Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple • Hacker News Board

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#41

Post by jccc » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:39 PM UTC

noer wrote: post #22

The biggest miss that I remember that isn't on this list is the iPhone 4 antenna that wrapped around the device. If the user's hand got between the two sides, it would lose connectivity. Then Apple started selling those "bumpers" to keep the antenna working.

Also worth noting that they demonstrated every other phone at the time could be held in all kinds of similarly ordinary ways that led to the same or worse attenuation. But the iPhone 4 had that conspicuous pair of thin black lines on the metal frame that people could see and touch to trigger the attenuation.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#42

Post by amluto » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

> [The MacBook Air] drew audible gasps from the crowd, instantly redefining how thin, light and portable a laptop could be.

I was quite surprised at the time: the MacBook crowd seemed almost entirely disjoint from the ThinkPad crowd. The X61 predated the Air by months, was considerably faster, and only weighed 0.11 lbs more. The X220 was released just slightly after the Air IIRC, was even more powerful, and was lighter than the Air.

Admittedly, both ThinkPads were a good deal thicker and we’re nowhere near as shiny. But they totally rocked the ports, and they had enough ventilation to run at full speed continuously.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#43

Post by encoderer » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

There is an obvious power law visible here.

His big wins are orders of magnitude larger than his misses.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#44

Post by zerohm » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

apocalyptic0n3 wrote: post #26

The one thing I noticed missing that should have been included was the unibody MacBook design. That was a huge innovation that led to massive improvements in build quality industry-wide. If I recall correctly, he played a much larger role in that design than the iPod, which is largely credited to Tony Fadell (although Ive definitely had a large influence on later iterations).

Agreed. The Titanium G4 to the Unibody pretty much laid the foundation of what the next 20 years of good laptops would be.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#45

Post by m_st » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

noer wrote: post #22

The biggest miss that I remember that isn't on this list is the iPhone 4 antenna that wrapped around the device. If the user's hand got between the two sides, it would lose connectivity. Then Apple started selling those "bumpers" to keep the antenna working.

iPhone 4 owner here. That was never an actual issue in daily use. You really had to force it at exactly the right spot to produce this problem. Also other phones from that time had the same issue when they were squeezed like that. So yes I got that free bumper, but never used it anyway.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#46

Post by Ma8ee » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:44 PM UTC

delish wrote: post #2

"Hits" and "misses" should be thought of differently. Hits sell zillions and make people happy. Misses like the Apple Hi-Fi sell poorly because nobody wants them. So in the aggregate, there's far more good done when you have a hit, than bad done when you have a miss[0]. [0] Huge disclaimer: The category "miss" is higher dimensioned than "hit." Misses like the butterfly keyboard are different than the Hi-Fi, because i…

I still use my Hi-Fi, admittedly with an Amazon Alexa as source, but it still sounds great.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#47

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:44 PM UTC

colmvp wrote: post #12

The G4 Cube had issues but I honestly liked it as an experimental design from a well-known computer brand. It was a breath of fresh air among the monotonous beige or gray towers of the time. And it wasn't the only G4 computer you could get, as you could've bought the tower (which I ended up doing at the time). For me, the biggest miss is the touch bar and butterfly keyboards. Those single-handily prevented me from up…

[deleted]

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#48

Post by HeWhoLurksLate » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:45 PM UTC

overcast wrote: post #28

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I understand the controversy with the charging port being under the mouse, but it's done on purpose: Apple wants to prevent users from leaving the mouse connected with a USB cable all the time. Here's a better solution: good old rechargeable AA batteries. Keep a spare set sitting in a charger, and you'll never need to wait for your device to recharge. If you're concerned about users falling back on disposables, bun…

Any even better solution, use a wired mouse and keyboard. Why do I need to deal with batteries for something that doesn't move more than a few inches from its destination? We've banned wireless peripherabls in our organization, because they cause more issues then they are worth. "My mouse is jumping all over the screen", "my mouse no longer works", "my keyboard is typing things I'm not typing!". 9/10 it's low battery…

As an engineer who works with smaller parts, my desk and work areas have a constant influx of parts and pieces- and the keyboard and mouse I use take up a lot of space- like two square feet- and being able to move them, rest them on top of stuff, and use the mouse on my leg as necessary is really useful, and I really don't want to go back to wired peripherals.

Similarly, I really like Thunderbolt docks and the like because it helps me cut down on the semi-permanent wire clutter on my desk.

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#49

Post by sjwright » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:45 PM UTC

noer wrote: post #22

The biggest miss that I remember that isn't on this list is the iPhone 4 antenna that wrapped around the device. If the user's hand got between the two sides, it would lose connectivity. Then Apple started selling those "bumpers" to keep the antenna working.

Antennagate was 90% myth. Bridging the two steel pieces with normal skin contact wasn't a significant factor in signal degradation. If it was, the problem would have persisted with the iPhone 4S, but it didn't. In fact the 4S was notable for having exceptionally good reception despite using the same exposed steel band arrangement—albeit with two cellular antenna segments instead of one.

(Major Australian telco Telstra assigned the iPhone 4S their "blue tick" mark for phones suitable for regional/rural Australian customers. This rating was only given small number of phones.)

Re: Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple

#50

Post by HeWhoLurksLate » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #36

sjwright wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Magic Mouse 2 is junk but not because of the location of the charge port or the touch scroll. It's because it got the fundamentals of good mice so bad—an unergonomic shape and abysmally high foot friction. There are obviously going to be people who love it, but for me it's embarrassingly bad compared to options made by Razer and others. Yet their trackpad is the best in the entire industry. I've switched to the M…

I used to use the original Magic Mouse at work, which used AA batteries instead of a stupid lighting port to recharge. I came to appreciate the Magic Mouse quite a bit. I found it perfectly comfortable, and having what is effectively a super long scroll wheel is great. I also appreciated the easy horizontal scrolling, and the ability to switch spaces with swipe gestures. I switched only because I discovered how nice…

Same here. I still don't have a good solution to horizontal scrolling (shift doesn't work in Excel).