I knew I was taking a chance. I boarded an early morning flight to San Jose (yes I knew the way) one spring day in 2001. I had perhaps a one hour margin of error, and a late arrival might have made this trip a waste, because I would not have been able to get to Apple’s One Infinite Loop headquarters in time for a long-awaited media event. From the airport, I had to take a short cab trip to Cupertino, maybe 15 minutes or so.

Fortunately, I arrived with 30 minutes to spare to attend the launch of the first release of OS X, or Mac OS X, as it was known then. The previous September, Apple released a Public Beta, meant to showcase the potential of the Unix-based OS — and largely to prove to skeptics that it really existed after so many delays.

Days before the Public Beta arrived, I had journeyed to the San Francisco headquarters of CNET to meet with an Apple PR rep to receive a copy of the installation DVD and a short briefing. They even offered me a Power Mac G4 Cube on which to test it, but I preferred to try it out it on my own equipment, not a machine specially configured by Apple. There was no objection.

My initial response was that it was bereft of features. The non-functional Apple menu was stuck in the middle of the menu bar. It was also dead slow even on the fastest Power Mac G4 of the time. Apple hadn’t yet optimized the graphics to tap the graphics hardware, so it was especially sluggish when displaying the fancy Aqua graphics. Moreover, with so few apps ported to the new OS, there wasn’t a lot to do except to try it out and reboot under Mac OS 9.

I had hopes for Mac OS 10.0, and I arrived at Apple’s headquarters almost in the front of the line, which earned me a second row seat inside. This is the same auditorium where Apple displayed the iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro earlier this week.

Curiously, Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller sat right in front of me. In those days, Jobs wasn’t averse to sometimes almost mingling with the masses. But he seemed uncomfortable when I courteously said “bless you” after he sneezed.

So Jobs and his team demonstrated Mac OS X, code name Cheetah. It wasn’t until OS 10.2, Jaguar, that Apple opted to use a code name as the official product name. In any case, it was hopeful that a real Apple menu had been added in its proper spot at the left side of the menu bar, although it wasn’t quite as functional as the one from the Classic Mac OS.

At the end of the presentation, Jobs revealed that this supposed final release was really, for all practices, yet another public beta, but sold at the full retail price of $129, minus the $29 if you bought the Public Beta. He admitted that some features, such as CD burning, and a more efficient printing system, would be added later on. This first release was meant for power users and developers.

The rest might as well leave it be. New Macs would still ship with Mac OS 9 as the boot operating system, and it took a couple more release before OS X was the default system. Other than a proper Apple menu and other seemingly minor refinements, 10.0 was still dog slow. I stayed within the Aqua environment long enough to write a few books and magazine articles about it, after which I returned to Mac OS 9 to get some real work done.

After the presentation, Jobs invited questions from the media. One of those questions got his hackles up. A reporter asked about the rumored decision to discontinue the G4 Cube. Jobs’ sharp retort: “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

A few weeks later, Apple made it official. The Cube had clearly been a failure in the marketplace, despite a recent price cut. It was overpriced and underpowered. There wasn’t much expansion room inside, but some kept them and still cherish them. When I reviewed the Cube shortly after it was released in 2000, I said it belonged in a museum, echoing a sarcastic crack from an Indiana Jones film. But I was right. It might have seemed a clever idea, but I suspect it was an indulgence on the part of Jobs, meant as a modern successor to the original NeXT Cube. But that didn’t sell terribly well either.

It’s 15 years later. OS X has overcome its early shortcomings and is now a tool used by tens of millions of Mac users. Some long-time Mac fanatics still fret over the fact that today’s Apple menu still hasn’t gained all the features of its Classic Mac OS predecessor, but to most it doesn’t matter. Apple found a solution to its OS problem that has worked for 15 years. In 2018, on the occasion of its 17th anniversary, its longevity will match that of the original Mac OS.

Or will Apple be touting a successor by then? OS 11, Mac OS Pro? Or will there by something that combines iOS and OS X into something altogether new, something that configures itself automatically for the kind of equipment it’s being used on? But isn’t that what Microsoft is touting with Windows 10? Even if it is, Apple’s solution will surely be more elegant and more reliable.

It almost came across as a movie cliffhanger. Just a day ahead of a scheduled court appearance in which Apple would fight the FBI’s demand to develop a “govOS” to unlock an iPhone, a motion by the Department of Justice to postpone the hearing was approved by the judge.

