So leave it to Apple to figure out what other companies haven’t figured out, which is how to simplify and enhance the living room experience. By that I mean doing something about the TV watching experience, as if it’s something that needs fixing.

At its core, of course, watching TV is very much the same as it was in the late 1940s, when such gear first began to show up in people’s homes in decent quantities. Before TVs arrived en masse, families would assemble for a shared experience in front of a radio. Some of them were large, in huge cabinets, demanding your attention.

Well, maybe some families. My parents had a couple of small table radios. As I grew older, they even bought me a so-called portable radio, battery operated, which I could take with me to my own room. I appreciated the independence even after my dad finally had a 21-inch black and white set delivered to our home, which meant that I didn’t have to walk over to my uncle Abe’s apartment to watch my favorite shows on his set. Abe was a tolerant sort, but it was mostly about the fact that he didn’t return home from work until later in the evening. But my aunt Lillian, who lived downstairs, had his house key.

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Believe it or not, Microsoft is now in the crosshairs of Consumer Reports for Surface laptop and notebook defects. This comes as somewhat of a surprise, since CR’s usual target is Apple Inc.

So over the years, Apple has consistently been given short shrift from CR. In its efforts to simplify technology for a mass audience, CR would gloss over the deep differences between the Mac and the PC, not to mention iOS and Android. Tested gear was all lumped into single large categories, thus pitting incompatible equipment against each other.

The results, therefore, were questionable for obvious reasons.

This is not to say you shouldn’t evaluate personal computers regardless of OS, or smartphones for that matter. But it also means that you are dealing with tech companies that have different priorities and offer different product features. It’s not a matter of which device has the most features that makes it better. It’s often how well that feature is implemented, or even if it’s needed.

So in the feature-rich category, for better or worse, is Samsung, which routinely rates high among smartphones in CR. The Galaxy S8 scores a few points ahead of the iPhone 7 series, despite its known flaws. Samsung is notorious for adding features that are poorly implemented. So you have an awkward-to-reach rear fingerprint sensor along with two other biometric schemes that just happen to be highly insecure. Early on, it was shown that Samsung’s iris and facial recognition sensors could be easily defeated with photographs. Thus, they were useless. CR seemed unaware of these shortcomings.

Well, CR at least pointed out that the Bixby digital assistant wasn’t functional yet in the U.S., although it is now. But obviously it wasn’t thoroughly tested, so we don’t know how well it fared against Siri and the rest.

Last December, CR opted not to recommend the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar because of inconsistent battery test results. But it turned out that the publication had its own peculiar concept of how to test a laptop’s batteries, using a canned routine that didn’t come close to mirroring real world use.

So it involved downloading sites with caching off. Unfortunately, that triggered an obscure Develop menu bug in Safari that caused problems with web site icons reloading, thus impacting battery results. This is not how anyone but a web developer would use their Mac, but CR allowed it to influence their tests. Even after the Safari for Sierra bug was fixed, and CR gave the MacBook Pros positive reviews, there were still curious factoids. Tested battery life was far greater than what even Apple claimed, and that was true for other notebook computers.

The test results were, therefore, useless, but CR stuck with it because, well, they had already tested other notebooks in the same flawed way. Too bad nobody thought to just start over, do it right, and put asterisks in the results.

Now one key facet of CR testing is reliability. Using questionnaires to readers, they judge a host of products in a number of categories. For autos, it may be useful to know if you have to take yours to the repair shop more often because of a problem with the engine or infotainment system, or just body integrity, which refers to such symptoms as squeaks, rattles, vibrations and leaks.

A personal computer reliability survey will indicate how often the unit has to visit to a repair shop for different problems, such as a defective drive, a bad display or a general systems failure. Regardless, you assume the test must be accurate because it involves readers checking the appropriate boxes. But it’s a very imprecise test, because a problem that drives one person crazy may not be such a big deal to someone else. Worse, regular people may not even remember when the notebook’s drive failed, or the battery died prematurely. It’s not that they are taking detailed notes unless it involves repeated serious failures.

You could say the same for a car. Some people are more tolerant of minor defects than others. A few extraneous noises may not be a big deal to you, but rattles and other noises drive me nuts. Ask any dealer I’ve visited about such symptoms. And if you really love your car, you may put up with far more annoyances than if you just consider it as a means of transportation.

CR doesn’t really make a big deal about the clear flaws in its reliability testing, but if one company’s product suffers more problems than another, you should take notice.

