Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client
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I hope there's a chance to rectify that now - though I fear it won't happen until someone more visionary and less 'operations-focused' takes the helm of the company. Steve Blank did this excellent analysis and comparison between Balmer and Cook [0] - I hope there's a Satya Nadella in Apple's future too.
[0] https://steveblank.com/2016/10/24/why-tim-cook-is-steve-ball...
However, UX is their weakness. I don't know why we keep pretending that UX is Apple's strength. Have you used their window manager? Have you used their workspace implementation? Clearly they haven't used it themselves. Everything about the Mac UI is geared toward just having a pile of windows in one workspace.
Their window switcher by default requires switching between applications then switching between the windows of that application. Why?
Rearranging the contents of workspaces is a complicated dance of swipes and drags and other mouse-heavy movements. On a decent window manager, this can all be done with keyboard shortcuts.
They neglect power-users. They neglect usability for those with limited range of motion.
The way i see it is Apple provides simple defaults which work best for most/avarage users.
If you want something different/extra vs the default, you can customize some stuff within SystemPreferences (like keyboard shortcuts) or install a third party app (like BetterTouchTool, Contexts, Moom, Magnet, etc.)
Personally, i much prefer my Macbook's UX over my Windows10 UX.
I did prefer App Exposé in Snow Leopard, but ah well...
The fact that windows can't be "snapped" like on Windows is so frustrating. (Yes, I know there are 3rd party apps for this.)
Really? When I use four fingers and swipe up (instead of down), I see windows from all applications and can switch between them
Not a native solution but very lightweight and solves a lot of your issues.
And if you want something extremely powerful and robust, check out Hammerspoon. Much more complicated setup but basically turns the MacOS window manager into a proper tiling wm.
I am not anymore the Macbook Pro is a huge disappointment. iCloud runs on Google Cloud because Apple thought the cloud was a feature. Apple should have bought Dropbox instead of having to rely on Google for their Cloud offering especially since they are talking about being a service company instead of a product company.
[Edit] Never mind, I see others volunteered info. Having come from Windows, I thought I was just stuck with the way things were. Fixing this today!
This is so true. Hence the dongle epidemic.
An operations person would see that as a market that will migrate to Android if the need is not met.
It's subjective of course, but strictly looking at display & bezels the "which is more aesthetically pleasing" question is not even close
anyway even with most manufacturer producing notch design, I still find no benefit that entices me to move to a notch model for a feature that adds a total of 44 pixels rows at twice the selling cost to maintain visual border symmetry, but I understand there are people obsessed with aesthetics that are willing to part a sizeable amount of money for a symmetrical bezel.
It appears I'm just not the target audience of apple anymore.
For Apple's and consumers' sake, I hope NOT.
Apple has done this all the time during their history, eg. look at the whole adapter situation where you just have to buy extra hardware to connect your new device to anything.
[0] "Beats Electronics LLC is a subsidiary of Apple Inc." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beats_Electronics)
I own the most recent iPad and iPad mini (on that now) and I like both but neither more than my Nokia 6.1.
All three are functional devices that do what I need with little to no fuss.
The tiny aesthetic differences between them are lost on me or more accurately are irrelevant to me.
Which is why I don’t have an iPhone, for tablets apple are hands down the best but for my phone needs a Nokia running stock android at one fifth the price does 99% of what I care about.
I have zero loyalty to a brand or a platform, I use whatever works for me at the time I guess.
You're kidding right?. Apple put so much serious R&D into the display that they asked Samsung to create it.
I myself like them more just because of their manufacturing processes. It’s like those YouTube channels that have videos of industrial machinery showing how tomatoes are sorted or paper clips are bent.
boarder: n. One who pays a stipulated sum in return for regular meals or for meals and lodging.
So much for "design is how it works", huh Steve?
