is that, you ask ??

i = Intel; and the wintel cartel just keeps their pet apple around so as to keep from there being too much talking of a monopoly.

As I see it - the tech sector is just going through its usual convulsions, adapting to new tech gear.

Folks wished & wished for tablet things to do it all with for a long time - now they are here and the doomsayers are too.

It will take some time before a new balance is struck and then the market shares will show that smartphones outnumber all else, behind them come a mix of tablet devices and PCs - with a small number of those having the cute little apple on them and usually carefully ignoring just how many of all those things are Unix or Linux based devices.

The appleheads are just doing what they've always done - trying to look cool while making outrageous claims that their religious followers will be hypnotized by and repeat endlessly no matter how contrary they are to the actual reality.

Denial:

It's MUCH more than just a big river in Egypt.

[dMog]

all i know is the stuff i do for rendering and adjusting picture i take with my dslr cameras cannot be done in a tablet or ipad or any smart phone...end of the pc my ass...apple dreams that will never see fruition