Thoughts on Tech News of Note - 04-24-2026

• Apple's New Era
• CATL's Battery Technology
• Microsoft's Project Silica

Apple's New Era
Speculation that John Ternus would eventually take over as Apple's next CEO when Tim Cook steps down had been floating around widely on the internet over the past several months. So that aspect of Apple's announcement this week was completely unsurprising, and some might even say, totally expected. What was unexpected was the timing of the announcement. I suspected Cook might stay on as CEO until the end of Trump's term as US president since Cook has been able to coil himself into odd curlicues to stay in Trump's good graces. A veritable human slinky, you might say. Nevertheless, Cook is stepping down in September and Ternus will have the pleasure (he hopes, I'm sure) of leading the company into its new future. Probably because of that elusive connection to Trump, Cook will remain the liaison to the US government in his new role as Executive Chairman of the Board, where he will replace Art Levinson. John Ternus appears to be liked and respected inside Apple and outsiders view him as a smart choice who will guide Apple back to the days when hardware reigned over operational excellence and exceptional design was king. There is no doubt that Cook's attention to that operational excellence and his tight control over supply chains and logistics helped make Apple the financial juggernaut it is today with its current valuation hovering around $4 trillion. Cook's previous role at the company was Chief Operations Officer and he brought that same focus to the CEO role. When it came to product decisions, it is said that he ruled more by consensus than directive as he understood his strengths and knew that product design and implementation were not among them. Nevertheless, many important products were released or enhanced under his watch. The iPad became much more than just a couch computer and cemented its place in the artistic realms. The Apple Watch has become the health wearable by which almost all others are measured. The MacBook line has expanded into ever higher and lower-end niches, allowing the company to slowly edge out competition that had been gaining ground due to pricing and aggressive product marketing from the likes of Microsoft with their high-end Surface line and Google with their low-cost Chromebook offerings. Apple is well positioned in each of its product lines to continue to excel and define market leadership.

Yet, in some ways Apple is also at its most vulnerable position. Artificial intelligence is everywhere and in everything, and in is this regard, Apple is notably behind. Siri does not offer the capabilities offered even in low-end Android phones with Gemini built in and while there are a multitude of AI assistants one can install, most Apple users would prefer that Siri just worked better or at least worked as well as the competition. Apple has temporarily reduced the noise by partnering with Gemini to power the next generation of Siri on the iPhone and this could either buy them time to build up the resources needed to take on that responsibility themselves someday or just provide a semi-permanent off-ramp that will allow them to invest the necessary billions in other key bets they may want to make in the future. But Apple needs to navigate the personal assistant jungle successfully to continue to dominate the smartphone market. People may say that they hate AI and they are likely earnest in that statement. Nevertheless, AI is becoming embedded into life on the internet, so accessing and harnessing it through the computer most people have with them at all times becomes a critical component of living a productive digital life. Being able to have an on-device assistant that can truly add value and help people accomplish tasks and meet goals in a way that feels safe, private, and secure will go a long way to ensuring Apple isn't left behind in the AI race as our devices do more and more on our behalf.

John Ternus may be better prepared to navigate Apple's AI future with his background in engineering and his years of product experience. And with Cook dispatched to keep Trump happy on the sidelines, he may be able to direct Apple's attention in all the right directions to push forward innovation and design excellence. We should expect to see new products, perhaps in new categories, and new efforts to further refine existing products in ways that marry software and hardware at the altar of smart design and optimized function. On most fronts, the war is Apple's to lose. Hopefully, they win because then so do we all.

CATL's New Battery Technology
Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, commonly known as CATL, has debuted its third-generation electric vehicle (EV) battery that can achieve a 98% charge from 10% in about nine minutes even at -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 degrees Celsius) and at less than seven minutes in optimal conditions. After 1000 fast-charge cycles, it retains more than 90% of its battery capacity. Due to its density, it can power a full-size SUV for more than 620 miles (roughly the distance from Chicago to NYC) or a sedan for more than 930 miles (roughly the distance from Denver to NYC). And because these new batteries are lighter, they can enable improved acceleration speeds by up to 8% and extend tire life by up to 30%. CATL is the leading EV battery manufacturer and supplies batteries for automakers such as Tesla, Volkswagen, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz. CATL expects to begin wide production of the battery in late 2026 and in China, they expect to have 4000 fast-charge and swap stations by the end of the year. CATL has not provided a list of cars that are expected to use the new battery technology, but it is expected that Chinese automakers will be first to use them. There are reports that the batteries are to be used in more than 60 different models, but this has not been confirmed, nor are make/model details readily available. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to expect that over the next several years, it will become possible to charge the battery in your EV almost as quickly as filling your internal combustion engine car with gas. And when that happens, EV adoption seems sure to surge, assuming that more car makers begin to produce more appealing and well-priced cars for us to buy, especially here in the United States.

Microsoft's Project Silica
I'm old enough to remember the days of archiving data to tape. Heck, I'm old enough to remember microfiche and mimeograph machines, but that's neither here nor there. Archiving data has always been a bit of a pain because no medium is truly permanent. Tape degrades, compact discs (CDs) scratch, hard drives fail, and on it goes. There has always been a need to tend to backups and replace data storage medium over time as the format ages and/or new formats prove more reliable. Microsoft must feel this pain keenly as they've developed a glass-based storage system that is capable of storing information for more than 10,000 years. Data is etched onto small glass plates measuring 4.72" x 4.72" (120mm) at 0.08" (2mm) thick. I'm told that this about the length of a paperclip across and about the thickness of a credit card. This small plate can hold up to 4.8 terabytes of data. Data is written to the plate by lasers that etch microscopic structures inside the glass. The data is read by using polarization-sensitive microscopy and advanced decoding software. The medium is write-once read-many, so data cannot be overwritten. Right now, it is not even close to being a viable consumer product, but Microsoft has completed the proof-of-concept stage and shown that it can be used effectively to store data for extended periods of time. It is expected that it will be used first in enterprise-class systems where large amounts of data need to be stored and preserved for many years. More work will be needed to document the standard for burning and reading data so that devices can be manufactured to perform these functions on a larger scale. But unless another company devises a more viable scheme, it seems likely that this or something like it will ultimately become a new archiving method for large companies and it could eventually lead to new advances in storage for those of us who just want to keep all our family photos in one place and never have to worry about losing them ever again. At least, as long as we know where that tiny little glass plate is...