- the batteries are glued in, making them very difficult to change
- there's no locking slot
- GPU goes out
- the unencapsulated (motherboard) is very susceptible to any humidity, which leads to corrosion
- the JTAG shorts out traces
- the keyboards are crap: noisy, fragile and have to be ripped out violently with pliers
- display cable goes out
- no availability of official replacement parts
- no official component-level repair leading to unnecessary e-waste and unnecessary charges
- no longer has MagSafe
- thin, bendable and fragile
- extremely overpriced
- overcharged for repairs
- denied data recovery when it's possible
- community of unrealistic, brainwashed, tribalist fans who lack perspective and criticism
I have a Lenovo T480 which is 10x better than a T490. Snag one while you can, because it's totally ruined in the name of drinking Johnny's brand of Jonestown KoolAid.
Why do you feel the urge to insult those that do not see the world like you do?
You call them "unrealistic", so it makes you fell realistic. "brainwashed" so it makes you feel clear minded. "tribalist" so it makes you feel individually intelligent. "lack perspective", so you believe you have perspective.
The fact is that some of these people are really smarter than you are and happier and more fulfilled than you are. And have way more money than you have. Some of them will be stupid, but not all like you believe.
These people have real reasons to choose an Apple product and they are as valid as your reasons.
While everything you say is true, the fact is that these people give them a different value that you do. I have a friend that has a company and earns 2000 dollars everyday, does he cares about an overprice laptop? Not really, he cares about time, and interruptions(he had a Windows laptop that used to interrupt him for hours at the worst possible time), he cares about weight, and malware installed by default that you could not uninstall.
Right now I am criticizing your attitude. How do you respond to it is a way to measure your level of "handling criticism ability" that you implicitly presume of.
But it does feels different, doen't it? Criticize others is so easy.
Shrug. I prefer MacBooks because the trackpads are better, and trackpad usability is more important to me than the other stuff.
The T490 is a regression, I agree, but the upcoming Lenovo P53 looks to be a great machine. It has almost same chassis (just a couple improved ports) as the P52, which is (IMO) superior to the T480. And you can get it with Linux installed at the factory!
There seems to be a consistent slide, where once-venerable machines like the Macbook "Pro", Lenovo T-series, HP Elitebook etc. get slimmed and down-spec'ed to expand the market to more buyers.
Hopefully the Apple can now produce a new top-end product line, the "Macbook Actually For Professionals Again" or something like that. Then they could continue marketing to and designing for students and media consumers with the MBP, and release better hardware for those who need it.
This one hits close to home.
I brought in my phone for a warranty exchange when the charging port was damaged. Phone at 7% without the ability to charge, I was told emailing photos to myself was the only option and was prodded to use the cloud storage in the future.
It’s unfortunate I wasn’t in the position to leave without a new phone. Years of photos were lost that day due to this lack of option and my own failure to back up locally.
There is one thing to criticize Apple on objective basis and another to develop a deep sense of hatred, vulgar insults, angry rants, personal attacks and fostering despicable contemptful culture with an emotional agenda. He has built a huge community of people that love watching him rant just about anything.
May be its just me but I don't enjoy this type of content even if I agree with their general assessment or opinions.
That said, I do like what he is doing for Right-To-Repair movement along with folks from iFixit and EFF.
Hell, what are your alternatives? Linux on laptops is broadly a mess until fairly recently... and Windows is Windows.
Most of the developers I know have no shame and can't be peer pressured, and still often use MacBooks.
I for one would be sad if they went back on some of the supposedly bold moves they’ve pulled, to be honest. The only thing I wish is that they’d kill that silly lightning connector for the phones so I could have usb-c goodness there too!
I guess that’s just design for ya – it’s often divisive, especially if decisive.
I actually prefer the aesthetics of early MacBook / MacBook Pro unibody and iPhone SE. And they were a pleasure to use. Good key travel and easy to hold with one hand, respectively.
I hope there is a bit of function re-introduced into the design equation, so that products become more balanced.
You could easily plug it in even if blindfolded. And no problem when the cord got unexpectedly pulled or tripped on.
Every time I plug in my new macbook I miss it.
I absolutely love the current MacBook Pro as it is, keyboard, Touch Bar and all. The only changes I would wish for are an OLED/better screen with a higher native resolution, and perhaps make it even lighter. :)
update:
I know it was designed like that due to air flow considerations. I just pointed out the fact that it seems the design team didn't get input from others, who IMO would've mentioned the similarity sooner, possibly helping Apple alter the design.
