Two cents on Apple

There's been talk for a few years now about Xcode potentially coming to iOS. Playgrounds could obviously be a step in that direction (although Apple could also use it just to give people a taste of Swift, and then convert them to macOS). Some people have well-founded doubts about whether iPad will ever be the right environment for development. As for me, it's #1 on my personal WWDC 2018 wishlist. Talking to people online and IRL, I thought I'd write out some thoughts around why Apple should do this, and why I think they haven't done it yet. -- First: why would Apple, from a business point of view, want Xcode to exist on iOS? It is undeniably a significant investment of time and resources. Apple would be right in asking "where's the return?" in order to prioritize it against other ideas. Will it bring be an influx of new developers or have most people with an interest in app development already bought a Mac? If there is untapped market potential, wil...

Plenty of reports today that Apple is getting closer to its long stated goal of creating its own original television content. Basically expanding the Apple Music formula into movies and television, to compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Amazon. I really don't like this. Tech ecosystems are getting more sticky every year. Once all your contacts / photos / music are synced across all your devices in either the Apple or the Google / Samsung ecosystem, it becomes increasingly hard to switch. Do we want that ecosystem stickiness expanding into content? Let's think about what the next step might be. Is it that hard to imagine HBO launching Game of Thrones a day early exclusively on Apple devices? Netflix launching the new season on Daredevil exclusively on Samsung Smart TVs? A Disney-Apple alliance bringing Marvel movies early on Apple devices? Warner Bros responding by bringing DC movies early to Android devices? HBO offering John Oliver's political commen...

This one is off-topic so I'll keep it short. I read another article this week that tried to explain how Facebook's influence on the 2016 election was overstated, and just a fixable side effect of Facebook's real, more innocent core business model. Really? Facebook is a platform that generates revenue by letting advertisers send targeted messages based on its users' personal information. Organisations pay Facebook money to influence its users into doing things the organisations hope will make their investments worthwhile. The fact that domestic and foreign political interests want to tap into that power should not be a surprise to anyone. This is not a side-effect of the core business model - this IS the core business model.