From COBOL to chaos: Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem - Related to build, iphone,, brands, why, ips

From COBOL to chaos: Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem

It’s incredibly hard to protect a system from someone—the evil housekeeper from DOGE—who has made their way inside and wants to wreck it. This administration is on the record as wanting to outright delete entire departments. Accelerationists are not only setting policy but implementing it by working within the administration. If you can’t delete a department, then why not just break it until it doesn’t work?

That’s why what DOGE is doing is a massive, terrifying problem, and one I talked through earlier in a thread on Bluesky.

Government is built to be stable. Collectively, we put systems and rules in place to ensure that stability. But whether they actually deliver and preserve stability in the real world isn’t actually about the technology used; it’s about the people using it. When it comes down to it, technology is a tool to be used by humans for human ends. The software used to run our democratically elected government is deployed to accomplish goals tied to policies: collecting money from people, or giving money to states so they can give money to people who qualify for food stamps, or making covid tests available to people.

Usually, our experience of government technology is that it’s out of date or slow or unreliable. Certainly not as shiny as what we see in the private sector. And that technology changes very, very slowly, if it happens at all.

It’s not as if people don’t realize these systems could do with modernization. In my experience troubleshooting and modernizing government systems in California and the federal government, I worked with Head Start, Medicaid, child welfare, and logistics at the Department of Defense. Some of those systems were already undergoing modernization attempts, many of which were and continue to be late, over budget, or just plain broken. But the changes that are needed to make other systems more modern were frequently seen as too risky or too expensive. In other words, not critical enough.

Of course, some changes are deemed essential enough. The covid-19 pandemic and our unemployment insurance systems offer good examples. When covid hit, certain critical government technologies suddenly became visible. Those systems, like unemployment insurance portals, also became politically essential, just like the launch of the Affordable Care Act website (which is why it got so much attention when it was botched).

Political attention can change everything. During the pandemic, suddenly it wasn’t just possible to modernize and upgrade government systems, or to make them simpler, clearer, and faster to use. It actually happened. Teams were parachuted in. Overly restrictive rules and procedures were reassessed and relaxed. Suddenly, government workers were allowed to work remotely and to use Slack.

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Why AppleCare+ is essential for your iPhone, even as a subscription

Table of Contents Table of Contents The shift from prepaid to subscription AppleCare+ is far more than just an extended warranty Does it make financial sense to have AppleCare+? Why AppleCare+ is the ultimate protection for your iPhone.

Have you ever broken your iPhone? Over the past decade of being an iPhone user, I’ve broken two screens and had one iPhone stolen while abroad. Thankfully, one service came to the rescue in all of those cases: AppleCare+.

The latest reporting from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg hints at that Apple is about to move from a prepaid model to a subscription-only model for its protection plan. Naturally, as subscriptions have become prevalent in our daily lives, and people have suffered from subscription fatigue, some people are concerned about another subscription.

When AppleCare+ first launched, it was only available as a prepaid item that required you to spend 10% or more of your iPhone cost on protecting your new iPhone. For many people — myself included, at least then — it made an already-expensive purchase even more expensive and also meant that it was much harder to justify purchasing.

Alongside the launch of the iPhone 11 in 2019, Apple rolled out the option to pay for AppleCare+ monthly. This meant that instead of prepaying for two years, you could pay for it every month, as you do for your cell plan or other subscriptions. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Apple is planning to move to a subscription-only model.

It also makes sense given Apple’s priority around recurring revenue and the fact that AppleCare+ is included in the subscription-based iPhone Upgrade Program. Paying monthly also means you can keep it running indefinitely, an option that wasn’t available with the prepaid option for many years. Unfortunately, this subscription shift does likely mean you won’t be able to get AppleCare+ for cheap anymore.

AppleCare+ is far more than just an extended warranty.

When you think about AppleCare+, it’s easy to think of it as an extended warranty, but to do so would be detrimental to the sheer value it offers to many people. Yes, it covers accidental damage — such as a broken screen, liquid damage, or even your phone being run over by a car — and allows you to fix or replace it for a fee that’s far cheaper than without AppleCare+.

However, it also covers much more than this. It offers two years of technical support via the phone or in-store Genius bar, which is ideal if you are elderly, or have an elderly relative who isn’t the most technologically advanced. If you keep your phone for a long time, it will also protect your battery when it eventually degrades as Apple will replace the battery and effectively give your phone a new lease of life.

By far my favorite part of AppleCare+ is the Theft and Loss tier, which does exactly what you’d expect it to. It’s essentially an Apple-provided insurance plan for your iPhone, and it means that if it is stolen or lost, Apple will replace it with an identical model. As I found out, this program can be a lifesaver.

Last February, my iPhone was stolen in Barcelona during MWC 2024, and it took a week for Apple to send me a replacement — mainly because I was using an eSIM-only US model in the UK where the iPhone still has a physical SIM card tray — it was the same phone that I had. Yes, it could be a smoother process, but in hindsight, it’s far more effective than any other insurance provider.

Does it make financial sense to have AppleCare+?