People here have been complaining about how Apple has prioritized aesthetics over functionality. It's worth taking a different stance and criticize Apple's choice of functionality over aesthetics in Mac Pro design.
update 2:
Some people actually have fear of holes (Trypophobia) which could be triggered by the design of Mac Pro. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia
AAPL is down about 1%. So I guess the market values Ive at around $9B? :P
This makes me think that he no longer finds his work compelling at Apple. Or Apple decided it’s time for a new leader, but wants things to have a soft landing.
I have loved most of Ive's designs, but it's clear to me that he needs a bouncer to keep him in check. RIP.
Everything he did after that just seemed ... uninspired.
While physical design has been of paramount importance in Apple's rise to the top, it has been more and more detrimental as Jony and his group wandered into worshipping at the altar of luxury and Platonic idealism.
When combined with /not/ ignoring other than luxury market segments and usability that was fine. But when Jony's star was completely ascendant everything else was sacrificed at that altar (see butterfly keyboard, single port MacBook, escape key-less touch bars, no 32 GB MacBook Pros since that would require non-power-sipping RAM.)
I could have lived with this if the design of the software hadn't also suffered in conjunction with the hardware. Jony was given responsibility for UX and it also started prioritizing abstract design principles over actual usability with extremely low contrast UI elements and other poor choices.
As we saw those points being walked back and Apple being responsive to the complaints, I've been wondering if Craig Federighi's star was rising and if Jony's was dimming, since I doubt he was a willing participant in the diminution of his artistic choices. Seeing the extreme effort he was putting into charity[0] and the spaceship campus, instead of his actual responsibilities, it all combined to me that he needed to either get re-focused by the CEO or get a new job.
[0] https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/16/jony-ive-diamond-ring-marc... https://petapixel.com/2013/11/24/one-kind-jony-ive-red-leica... https://www.businessinsider.com/jony-ive-bono-sothebys-chari... https://www.fastcompany.com/3019896/designed-by-friendship-j...
While I don't have the inside scoop on how Jonathan Ive works, my impression is that he's good taste and excels at pushing the edge in materials and manufacturing processes -- he pioneered the aluminium unibody, for example -- and is probably a good leader. But he is not a great or original designer. Apple's recent history is littered with mistakes and poor design decisions, functional and aesthetic both, as well as a lot of unoriginal, boring visual design. There's obviously a lot of pressure at Apple, and they don't make anything easy for themselves, but that's not enough of an excuse to explain everything.
To me, the most audacious design decision in recent years was the iPhone X's removal of the home button in favour of a purely gesture-based UI combined with Face ID. That's great design that just worked.
Do you think this is good design? Why do you think this would happen at design-first company like Apple?
Steve Jobs would agree with you: "People think it's this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
So I think OP's term "tyranny of design" could be better phrased "tyranny of form" (as opposed to function).
I can't find the quote, but Donald Norman said something along the lines of "create something beautiful and people will say it's wonderful and easy to use".
This has always been the Apple way, and I don't see that changing. At Apple, form has always had priority over function.
If there’s anyone whose design principles I’d want at Apple, it’d be the guy who espoused clarity and unambiguity. Him waxing poetic about a useless juicer seems very out of character, although he did indeed say that [2]. I’d be interested to hear more about his more current work for Apple.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Thing... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/arts/features/story/0,11710,1166...
The new voice recorder app is fundamentally worse than its predecessor in almost every way. IOS usability not a flat line. It started above industry standards, brought the whole industry up with it (Google would never have invested in Material Design without Apple’s competitiveness), and then seemingly when Scott Forstall left, took a real downturn.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi...
Wait, how do you know it doesn't mean...
- all toasters will be as thin as a slice of bread
- refrigerators will now open and close like a laptop
- washers and dryers will now be wireless (compatibility dongles for water and lint will be available)
Maybe the world is better off if he works on computer hardware all day every day.
He's partnering with Marc Newsom and others... who he's collaborated with heavily in the past for Apple Watch (and other one-off auction products, etc).
Jony's got to be tired of designing with the Apple aesthetic after all this time, and maybe wants to design a car or toaster again.
In many ways, I'd argue that vice-versa is just as true. My understanding is that thin-at-all-costs is largely an Ive directive.
