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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

#571
post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked this. It looked like a toy but it had pretty serious internals. Kind of the opposite of how things are now ...

Unpopular view - Jobs kept Ive focussed. Jobs, for all his many faults, had very, very good taste, and also had a user's-eye view of design. Ives seems to have a designer's eye view on design. Without Jobs to keep him on track he started designing for posterity and for design magazine pictorials - not for customers. The classic designs - blue iMac, iPod, iPhone, laptops, possibly the initial MacPro sketches - all hap…

I agree with this. I think even under Jobs there were plenty of silly things but one of the things he was great at was attracting talent and keeping them busy. So squirt out the odd dud here and there but they're ready and available for coordinated moonshots.

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

#572
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 has got to be one of the best quotes that illustrates what I believe to be wrong about everything related to Apple and it's products: the blatant and worrisome repackaging of ideas and words.

I'm not facetious at all when I say: Thank you for this quote. I'll save it and use it all the discussions I'll have on the subject from now on. It has really added a key-puzzle-piece to my understanding of the Apple-mindset.

The "notch" (Who came up with the term anyway? I don't believe Apple actually identifies it with a name.) is most definitely meant to be a notch: when applications are full-screen the notch will actually "eat" a part from your screen. This was shown since day 1 of the introduction where a phone was on display with the Wonder Woman movie full-screened and HDR activated. This is Apple's intended and expected behavior. It's Apple's choice to put the "notch" front and center, not to hide it with software and even set up guidelines to ignore it in application development.

Personally, I have an issue with notches and I will never own a device that has one. I find it a lazy, ugly and uninteresting way to increase the screen to body ratio of phones. But I'm somewhat glad with the current experimental designs that are being released by other manufacturers. It's refreshing to see different takes on the issue wether by popping up camera's, flipping over camera's or now even hiding camera's under the screen. Now that is innovation, that is design, that is actually looking for a solution for a very difficult problem. Instead Apple chose to put the "notch" front and center and to ignore it even going so far as to almost market it as a feature. Because look at all the high-tech stuff you get because of it. Sorry, I'm not buying it.

And this shows the incidious marketing that Apple partakes in. It redefines words and ideas on an active basis:

- A motherboard isn't a motherboard, it's a logic-board. It does exactly the same thing, it is exactly the same thing and even is produced in exactly the same way as motherboards. But somehow the brand on the shell makes it different.

- A Mac is different from a Personal Computer and as Louis Rossman has indicated a Mac can "regress" into becoming a PC. How is this possible, it does the exact same thing, is build in the same manner, uses the same technology and serves the exact same purpose.

- An "App" is basically a term that collects all the things that are software-y. A deamon? That's an app that runs in the background. A service? That's an app. A compiler? That's an app. A game? That's an app. A script? That's an app. A shell? That's an app. Etc...

- A repository with a gui suddely is an app-store. No, it's a software repo with included DRM for free.

- Durcing the introduction of the then new "earpod" design of the corded headphones that statement was made that they were engineered to guide audiowaves into your ears. Gee wiz Batman, what are all the other headphones doing then?

- The CE Iphones were "unapologetically plastic". So they are just plain and simple plastic. Just like all the other manufacturers out there.

- The famous "I'm a mac and I'm a PC" commercial is so obvious that it almost hurts. No, they both are PC's; they just look a little different.

This repackaging of words and ideas is a very worrisome trend. It muddies the water when it comes to definitions of words and it eventually will lead to the muddying of the truth. Not only that, but if we accept this sort of repackaging with our PC and phone hardware; why should we not accept it in other aspects of our lives? Why should there not be alternative-facts, when there are alternative PC's? It's a mechanism in our psyche that is prone to abuse and therefore we should not partake in it, even if it maximises profits.

It's all actually pretty simple, look at the definition of the word and if all of it applies; it sticks. How you feel about that does not matter.

