grimacefry

Fastmail works really well with Thunderbird. Need to use an app called Davx5 on Android for calendar and contact sync.

The only two that have been good to me and still going strong is Plex and PocketCasts with their lifetime memberships. That was a good deal. But too many to name that turned out to absolutely not lifetime. GPS systems definitely the worst culprits.

The service is the developers releasing bug fixes and features that should have been there to begin with.

Jobs’ vision was fundamentally to make technology accessible to the masses. In the same way Henry Ford made cars accessible to everyone. We see this in the Macintosh which brought desktop computing with a GUI that “if you can point, you already know how to use it”. The iPod brought what was a chaotic, fragmented, quagmire of digital music into a form that was accessible to everyone. The iPhone was a mobile experience that through touch and skeuomorphic familiarity brought smartphones to everyone including your grandma.

He succeeded, but the motivation behind that is more interesting. Was it genuinely for the good of humanity, that is to advance human progress. Or was it because he knew it was the best way to create a captive market which he could then manipulate and control, and profit off?

As for Apple today, if you follow the steps in making tech accessible above, the next frontier is AI. So the question Apple would be looking to solve is how to make AI accessible to everyone. What form that takes and how it comes to life is the mystery. It’s not going to be a chat interface.

https://theinstructionlimit.com/i-know-this-global-game-jam-2015

Custom OpenBox and tint2 setup.

I remembering it being bundled for free on a CD with a computer magazine

I frequented Cape Town and Johannesburg doing research, that also included going into black townships to chat with people. I myself had an escort of 15 huge guys with guns and still had all sorts of problems around Nyanga including a shoot out over me recording video. Would never walk or drive around there on my own, I saw so many tourists and (white) locals being targeted, attacked and beaten on the street. There’s a reason everyone lives in highly secure compounds. You should know this before going to SA. The most beautiful place, best food on the planet, but you may die for it.

I worked in design for a major global automaker, I designed and prototyped various user experiences around enabling/disabling features on demand, and paying a subscription. This was 7-8 years ago, and the context was developing countries and what we called “emerging markets” where people just bought bare bones base model vehicles, but there were always 1 or 2 highly desirable features they needed but could only get in a high spec model - they couldn’t afford.

The idea tested very well, they could buy their cheap vehicle and then enable just the things they really need. And they would pay for that. I still think this is a valid and good use case for subscribing, in these markets and for these people.

Somewhere between then and today, sales and marketing entered the chat, and I know because I fought them tooth and nail. What I designed morphed into subscribing to everything for everyone. I don’t work there any more and that’s part of why.