At $10 per month for AppleCare+ and $14 per month for AppleCare+ Theft and Loss, you may be asking whether it makes financial sense to have AppleCare+. Each year I find myself asking the same question, especially if I’ve had no asserts in the previous year, but my iPhone getting stolen — and subsequently needing to also fix a broken screen a few months later — last year essentially made it ubiquitous with every future iPhone purchase.

That presented, does it make sense for you? Let’s consider my last five iPhones and the various times I’ve had to use AppleCare+.

First, the cost. Assuming there are no future price changes — and discarding the current discounts over monthly pricing when you prepay for two years — AppleCare+ costs $120 per year without Theft and Loss, and $168 with the added protection. Over five years, this equates to roughly $840 in spending, although mine was less as I didn’t get the Theft and Loss protection initially, I prepaid for at least two of the years and the price was cheaper.

Each time I’ve had to use AppleCare+, there has also been an additional one-off cost for each claim. My Theft and Loss claim cost $149, while two broken screens cost $29 each and one more damaged iPhone cost $99 to replace. All in all, this cost me $306 in additional claim fees.

Now consider my iPhone 15 Pro, which was stolen in Barcelona. It was the 512GB model, and at the time, it had a replacement cost of $1,199. Yes, you read that right: the replacement iPhone would have cost more than I’ve spent in five years.

What if you have never had a phone lost or stolen? Let’s consider that scenario for a moment: without Theft and Loss, AppleCare+ would have cost me $600 over the past five years, plus an additional $157 in claim fees. My iPhone 13 Pro screen replacement would have cost $279, while my iPhone 14 Pro screen would have cost $329. The damage claim with a completely shattered back glass and a visible motherboard? That would have cost $649.

Let’s summarize: with AppleCare+ Theft and Loss, five years of coverage and three indicates cost less than a single replacement iPhone. Without Theft and Loss, a single claim for excessive damage would have cost almost the same as five years of coverage and three indicates for screen damage. To put it more succinctly: one screen replacement without AppleCare+ would cost more than two years of AppleCare+ with two screen replacements per year.

Why AppleCare+ is the ultimate protection for your iPhone.

If you’ve broken your phone before, you’ll know that dreaded feeling when you realize it’s made contact with a seemingly irresistible force. Sometimes you get lucky and it’s fine, but as I discovered almost a decade ago, even hitting a floor covered by a thin carpet can sometimes be enough to break a screen.

Why I love AppleCare+ is that it’s the ultimate protection plan for that one time that something does go wrong. Unlike an insurance policy where it can take several days or weeks to fix your broken screen, most Apple stores can usually fit you in the same day or the next.

Apple Stores are prevalent throughout the world, so if you’re traveling and the worst happens, you can probably get it replaced even while you’re abroad. No waiting for a new phone or going without while you’re abroad, just a quick replacement and you’re ready to go. Unless they replace the whole phone, you likely won’t need to set it all up again.

If you’ve never broken a phone, you may not need AppleCare+, but if you’re upgrading to a big iPhone like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, or you’re eagerly awaiting the foldable iPhone, I’d wager that most people can benefit from AppleCare+. I don’t mind if Apple makes it a monthly subscription, I still think it’s an essential protection plan for all iPhone owners.

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Leverage helps game companies build lasting IPs and brands

Leverage is a four-person team in Denmark that is helping game studios and publishers build lasting intellectual properties and brands.

The firm has been around for seven years and it has worked with more than 40 clients and projects. The list includes big companies like Bandai Namco and Plaion as well a small “one-man show up in the arctic circle,” mentioned Christian Fonnesbech, CEO and head of IP at Leverage, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Sometimes the team consults with a studio early and sometimes it comes in late.

“We’ve met really arrogant teams, and we’ve met really humble teams,” he stated. “We’ve really been around. And the big challenge is how do we reach the studio? Where does the game stop, and where does the IP start?”.

He brings up the example of IO Interactive, the Denmark studio that grew to 200 people and created the Hitman franchise. They had created a total of four different game series, but Hitman was the biggest.

“Hitman was 65% of the value of the organization,” Fonnesbech noted. “You focus on gameplay and the tech and this is super necessary. But on top of that, there is a second business model. You’re building the love for your IP. With all the time people are spending with your game, they’re growing attached to your characters, and they’re getting used to that emotion and the journeys. So this is the IP part.”.

And there’s a third part, about how you communicate that to the market.

“How do you position yourself so you stand out and appeal to the right people?” he mentioned.

Christian Fonnesbech is CEO and head of IP at Leverage.

Fonnesbech was previously the head of IP at Nordisk Games, which was owned by a big conglomerate. He worked in gaming, entertainment, advertising, and film across decades and came to learn the value of IP. He worked on 30 games over his career.

“I’ve served my time in the trenches,” he stated. “While at Nordisk, we realized there wasn’t even a language for this talk about IP and what’s missing from games.”.

The firm has a team of four, and it works with others as needed.

