Once a portion of the media seizes on a narrative, however wrongheaded, it’s often difficult or impossible to change things. Take the perception that Tim Cook is little more than a supply chain geek with a shaky grasp of the public narrative about Apple.

For many, the late Steve Jobs was strictly the product person who shepherded — or browbeat — his designers and engineers to create insanely great products. I suppose some might have believed that Jobs must have been a whiz at CAD software and managing complicated printed circuitry.

Actually, Apple’s mercurial cofounder was best when in sales mode, demonstrating to one and all the joys of something new and different from Apple. But he was the face of Apple, not the person who actually designed those things. Instead, he relied on a staff of brilliant people to turn his ideas — and the ideas of others — into reality. But not all of his decisions were necessarily correct, and people sometimes had to change his mind to reach a momentous decision.

Take the iPhone. Before the iPhone arrived, other smartphones had paid apps. But they were often overpriced and didn’t work so well. But with the iPhone, Jobs touted web apps instead. He had to be persuaded to give developers the tools they needed to build native apps.

The arrival of the App Store in 2008 may have been the most important factor in the device’s success. A huge community of developers continues to work to build millions of apps covering a wide range of categories. Many are free, many are cheap, and some are not-so-cheap. But everything the iPhone does, aside from Apple’s built-in software, is meant to serve those apps.

Sure, you could restrict yourself to Apple’s bundled apps, but you will be limiting your iPhone and iPad experience big time. As a corollary, in the dark days of the Mac, many developers moved to Windows, or maintained inferior Mac versions. As a result, lots of people switched to Microsoft’s platform.

Nowadays, one key factor that keeps people on the Mac, aside from macOS and the thousands upon thousands of native apps, is the fact that you can run Windows with decent performance in a virtual machine, or at full speed in Boot Camp.

Now about Tim Cook. A surprisingly positive Business Insider piece about him mentions the fact that he recently received 560,000 shares of Apple stock, valued at $89.2 million, for doing a good job.

So if Cook is just a numbers guy, how does one explain the disconnect?

Now don’t forget that Cook was chosen by Jobs to succeed him. When Jobs took several sick leaves to receive treatment for his ultimately fatal condition. he believed in Cook to keep the company humming along.

Sure, Cook isn’t perfect — nor was Jobs. But he has also delivered big time. Under his leadership, Apple has become the number one company on the planet based on market cap. This didn’t happen because he happens to be brilliant with finances. It’s because Apple has continued to build compelling upgrades for its product portfolio. And don’t forget the new stuff that arrived under his leadership.

All right, maybe the Mac didn’t get the attention it deserved for a time, but Apple has clearly learned from its mistakes.

While the new products under Cook’s leadership haven’t been the smashing success of the iPhone, they appear to have done pretty well. According to the Business Insider piece, the AirPods, which were introduced last fall, dominates its category by earning 85% of the money spent on such gear. It’s not as if tens of millions are being sold, but it’s Apple’s market to lose.

And remember that Apple is just catching up on AirPods orders. Somebody out there likes them.

Another example of a so-called failed product from Cook is the Apple Watch. Yet products that sell in much lower quantities are regarded as successes, but I’ll get to that shortly.

According to recent estimates, Apple sold 3.4 million of them in the June quarter, which is hardly a peak period for sales of such a gadget. IDC credits the Apple Watch with a 49.6% share of the market. Samsung? It’s 11%. Even the Fitbit, once the market leader among wearables, has continued to suffer from falling sales, while the Apple Watch continues to do better and better.

This doesn’t mean that the Apple Watch is a must-have, but people like them, sales are continuing to climb, so its potential has yet to be realized. If the next version comes with an LTE option as rumored, I wonder how it will improve sales. It will certainly help to untether the device from the iPhone, although I hardly think Android users will be rushing to buy them. It is, after all, an accessory that serves Apple’s ecosystem.

There’s also a lot of anticipation for the HomePod. Right now, Amazon’s Echo is thought of as a success, even though sales didn’t surpass the 10 million level until it was on the market for nearly three years. Sure, the numbers are estimates, but if we take sales of 3.4 million Apple Watches as real, estimates for the Echo ought to be taken seriously too.

In my not-so-humble opinion, the Amazon Echo may be doing all right and all, but it’s hardly a smashing success. That said, it doesn’t mean that Apple will really move 10-12 million in the first year, a figure forecast by industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities. But among Apple watchers, he does far better than most.

When Cook suggested recently that the combination of Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats headphones sales over the past year attained the level of a Fortune 500 company, something real is happening.

Now let’s return to the regular demands that Cook be fired for incompetence. Or maybe that ought to be said about those alleged media pundits and industry analysts who just can’t get anything right.

