If you want to know just what Apple did at Wednesday’s media event, you might look check out one of the tech or mainstream news sites for the details. You would expect a straightforward presentation of the new features for the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2, how they stand compared to earlier models, and to the competition.

That’s what you would expect. But you might be wrong.

You see, most of the stories I’ve read — or heard on cable TV news — are heavily oriented towards the “crisis” of the vanishing headphone jack. It is as if that’s the beginning and end of the story. Oh yes, the new iPhone and the new Apple Watch very much resemble their predecessors, which is fuel for the complaint that the changes are relatively unimportant.

Again, except for the iPhone 7’s lack of a headphone jack.

Now in explaining the reasons for the change in recent weeks, I mentioned that analog headphone jack technology is based on the original phone jack that dates back to the late 19th century. Yes, it was used by operators in telephone switching rooms, and Apple VP Philip Schiller used just such a photo, in black and white no less, to get the point across. But I won’t assume Schiller reads these columns, though I know Apple is aware of my work.

That said, the space saved from eliminating this old and fragile technology makes way for a second speaker and allows Apple to make the new iPhones water- and dust-resistant. You don’t even need to consider a special model, unlike Samsung which claims its Galaxy S7 Active is the one to get. Only the Samsung isn’t surviving the Consumer Reports dunk tests, and has recalled the new Galaxy Note 7, millions of them, due to battery defects. So Samsung isn’t doing so well with product reliability. I expect that the new iPhones and the swim-proof Apple Watch Series 2, will both withstand appropriate testing.

Indeed, to some, a water-resistant iPhone may be the most important feature of all. The lack of a headphone jack may be a non-issue to most, inasmuch as Apple is including an adapter plug in the box. That, by the way, was a matter of some dispute among tech pundits I’ve interviewed, but I’m glad Apple did, as I expected, the right thing. And, yes, I realize some might want to be able to use their ear buds while the iPhone is charging, and I expect Apple, or someone, will release a combo adapter of some sort.

Yet another very important feature is the promise of improved battery life, up to two hours extra on the iPhone 7, and up to one hour extra on the iPhone 7 Plus, which already had superior battery longevity. This is one of the most frequent requests from customers, and, compared with water resistance, might be sufficient to persuade many people to upgrade.

The new camera system is also a significant development, with better lenses, superior image processing software and the addition of optical image stabilization on the smaller iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 Plus is outfitted with two cameras, one with the standard wide-angle setup, the other telephoto. Two well-known professional photographers were quoted, during the presentation, as extolling the professional caliber features of the new camera system. Best of all, any casual user should be able to take great pictures with minimal adjustment or no adjustment. I can’t wait to try it out.

For those who want great display quality, Apple offers something called Retina HD, with a wider color gamut designed to make colors pop on the screen. It’s not quite the True Tone feature available on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, but it’s something that ought to be immediately visible, similar to the improvements in color display on the 2015 iMac.

Now those who say wait for the 2017 iPhone, suggest it’ll have an OLED display. Fine and dandy, assuming it meets its promise. But is that enough to convince people to wait another year? Besides, that feature won’t be confirmed, if it happens, until the next iPhone is actually introduced.

When you consider the changes in the iPhone 7, including the promise of greatly improved performance from the A10 processor and GPU, and the new Home button with a Taptic Engine, the number of changes and improvements exceed those of some previous iPhones. Sure, the case looks very similar, despite the vanishing antennas and smoother camera slot, but that shouldn’t be so important for anyone who is really paying attention.

Typical of iPhones, the price structure remains very much the same, but storage space doubles to 32GB, 128GB and 256GB. I suspect the entry-level model will have more than sufficient storage capacity for most of you.

The Apple Watch Series 2 benefits from a brighter display, dual-core processor and a GPS system, to allow it to do more things without being tethered to your iPhone. Last year’s model, dubbed Series 1, receives the dual-core processor with a cheaper price.

Apple will take orders on the Apple Watch Series 2 and the iPhone 7 beginning on September 7th, with shipments beginning on September 16th. The release version of iOS 10 will be available for download on September 13th. macOS Sierra ships the following week, but developers are already getting their hands on golden master seeds of all the upcoming OS upgrades.

Other announcements may seem less significant in the scheme of things. iWork gains real-time collaboration that’s shared among all platforms and the web version. There were also minor changes to iPad Pro pricing, with models sporting higher storage capacities receiving price reductions of from $50 to $100. 16GB storage options were also replaced with 32GB, a very sensible move.

After the presentation concluded, Tim Cook introduced a pop singer, Sia, for a live performance of two of her latest songs. Unfortunately, her face was well hidden by the mic, so I never got a sense of what she really looks like. That is bad form, and yes I realize you can see portraits of her online.