According to the court filing, the FBI had allegedly been contacted by a third party with a possible solution to unlocking an iPhone 5c, a work phone used by deceased terrorist Syed Farook. The FBI contended that its demand was just for that one iPhone, whereas it was soon revealed that similar demands were just waiting in the wings for this case to be resolved.

There ensued a very public debate between Apple and the FBI over the issues. Tim Cook and other Apple executives asserted, with clear justification, that the act of developing a less secure OS would result in a backdoor that could be exploited both by the good guys and the bad guys. TV pundits weighed in, but most were not terribly informed about the request or its ramifications.

At the heart of this case was the obvious suspicion that the FBI had waited for a high-profile case as an excuse to seek a court order, hoping for a quick ruling to make it so. But I also wonder why they didn’t look to security firms to help them if the government’s own resources were insufficient. Asking a company to build a special product based on a court order would create a nasty precedent.

According to published reports, software developer Cellebrite, from Israel, was the firm contracted to make the attempt to unlock that iPhone. The firm offers what it calls “mobile forensics solutions” to help unlock such gear. Not confirmed is a report that the contract is for $15,000. That would seem a tad low, unless Cellebrite was convinced it could get it done fairly quickly.

How would they do it? Well, according to published reports, one scheme would be to use NAND (flash memory) mirroring, to copy the data on the iPhone, and then trying passcodes on that copy. After nine attempts, the data is replaced, and they try new passcodes. There are 10,000 possible combinations, so it might take time to get a positive result even if the process was highly automated. Whether it takes hours or days, presumably it would eventually succeed.

Now there has been some interesting byplay in media comments about this possible solution. One suggests that Apple would be harmed if they lost the original case, simply because it would mean that a backdoor would be developed that would compromise iOS security. But if the iPhone is unlocked by a third party, using a hack of some sort that exploited a known, or newly discovered, flaw in iOS, it would only demonstrate that the platform is not as secure as Apple would like you believe.

On the other hand, Apple doesn’t claim its platforms are impossible to hack, and iOS is regularly updated as new security flaws are discovered, so they are promptly fixed. So any flaw exploited to unlock that iPhone would, if Apple knows about it, be fixed before long. It’s not a permanent concern.

But if a method is found to bypass the limit of 10 passcode attempts, which is what the NAND mirroring/copying scheme appears poised to do, it would not be the result of a security flaw. On the other hand, Apple could, I suppose, make it impossible to copy the flash memory without somehow impacting the integrity of the data. Indeed, the suggested solution is strictly theoretical at this point.

However it’s done, unless the FBI reveals the solution, it will probably be a secret, mostly, unless the method somehow leaks. Or someone else tries what they believe to be the solution, achieves a successful outcome and makes it public.

But if it doesn’t work, you can bet the FBI will return to court and the postponed hearing will take place.

Even if Apple were to win in the courts if a new skirmish occurs, it’s possible the U.S. Congress could get together and devise some sort of solution that would become law. But in this highly polarized climate, the prospects for its passage is minimal. The House might be more interested in passing yet another bill to rip up the Affordable Care Act, or approving the name of a new post office.

What might happen — regardless of the outcome — is that a committee will be appointed to evaluate the situation and make recommendations. One hopes that Silicon Valley companies would be represented. Even then, as with most committees, it may take months or years for it to deliver a report, and even if they did, the chances that a workable law would result aren’t terribly high.

In short, the final chapter of this story has yet to be written. And just imagine how one might feel if that iPhone 5c didn’t contain any actionable data after all? That’s what I think, because the terrorists were smart enough to destroy their personal tech gear. This is, after all, a work phone, so why would they put potentially incriminating stuff on a device that could have been easily recovered by the agency that owns it? I suppose, if it did contain something important, the handset could have been destroyed too before anyone had a chance to recover it.

There must be a special place for people who write misleading, or completely wrong, fear-mongering pieces about Apple. Surely there are lots of real things about which to complain, but evidently they aren’t doing their research. It’s too easy to repeat old tropes. Very easy.

So almost every time Apple releases something new, shoes will drop worldwide. Maybe old shoes, with beaten leather and holes in the soles, but dropped shoes nonetheless. So it was inevitable that some would complain that the iPhone SE is just too expensive, that it has no possible chance to succeed.

Now for a smartphone, an unlocked price of $399 for the basic 16GB version may seem pricey. It is if you compare it to some of those cheap Android phones. But other companies envy Apple for being able to command a high-end price, and for the profits earned. Even a Samsung Galaxy handset competes in that price category, but doesn’t match Apple, although Samsung sells more units when you include cheaper, less profitable gear.

