HilliTech's Newsletter: the wrong octogenarians

Apple's multiple generations of polishing cloth can't clean up the mess we're in

It's been a rough couple of weeks if you're a human being with empathy and a burning hatred for the Grim Reaper sucking at his job. RIP Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen.

Going out with a fizzle

We're only hours away from Tim Cook officially stepping down as CEO of Apple. It's been a weird week given that a new Apple Silicon generation was announced, more expensive Macs arrived with it, and none of it is shipping in August.

Well, all except for a polishing cloth that costs $9.

I don't really have strong feelings one way or another for Tim Cook. I think he was great for Apple and helped shape it into the company that it became today.

I also think that he was a very private man that had to maintain that privacy in spite of being CEO of one of the most scrutinized companies on Earth. Every action was examined to the nth degree, and he knew it.

That's why when Cook attended various White House dinners, donated his own money, and presented a cheap trophy to the still-living cast member from Home Alone 2, it was such a disappointment. A little bit of thought and analysis revealed why these actions were taken, and they make sense given the results, but they are still difficult to contend with.

Apple survived round two of the dementia olympics, so far, and at very little cost to the company itself. Nothing has changed at Apple about how it does business or handles employement. Notably, DEI is still fully in place at Apple.

Getting past the finances and supply chain successes Apple sustained under Cook, I just want to say that I appreciate having a sane CEO in charge. It seems like nearly every other CEO in Silicon Valley is suffering from some kind of delusion or hysteria, but Cook remains as mild-mannered as ever.

I do think that it was a powerful symbol to have a gay man as CEO of Apple, and we are losing that with Ternus. That isn't anyone's fault of course, but I do think it's something worth keeping in mind even if we don't know what to do with that information.

Cook isn't going anywhere and will stick around as Executive Chairman and government liaison.

I wonder what Apple under Ternus will ultimately look like. Don't expect any changes anytime soon, but I do expect some will become visible in the next few years.

There's so much from Cook's legacy we can pull from and examine. Apple Vision Pro and Apple Intelligence emerging from the wreckage that was Apple Car might be one of the biggest stories under Cook outside of finances. Not only did Apple have the drive to pursue Apple Car, they had the restraint to end the project and salvage the lessons learned when other companies might have pushed through to a terrible end result.

However, in spite of all the highs and lows under Tim Cook, we can say without a doubt his last action as CEO cut the cost of a beloved product in half. Every time I clean my iPad display with the new polishing cloth, I can thank Tim Cook for that.

The foldable iPhone is real and almost here

I've been asking for some kind of component leak for iPhone Fold since it seemed likely the device was coming in 2026. We didn't see anything in February like we did with the iPhone Air the year prior, and each month seemed less and less likely that a leak would surface.

Here we are, just a couple of weeks from the announcement, and iPhone Fold has its first proper component leak. It seems the motherboard has been seen in videos floating around social media.

Let's pretend these are real and not some odd fabrication or hoax. It's interesting that an internal component like these would be the first to leak, and not an external part or shell.

Even the hinge mechanism seems to still be completely under wraps. I'm certain that iPhone Fold is in mass production at this point, but Apple has done some magic to ensure no leaks would occur. Though, there's still time before the event.

The latest rumor shows Apple tried to build an Apple Pencil for the product, but gave up in the prototype stages. I get it, the form factor is going to be too awkward for keeping a stylus attached, but I'll still miss the opportunity to have an Apple Pencil for it.

Perhaps it'll be a second-generation addition.

In any case, I'm increasingly concerned about the iPhone Fold and its camera system. I'm certain that iOS will operate fine and we'll see some interesting new UI paradigms as a result.

I also believe the hardware will be rock solid too. I doubt Apple would release a foldable that'll crease the display too quickly or easily, though "my iPhone has a crease" videos are inevitable.

The thing that concerns me the most continues to be the camera system. Will taking selfies with friends be easy or awkward? What about the rear camera system, will it provide comparable shots to the iPhone 18 Pro? What about spatial video?

It also seems we won't get any Camera Control on the iPhone Fold either. That is another highlight of the fact that photography isn't a priority here.

We'll see where this thing ends up, but regardless, the iPhone Fold is going to be my phone this year. As compromised as it might be, I feel it would be a disservice to not try the new product firsthand.

Surprise and Shine

It's always fun to examine Apple's event invites even if they are mostly meaningless. Remember, the people making the invite are only given vague guidelines for the design and don't actually know what is being revealed at the event.

This might be one of Apple's least interesting invites in recent history. The moving version shared by Joz simply has a barely-shifting waveform. The logo appears to be slightly transparent, like glass, with a light shining from behind.

My only guess here is that Apple wants to further emphasize Liquid Glass and how it is meant to act as an extension of the iPhone's industrial design. Perhaps light sensors in the phone will better position the fake light effects seen in Liquid Glass, making them react to actual light in the room rather than just motion.

The rumors point to new chipsets, variable aperture in pro cameras, and the foldable iPhone. There's still time for more leaks before September 9th, but I assume we know everything we're going to know already.

Losing a celebrity

I've never had a celebrity "idol" that I look up to. My favorite band growing up was Linkin Park, I enjoyed celebrities like Adam Sandler or Troy Baker in their respective heydays, but I never connected with them on a deeper level. I wasn't scouring the internet looking for more information or following them on social media.

But some celebrities emit such a presence that you can't escape them. Dolly Parton was one that if you lived in Tennessee, you just knew about her. Just like you might learn of a legendary figure in fiction, or know of a famous landmark in your town, you learned about Dolly from a young age and grew up with her present in our culture.

Dollywood might have been my first exposure to her as a person beyond being a singer. It's only about 90 minutes southwest of here, so I've spent a lot of time there in my younger years.

Then there's Peter Cullen. I didn't know it at the time, but the voice of Optimus Prime was also the voice that would tell me about the upcoming anime schedule on Toonami. His voice was my childhood in a lot of ways, and him, combined with Steve Blum's performance as Tom, made me fall in love with anime in the first place.

Tim Curry came to my attention in more recent years. His performances are amazing and renowned for just how much he clearly loved the act of acting. While most know him for Rocky Horror Picture Show or It, my first memory of Curry was Red Alert 3.

We even lost Hayden Panettiere last week, another significant part of my childhood. She was only a year older than me and represented characters that were very impactful from an early age, like Kairi in Kingdom Hearts and Claire in Heroes.

It's rare for any celebrity death to affect me in any way, but these have stood out, as they have for many in my circles. At least we can continue to remember them and honor them by revisiting their work.

May they rest in peace.

Some links I'd like to share this week:

A Maine coon mix with brown and black fur sits on a bar by some liquor bottles — Marble needs a drink after the week she's had

A little housekeeping here at the end:

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