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Tim Cook was named Apple’s CEO 10 years ago. Here are three things he changed

The company we know as Apple looks and acts a lot like the one we all remember from the Steve Jobs-era. But it’s also very different.

In 2012, less than a year after being named CEO of Apple, Tim Cook sat down for an interview with NBC News. He discussed the basics you’d expect about iPhones and Apple stores and even made a surprise announcement that the tech giant would begin assembling some Mac computers in Texas rather than China. Cook also made clear during the interview that, while he understood the responsibility he had to lead one of the world’s most closely watched companies, he wasn’t going to try to emulate its iconic co-founder, Steve Jobs.

«One of the things he did for me — that removed a gigantic burden that would have existed — is that he told me, on a couple occasions before he passed away, to never question what he would have done,» Cook said. «Never ask the question ‘what Steve would do’ — just do what’s right.»

Over the past decade, Cook has waded into culture and politics far more than Jobs ever seemed to do. He came out as gay in 2014 and started giving speeches decrying discrimination across the country. He even walked the tight rope as a social critic of Donald Trump’s policies as president between 2017 and 2021, while attempting to protect Apple’s business from harsh import tariffs.

All the while, Cook kept up Apple’s slow and steady drumbeat of incremental innovation, leading teams that introduced seemingly small improvements over iPhones year after year. Now, Apple in the Cook-era sells some of the most well-respected phone cameras in the industry. And it’s one of the few device makers that builds the computer processing brains that power its phones and computers, too. Those chips, dubbed the A14 and M1 Apple Silicon chips, are considered among the best, as well.

All this has helped to turn Apple into one of the most highly valued companies in the world. Wall Street puts the company at just under $2.5 trillion. And Apple’s $57 billion in profits from $274.5 billion in revenues last year dwarf the $26 billion in earnings the company posted a decade ago, from $108.2 billion in revenue.

Here are three ways Cook changed Apple.

More political

A decade ago, it was very unusual to see a high-profile tech industry leader exchange anything but pleasant words with a world leader. But soon after Cook came out as gay in 2014, he started speaking out on a range of human rights issues. Not a year later, he penned a nearly 600-word piece that ran in The Washington Post addressing discrimination against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities.

«There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country,» he wrote at the time.

Cook also joined 100 other tech executives from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Yelp who criticized laws in Indiana and Arkansas written to support «religious freedom» but that critics fear will encourage discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

During Trump’s time in office, Cook became a regular voice speaking out against the president’s immigration moves. He criticized Trump’s statements defending white supremacists and other extremists at a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. And Cook said Trump’s plans to ban transgender people from serving in the military were wrong.

«We are indebted to all who serve,» Cook wrote at the time. «Discrimination against anyone holds everyone back.»

But Cook was also shrewd with Trump, attending summits with the president and even inviting him to the company’s Mac Pro manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.

«He’s a great executive,» Trump said once, according to a profile in the Wall Street Journal. «Others go out and hire very expensive consultants. Tim Cook calls Donald Trump directly.»

It hasn’t all gone smoothly. Most recently, Apple’s faced backlash from employees frustrated by how executives are handling return-to-work policies amid the coronavirus pandemic. Though Apple’s pushed back its target date to return to the office to January next year at the earliest, executives have pushed employees to regularly come into the office.

Some employees have also accused the company’s employee resources team of mishandling harassment, sexism, racism and other troubling issues among the company’s roughly 147,000 employees. They’ve banded together on Twitter under the hashtag #AppleToo, and created a website to draw attention to their concerns.

Other companies, including Google, Facebook and Uber, have also struggled to meaningfully respond to similar criticism.

More products

Apple’s long been known for its comparably small product lineup. Under Jobs, Apple served up consumer laptops and desktops, with its MacBooks and iMacs, and offered professional laptops and desktops, with the MacBook Pros and Mac Pros. It sold several different types of iPods as well, but only one version of the iPhone each year.

Under Cook, Apple’s expanded its product lineup to include two standard models of its iPhones, the $699 iPhone 12 Mini and $799 iPhone 12, which CNET’s Patrick Holland said was one of the best phone we’ve ever reviewed. There are also two «pro» models, the $999 iPhone 12 Pro and $1099 iPhone 12 Pro Max. And there’s the lower-cost $399 iPhone SE, which CNET called the best value for the dollar of any iPhone when it came out last year.

Apple also sells at least two different variants of its Apple Watch, not including partnerships with Nike and Hermes, three different AirPods headphones and four different iPads. And it was Cook who pushed Apple into the smartwatch market in the first place.

It’s hard to debate Apple’s success with these products, and it appears the company won’t be changing its approach much with its rumored upcoming iPhone 13 and iPads. And even though Apple’s often criticized for seemingly minimal updates each year, experts say the differences become dramatic when comparing devices further back in time.

