Technologies

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 Jan. 29, #963

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 29 #963.

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.

What a fun NYT Connections puzzle today! There’s a favorite children’s story in one group, and four classic author surnames that, naturally, don’t show up in an «author surname» category. Read on for clues and all of today’s Connections answers.

The Times 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 the 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: Maybe it’s Maybelline.

Green group hint: Too hot, too cold, just right.

Blue group hint: Raise a cup.

Purple group hint: They all sound like words with a similar meaning.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Makeup.

Green group: Featured in Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Blue group: Ending with drinking vessels.

Purple group: Homophones of words meaning «brutal.»

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 makeup. The four answers are bronzer, foundation, liner and stain.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is featured in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The four answers are bear, bed, Goldilocks and porridge.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is ending with drinking vessels. The four answers are fiberglass, Silverstein, smug and stumbler.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is homophones of words meaning «brutal.» The four answers are Gorey, Grimm, grizzly and Scarry.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 29, #493

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 29, No. 493.

Looking for the most recent regular 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 and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features some tricky terms. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

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

Yellow group hint: Checkmate!

Green group hint: Think Nadia Comăneci.

Blue group hint: Soccer stars.

Purple group hint: H2O.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Chess pieces.

Green group: Gymnastics terms.

Blue group: Premier League Golden Boot winners.

Purple group: Water ____.

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

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is chess pieces. The four answers are bishop, pawn, queen and rook.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is gymnastics terms. The four answers are handspring, round-off, salto and twist.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Premier League Golden Boot winners. The four answers are

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is water ____. The four answers are bottle, boy, hazard and polo.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Google Gives Chrome an AI Side Panel and Lets Gemini Browse for You

The update also includes Nano Banana image tools and deeper integrations with Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, Maps and Flights.

Google is turning Chrome into something closer to a digital copilot.

In the next wave of Gemini updates rolling out, Google on Wednesday revealed a set of new AI-powered features coming directly to its browser, aimed at reducing the frustrations of exploring the internet each day. Built on Gemini 3, the updates introduce an always-available side panel, deeper app integrations, creative image tools and a new browser agent called auto browse that can complete multistep tasks on your behalf.

Essentially, Google wants Chrome to be like an AI wingman that browses, compares and multitasks for you.

Now you can automate browsing

To me, the standout new addition is auto browse, a browser agent designed to handle tedious and time-consuming chores. Instead of hopping between tabs, filling out forms or manually comparing prices of things like products or flights, you can ask Chrome to do the legwork.

Auto browse can research flights and hotels across different dates, collect documents, schedule appointments, manage subscriptions and help with tasks like renewing a driver’s license or filing expense reports.

In a live demo I saw, Product Lead Charmaine D’Silva used the new tools to plan a family vacation. Gemini compared destinations and prices across multiple travel sites, checked school calendars to see when her kids were off and lined up schedules to find workable travel windows. When it came time to book, though, D’Silva emphasized that the final decision and purchase were still hers, underscoring Google’s plan to keep humans in control for key tasks like booking and purchases.

The feature is rolling out to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US now, signaling Google’s broader push toward more agentic AI experiences.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

A new side panel experience

Another update rolling out now is a redesigned Gemini side panel in Chrome, available across MacOS, Windows and Chromebook Plus. Instead of opening a separate tab, Gemini now lives alongside whatever you’re working on, making it easier to multitask without breaking your flow. Testers have used it to summarize reviews across sites, compare shopping options and juggle packed calendars while keeping their main task front and center.

AI image editing with Nano Banana

Chrome is also trying to become more creative. Google is bringing Nano Banana, its AI image editing and generation tool, directly into the browser. You can now edit and reimagine images you find on the web without downloading files or switching apps — whether that’s mocking up a living room redesign or turning raw data into an infographic at work.

Chrome connects with other Google apps

Under the hood, Gemini in Chrome is becoming more connected to the rest of Google’s ecosystem. Integrations with Gmail, Calendar, Maps, YouTube, Google Flights and Shopping will allow the assistant to pull in relevant context and take action across apps. Planning a trip, for example, could involve referencing an old email, checking flight options and drafting a follow-up email to your travel companions. Now all in one place.

More to come

Looking ahead, Google says personal intelligence is coming to Chrome in the coming months. With user opt-in, Gemini will remember context from past interactions to deliver more tailored, proactive help across the web, while giving you control over what data is connected and when.