IMO Watch is just plain unattractive as a design object. Tinkering with the crown colour or the strap choices hasn't changed that. I keep waiting for it to be refined, so far not.
I'm also not sold on the new(ish) font and flat UI style. They work, more or less, but there's something very bland about them.
The big hits were game changers and were anything but bland - the original Bondi Blue iMac, the MBP aesthetic, the Macbooks including the Air, and the iPhone.
Good design integrates form without breaking function, and that hasn't been the case with the not-really-working keyboards, the touchbar, the bottom charge port on the Magic Mouse, the death of the headphone jack, the end of MagSafe, the missing ports on too many laptop models, and others.
I don't know which of those Ive was responsible for. I suppose we'll find out over the next few years.
Generally, when I think of "Pro" I'm thinking of more features, not just the same features but more powerful. I would think that pros actually have different needs, and that their tools would have different functions to suit.
As you said, we'll see.
From the article:
In my estimation, whether Ive intends it or not — and I think he likely does, for what it’s worth — this is the beginning of the end of his time at Apple. To give up “management” in exchange for “thinking freely” is, when it comes to business, akin to shifting from product-focused R&D to exploratory R&D. Steve Jobs was very clear on the consequences of that approach:
"One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it. And I’ve made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room. And I got the scar tissue to prove it."
I found this quote/clip in this excellent Gruber piece, Working Backwards to the Technology; the analogy I’m trying to draw is that just as the best way to ensure that great technologies make it to market is to start with the product and work backwards, inventing along the way, the best way to lead an organization’s design direction is to lead the organization, and that means managing. And that is what Ive is giving up.
[1]: "Jony Ive “Promoted”, The Implications of Not Managing, What About Apple?"
https://stratechery.com/2015/jony-ive-promoted-the-implicati...
I wouldn't be surprised if all the latest Apple problems originated from engineering constraints imposed by his decisions. From the trashcan Mac Pro to the butterfly keyboard.
Both designs contributed to reliability problems (multiple boards/ribbon cable/flexing/loose DRAM chips on the Apple ///, failed analog boards on the Mac.)
Maybe with him and his ego gone, they can fix the next generation and salvage the product line.
The recent iPhones in particular bother me. What’s the point of being mostly thin if the camera lens sticks out and snags on things?
This might explain the apparent overemphasis on thinness.
Personally, I've settled on the 13" Surface Book as my travel machine. A bit heavier, but plenty of power, great screen, fine battery life, GPU if you really need it, and a keyboard that I don't hate. Now with WSL2 it doesn't have its previous drawbacks as a dev environment either.
I quite like the new keyboard feel, I can type damned fast on it. The touchbar implementation in IntelliJ is nice, touch ID is great to login, I travel quite a bit so having something powerful but super light is a huge boon.
It's probably not for everyone, but it felt like an upgrade over the 2015 model I was using before ... and sure, they jumped the gun on USB-C but I've since upgraded to a monitor that has a USB-C input and that's just a single cable to both charge the device and to output video ... which is damn near magic.
But at least it doesn't sound like I'm typing angry every time I type at a normal speed.
Apple, if you're listening, bring back real keyboards and the headphone jack!
Do people really think the macbook as a device is great for programming?
Maybe it's just personal preference but I've always hated the keyboard (spacing was bad and lots of more less mainstream keys that are important in programming like the function keys were really small) and how annoyingly large the mouse pad is.
(And no more friggin' touchbar that messes up my Vim workflow. please!)
I am glad Ive is gone. Maybe Apple can now recover.
And that Tumblr blog appears equally hyperbolic. There are some clear UI/UX mistakes in there, but the blog is conveniently ignoring how visually noisy those pre-Yosmite GUI elements are in-context by providing oddly cropped screenshots to make a point.
He might be gone, but, after 30 years with Apple, helping the company rake in billions and billions of dollars in sales, he is set for life and can pretty much do whatever he wants. His next venture might impact you down the line.
I hope this means Apple will hire designers more respectful of utility for the MBP and iMac lines and start catering to professionals. And then Ive can focus on making insanely expensive to manufacture halo products with CNC’ed cheese graters.
