2026-01-09 23:29:20
As reported by Eric Slivka at MacRumors, both Apple’s Chairman of the Board Arthur Levinson and board member Ronald Sugar are standing for re-election at this year’s shareholder meeting, despite exceeding the company’s stated age limits.
In the company’s proxy statement, it presented the following arguments:
Over the past four years, the Board has added three new members, representing over one-third of its membership, and two other, long-serving members retired. In the context of this year’s Annual Meeting nominations, the Board determined that it would be in the best interests of Apple and its shareholders to ask Art Levinson, the Chair of the Board, and Ron Sugar, the Chair of the Audit Committee, to stand for re-election, and to waive for each of them its guideline under which directors generally may not stand for re-election after attaining age 75. In making this determination, the Board considered several factors, including the significant experience and expertise that each of Dr. Levinson and Dr. Sugar brings to the Board, their deep insight into the Company’s business and operations, and their individual contributions as highly engaged members of the Board. The Board also considered the benefits of continuity among the Board’s leadership positions.
I admit, I found this decision surprising, if not shocking. It would seem to put paid to the idea of Tim Cook imminently taking over the role of chairman, though it does support the idea that will happen sooner rather than later—otherwise it seems as though the company would have considered nominating an entirely new chairperson. As it is, the composition of the board remains exactly the same.
However, it doesn’t mean that the company won’t announce transition plans in the near future, as rumors have suggested. It’s most likely it simply wasn’t ready to do so at the point at which it needed to submit this document to the SEC. The New York Times just ran a profile of John Ternus, which further elevates his profile as Cook’s successor, especially in the nearer term.
Ultimately, the move to stay the course is a conservative one from a company that these days has become more conservative when it comes to matters of corporate governance.
2026-01-09 07:33:10
Jason helps guest Casey Liss figure out what his cord-cutting strategy might be. We also discuss his Callsheet app, touch on the rise of CanCon including “Heated Rivalry,” and offer some very nice TV picks.
2026-01-08 23:05:41
Scharon Harding, writing at Ars Technica:
Bose released the Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for its SoundTouch speakers today, putting a silver lining around the impending end-of-life (EoL) of the expensive home theater devices.
More like this, please. There’s nothing more frustrating than a useful piece of tech turning into e-waste because the manufacturer doesn’t want to support it anymore.
Jason’s made this point recently with another great example, the iMac and current lack of a Target Display Mode. This past week I ran into a similar issue with the Logitech Harmony remote that I set up for my parents: while Logitech’s mobile app for it still technically works, options are extremely limited for adding new devices.
To me, this feels like it goes hand-in-hand with Right to Repair for hardware devices. If a company decides it wants to stop making a device, that’s fine—that’s its business. But to be responsible stewards of not only their products but the environment, they ought to seriously consider enabling the community to support it themselves.
2026-01-08 06:13:37
Robovacs growing limbs, tech for getting the new year started right, tech we covet but can’t justify, and discontinued tech we still use day-to-day.
2026-01-08 05:11:35
AnnaMaria Andriotis and Gina Heeb at the Wall Street Journal reporting (paywalled; News+ link):
“JPMorgan will issue Apple credit cards for both new and existing cardholders, the people said. The transition from Goldman, as is the case with most card deals, will take time.
JPMorgan is planning to launch a new Apple savings account, according to people familiar with the matter. Consumers with existing Apple savings accounts at Goldman will decide whether they want to stay there or open an account with JPMorgan, the people said.
It’s been widely known that Goldman Sachs wanted to unload its end of the partnership, which, when it launched in 2019, was one of its major forays into consumer lending, but which ended up costing it a lot of money. Apple’s discussion with potential partners have been taking place for almost two years now, including the likes of American Express and Capital One.
JPMorgan Chase, of course, already has a wide range of existing credit card lines and is well versed in this business. It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, changes get made. It seems like Apple will remain in the driver’s seat in terms of perks and the like—and I wouldn’t expect there to be any significant changes from the technology side of things.