So it appears that Microsoft’s Surface laptops and tablets are not faring so well. According to CR, at least 25% of them fail under normal use and service within the first two years of ownership.

That sounds none-too-good, and, despite being highly recommended otherwise, CR has pulled the positive ratings as a result. These problems included chronic freezing, touchscreen failures, and sudden shut downs. The latter is especially troubling, and it may well be that the first and third are more about Windows bugs than hardware. But I suppose there could be a hardware component involved, since other PCs might exhibit similar symptoms if they ran the same OS.

Either way, CR would never consider the cause, just the end result.

As you might expect, Microsoft’s corporate spin machine is running full bore, as they insist that Surface gear is reliable.

Who rated number one for reliability? Apple. Just wanted to add that.

So let me make this perfectly clear: The actual feature set of the 2017 iPhones has not been announced by Apple or anyone authorized by Apple. What you’ve read so far consists of rumors and speculation. So with that out of the way, let’s take a common rumor and give it a brief look.

To put this in perspective, let me take you back through time to the early days of the iPhone.

In 2009, I interviewed the CEO of a local company, WildCharge, for the radio show. They were located in a small office suite in the Airpark area in Scottsdale, AZ. Their system, as with more recent versions of inductive charging, consisted of a pad with metal strips. You placed a supported device on it to charge the unit.

Since Apple never supported such a charging method — and we do not know for certain that they are going to do it with the next generation iPhones — WildCharge developed cases to support the process. So you put your iPhone into the case, which had metal inserts compatible with the charging pad.

Unfortunately, the iPhone cases were prerelease, so I never had the chance to try it on my iPhone. I just tested it at their offices.

Last I heard, the company was in the process of moving. I can’t find any reference to them since 2010, which means they are either out of business, or renamed the company. Their site is not functional.

Other tech companies have introduced smartphones and other gear supporting wireless charging. Apple’s first foray into such technology was the Apple Watch, where it just seems to be the best option.

You can buy wireless charging cases for the iPhone, but will the new models support a charging pad natively? That’s one of the lesser questions about the feature set. Most of the chatter is how or whether Apple will manage to implement Touch ID on the alleged iPhone 8, or whether it’ll include facial recognition instead. Or maybe both.

Now to put wireless charging into perspective, you aren’t free of cables. The charging pad has to be plugged into something. So perhaps being able to charge several devices on a single pad might be a benefit. But don’t forget that, when you connect your iPhone or iPad to a lightning cable that’s plugged into a Mac, it doesn’t just recharge. It can backup and update your device as part of the process.

Wireless charging is just that — charging. It doesn’t free you of dependance on wires. I’m not referring to real wireless charging, which means there’s no connection between the charger and the device.

So a recent article from CNET mentions two wireless charging schemes from Energous and Powercast. Both are capable of charging a device without any physical connection, at distances of up to 15 feet. Now that sounds promising.

The obvious question is whether these technologies are safe. It’s not that we don’t already have waves of energy surrounding us, from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other technologies. And don’t forget the signals from radio and TV stations.

But charging one of these electronic devices in a reasonable amount of time will require far more current, and is it possible to do that without causing potential harm to living things? It appears, therefore, that the regulatory authorities would have to approve those charging methods and certify them as safe.

These systems are supposed to be available soon, assuming all goes well. But that doesn’t mean Apple would consider such a solution. Maybe it’ll invent one of its own, but remember we’re still talking about something that must not harm someone, even slightly. Think of a person expecting a happy event. Would the proximity to power waves of this sort cause potential harm to the mother or baby? What about a small child or a puppy?

But even if Apple goes the standard inductive charging route, or something similar, it may not be such an efficient process. CNET claims that the Samsung Galaxy S8 took nearly twice as long to charge on a pad than using the supplied USB-C cable.

That doesn’t mean that Apple’s system, whatever it might be, would be as inefficient. It’s not fair to assume that Samsung’s problems are theirs. Even if there is a wireless charging system of some sort, you may have to purchase an optional charging pad. It would be awkward to make it standard issue, requiring a much larger shipping box.

The unit will no doubt be supplied with the regular lightning cable. If you want fast-charging, requiring a USB-C connection to something, or a charging pad, you’ll pay extra.

So far as I’m concerned, that’s the way I’d like it. I’m not impressed with the existing wireless charging schemes. I’m perfectly happy to use a lightning cable. If they fray, they are cheap to replace. For example, I can buy an Anker Premium Lightning to USB Cable, the three-foot vision, for $5.99 at Amazon. It’s Apple MFi Certified, which means it has to pass the company’s tests for full compatibility. I’ve purchased three of them in the past year, and they are, in my experience, functionally equivalent to the costlier ones you buy from Apple.

