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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

#441
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…

> USB-C is baffling. Suppose you buy into the dream of one cable type for everything.

I may be mistaken but I think that was the original USB dream as well. It's been a source of immense irritation to me at times over the years to find that I don't have quite the right mini/micro/whatever[1] USB cable to hand to connect whatever device I happen to have with me. USB-C just adds to what is already a mess of a situation as far as I can see.

[1] Don't get me started with cables that have USB-A on one end and some proprietary connector on the other: I'm looking at YOU, Garmin, with the stupid cables for your Fenix line of watches (which aren't great, btw: learn from my mistake and don't buy one), and YOU, Nintendo, for the daft 3DS charger socket that would have been just fine if it were a micro-USB socket.

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

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinness has practical benefits (there are also downsides, of course), it's not purely an aesthetic concern.

Practical benefits like what?

The computer fits in my bag, even with my reading glasses. I can carry it a long time without my shoulder getting sore, which means I can use it all day on the go. Another poster mentioned that 32 gig of ram is impossible because the thin design needs lower power requirements. This actually tends to mean that you have more battery time (which is paradoxical, really).

I don't have a mac (or even want one), but I've benefitted from the trickle down effect where Toshiba seems to want to close ridiculously thin, long battery lasting macs.

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

#443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be awesome is USB-C in a magsafe connector. Would the magnet interfere with the signal transmission at all?

I don't think so, you can buy usb-c magnetic adapters right now and I haven't heard any issues with them.

But you're not transmitting high speed data.

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

#444
post #367
post #94

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It’d be interesting to see the results of a survey on this I think, I and I know many of my peers are of the exact opposite opinion. I like the move to usb-c, I like the new keyboard, I don’t mind (but also don’t really use) the Touch Bar but I can’t live without Touch ID at this point. The big trackpad is magical to me, and the thickness and weight of the 13” is just right. I have an older MBP as well, 2013 maybe, a…

Apple is big enough to have 2 laptops. A thin-above-all, and a mix.

Just spit balling, because we can always bikeshed names.

Wouldn’t it be cool if Apple had like:

- a thin-above-all laptop, called like... MacBook Lite or maybe MacBook Air

- a pragmatic laptop for the professionals who need something great for work. Maybe call it like... MacBook Work or maybe MacBook Pro

Too bad that is only a dream currently. I think that would be a cool future vision for Apple.

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

#445
post #6

I have to imagine that he's going to have the biggest non-solicitation clause ever in history. He's partnering with Marc Newsom and others... who he's collaborated with heavily in the past for Apple Watch (and other one-off auction products, etc). Jony's got to be tired of designing with the Apple aesthetic after all this time, and maybe wants to design a car or toaster again.

He's going to agree to one after leaving? As a part of severance?

Yeah, more likely he already has various clauses in his contract. But since his new company is doing business with Apple they could also add conditions to that deal.

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

#446
post #265
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's my lack of exposure to older iOS devices, but I haven't had any problems with it since getting my first iPhone last year.

They’ve done enormous changes since 7 to improve it. 7 was absurd - buttons looked like simple text everywhere. I always had to toggle on a function where buttons became underlined so I could use the thing. There was huge criticism even in knowledgeable design circles (see Nielsen Norman who do usability studies) that it was really really objectively worst because it was so confusing. It’s a lot better now.

Can you find a screenshot? When I just search iOS 7 in image search it looks 99% like iOS 12 to me. iOS 6 on the other hand with its drop shadows and reflections has aged super badly.

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

#447

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> 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.

No, but it is overkill compared to a single hdmi cable.

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

#448
post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vo…

I think Norman is criticizing Apple's practices, not encouraging them.

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

#449
post #429
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd take asymmetric borders over having a large notch anyday. See S10+ next to an iphone XS Max [0]. It's subjective of course, but strictly looking at display & bezels the "which is more aesthetically pleasing" question is not even close [0] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NG5Wd9Px40o/maxresdefault.jpg

Notch? What notch? I have an iPhone X and mine has ears which extend the display up into the top of the phone where the camera is placed to get my status bar out of the screen. Brilliant! I say.

This is literally the way I feel about it as well. I’ve seen the ears as increased space rather than the notch cutting into the display.

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

#450
post #42

Given his penchant for thinness over function, I hope this means we can have a thicker pro laptop again, with all the ports back and a more robust keyboard.

I call this "form over function". Its an Ive Thing(tm).

Thinness is a function.
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