2026-01-08 04:26:20
If many years-long rumors are true, 2026 will be the year when Apple’s long-gestating folding iPhone becomes a reality. But there are a lot of different approaches to folding phones out there, and there’s no guarantee that the folding iPhone you imagine is the one that Apple is imagining.
Leaks from Apple’s supply chain have begun to strongly suggest the shape and size of the product we’ll call, for lack of a better name, the iPhone Fold. And since it’s likely going to be nine months before anyone holds one of these things in their hands, this seems like as good a time as any to consider the story Apple is likely to tell when it’s selling this device.
First, a disclaimer: Nobody knows anything, except the people who do. We’re left to go on rumors and extrapolation. That said, many people have spent time doing the math required to extrapolate the shape of the new iPhone based on rumored specs, and even building a 3D printing template so you can build one and hold it in the real world.
If these mock-ups are real, this folding iPhone is not going to be what you may have pictured in your head: a modern iPhone, roughly the shape of an iPhone Pro, that folds open to reveal a larger screen inside.
Instead, Apple may be making a device that’s much wider and squatter than existing iPhones when it’s folded up. The mock-ups people are printing show a phone that’s squatter than an iPhone mini and wider than an iPhone Pro Max! If that shape is right, the iPhone Fold will look a bit more like a mini notebook when it’s folded, unlike any iPhone that has ever existed.
The shape makes sense, however, when you imagine what that phone looks like when it’s unfolded: a screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the shape of an old-school television and—more importantly—an old-school iPad. In fact, this rumored design would make the unfolded iPhone the shape of an iPad, just slightly smaller than the iPad mini. (The iPad mini’s screen is 8.3 inches when measured diagonally, while this screen is rumored to be 7.76 inches.)
Apple’s taking a real risk if the new folding iPhone doesn’t look like an iPhone. If people read it as looking weird or lesser in some way, that may turn them off—even if they were otherwise willing to buy a $2000+ phone. So why would they do it?
Here’s my guess at Apple’s thought process: If what you really want is an iPhone that looks like an iPhone, literally all the other iPhone models will deliver on that. The iPhone Fold is designed around what it provides when it’s unfolded. Yes, when it’s folded, it will work like a normal, albeit squat, iPhone. But it comes alive and is unique when it’s open.
When it’s open, it’s an iPad.
The battle between iOS and Android rages on in the smartphone world. Apple leads in some markets, Android in others. It’s a duopoly, and both companies are making a lot of money and wielding a lot of power based on their successes in that market. But in the tablet market, the truth is that the iPad is successful, and every other tablet out there is not. Not only in terms of sales and profits, but in terms of functionality.
Over the years, Google has rededicated itself multiple times to the idea that Android is going to be a better operating system for tablets, and that Android tablet apps are going to get better. And yet every time I use an Android tablet, I’m struck by just how awful the experience is compared to an iPad. Even now, most apps just feel like phone apps wearing clothes several sizes too large.
This is Apple’s big advantage when it comes to a phone that can open up to become something much larger: That larger thing can be an iPad, with apps that make sense in that size and shape. Apple has separated iOS and iPadOS, but they are essentially the same operating system, with some differentiated features based on what hardware is involved. Apple can bring as much or as little of iPadOS to the iPhone Fold experience as it wants to.
I’m not sure what will make the move across. Will full-on windowed multitasking be offered, or will Apple limit it to some basic tiling? Will the iPhone Fold be the first iPhone to support the Apple Pencil? Will the iPhone Fold drive an external display? It’s all for Apple to decide.
But after looking at these 3D-printed mock-ups and seeing a squat, paper-notepad-shaped iPhone that unfolds into a small iPad, it seems pretty clear to me: If this is the shape of the iPhone Fold to come, Apple is focusing on it being an iPad you can fold up and stick in your pocket, not as an iPhone that unfolds into two iPhones placed side by side.
[Thanks to Stephen Hackett for the photos.]
