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Scott Forstall leaves Apple

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Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#281

Post by sirmarksalot »

RShiki wrote: post #204
eridius wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The speed at which you can present text to the reader is not the end-all, be-all of the reading experience. In fact, the logical conclusion, of having zero transition whatsoever, is actually a pretty terrible experience. Why do you think people use smooth scrolling on their OS? Transitions are very valuable in producing a good user experience, whether it's a simple horizontal slide as the Kindle iOS app uses by defau…

I don't know when it has been introduced, or even if it was always there and I didn't notice, but iBooks also supports continuous vertical scrolling and it IS much faster than looking at an animation that shows a page turn or a slide. The default mode, "page turn" doesn't make any sense. When I scroll through an ebook through the continuous scrolling, the text appears INSTANTLY, without a perceptible delay and since…

This is a case where I recognize the absurdity of pages in e-books, and yet I still like to have them. Pages give you a sense of progress through the book, and act as a proxy for time spent. They're not necessary as part of the presentation of information, or even telling a story, but I do like having them there.

Maybe this is one example of skueomorphism done right, at least from my point of view. An anachronism that helps to make the user feel comfortable with the application, even though it isn't strictly necessary.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#282

Post by henrikschroder »

lostlogin wrote: post #268
nzjames wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from New Zealand but have travelled in the US and lived in the UK. The difference is service. You get it in the US. I remember it in every store. Initially I thought it was intimidating because I was not used to it. But after a few months and some great experiences I really enjoyed it. You don't get it in the UK. High street stores, especially noticeable in places like shoe stores where you need service to comple…

I never got into the helpful staff thing. I dislike being helped when in shops. Clearly I have been in New Zealand too long. Something that really irked me in the US was the way taxes worked. I never knew what I was going to pay, as taxes weren't included in the label price. It wasn't a large percentage, but I never could quite understand why anyone would take the time to make a price label which showed a price diffe…

(Completely off-topic here, but my understanding is that sales tax in the US can vary from county to county, and definitely varies from state to state, so it's simpler in the case of labelling, and impossible in the case of national advertising, to show the final price. Contrast with Europe where sales tax is nationally fixed, which makes it easy to show the final price. (and in some places illegal not to!))

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#283

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

raverbashing wrote: post #272
nikcub wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Great decision from Cook Cook hired him, which many commentators pointed out was a mistake in the first place.

People make mistakes, good that he could recognize he made a mistake.

Absolutely.

Unless you can hire someone you 100% know will never make a mistake, you should be interested in how they deal with them when they do.

Cook seems to have given him enough time to prove himself (or as it seems otherwise) and has then taken steps to right his mistake.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#284

Post by toadi »

AdamGibbins wrote: post #249
rdl wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from prices and selection (for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD), it's size and layout of stores and staffing. There were two main kinds of stores -- pale imitations of Best Buy, Circuit City, and Microcenter (out in the suburbs/small towns) (which is ironic since those businesses have had serious problems in the US market now,…

This is a culture difference. I as a Brit absolutely detest when sales staff are pushy and forcing their way into your purchase decisions. This is generally highly frowned upon in UK culture and is not something the majority like. I do however agree on some of your other points, such as poor selection and useless staff.

Probably a European thing because Belgians don't like pushy sales staff either.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#285

Post by beedogs »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #166
Steko wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as Apple's software and hardware are talked about, Eddie Cue is also the guy largely responsible for negotiating Apple's superior media offerings which is arguably Apple's biggest lead on their competitors internationally.

Great, I'll remember to curse him the next time I can't buy something because it's EXCLUSIVELY listed in iTunes. Not sure why this is downvoted. At least Apple's competitors allow me to buy their music as Linux user.

"iTunes-exclusive content" just means "pirate it", to me.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#286

Post by Einherji »

chj wrote: post #175
apike wrote: post #18

> Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year > Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company And thus ended the reign of skeuomorphism at Apple. Or, at least, the reign of hyper-realism and hyper-whimsy in UI design. Jobs or Forstall always seemed to favour it, but could you imagine Jony Ive signing off on a Podcasts app where half the screen is a reel-to-reel tape tha…

That Podcasts app is really really a piece of "work". whoever designed it should be fired.

I actually like a lot of apple's skeuomorphism. I think it makes digital interfaces more natural. I think at least some of the iPhones success can be attributed to the fact that less savvy people find the skeuomorphisms easy to relate to everyday things and helps bridge the gap between, for example, using a real reel-to-reel vs. using a digital representation thereof. Although I agree that the podcast app is too much, I would really miss the leather textures and whatnot of other iOS apps.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#287

Post by coob »

veidr wrote: post #226
nostromo wrote: post #101

Does anyone but me here listen incessantly to podcasts? The latest Podcasts App from iTunes is a skeuomorphic mess. It has a superfluous animation of a reel-to-reel player of course. But it utterly fails at its most basic task: playing a goddamn podcast. But don't take my word for it, it has a 1.5 star rating on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/podcasts/id525463029 Not to mention crashes... Apple used to make…

Luckily, they didn't immediately pull all competing apps out of the store when they released this, as they have done in other cases. Podcasts.app is crap, but there are Instacast and Downcast (I alternate between those) and probably other good choices that cost less than a half gallon of gas.

When have they pulled competing apps that they haven't acquired?

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#288

Post by leoc »

masklinn wrote: post #275
CamperBob2 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The man's got taste. That was true of Jobs as well... but holy crap, have you seen his yacht? Unfortunately, good aesthetic judgement in one area doesn't always carry over into other areas, even those that seem closely related. Human-machine interfaces have a functional aspect that can't be handled by dashing off yet another homage to Dieter Rams. Ive hasn't yet shown competence in this aspect of design.

> That was true of Jobs as well... but holy crap, have you seen his yacht? On the other hand, have you seen the designs the approved for the future HQ?

To be honest, the new HQ design looks both bombastic and anonymous to me. I especially wonder what it's going to look like from ground level; I have a sneaking suspicion that the circular facade is going to make it look like you're at the back of the building no matter where you are. But it's very hard to judge these things in advance from a few illustrations.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#289

Post by veidr »

coob wrote: post #287
veidr wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily, they didn't immediately pull all competing apps out of the store when they released this, as they have done in other cases. Podcasts.app is crap, but there are Instacast and Downcast (I alternate between those) and probably other good choices that cost less than a half gallon of gas.

When have they pulled competing apps that they haven't acquired?

Apple has capriciously pulled apps from their app store too many times to count, so I assume you specifically mean when have they pulled competing apps because they decided to introduce their own apps with similar features. Well, they've done that numerous times, too. For instance:

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/08/quickpick-update-in-limbo-for...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/02/apple_yanks_widget...

EDIT: fixed first link

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#290

Post by eevilspock »

alwaysinshade wrote: post #261
waiwai933 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple retail head is one of the most desirable executive positions on the planet. Why couldn't they recruit a true superstar? I think the problem is identifying the superstar in the first place. Quite frankly, there is no company whose retail comes close to Apple, and so there isn't anyone who has a track record of being able to do the SVP Retail job. In addition, the Apple SVP Retail job is different from head of…

> I think the problem is identifying the superstar in the first place. I'd look towards fashion - for example the Japanese clothing store Uniqlo [1]. Their stores are quite similar to Apple's in terms of layout and space, the way that they encourage you to come in and look around, and they always have helpful service on hand. The problem is Tadashi Yanai [2] is too rich and successful to leave his current post. I see…

Parallel? More like copied.
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