20th Anniversary Mac, in Sir Jony's own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIFdBp8rbtA
The value of Apple products is mostly based on marketing. Apple sells products by appealing to people's insecurities. Apple products appeal to status-focused people who want to see themselves as cool and sophisticated to the point that they are willing to overlook the terrible UX.
The mouse is so flat, it makes your hand sore. The keys are so low and sensitive that you keep hitting the wrong keys and they easily break. The navigation for most of their UI makes no sense. If you open the laptop while it's sitting on your laps, it will pinch you when you open it. Having to use Command+C to copy stuff by pushing with your thumb is awkward even after years of use. Siri will keep popping up when your finger accidentally touches some random key. Switching between multiple desktops/windows is a pain (e.g. even compared to Ubuntu). Finder is shockingly bad; it's a struggle to navigate; merely copying the current directory path is infeasible... The list of UX problems goes on and on; I'm not even a UX designer but I can see all these problems.
A recently Art school graduate that can connect with those damn millennials and Generation Z kids.
They normally seem to start with a great idea (iMacs, ipods, iphones, whatever) - and then add really great incremental additions (mag-safe, 'retina displays', thumb-scanners etc) - and then completely lose sight of what they were originally trying do do as they iterate further.
The air being thin was impressive, and ushered in everybody else pulling their finger out. However removal of headphone jacks, connectors, to achieve this was nothing anybody asked for.
Not just one the small stuff either - thermal problems on the g4 cube, trash-can, imac pro.
The new Pro though looks awesome. Arguments over pricing are separate - but first form-is-function device I've seen from them in an age.
I'd like to think Jony hates it, and has stomped off in a huff (or having finally convinced the company to ship it, and point them in the right direction, he's happy to walk away from his baby).
And Ive seems to have been anxious to expand his work surface for quite some time, especially as seen via Apple Watch. It will be interesting to see what he does for other products in other spaces. I hope green field suits him well.
I've given it long enough and unlike the headphone jack which was painful but managable, the MBP with touchbar needs a re-do. Physical buttons for escape key and volume/brightness was a bridge too far.
Hopefully that can now happen with someone else in charge.
While his work was definitely important at Apple, I think he might have lost the needed balance when SJ left
(More than one long-time Apple employee has told me that they think Scott Forstall was nearly as good at this as Jobs was, and that it's quite possible some of Apple's more egregious form-over-function blunders in the last five or six years would have been avoided if Forstall was still on board. Forstall was admittedly the champion of skueomorphism, but I'd accept the silly linen backgrounds if it meant better keyswitches.)
He did push boundaries, but sometimes boundaries pushed back.
He has probably been planning this for a long time.
It seems like a good way of prettifying his legacy, "that famous designer guy" vs "that guy at Apple".
It's good that Apple will remain the main client of Jony Ive - we all make mistakes, but he did a lot for devices design and I'm sure he still can push it forward. Maybe new position will give him more freedom, maybe Apple need more freedom :)
Looking at the thick, rounded rectangles, I laughed out loud and said "Jony Ive has no taste".
Like I said before, without Steve Jobs, Jony Ive is just another designer.
If something totally amazing - AR glasses etc was coming even reasonably soon, no way he is leaving now
Even his voice overs were tacky as hell. Easy to make fun of. Cringeworthy at best.
When Jobs dies Apple's creativity and forward-thinking also died. They started multi-touch, they made touch screens work, they made MacBooks that weren't full of stickers and big humps of plastic, they made smartphones with an OS that actually worked smoothly.
When Jobs died they stopped innovating. Maybe a few remnants of Jobs' ideas were implemented but none of them to the degree of innovativeness and quality during his time.
Jobs would have canned so much crap Apple has released over the years. He would have made certain products so much better by simply spending several billions more on research and development.
Jobs wasn't there to suck up to shareholders. He was not even there for us. I'm pretty sure he was there for himself and his legacy.
Jony Ive was never part of anything impressive. To me, he's just the talking head with a voice who they hopefully took away any control from.
Apple needs to spend some of their countless billions on innovation and setting standards that are 5 years ahead of the competition. Instead, they're twice as expensive with outdated tech. Such a shame.
With a sole company, he’ll be able to invest his earnings into the company as well as deduct several of the expenses. Significantly reducing his tax rate.