The first developer beta for macOS High Sierra dropped on June 5th, after the WWDC keynote address in which four operating systems were demonstrated, plus new Macs and new iPads. As Apple events go, it was filled with stuff, lots of stuff, and should thus be regarded as a rousing success.

But while iOS 11 has a load of front-facing improvements and enhancements — including the beginnings of decent iPad multitasking — macOS 10.13 may be regarded as somewhat of a subpar release on the surface. Beneath the surface, with Metal 2 graphics, a new file system (for some Macs anyway) and other enhancements will make for snappier performance.

Metal 2 graphics can yield a decided improvement if your Mac supports the technology. It allows the CPU and GPU to cooperate in providing better support for games and high power apps. Whatever Metal did, Metal 2 does better and adds additional functions.

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So have we at all reached the point with Apple where they have a harder time surprising us? I suppose it seems so with all of the speculation about future product announcements. Well, sometimes Apple feeds a few tidbits, I suspect, possibly on background to selected reporters, and possibly in the hints they drop with public statements.

Take last April’s roundtable with a handful of tech journalists in which Apple basically admitted that the 2013 Mac Pro was a misfire, where they promised to do better to support the Mac, including release of a new Mac Pro that would answer customer requests for a modular system. Two months later, a whole bunch of Mac announcements came at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference.

That, to me, was a surprise largely because you don’t usually expect Apple to say much at such an event, beyond the next macOS and perhaps an occasional discussion about a high-end Mac, such as the Mac Pro. So the 2013 event included a demonstration of the infamous “trash can” configuration.

As you recall, Mac notebooks were all refreshed, there was a new iMac, and the promise of an iMac Pro, for December release, listing for $4,999 and up.

After that event, the discussion largely returned to the alleged iPhone 8, which has been a point of discussion since early in 2016, months ahead of the release of the iPhone 7. In fact, we were often told that you shouldn’t buy any iPhone until the 10th anniversary edition comes out. Even then, however, there was talk of an edge-to-edge OLED display as part of a very new design.

Besides, the iPhone 7 didn’t even have a headphone jack. Apple is no doubt envisioning a wireless future.

So if you look at the constant chatter, it appears that many of the features of this presumed iPhone 8 are already known. In addition to OLED, there may be a 3D facial recognition scheme that’s being called Pearl ID, because of some links in the leaked firmware for the forthcoming HomePod. It’s not that Apple would comment either way, or maybe they are happy to allow it to happen because it only intensifies the discussion and expectations.

So in addition to new iPhones, there may be, at last, a fifth generation Apple TV with support for Ultra HD (4K) and HDR. But little else is being mentioned, but it would be nice if Apple looked at tepid sales and did something serious about the overwrought pricing.

At the same time, there’s talk of Apple fighting with the movie companies to offer 4K and HD movies for the same price. My only response to that is “fat chance.” But even if there is 4K support in the next AppleTV, and I had a spare hundred-and-a-half to buy one — and another $600 or so for a cheap 4K set — I probably wouldn’t bother. I’m not at all convinced you’ll see much of an advantage with highly compressed streamed video from Amazon, Netflix and other sources.

But what do I know?

There are also reports, again based on that notorious firmware discovery, that the Apple Watch Series 3 will include an LTE radio for cellular data. Maybe for phone calls, maybe more in the spirit of an iPad, but at least there will be less reliance on the iPhone.

At least we can be reasonably assured that nothing new is coming on the iPad front, since those announcements have probably already been made.

All this will supposedly be known on September 12th, when Apple holds its annual iPhone event.

So if it’s going to be devoted to the iPhone, Apple TV and Apple Watch, plus the new OS releases, can there be any surprises? Or, after two hours, will people just walk away from the event suggesting there was nothing new beyond the usual slick demonstrations?

While I agree that Apple keynotes have become more predictable, there were some surprises at the WWDC. While early reports suggested refreshed MacBooks, the chatter about the other new Macs was less certain. The same was true for the iPad.

But I have little doubt there are features in the new gear we don’t know about, and that the ones described in the rumors will be somewhat different than you might expect.

I suppose there could be a surprise or two.

So what about the rest of the year? Will there be a fall Mac event to launch the iMac Pro and perhaps give us a sneak peak of the next Mac Pro? If only to cement Apple’s ongoing commitment to Macs, it might be a good idea. I suppose the Mac mini could be refreshed at the time, and perhaps there might be a HomePod demonstration to keep the interest high. I’m not at all certain if Apple’s smart speaker system will get much attention at the iPhone event, except, perhaps, a brief mention.