So we moved into a relatively inexpensive home that is only seven years old. What this means is that the wiring is new and takes advantage of current safety standards. So far so good.

I set up my equipment in a second room that serves as den or bedroom, and it was perfect for a home office. It has a carpeted floor, and js relatively free of extraneous echoes. You may have noticed the improvements in recent episodes of my radio shows. Even better, the neighbors don’t have packs of barking dogs to disturb my sanctity and deliver unwanted background noise.

Well, my gear is fairly straightforward, and the current lineup has mostly been the same for the past four years.

In addition to my 27-inch iMac, a relatively low-power device, there are two small external backup drives, a Bose computer speaker system, a VoIP phone adapter, a two-line desk phone with wireless capability, a tiny Netgear Gigabit Ethernet switch, a Behringer USB mixer, a multifunction printer from Epson and a Brother HL-5450DN laser printer. This gear is connected to a pair of name-brand power strips.

A laser printer is the best way to save on printing costs. With recycled toner cartridges and other accessories, I can keep printing costs to less than a penny a page. The multifunction is used mostly for copying and faxing.

But the Brother has had a troubled history. A few months after the one-year warranty expired, it started outputting with ghosting text. I changed out toner cartridges — and the printer drum — without resolving the problem. Fortunately, Brother took pity on me and agreed to replace the fuser assembly. To demonstrate the curious way spare parts are priced on such devices, the price for this part is actually very close to what the printer cost new.  On eBay you can get one for prices ranging from $99.95 to $176.00. It requires the sort of installation process, however, best left to a service technician.

Unless you’re a do-it-yourself person, it’s not worth the bother, unless it fails prematurely. The fuser and laser assemblies are rated for 100,000 copies. At this point, it’s best to just replace the printer.

Well, the repaired Brother worked fine until I moved into my new home. After wiring everything up, the room’s breaker would trip once or twice a day, which knocked out the lights and all the equipment connected to the wall outlets. Not good. The breaker panel is located outside, near the electric meter, and is easily reset.

The landlord sent an electrician to replace the 15-amp breaker with a 20-amp breaker. I thought that fixed the problem — until Sunday morning where it tripped again.

A little online sleuthing revealed that Brother printers are notorious for oqccaiosnally tripping circuit breakers. The usual excuse is that there are too many devices hooked up to the wall sockets, so use less, or connect the printer to a wall socket in another room, one that uses a different breaker. The replacement breaker, however, should have been more than sufficient to eliminate this problem.

So what to do?

Well, I wrote to someone from Brother’s technical support that I contacted a few years back when I was reviewing some of their gear. While that person is no longer with the company, I got the email address of her successor, who telephoned me Tuesday to attempt to diagnose the problem. At no time did they ask me to pay for out-of-warranty service. They took this seriously, and passed my call on to a senior tech support person who was clearly aware of such troubles.

I had a pleasant conversation with a very knowledgeable technician who proceeded to explain the reasons that might trigger a circuit fault and pop the breaker. He did suggest I might consider hooking the printer up in another room, but was willing to offer another possible solution first.

So it appears they have a special version of the firmware that they use to handle problems of this sort. Evidently it fine tunes power management so power spurts and heat generation are better controlled. The only fly in the ointment is that it cannot be installed with the Mac version of the printer’s network software. I will try to apply it under Windows 10 on a Parallels Desktop virtual machine.

As I write this article, I haven’t received the file or instructions yet. In the meantime, I did find an interim firmware update online, version 1.23 (the printer had version 1.20), which may have controlled or reduced the problem. Maybe that will be sufficient, but it won’t hurt to try Brother’s official fix.

I’m actually pleased with Brother’s attention to detail and the willingness to work with a customer, even though this is a fairly cheap printer. It’s the level of support you’d expect with a business level printer costing hundreds more. And, no, I’m not pulling rank. The support person wasn’t aware that I host a popular tech blog and two syndicated radio shows. He was just trying to help a customer solve a problem.

In the meantime, the breaker hasn’t tripped since Sunday. Maybe the updated firmware was sufficient to resolve the problem (such updates have helped with other models), but I will install the special firmware and report the results. If I can get the Brother to work without untoward side effects, I’ll keep it for another few years or until it drops. The next time I’m in the market for laser printer, Brother will be at the top of the list. This is the sort of customer service customers deserve but do not often receive.

I’m writing this two days before Apple is expected to take the wraps off the next iPhone, and you’ll read it a day before. But the discussion is already spinning towards its successor. in fact, there are a number of online complaints that the iPhone 7 won’t be such a big deal, that you might as well wait for the 10th anniversary version, presumably an iPhone 8. That’s going to make a huge difference.

How huge?

