These two are like George Clooney and Russell Crowe.
They've been around forever, yet still somehow manage to do enough to recalibrate themselves for a new generation.
Sometimes, their work verges on the vacuous. Sometimes, they'll go and do something genuinely surprising that makes you think they have hidden depths.
Also: Goodbye iPhone XR: Signal strength and size bring me back to the iPhone XS[1]
Still in 2018, Microsoft[2] and Apple[3] managed to maintain a significance that defies time. Why, for one shining moment, Microsoft's market capitalization exceeded even Apple's this year[4].
The bigger transformation is, of course, Microsoft's.
Stealthily, it's moved away from being Windows, Bill Gates, and a vast vat of nasty to being a company that seems to have so many digits in so many pies that it needs to use its toes.
It isn't just that CEO Satya Nadella has cleverly projected an image of human decency -- despite his adoration of the corrupted game of cricket.
Also: Apple sued for lying about iPhone X notch in ads[5]
It's that Redmond has managed to cease being a byword for the worst unpleasantnesses that the tech world can offer.
Step forward, Google and Facebook. The ugly box is all yours. Microsoft is enjoying an image makeover, while you babble blessed nothings in front of clueless politicians and become the symbols of youthful indiscretion, hubris, and Juul-puffing ignorance.
It's not easy to point to one thing that propelled Microsoft around the corner. Some might say the intelligence of understanding the cloud showed the way. Some will point to the wily acquisitions of LinkedIn -- quite the worst $50 I spend