Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#31

Post by bonch » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:40 PM UTC

I can't help but disagree. The implication here is that there is no other way to design a tablet, as if progress is officially halted now, and Apple's design is the only design can ever exist.

He mentions the New York Times suing over the design of a newspaper, but if someone else used the same fonts, sizes, layouts, and more to exploit customer confusion and make a newspaper that looked like the New York Times, the New York Times probably would sue them.

Besides, Samsung's tablets are a very obvious case of copying. It isn't just the shape. Everything is a clone of Apple's designs--the chargers are the same, the cables are the same, the packaging is the same, the home screen icons look the same (Samsung even stole Apple icon artwork and used it in their store)--it's completely obvious that the goal was to make a knock-off of Apple's design. Anyone with common sense can see that just by comparing the two devices.

Bad, cheap knock-offs can damage the original brand. I don't blame Apple for going after Samsung at all.

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#32

Post by silentific » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:40 PM UTC

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #17

I'll just leave this here for everyone saying that iPad-like designs never existed before the iPad: http://gdeluxe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20111004-03455...

What about a quick search for Star Trek tablet: http://www.inventinginteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/...

Star Trek PADDs: https://www.google.com/search?q=star+trek+PADDs&hl=en&#3...

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#33

Post by brazzy » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:41 PM UTC

sanj wrote: post #15

This would be a lot more believable if all of the Tablets that came before the iPad also looked identical to the iPad and Samsung devices. They didn't: http://twitpic.com/67ykpa

Some did: http://www.2imgs.com/6c941c36e5

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#34

Post by pazimzadeh » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:41 PM UTC

The author must think that design is adding random colors and textures, because he keeps saying things like:

"none of this is a design problem. It is all about usability"

"The shape of a tablet has nothing to do with design. It is simple logic."

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#35

Post by vecter » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:44 PM UTC

Legion wrote: post #20

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #17

I'll just leave this here for everyone saying that iPad-like designs never existed before the iPad: http://gdeluxe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20111004-03455...

There's plenty of use of the color black, rectangular shapes, rounded corners, and centered screens in the "before iPad" group.

And they all run Windows with a stylus. No capacitive touch screen, no custom app-based OS. It's a qualitative difference.

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#36

Post by vecter » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

Legion wrote: post #20

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #17

I'll just leave this here for everyone saying that iPad-like designs never existed before the iPad: http://gdeluxe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20111004-03455...

There's plenty of use of the color black, rectangular shapes, rounded corners, and centered screens in the "before iPad" group.

And they all run Windows with a stylus. No capacitive touch screen, no custom app-based OS. It's a qualitative difference.

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#37

Post by Xuzz » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

See, to me, Samsung does have an issue here, but it's not about the "rounded rectangle" shape or the "reasonably thick black bezel": it's the fact they have both of those, like the iPad, but then also surround them with a marginal silver border.

I own both the Galaxy Tab 10.1" and an iPad 2, and I actually do get confused between the two all the time, when looking at them from above. They're about the same thickness and reasonably similar shapes, and with the same "rounded rectangle with a black bezel surrounded by a silver frame" I honestly have grabbed the wrong tablet before. To contrast, I never get confused with my HP TouchPad or my Kindle Fire (although that one is smaller).

I'd be perfectly happy if Samsung just switched to a matte black border instead, and Apple should be too: it would, at least from what I've seen, fix most of the confusion here between the two products.

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#38

Post by D_Drake » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:46 PM UTC

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #17

I'll just leave this here for everyone saying that iPad-like designs never existed before the iPad: http://gdeluxe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20111004-03455...

You can add to that the Uren V1, the Samsung Q1, the i7210, the HTC Advantage, the Samsung Mondi, and the W1090, just for starters. Apple did absolutely nothing when it came to device innovation, they just made brilliant, easy to use software to go along with it and gave it a good price point.

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#39

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:47 PM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #29

Our eyes don't "see the world as a rectangle". The reason that newspapers, etc. are rectangular has more to do with efficient space packing (and linear text, as the author mentions) than the inherent capabilities of the eye.

https://www.google.com/search?q=goldmann+visual+field&tb...

Not very rectangular. :-)

Re: Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it

#40

Post by bornon5 » Thu, Dec 08, 2011, 4:55 PM UTC

I'm not convinced that rounded corners are anything more than a trend right now.

Aesthetically, many beautiful objects have sharp corners - tables, windows, and computer screens, not to mention the universal reading tablet, a.k.a. the piece of paper. Our eyes haven't had a problem staying focused inside these rectangles.

The big draw for rounded corners is comfort. But we've been using sharp rectangular folders, binders, magazines, etc. for decades without complaint.

Apple used the rounded corner to great effect, and for now it seems like the only possible design choice. But some point, someone is going to produce an elegant matboard-thin computer tablet with "sharp" corners that don't cut your fingers, and suddenly the rounded corner will seem like a childish relic of the naughts.