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Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

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Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#41

Post by huggyface »

its_so_on wrote: post #29
fpgeek wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When Apple says that battery-life is important in mobile devices, they mean it No, they don't. They mean battery life is important in mobile devices as long as it doesn't get in the way of making them thin (among other things). After all, the modern smartphone with the best battery life is the Droid RAZR MAXX (soon to be dethroned by its international sibling the Motorola RAZR MAXX, which doesn't have the battery-l…

Apple would never release a laptop with a 1.5 hour battery (wifi web browsing). an unimaginable number of such laptops are brought out by every major brand other than Apple. (likewise apple has its standards in a phone, which is not the standard you cite, but not 45 minutes either.). Apple is opinionated on every part of the user interface and design, on usability and ease-of-use. They then go on to put their money w…

Apple would never release a laptop with a 1.5 hour battery (wifi web browsing)

That's too bad. I use my laptops as portable desktops, seldom away from a plug. So I have to heft around a giant battery because Apple decides that only one usage model is right?

RIM devices have, generally, dramatically more endurance than Apple mobile devices. Apple seriously compromised battery life on the burgeoning smartphone market because they prioritized other things like a nice interface and a bigger screen. They weren't the leaders in battery life, and it's weird that you compare them particularly to Samsung when most Samsung devices have comparable or battery performance.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#42

Post by Spooky23 »

cryptoz wrote: post #39
redthrowaway wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's very hard to find design decisions at Apple that seem to have 0 thought or discussion behind them. That doesn't mean the result of said thought was good , however: http://i.minus.com/dQhzPuq2CZUc/264182-apple-mac-os-x-lion-1...

Windows XP didn't ship with a user-level calendar. If Apple had a calendar before 2006, they'd be winning the calendar design front without much effort.

iCal shipped in 2002. They made it ugly in 2011.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#44

Post by tudorw »

Angostura wrote: post #36
tudorw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant progress as in 'the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc.'

As a matter of interest; what do you think the phone market would look like today if the iPhone hadn't come out. And what about the iTunes Store? Do you think you'd be able to buy a single track from album, yet?

yes

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#45

Post by rimantas »

reedlaw wrote: post #7
gnarbarian wrote: post #3

>"Arguments at Apple are personal and confrontational. This began at the top, and it is part of the company’s culture." That sounds like a terrible environment.

It's sounds incredibly controlling, which would explain the lack of freedom on iOS and Apple's various platforms. It's not enough to own the entire ecosystem, anything outside is not allowed to run on the hardware (at least for iOS devices). Great for investors and Apple's bottom line, but horrible for consumers (e.g. this story: http://niederfamily.blogspot.be/2012/06/silencing-of-maya.ht... )

How comes that Apple products are leading in customer satisfaction surveys, if this is horrible for consumers?

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#46

Post by xtractinator »

its_so_on wrote: post #24
gnarbarian wrote: post #3

>"Arguments at Apple are personal and confrontational. This began at the top, and it is part of the company’s culture." That sounds like a terrible environment.

It's a terrible environment, but I bet being a supreme court Justice is also a terrible environment. It also brings out profound conclusions and vision. When Apple says that battery-life is important in mobile devices, they mean it. If Samsung says it, maybe a year later they will turn around and bring out an eight-core phone that you can play a game on for forty-five minutes before having to plug it in again. Apple…

I'd really like to understand what hugely difficult technical issues you're talking about. Funding the development of a new higher DPI display?

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#47

Post by gwern »

its_so_on wrote: post #24
gnarbarian wrote: post #3

>"Arguments at Apple are personal and confrontational. This began at the top, and it is part of the company’s culture." That sounds like a terrible environment.

It's a terrible environment, but I bet being a supreme court Justice is also a terrible environment. It also brings out profound conclusions and vision. When Apple says that battery-life is important in mobile devices, they mean it. If Samsung says it, maybe a year later they will turn around and bring out an eight-core phone that you can play a game on for forty-five minutes before having to plug it in again. Apple…

> It's a terrible environment, but I bet being a supreme court Justice is also a terrible environment.

In the books I've read on the topic like _The Nine_, it's sounds like a terrific environment. You are incredibly respected by everyone you meet, you have a light workload which is self-chosen and also extremely important and you can see the consequences of your work without doubt, you work with other highly competent people, you can indulge in things like teaching your pet subject in your offtime and be paid very well for it, you get to select the most talented young lawyers as your staffers, and so on and so forth.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#48

Post by xtractinator »

taligent wrote: post #26
tudorw wrote: post #15

Sounds like a massive exercise in ball waving ego' nonsense, I am pretty sure this is not how real progress is made... It's not as if anything Apple did was truly original (suit on), they are great finishers but I believe true innovation comes from co-operation.

I fail to see how turning around a company from nearly bankruptcy to the largest in the industry isn't progress.

There's many ways to turn a profit.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#49

Post by xtractinator »

Angostura wrote: post #36
tudorw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant progress as in 'the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc.'

As a matter of interest; what do you think the phone market would look like today if the iPhone hadn't come out. And what about the iTunes Store? Do you think you'd be able to buy a single track from album, yet?

This is how Apple users think, and this article is a prime example of the hyperbole and posturing that is Apple.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#50

Post by philwelch »

ralfd wrote: post #34
raverbashing wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

legend says Tony Fadell (iPod creator) threatened to quit when SJ wanted to put a x86 processor on the iPad I believe such an environment can be very important. if you have very good people Also, it's one thing to stand for your idea agressively, other, to just swear at people.

This is an interesting point. It is valuable to have this kind of engineer instead of a Yes-man. Steve Jobs was famously difficult. Certainly not the kind of boss I would want. But the turnover in his inner circle was really low. Craig Federighi who on Monday demonstrated the next OS X is a Guy from the old NeXT days. I think Jobs selected people as underlings who were able to stand up to him (sometimes).

According to his biography, he would give an award every year to the employee who stood up to him the best.
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