But after following Apple for 30 years, I do not pretend to be capable of making ironclad predictions. Well, I do get a few things right, such as OS X Mavericks being offered free, signaling a new policy that sort of replicated how it worked in the 1980s and part of the 199os, even though there were retail versions at the time. But they largely served a small number of customers who didn’t want to carry along sets of floppy disks to an Apple dealer or user group.

In any case, I’ll be watching eagerly, still hoping to be amazed.

Despite all the competition for your viewing dollars, to most people I’m sure the perfect movie watching experience occurs in a movie theater, a shared experience. These days, theater owners are pulling out all the stops to get you to come on over and watch the latest blockbuster — or whatever it is you want to see.

But maybe you would just rather save your money. After all, even buying a soft drink can be monstrously expensive these days. I just consulted the list of prices for the AMC theater chain, and you can bet I’m even less tempted to see a movie, any movie. So the price of a small popcorn ranges from $6.09 to $7.09. A small soft drink is $5.09.

Well, maybe they gouge you on refreshments to keep the ticket prices low. But to many they aren’t so low.

In any case, I usually wait for the film to show up as a rental, or, if I’m patient enough, free on cable TV or Netflix. So just a few months ago, I finally had the chance to see “Dr. Strange,” about the Marvel magical super hero, on Netflix. It was a terrific movie.

According to published reports, Hollywood is considering a premium movie rental scheme that would allow you to see a digital movie days or weeks after it is released to the movie theaters. Indeed, while it’s still showing at your favorite multiplex. So within 17 days after its theatrical debut, you’ll be able to rent a movie for $50. The price will drop to $30 four to six weeks after release.

Is it worth it? Well, if ticket and concession prices continue to soar, it may actually make plenty of sense. Consider the cost of taking a family of four to the movies.

But what isn’t being mentioned in those stories is whether the current rental expiration dates will apply at those exorbitant prices. As it stands, when you start to watch a flick, you have 24 hours to finish, after which the file essentially self destructs. Family matters and other issues might intervene, and you’re apt to have to consider renting it again.

I’ve done that exactly once, for a $1 rental from iTunes. Most of the time, I just don’t bother and not because I’m a cheapskate. I just find the policy offensive and another sign of greedy movie studios ignoring the needs of the customer. After all, in the old days, where you physically rented a mo vie at a local store, you’d have several days to finish watching — for prices similar to what iTunes and other companies charge now. Netflix’s original business plan was to offer DVD rentals that gave you a virtually unlimited time to watch the film. When it was returned and received, you’d get another.

Today, Netflix digital streaming is unlimited. Nobody stops you from watching a movie again, or just stopping for two months and returning to it when you have the time.

Oh, and there is one more thing.

It appears that Apple is working on striking a deal with the movie studios for the sale of 4K movies to coincide with the expected release of a 4K Apple TV. So Apple reportedly wants the price to stay in the $19.99 range, same as HD movies. The studios would prefer $5 to $10 more for — well it’s not as if it necessarily costs more to release 4K movies. Sure, the file sizes are larger, meaning it will take longer to download a copy. But that’s on Apple, and if it doesn’t mind if its servers work harder, why should the folks at Warner Bros., Disney and the other studios?

Now when I checked the prices at Amazon for Ultra HD Blu-ray and compared them to regular Blu-ray, the prices didn’t make much sense. Take a super hero film, X-men: Apocalypse. The 4K Ultra HD version, which evidently includes a regular Blu-ray disc, was selling for $18.72. The regular Blu-ray? $28.75. Well, maybe you get more extras, but I didn’t bother to do a direct comparison.

The Martian: Extended Edition was priced identically in 4K and Blu-ray versions.

One notable exception was Mad Max: Fury Road, which sells for $9.63 in the Blue-ray vision, and $24.99 for 4K. Another is Wonder Woman, due for release on September 19th. The 4K version will be $29.99 and the Blue-ray will be $5 less.

Now granted these price polices may, in part, have been set by Amazon, or perhaps the studios are working with them to offer special deals. That Apple strives for simplicity explains why they’d want to keep the prices the same, and you just select the format that you prefer.

Honestly, I don’t hold out much confidence for Apple to succeed in its quest for similar pricing for HD and 4K. Apple has not been able to get the studios to loosen consumer unfriendly rental policies, so why should they have a ghost of a chance?

Now if those premium movie rentals do take off in a big way, maybe the theater owners will take a closer look at their pricing policies to retain audiences. Maybe you’ll be able to buy soda and popcorn for less than a complete meal.

I also wonder how such rentals will be reflected in box office receipts. Will there be a category for watching a movie via telecommuting?