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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/500190
60 MacDirectory CONTENTS DEPARTMENT 60 MacDirectory iWard 2015 Apple This is Tim Cook's year. He's done two unprecedented things. The first was to bring out a phablet -- the iPhone 6 Plus -- which Steve Jobs would have had him crucified for. It is no secret that Jobs was implacably opposed to phablets. Yet the two iPhone 6 models have been Apple's greatest success yet, bringing profits never achieved by any corporation since time was recorded. More than anything else, this move proves the company can do as well or even better under Cook as it could under Steve. It demystifies Steve. It is a milestone. It is massive. We can all breathe a sigh of relief. Apple's future is safe. The second thing he did was to come out publicly as gay. For the CEO of America's richest and most successful corporation to do that is also massive. If anything can help bring the world to a more positive place as regards homophobia, this must be a giant step forward. 2015 also belongs to the most significant desktop computer breakthrough of 2014, Apple's 5K iMac Retina. While the rest of the world is trying -- not very well -- to catch up to 4K resolution, Apple has leapfrogged to the more daunting challenge of 5K. Why? It's not just a numbers game, there are two solid reasons. 5K lets you edit 4K video full screen _and_ have 1K left over for panels; and it's an exact doubling of Apple's important QHD resolution (2560x1440), which makes the transition from QHD to 5K technically straightforward. For Apple to have gone to 4K, rather than 5K, would have caused too many under-the- hood problems. Kudos to Dell for being first out the door with a 5K consumer monitor, but Apple aced this triumph a few months later by pricing the entire iMac Retina package for the same price as Dell's monitor alone. Is the iMac Retina bleeding edge? No. It is completely ready for prime time. There is no reason not to buy this computer now though horsepower improvements will undoubtedly come with the second generation, perhaps in late 2015. But can you stand to go that long without this significant technology milestone? Awarding the best technology products by Bill Troop REVIEW