«This is what most people don’t understand: Incremental is revolutionary for Apple,» Chris Deaver, who spent four years in human resources working with Apple research teams, told the Wall Street Journal in a story published last year. «Once they enter a category with a simply elegant solution, they can start charting the course and owning that space. No need to break speed records, just do it organically.»

More ambition

Perhaps the most dramatic changes Cook’s made are to what Apple sells us.

Jobs reveled in selling products people could touch and feel, focusing primarily on software as a means to make them work better. He even referenced the computer scientist Alan Kay when introducing the first iPhone in 2007. «‘People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware,» Jobs said, quoting Kay. «Alan said this 30 years ago, and this is how we feel about it.»

Under Cook, Apple’s approach hasn’t changed so much as it’s expanded. To help Apple’s products stand out, Cook in 2019 pushed his company to start offering monthly services ranging from a $10 per month magazine and newspaper aggregation service called Apple News Plus to a $5 monthly gaming service called Apple Arcade, and most recently, $10 per month Apple Fitness Plus workout classes.

Cook promised his company’s $5 per month Apple TV Plus video subscription service would be «unlike anything that’s been done before» when it launched in 2019.

Apple hasn’t said how many people pay for Apple TV Plus subscriptions but has increasingly drawn attention to its overall services business, which in the three months ended June 26 this year pulled in nearly $17.5 billion in revenue. That’s more than Apple’s Mac and iPad businesses combined. It’s also up nearly 33% from the same time a year earlier despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which has has upended billions of people’s lives around the world.

«We’re continuing to stay focused on supporting the global response to the pandemic and delivering the best products and services for people,» Cook said on a July conference call with analysts. «Our greatest source of inspiration, isn’t technology itself, but help people use it in their own lives in ways, great and small, to write a novel or to read one to care for an ailing patient or see a doctor virtually to track their heart rate on a jog or to train for the Olympics.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 8, #728

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 8, #728.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.


Today’s NYT Connections puzzle could be tricky. The purple category is one of those «sounds like» groups, that can be really tough to figure out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Keep at it.

Green group hint: Think Wall Street animals.

Blue group hint: Online encyclopedia subheads.

Purple group hint: $$$.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Persist.

Green group: Animal metaphors in economics.

Blue group: Sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page.

Purple group: Homophones of slang for money.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is persist. The four answers are hold, last, stand and stay.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal metaphors in economics. The four answers are bear, bull, dove and hawk.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page. The four answers are born, education, occupation and spouse.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is homophones of slang for money. The four answers are bred, cache, doe and lute.

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Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for June 8, #1450

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,450 for June 8.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.


Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough, especially if your first guesses are heavy on vowels. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer, but one is the repeated letter, so you’ll see it twice.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with L.

Wordle hint No. 4: Ending

Today’s Wordle answer ends with a vowel.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer refers to a contract where someone is given the right to use something for a specific time and payment.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is LEASE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, June 7, No. 1449 was REUSE.

Recent Wordle answers

June 3, No. 1445: ADMIN

June 4, No. 1446: CEASE

June 5, No. 1447: DATUM

June 6, No. 1448: EDIFY

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Technologies

Resident Evil Requiem Revealed, but Where’s Leon Kennedy?

The Resident Evil 9 trailer showed off a new character, but not the much-rumored return of Leon.

After a fake-out earlier in Summer Game Fest on Friday, Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, was shown for the first time. 

The new title is the first mainline entry since Capcom released Resident Evil Village in 2021, and is rumored to feature series stalwart Leon Kennedy. In the trailer, the only person we saw was a character named Grace Ashcroft, who works for the FBI and appears to have ties to Raccoon City.

For the most hardcore Resident Evil fans, the name Ashcroft will ring a bell. Alyssa Ashcroft was one of the survivors of the online-only title, Resident Evil Outbreak for the PS2. Alyssa was a journalist who was trapped in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2, and she, along with other survivors, had to escape the city before it was destroyed.

Grace is Alyssa’s daughter, and in the trailer, she is going to visit the Remwood Hotel, where Alyssa was murdered. Later in the trailer, images from what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed Raccoon City are shown — including the police department from RE2 — so it appears Resident Evil 9 will return to where the series started. 

Leon’s (rumored) return is a big deal for the series, which has made some of its best games with him in the starring role. He first showed up as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2, which built on the original game’s success with more story and improved monsters and level design.

He showed up again in Resident Evil 4, which took the series in a new direction by introducing an over-the-shoulder perspective, instead of the usual static camera angles and tank controls. Leon was also one of several playable protagonists in Resident Evil 6, a game that seemed to forget about its survival horror roots. We mostly don’t talk about that one.

But the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was an excellent return to form, bringing RE4’s gameplay and much better graphics to a fan-favorite entry. The RE4 remake was a similar success.

Resident Evil Requiem is set to drop Feb. 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but we’re hoping to get our hands on it this weekend. If you want to catch up on older Resident Evil games, Capcom is having a sale that includes basically all the games, including Village and the three remakes.

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