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Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

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Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#431
post #70

Hopefully this signals the end of the designers tyranny at Apple. While physical design has been of paramount importance in Apple's rise to the top, it has been more and more detrimental as Jony and his group wandered into worshipping at the altar of luxury and Platonic idealism. When combined with /not/ ignoring other than luxury market segments and usability that was fine. But when Jony's star was completely ascend…

Actually, the tyranny of design at Apple existed long before Jonny Ive. It began with Donald Norman who regularly discusses his Philip Starck juicer which "not meant to squeeze lemons, it is meant to start conversations." I can't find the quote, but Donald Norman said something along the lines of "create something beautiful and people will say it's wonderful and easy to use". This has always been the Apple way, and I…

That’s interesting. I always thought of Don Norman as having sensible, clear design principles. In the Design of Everyday Things [1], one of his main points was that devices should be always be clear about what they do, by presenting unambiguous affordances to the user. A row of light switches is no good; they should be organized so that they map to location in the room. A fridge with two knobs for temperature and volume of air should present a clear mental model to the user in its documentation, or better yet have a more direct interface to simply select the desired temperature for a given area. Doors that should be pulled should have handlebars; doors that should be pushed should have horizontal plates.

If there’s anyone whose design principles I’d want at Apple, it’d be the guy who espoused clarity and unambiguity. Him waxing poetic about a useless juicer seems very out of character, although he did indeed say that [2]. I’d be interested to hear more about his more current work for Apple.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Thing... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/arts/features/story/0,11710,1166...

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#432
post #383
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they really needed a transition design for 3-4 years that included USB-C but still had the "legacy" ports—in quotes because when they announced the C-only model I hadn't even seen a USB-C port or cable in real life yet. USB-A is nowhere near being on the way out yet. Especially when their own damn mobile devices still come with A cables. We're way into their attempt to push everything to USB-C but I went to T…

USB-C is baffling. Suppose you buy into the dream of one cable type for everything. So you buy printers, scanners, optical drives, external hard drives and SSDs, and so on that have USB-C connectors, and you buy USB-C flash drives, and buy USB-C to USB-C cables to hook it all up. But your computer only has two USB-C ports! No problem, you think. You've run into the same problem before with computers with USB-A connec…

I want a USB-C hub with at least 5 USB-C ports and no other legacy ports. Only USB-C. An added bonus would be alt-mode video transmission from my Mac and power. Does such a beast exist? Not that I can find!

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#433
post #296
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how other laptops (and I've owned PC laptops and macbooks) have cables that don't fray. Only Apple's old magsafe cable has that fine rubbery material that disintegrates with time, and no strain relief on the connector.

Happens all the time with any cables really. I've had many cables succumb to the good ol' lemme just adjust may chair right over your cable there type situations. Particularly when you have to run the cable to an awkwardly placed outlet.

> "Happens all the time with any cables really."

That's such nonsense. I've never had a thinkpad cable wear out on me. I've got a whole box sitting around somewhere full of them because they never break. But thinkpad cables aren't unusually robust; Dell cables last just as long. Most cables last effectively forever unless you slam a door on them or something unreasonable like that.

The only cables I've seen reliably fall apart after no more than a few years are Christmas tree light strings from the dollar store, and Apple charging cables.

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#434
post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not obselete when 100s of millions of people use it everyday and the replacement is expensive, needs replacing because the batteries die and has poorer sound quality. No phone is more waterproof with it than without (they all have complex data ports with many connection vs three or four in a jack). No phone has a bigger battery. No phone is tougher. It allows Apple and others to sell expensice Bluetooth ear buds.…

The iphones have been waterproof since the 7 I think. The 3.5mm connector isn't waterproof, the lightning connector evidently is.

Android phones have been waterproof with 3.5mm jacks, for at least the past 5 years, maybe longer.

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#435
post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The macbook pro is barely a professional device. Just look at the bottom end of the specs. The macbook should be closer to the current pro, rather than this basically an air/but not an air thing they have going on. The pro should be for actual professionals, not for anyone that wants a laptop with more than just 2 cores.

You can spec it out pretty well. Why take issue with the low end as long as it goes high enough for you?

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Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how awful it is to not have an HDMI port Seriously not awful at all. When I do presentations in my department's conference room, I just AirPlay to the AppleTV connected to the projector. It was a great solution because it allows anyone on the team to do presentations. All they have to do is mirror their screen and bring their mouse or trackpad into the conference room. It's been a godsend. If I have to do presentatio…

> When I do presentations in my department's conference room, I just AirPlay to the AppleTV connected to the projector. That's, uh, great if there happens to be an expensive AppleTV connected to the projector.

AppleTV, the ultimate dongle. They’re small enough that you could carry one with you and use it as your HDMI adapter.

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how awful it is to not have an HDMI port Seriously not awful at all. When I do presentations in my department's conference room, I just AirPlay to the AppleTV connected to the projector. It was a great solution because it allows anyone on the team to do presentations. All they have to do is mirror their screen and bring their mouse or trackpad into the conference room. It's been a godsend. If I have to do presentatio…

> When I do presentations in my department's conference room, I just AirPlay to the AppleTV connected to the projector. That's, uh, great if there happens to be an expensive AppleTV connected to the projector.

An Apple TV is not expensive compared to the cost of a conference room.

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#438
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when they launched the Macbook Air, we also thought having no DVD drive was a big step back. It took some time, but other companies started removing the DVD drives from their laptops as well. Maybe technology moves around Apple after all. If your Macbook does not have a SD Card slot, then SD Cards will soon be dead. Having a single USB-C, though, is still frustrating.

I don't recall a lot of people crying about the loss of a DVD drive. That was the moment where everyone outside techdom was forced to realize that everything goes over the network. Also, as someone who still has a iMac with an optical drive, their failure rate (Apple or any other brand) has always been atrocious.

I think the bigger outcry than the DVD was the removal of the Ethernet port. (Which was also overblown).

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#439

What happened to the Beatles after the death of John Lennon? How did the Doors manage themselves creatively after Jim? It is going to be fascinating to see how Apple manages creativity, collaboration and inspiration hereon.

In case you're being serious, the Beatles broke up ten years before Lennon died.

Re: Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client

#440

soon - Tesla as client too

Apple are developing self driving tech so maybe he won't be allowed to work with TSLA.

Self driving tech is just one of part of the car. He can work on looks or just other parts.
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