Tim Cook remembers Steve, explains how Apple gets ideas, and reveals what the company is known for

Writing in Popular Mechanics magazine, Apple CEO Tim Cook took a look at his days at Apple and his relationship with the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. As for the dynamic visionary who many still think about when their thoughts turn to Apple and the iPhone, Cook said, "I think about him a lot. I miss him dearly. He would always stop by my office on his way out. And there's never been a replacement for that."

Cook continued reminiscing, "We would exchange tidbits on the day and talk about the future... and we try to carry on the mission that he set in place, to build the best products in the world that enrich people's lives. And that hasn't changed. Lots of things change with time. But the reason for our being is the same." Cook even mentioned how Jobs' perpetual dissatisfaction is a trait that is still part of Apple today.

"I think he would find things that he loved and things that he would say, 'We can do better on that,'" said Cook. "I think he would do both. As we all do. We are never really satisfied. We're always working on tomorrow." The current CEO mentioned how Apple has taken one thing that Jobs wanted to accomplish and improved on it greatly. According to Cook, Jobs wanted to have a Mac in every classroom. Cook noted that "Later, we revised that for everyone within the classroom to have their own Mac."

When asked how Apple gets its ideas, Cook says that it is not from an epiphany. It all starts from thinking about ways to solve a user's problem. From there, Cook says, "You pick diverse teams that look at the problem through different lenses. We debate about things that we do and do not do, because we know we can only do a few things well. You have to debate and say no to a lot of great ideas so that you can spend your time on the ones that are truly unbelievable."

Quite telling about the history of Apple is this quote from Cook. The executive said that "...the way that you get people around here to do something is to tell them you're not sure it's doable." That certainly sounds like a trait that has been part of Apple going back many, many years. "That's the red flag in front of the bull," he continued. "Because a lot of people here don't take 'impossible' as being true. If we convince ourselves it's in the best interest of the user, that's a compelling force for us to power through the problem."

When you think of Apple, naturally you think of the iPhone. But Cook says that health might be what Apple is known for. Cook said that Apple just wanted its customers to exercise more. Today, the Apple Watch is known for saving users' lives thanks to features such as the heart rate monitor, fall detection, the ECG scanner, and the SP02 monitor.

Apple smoothly made the transition with the Apple Watch from what was supposed to be a fashionable piece of jewelry to a tool used by many to monitor their health. This year, Apple is expected to add a thermometer to the Apple Watch Series 8, which will be unveiled alongside the iPhone 14 series on September 7th.

About the timepiece, Cook said, "We added coaching to that to prompt people — you may get a notification that you only need to walk another 12 minutes today to close your rings. I get a lot of notes from people saying how motivating it is. They've closed their rings for 365 days straight. This is amazing — I don't close mine 365 days straight."