It's more a divorce/open relationship Cosmopolitan style.
I wonder, where does the design language of Apple go if they move away from their current aesthetic.
Seriously though, I think his vision may have overstayed it's welcome at apple.
There’ve been rumors for years that Ive had one foot out the door
I say bring back the Mac book pro 2012 - that's all I need.
Why not just drop into a VP or C-role of such a firm than build such a company completely from nothing?
It can easily happen that a department in a company becomes unprofitable or complacent in the absence of direct market forces.
For instance, take the Macbook Pro. There's two ways of viewing it. The first view is that it sucks. There's no USB A ports to plug in flash drives. There's no SD card reader. The lack of function keys is inexcusable, terrible, whatever. The second view is that it's incredible. The laptop is thin and absolutely beautiful. You can palm it in one hand with ease. When you hold it, you feel its lightness and lithe.
The main difference between these points of view is that the first perspective has prerequisites. The people who hold this view are those who use flash drives, or those who need SD card readers, or those who use function keys. Take note, this is far from the general population. I know I don't need a lot of these features on a daily basis and I'm not unusual. On the other hand, the second point of view is one of aesthetics. And as much as some may claim the contrary, we all value aesthetics to a degree. Even if some may vocalize to the contrary, deep down everybody likes pretty, shiny stuff.
And man, Apple (and therefore Ive) makes pretty, shiny stuff like no other. What I respect about Ive is just how relentless he is in his pursuit of beauty. Beauty in aesthetics, but also beauty in sensation. What stuns me is how no other computer company has figured this out. I have a ThinkPad on my desktop and it's just so goddamn ugly. It's made of this cheap plastic that feels light, yet the laptop is heavier than my Macbook Pro. The lid is too heavy, so you have to hold the bottom portion down to open the laptop. There are two unnecessary logos that are too small to be easily read from afar and too ugly to be worthwhile. The laptop just feels bad. Granted, a ThinkPad is a bit of a strawman. Microsoft's own products are probably a better comparison. To an extent, they're quite nice, pretty beautiful even. Yet they still don't have this relentlessness towards beauty that Apple has. Their products still feel like compromises. And in compromising the products have become more attractive to group A or population B. But they have lost their raw magnetism, the beauty that attracts all. Whether or not this alienation of the small groups is worth the attraction of the larger population is a separate debate, but I respect Apple and Ive's decision to stay on one side.
Speaking of, it's rather fascinating seeing how Apple can make a product feel "new" for so many different iterations. I've thought that a particular iteration was the pinnacle of this product, that nothing else would look cooler or newer or more...well futuristic. Only to be totally proven wrong by the next iteration.
Actually, I think Steve and Jony together were really where the magic happened. Since Steve passed away, form has often trumped function at Apple.
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 consider going back to their playful aesthetic? Aluminum and glass is just so... Yawn
I can't think of a designer with more prestige in the world, so I'm sure they'll have their pick of clients.
It's form over function (see: laptop so thin that the keyboard doesn't work, you can't fit any port, etc. etc.), which is definitely NOT good design.
Both Apple's hardware and software have been nosediving for the past 5 years. So much so that I'm still using a 2015 MacBook Pro, and only because of macOS because Microsoft Surface Book looks about 1000 times better than anything Apple's ever made—and it has a detachable touchscreen with pen.
I hope this is good news for Apple to get better at design again.
The freeway sign was great >> https://66.media.tumblr.com/2fa4ae4cfe93b3662ca9ac0b60769861...
In that type of structure, preventing wrong decisions comes down to things like the personality traits, wisdom, etc. of the people with all the power. In other words, is he or she the type of person that can be convinced NOT to do something that they would otherwise decide to do?
I can only observe what has come out of Apple in recent years. I immediately saw things I disliked in their software when Jony Ive was also put in charge of software (to this day, much of iOS-7-style apps seem form-over-function to me and I want more gradients, damn-it). And there were also some massive hardware failures, most of all keyboards, screens and Touch Bars. If Jony made most of these calls and just couldn’t be convinced otherwise, I’m glad he’s gone and look forward to a happy medium of “pretty nice but usable” hardware and software.