Well, the key new feature may be an alleged switch to an OLED display, which is similar to what’s already being used on smartphones from Samsung and other handset makers. The supposed advantage of OLED is a wider viewing angle and better visibility in bright surroundings, such as sunlight. But Apple has not chosen to take advantage of such display technology, perhaps under the belief that there are still technical limitations in terms of color accuracy, longevity and perhaps other issues.

Regardless, you can expect that a future version of any consumer electronics gadget will probably be better than the previous version. If you want to continue to avoid buying one in the hope that the right combination of new features will appear, you might as well never buy anything. It’s a given there will be annual improvements to iPhones. Some of those improvements will be better, some not so.

So there’s a perception that there needs to be a major case redesign, or something brand new display technology or screen size the smacks significance.

So the iPhone 6 was regarded as a huge change compared to the iPhone 5s, where the Touch ID fingerprint sensor debuted. Other than the display size, and the phablet version, the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s, how many major changes were there? There were other changes that, beyond improved performance, were probably no more significant than those on previous models. But the larger displays, a few years after the competition went large, were significant enough for the critics to pronounce the new models spectacular improvements.

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus had a number of improvements too, but they were mostly internal, so they weren’t regarded as terribly important. But don’t forget that Siri debuted on the iPhone 4s in 2011, the first product introduced by Tim Cook after he assumed the permanent CEO position. It wasn’t regarded as a terribly important upgrade either, because it didn’t look very different from its predecessor, despite the introduction of a personal digital assistant that’s become a cultural icon of sorts.

So where does this lead us?

Well, we know that the next iPhone will debut at the upcoming media event; maybe the Apple Watch 2 as well. Presumably, it’s will be the iPhone 7, and there have already been a number of reports about the possible feature set. And here’s the rub! The case design supposedly will be mostly the same as the iPhone 6s, with perhaps some minor refinements, such as a slightly thinner case and, most controversial of all, no headphone jack.

Now the decision to ditch the headphone jack has been around for a while, so it appears to have some measure of credibility. The reasons for ditching a technology that’s decades old include getting more space for other stuff, such as a second speaker, and improved water resistance. In addition, a headphone jack is a common point of failure. You break off a headphone plug accidentally, and the logic board is toast. It happened once to me, at a time when the affected device, a PowerBook, could be repaired on the component level and thus didn’t cost me so much to fix.

Of course, you can expect a negative outcry anytime Apple ditches another connection port. And that’s a fairly common scenario. So this is the sort of rumor that, considering how long it’s been around, is probably true. Apple may even offer a headphone jack to Lightning adapter in the box to mollify those who have huge investments in older ear buds, earphones, and so on and so forth.

But this isn’t the reason why some commentators are complaining that the iPhone 7 won’t be much of an upgrade. After all, Apple isn’t going to bring back the headphone jack for a future iPhone. As with floppy and optical drives, when it goes, it’s gone. Kaput.

More important, all this negative chatter comes before Apple has actually demonstrated anything. Maybe it’ll look similar to the previous model, with an extra color or two, but the number of new features may otherwise match or exceed the typical iPhone upgrade.

So is there a reason to wait for another year? Well, maybe next year you’ll get the OLED display, but what else? Is that unproven rumor sufficient to skip this year’s model?

Indeed, the constant complaints about insignificant upgrades raise suspicions that maybe Apple’s competition is part of the feeding frenzy. Maybe those news tips are done in a way not to identify the source — and maybe some publications just don’t care.

By Wednesday, the media can decide whether the number of changes in the new iPhone are sufficient in importance to match previous models. But to most potential buyers, who have gear that’s two years or older, it will be a significant improvement regardless. Besides, just how many meaningful and useful changes can Apple — or any other handset maker — craft each year?

Smartphones are pretty good right now. There may be a revolution someday that completely alters the landscape. But it’s not about larger displays, different types of displays, or other incremental changes. So maybe it’s time to relax, enjoy the show, and make your purchase decision based on your needs, regardless of what the complainers yap about.

At one time, it was thought that Apple paid little more than lip service to security problems on Macs and iOS gear. True, each maintenance update usually included a set of security fixes, but what if something occurred between those releases? Would Apple act quickly to keep customers safe?

You may have wondered about that in 2011, when hundreds of thousands of Macs were allegedly infected by the Flashback Trojan. Now those numbers all depended on believing one security company’s estimate. Some suggested that estimate was provided to help sell more product as much as to protect you from something nasty. But Flashback wasn’t due to any flaw in OS X. Instead, it was due to a flaw in Java, the cross-platform development scheme owned by Oracle that was bundled with OS X. Specifically it was the Java browser plugin, often used for online chat rooms and other services.

Apple seemed to take its sweet time devising a solution. Oracle did its part with a revised Java, and Apple finally made the browser plugin optional, and stopped providing Java to Mac users. The version you use now comes from Oracle, and it’s that company’s responsibility to maintain it.

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