But prices are already being slashed on Samsung’s Galaxy S7, their newly-launched flagship smartphone. I saw an ad this week in which AT&T will get you a second handset free if you add a new line on your account. That’s hardly an expression of confidence that these products will be selling real fast without lots of help. Indeed, Samsung has not been able to move their top-of-the-line gear as fast as Apple, nor do profits come even close.

Those troubling facts, however, do not stop some alleged reporters from assuming that Apple will ultimately lose out to commodity gear, just as they lost out to commodity gear in the PC business.

But Apple’s market share in the PC space has actually been rising in recent years. Even when sales drop slightly, Apple does better then most of the rest of the industry. By concentrating on the middle or higher-end of the market, profits are higher than other PC makers.

Still, that the revenue from Mac sales was a mere 8.9% of apple’s total sales in the December 2015 quarter, which is regarded as “insignificant” until you consider the total numbers, in the billions of dollars. These are sales any PC company would envy. Most competitors don’t even come close, and it consists of loyal customers who opted to buy a product with its own proprietary operating system. The rest of the PC makers are selling Windows gear, and that gear is usually little different from another company’s product, so customers can easily switch brands depending on who gives them the best deal. So much for customer loyalty.

The latest argument about impending failure is about smartphones. iPhone sales growth has slowed, and there will evidently be negative growth this quarter. It’s doubtful the iPhone SE will have much impact, since it will only ship on March 31st. But it should have an impact in future quarters.

Regardless, the argument has it that, since there are so many commodity smartphones, in other words fairly similar models with little significant differentiation, and they are relatively cheap, Apple must suffer. It must be similar to the PC wars, except that Macs never held a majority share of PCs, not even in the early days. Besides, the commodity PCs were here more than two decades ago, and Macs are still around doing better than ever. It didn’t kill Apple — though it did come close when Apple stopped being smart about innovation in the mid-1990s.

With the iPhone, there is no direct equivalent. Nobody else produces a product running iOS, so it’s not so easy for customers to buy something cheaper without making some hard decisions, and being willing to attempt to migrate their stuff to a new platform. An iOS switcher who goes Android would also have to accept the possibility that the apps they use are not available, and would have to seek out substitutes, if one is available.

Besides, the average selling price of iPhones has remained pretty stable, so it’s not as if people are looking for cheaper products, or going elsewhere in large quantities. Indeed, more Android users go iOS than the reverse.

That said, the iPhone SE is the cheapest smartphone ever built by Apple. Monthly lease or purchase deals will start at $17, according to Apple, so it’ll be easier than ever for customers to buy one. What’s more, it offers most of the capabilities of the iPhone 6s family. The only significant missing feature is 3D Touch, which is probably not such a big deal. So customers who want a smaller iPhone — or just need to save money — aren’t being shortchanged.

That the smartphone market is becoming saturated effects everyone, not just Apple. It doesn’t mean customers will magically move to cheaper handsets and give up their iPhones. Or not buy one in the first place.

Fleshing out the product lineup might make it seem a tad confusing for customers, but Apple is really just replacing the iPhone 5s with a new model. So nothing is being lost, and customers are also saving $50 on a better product.

Now this may also mean that the next iPhone flagships, the supposed iPhone 7 series, might also be a tad cheaper going forward. But it’s not that Apple’s profit margins are so tight that they can’t absorb somewhat lower purchase prices. If they strike better deals for components, it may not make any difference.

The rumor sites were pretty much on the mark about Apple’s March 21st media event. From a 4-inch iPhone, to a mid-sized iPad Pro, even the basic specs were mostly accurate. Clearly Apple’s supply chain is leaking like a sieve and it’s doubtful Apple can do very much about it.

But they were game. Apple put on an efficient, informative show, but there were no show stoppers of any note.

Still, if you want a 4-inch iPhone with specs to match the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, or you had hoped for an update to the iPad Air 2, you weren’t disappointed.

Before getting to the hardware, Tim Cook covered the basics about Apple’s dispute over the FBI over the demand that it create a GovOS to allow the authorities to break into an iPhone 5c used by a terrorist. But the whole controversy might be moot. According to published reports, the Justice department has asked the court to vacate the motion ordering Apple to develop that backdoor, claiming that, “an outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method to unlock” the iPhone 5c. If that method works, Apple won’t need to get involved. Big sigh!

I wonder if that’s an ethical hacker. The statement appears to imply a hacking scheme of some sort.

Moving on, Cook’s lieutenants delivered presentations on Apple’s environmental initiatives, such as how their gear is constructed to allow for easy recycling. Some stage time was also devoted to ResearchKit and CareKit, which are designed to empower medical research and help patients manage their conditions and care.