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

#573
post #467
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my cables the material starts to crumble and crack. Something about that particular type of rubber. But maybe it depends on the market or where it is manufactured. I seem to remember some lasting longer than others, I think it didin't happen on the 2014 model, but did on my original 2011 charger and on the replacement I had to buy (within the first year). But the 2016 usb-c cable doesn't really have this issue I t…

I found that this happened if you are around cigarettes. Once I moved away from that family member, I’ve not had another one die in that fashion since.

Oh interesting, I did not think of that.

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

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very weird way of viewing the issue. The space is physically there, but because the size of the phone is ok anyway experience-wise it seems to be an extra feature?

All I’m saying is that the notch doesn’t FEEL like it removes screen for me, rather ticks away the status bar making the notch “issue” not an issue at all.

So it's an emotional response to something that if you applied some logical thinking to it you might see things differently?

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

#575
post #568
post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from the case eventually degrading, I consider my black plastic MacBook the most beautiful piece of Apple kit I've owned.

I still consider the iPhone 4S to be "the best iPhone". To me it's a design classic. A triumph of balanced form and function. I loved the weight of it, the hardness of it. The cool feel of it in my hand. Nearly indestructible too, unless it fell face first on a tile floor ... if I could still use it as my phone I would. EDIT in fact 4S + ios 5 was peak iPhone for me. I think, actually that may have been around the ti…

Never found myself getting excited about iPhone hardware, I guess partly because with the giant screens you don't really notice it. I've got an 8 Plus now and find it very difficult to go back to the titchy old devices.

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

#576
post #492

The new headquarters syndrome strikes again. Ive, sidelined, went eyeballs deep into the new headquarters, alongside a decline in physical product quality like the trashcan design miss and keyboard gremlins. Hardware and software teams kept executing but there’s clearly a need for a change in design.

Apples design has been a big yawner for a few years now. Apple watch and MBPr impressed me. Since then? Seems like the design had actively getting worse since 2015 I.E. MBP with touchbar. The Mac Pro and Apples new display don't look terrible to me but the cheese grater aesthetics aren't amazing either and it's a bit of a rehash of the Powermac G5. There was also that charger they cancelled. Maybe apple should consid…

Yeh some of the plastic products were really nice, I really liked my ~2003-ish G3 iBook

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

#577
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's not baffling to me. Usb-A isn't appropriate for small form factors. USB-C is. Why can't I plug the same things into my phone that I can plug into my computer? I'm already phasing out USB-A simply because I think a device you can only use on your phone with a single is limited. I used to carry around a laptop to do network diagnostics... I've realised you can literally do the same crap from your phone by using US…

Apple’s taken one step forward with the iPad Pro being USB C based at least.

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

#578
post #461
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…

I'm calling it - USB-A will still be around going strong 10 years from now. Take a stroll through a BIC Camera in Tokyo. How many USB-A accessories are still for sale? It's about 99% of the stock. I'm sure it's the same at a Best Buy in the US. Apple and the fanboys calling it a "Legacy" port are completely out of touch with reality.

Best Buy has an inventory turnover ratio of approximately 6* - So clears its entire stock on average every 8 weeks. While there might be a large percentage of USB-A products currently, once a technology market shifts it's quite surprising how fast suppliers will also change their product supply and you see a fairly rapid change in stock even in big box stores.

Most of the devices I have purchased in the last year have been USB-C. Sony headphones, LG display, my car even has USB-C charge ports. Look at many manufacture lineups and the new flagships are USB-C. I do still have a bunch of USB-A devices, but they're older buys at this point.

I think there will be a few year gap, but 10 years might be a little too pessimistic. Time will tell I guess!

* https://www.gurufocus.com/term/InventoryTurnover/BBY/Invento...

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

#579
post #31

With the iPhone X Apple put serious R&D into a display that folds back on itself for the sole reason that a phone is more ascetically pleasing when the boarders are symmetrical. Even after a year and a half every phone except the iPhone has an asymmetrical chin. Will Apple still be able to make decisions like that without Ive in a leadership position? For Apple's sake I really hope so.

> With the iPhone X Apple put serious R&D into a display that folds back on itself ...

You're kidding right?. Apple put so much serious R&D into the display that they asked Samsung to create it.

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

#580
post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But it can’t show battery percentage.
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