“We just realized nobody knows how to build an IP. They don’t even know how to figure out which is the right level of leverage. Some people are lucky they have an IP. What we do is advise on the problem we see is that most studios think like this. They just want to do a game and get it done and then they realize that what they actually needed was a lasting product.”.

For that, you need to take the player on an emotional journey and give them a character that they really love. You want a character that is seeking revenge or trying to find peace. You have to design the IP so that it’s legally ownable and protectable, he introduced. It is what you normally ask when you’re reading a book or watching a movie. Why do I care?

“We realized that the big problem for the entire industry is that we don’t do pre-production on the IP. Because it’s just not a tradition. Gameplay used to be enough. So all these companies have grown up with a total focus on game content,” he noted. “We produce the game. But the emotions and the characters and positioning — ah, let’s talk about something else. So a typical game development process is three to four years of development, and then it’s three months of IP.”.

That turns into three months of brand panic and IP panic, he expressed, at the end of the game when it’s almost too late to change anything.

“What we’ve been doing for seven years is helping people to develop a clear idea early. The sweet spot is to do it early in pre-production, but of course often we get pulled in at 80% finish or relaunch,” he introduced. “We’re able to figure it out. If you do this, suddenly you’re standing out in the market because you’re not just a gameplay loop.”.

This is necessary because there are maybe 17,000 games a year coming out on Steam. To stand out, you don’t have to just look at gameplay competitors. Your IP has to be memorable.

“Today, you also have to look at your emotional competitors. So it’s no use making a great hand-to-hand combat game. If your IP is exactly the same as Batman, then you’re not going to win. What is Batman doing emotionally? He’s in a big city full of corruption. He’s an orphan. Those are the central pillars of that IP. It’s not enough to compete on gameplay, you also have to compete on emotion.”.

Leverage has worked with 40 companies in seven years. A bunch of the titles are confidential and could launch within the next two years.

Fonnesbech expressed the firm worked on games like the Dune, Payday, Atlas Fallen, Star Stable, Kingdom, EverSpace – and on IPs like the Dark Pictures anthology, Heavy Trip (a hilarious heavy metal movie that’s becoming a game) and Conan.

But he noted that only a few projects that actually make it to launch – partly because of the crisis of the last two to three years, which has killed many projects.

It’s not just a single writer that has to accomplish the writing tasks, Fonnesbech stated. He stated the whole leadership team should get involved. But it’s very different from enterprise to enterprise, as some studios are driven by a single creative force and others are run by leadership groups. Some firms are riven by the crazies and the bean counters who don’t like working with each other.

An example of doing it backwards is Riot Games’ League of Legends. It built the most successful multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game with a lot of characters but not much of a story. Now it went back and created the back story, spending $250 million on two seasons of Arcane on Netflix. And now it built something that fans are emotionally attached to. And if you’ve ever been to a League of Legends championship match, you’ll see the emotion of the crowd. Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega started the same way, with a speedy character with attitude and fast gameplay. Now, with the movies, Sonic’s emotional center is coming into focus.

Fonnesbech believes companies like Remedy, CD Projekt Red and Naughty Dog have done brilliant jobs creating their IP.

“If you want to build a valuable IP, the thing is it’s not necessarily the thing that makes it a hit,” he revealed. “But it’s the thing that makes you sustainable,” Fonnesbech revealed. “I would recommend characters. You don’t have to have them, but it’s really good. Having a character is just a great anchor and template. You can talk about having an emotional journey. What is the emotional journey? Franchises and IPs are like cherished memories that you want to experience.”.

He added, “If you’re picking up Hitman or the latest Bourne movie or so on, you’re expecting to have that emotional journey. Lara Croft is still looking for her father in the ruins, and, you know, Geralt of Rivia is still the outsider who’s trying to protect the people who actually don’t trust him. You’re coming back for that same feeling again. Then there’s having a unique world. You think of Hitman, you think of Lara Croft, you think of Superman. It’s a world and a certain tone and a certain attitude that you’re coming back to as well. So these things start adding up. The more of them you have, the more cohesive the IP becomes.”.

The Walking Dead is the monster of entertainment IP.

Some companies like Skybound, maker of The Walking Dead, will test a new IP in comic form. If it resonates, it puts the writer’s room to work on it and churns out different kind of media. It tests the waters and doubles down on the hits. Before The Walking Dead, the “good guys never died,” he noted.

But people have to watch out for the “transmedia fallacy,” Fonnesbech stated. “The idea that we’ll go out on six media at once and it will be a bigger hit. That doesn’t work. You have to put everything you have into going out on one medium and make it work. It’s so difficult to make one good piece of game or fiction or story.”.

As for how things have worked in the last few years with 34,000 layoffs in the industry, Fonnesbech expressed there was a delayed effect for his own consultancy. While other big companies were hit earlier, the crisis arrived for him in the spring of 2024, when there was a big game.

“Things are booming now, and it feels like there’s a bigger need for this way of thinking because I think the publishers and the investors have become a little bit more cautious about investing in weird wonders,” he showcased. “If they are going to put all this investment in, they want to see something that will last.”.

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