I’ll take the product intros, such as they are, in the order in which they were delivered. You’ll understand why I feel that much of it could have been accomplished with press releases.

So we have the Apple Watch. Without revealing any actual numbers, Tim Cook boasted that it’s the top selling smartwatch in the world. He also said it was number one in customer satisfaction. So what’s new and different? Well, more fancy watch bands, including some made with woven nylon. Echoing what some dealers have already done, the starting price was cut by $50.

Now reducing prices is nothing new for Apple, even though some will claim it’s evidence that the Apple Watch is a poor seller. Regardless, the move might help sell some extra watches ahead of the introduction of the second generation model, which will probably happen by fall. Remember that Apple cut the price of the third generation Apple TV last year, a few months before the new model was introduced.

Speaking of Apple TV, Cook said it had achieved record sales, but still no numbers. As of now, some 5,000 apps are available in its App Store. The tvOS update, released shortly after the media event, added folders to better organize apps, a dictation feature, Siri support for the App Store, support for the iCloud photo library, plus the long-awaited Bluetooth support so you can now pair a keyboard.

Cook introduced VP Greg Joswiak to introduce the iPhone SE. The feature set for Apple’s smallest iPhone is mostly comparable to the larger handsets except for, as predicted, the lack of 3D Touch support. No big deal. So it includes the A9 chip, and a 12 megapixel camera. Both computing and graphics performance was said to be identical to the larger iPhones, which makes the iPhone SE twice as fast as its immediate predecessor, the iPhone 5s; graphics are said to be three times faster.

If your wireless carrier is one of the few that still offers a two-year contract, you can get the entry-level 16GB version free. The 64GB model is $100 more. If you want to buy the unlocked version, the iPhone SE is now the cheapest model Apple has offered so far, listing for $399 and $499. Supposedly you can get one of these babies for as little as $17 per month on a lease or purchase plan.

In his introduction to the iPhone SE launch, Cook mentioned that, in 2015, 30 million 4-inch models were sold, and that was all legacy gear. So the big question is, and I’ve asked it before, why did it take six months to introduce it? Or was this meant, in part, as a stop-gap to prop up flagging sales until the next model intro? However, it won’t help this quarter’s sales much, since it won’t ship until March 31st; orders will be accepted as of March 24th.

During his presentation, Joswiak also announced that iOS 9 was now running on 80% of all active devices. This is, in part, due to the fact that it supports the same hardware as iOS 8. With the introduction of the iPhone SE, Apple launched the promised iOS 9.3 update.

In case you’re wondering, the adoption rate for the latest Android OS from Google is in the low single digits.

The new features in iOS 9.3 aren’t terribly spectacular, but still pretty clever. So there’s Night Shift, which moves the display colors to the warmer end of the spectrum. This is designed to help you sleep better if your eyes are focused on your iPhone or iPad at night. There are also improvements to such apps as Health, Maps, News, and even CarPlay. The latter is now being supported by most of the major auto makers and has been, or is being, introduced in over 100 models. In all fairness, many of these cars also include Android Auto; the auto makers are clearly not trying to play favorites.

There’s a long list of changes and improvements in iOS 9.3, including special features for education. So feel free to check them out at Apple’s site, or you can take a few moments to read the release notes when you see the update being offered on your device.

VP Philip Schiller demonstrated the expected successor to the iPad Air 2. Also known as the iPad Pro, it offers essentially the same features and specs as its 12.9-inch counterpart, and that includes support for the Apple Pencil. But Apple didn’t stop there. A True Color feature uses ambient light to offer better color accuracy. I suppose that’ll turn up in the next version of the larger iPad Pro.

While ignoring the sales decline, Cook announced that some 200 million were sold so far, and that the majority of iPad Pro users so far come from Windows. Thus it is being referred to as the “ultimate PC replacement.”

If you want the smaller Pro, the price is $100 more than the previous mid-sized iPads, but you get 32GB storage on the $599 entry-level version, compared to 16GB on the iPad Air 2. $150 more gets you 128GB; another $150 takes it to 256GB, a first for an iPad. The larger iPad Pro is also now being configured similarly. Preorders begin on March 24th, with shipments starting on March 31st. Again, it’s too late to really boost this quarter’s sales.

If you still want an iPad Air 2, you can now buy one for $100 less. And no, the new iPad Pro doesn’t provide any new incentive for me to use one.

Oh, and by the way, Apple also released a maintenance update for El Capitan, OS 10.11.4.