Why would I need a wireless charger? Well, I suppose if it were truly wireless, maybe. But it’s otherwise not high on my list of priorities. Otherwise, I’m really not interested.

After Apple reported a stellar June quarter — with a surprising resurgence of the iPad way above analyst predictions — it has quieted down  somewhat on the Apple front.

Well, except for the usual predictions of doom and gloom and a few glimmers of hope.

So there’s a published report that the alleged iPhone 8 production situation isn’t quite as dreadful as some had feared, or fear mongered. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who tends to be more right than wrong about Apple, has some mostly positive news to report. He writes that a 5.8-inch iPhone with OLED, which may be called iPhone 8 or something else, will ship on time in three colors. But supplies will be severely constrained at launch, and they won’t catch up with demand until early 2018.

All right, nothing surprising there.

He also reports that all the new iPhones will only come in three colors, being black, silver and gold. In the past, they’ve also been available in jet black, rose gold and red. I suppose it’s possible more colors will be added later as production improves, but that’s just speculation. Maybe the alleged decision to build them in fewer colors is designed to make the ramp up more predictable, since Apple doesn’t have to concern itself quite as much about customer color choices.

Or maybe none of this is really true. But as I said, Kuo tends to have a better handle on Apple than other analysts.

Supposedly there will be support for so-called wireless charging, but it will require an optional accessory. You’ll be able to take advantage of fast charging with an optional USB-C-based lightning cable. Or something like that.

Obviously there are still unanswered questions, even if Kuo’s analysis is pretty close to the mark. But none of it necessarily paints a bad picture about Apple. You expect all-new products to be in short supply for a while. Apple has yet to catch up with demand for the AirPods wireless earphones, months after it was launched.

Let’s look at some other stuff from other sources, and this has far less support:

There’s also the promise about what might turn up in other products allegedly based on examining HomePod firmware. I’m not at all sure why there’s a connection, except to allow Apple’s forthcoming Siri-based speaker system to talk to other gadgets.

So there’s supposedly something there that may indicate SIM support on a future Apple Watch. If true, it means that at least some versions of the next Apple Watch — the only successful smartwatch — may come with LTE support. You’ll be able to make and receive phone calls, and perform many of the other functions of a smartphone without a need for pairing.

The claims about the features of the rumored iPhone 8 also come from this firmware, such as facial recognition and the ability to record 4K video at 60 fps with both the front and rear cameras.

If this doesn’t make sense to you, not to worry. You’re in good company.

A developer also reportedly hacked the tvOS 4 simulator, used to develop apps for Apple TV on a Mac, to run 4K videos. Does that mean such support will come in a possible fifth generation model? It would make plenty of sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s really going to happen.

On the other hand, how many people even care all that much about Apple TV anymore? It’s underpowered, lacks 4K and HDR support, and there are no killer apps to speak of. Most people use them to watch TV shows, same as the previous generation models.

Indeed, I still have my third generation Apple TV. It’s a little plodding when it comes to performance, and I’m not nuts about the interface, which forces you to jump through many levels to actually find something to watch. But since I use it mostly for Netflix — and the rare movie rental made rarer by that foolish 24-hour limit — it doesn’t matter so much.

Indeed, if I didn’t have a problem getting Netflix to work on my aging VIZIO TV, I would never have bothered with an Apple TV. The integration with other Apple features leaves me cold.

In the meantime, testing proceeds on Apple’s beta operating systems. Public testers had access on Tuesday to the fourth releases for iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, and tvOS 4.

I’ve run the first two, and they are becoming more and more stable. I haven’t dared to put High Sierra on my iMac — it’s installed on my less-used 2010 MacBook Pro — but I might in a few weeks. iOS 11 is stable enough on my iPhone, stable enough to allow me to run the driver apps for Lyft and Uber and actually go to work. Google Maps integrates properly with the former, and my riders aren’t complaining that I’m taking them to the wrong places.

When it comes to iOS 11, however, it has to be farther along, because Apple needs to submit the final release soon for wireless carrier testing. So it may well be mostly done by the end of August.

And, oh yes, Apple’s stock hit a record $160.08 as the market closed on Tuesday. Market cap exceeded $826 billion. So how long before it hits the trillion dollar threshold?