Jony Ive on Life After Apple
wsj.com
wsj.com
Looks down on the apples magic mouse which needs to be flipped to charge, practical indeed
Why can the trackpad be used wired but the mouse not?
Stick the charge port on the side, so that it's awkward to use while plugged in, but not impossible. Now you've accomplished the same goal, without completely alienating everyone who has ever had the thing die while using it.
They might be using higher quality materials and adhere to aesthetic functionalism or whatever but their products fully embrace the fast-fashion expiration date.
Obsolete, or just no longer the newest, most coveted thing? I am still using an iPhone 11 and my wife uses an iPhone 8 and neither of us would consider our devices obsolete. Just less shiny and desirable.
Obsolete is perhaps not the best choice of words, especially considering the pedantry of some folks.
Like fashion, Apple relies heavily on peer pressure, status, and perception to compel people to upgrade their devices at regular intervals by continually making minor aesthetic changes to the device such that it's apparent to others at a glance the vintage of your kit.
Obviously not everyone cares or can afford to care and, like vegans and crossfitters, they'll let you know who they are.
Apple does similar things with products like iMessage where they purposely call out those people not using their platform. The make interacting with those people less pleasant and nerf functionality down to the lowest common denominator from 15 years (e.g. potato quality photos). So much so that if you're not using an Apple device you'll probably hear mention of blue vs green bubbles on a monthly basis if not more frequently.
Apple has cultivated an upgrade/adoption culture that is part FOMO and part the persistent feeling that someone somewhere is looking down their nose at you. This is very much how the fashion industry operates.
I would argue that what you are describing is actually the relentless March of technological advancement. Look at the quality of the cameras and processors 2-3 generations apart and tell me again with a straight face that Apple is riding on peer pressure to entice people to buy the new generation. It’s bullshit - they keep iterating on dozens and dozens of features and improving generation by generation. The average user doesn’t need to upgrade every year - nor do they! - but doing so every 3-5 years yields massive benefits in terms of technological advancement.
Apple can use both a carrot and a stick at the same time.
Unfortunately I think he drank a bit too much of his own kool-aid and "innovated" on the original designs in ways that were user hostile and didn't serve to complement the function of the products.
I'm still using a 27" 2012 iMac that, to me, looks as good as anything new they've produced. Ten years for a desktop machine sounds like a "win" for for both design and longevity.
Less ports, worse keyboard, no MagSafe, etc. everything power users did not fancy.
I think they've made a huge mistake in catering to the nerds rather than pushing the envelope for the average consumer. Never heard a civilian complain about the ports on their mac.
I think that's largely fair (although I do think the magic mouse is pretty nice). But in their defense, they make such great trackpads that many people prefer to use those over a mouse.
Unfortunately, the scroll ball eventually gets gummed up and the housing is glued together making regular maintenance impossible.
I've never understood why it's so hated. I think you were all "holding it wrong". :)
That ecosystem of accessories did not develop as Apple hoped it would, which essentially stranded the Mac Pro design and made it look (in retrospect) like a stupid design. And Apple kept hoping the ecosystem would develop, so they waited too long to replace it.
Apple has done great with many similar bets (USB, FireWire, removing optical disk drives). This one just didn’t work out.
I don't understand the negativity against it.
Even though I don't use a Mac, the touch bar is extremely useful, you can click buttons through it, scroll videos, have per-app shortcuts, text suggestions and much more, it really felt like a magical experience.
I was disappointed when Apple removed the touch bar, they could've just added the function row without removing it.
Didn't hate it, but didn't care for it either. Happy it's gone.
I just replaced my 2009 cheese grater Mac Pro with a new machine. That was a timeless design, both inside and out, which I can’t blame Ive alone for abandoning. Apple has long internalized that expandable-monolithic tension between the two Steves.
Thinner and lighter is better for a device you carry round 24/7.
It's not all rose-tinted past however: the original had a mouse that was hard to use all the time, not merely while recharging as the new one.
I’m not sure I personally like it as much as the aluminum displays that followed it, but it is such a head turner that’s almost like an art piece in addition to its function.
I read somewhere that he was not happy about that but had to go with it. But since the iPhone 6, the bumps have grown bigger and bigger and are almost like status symbols now. The worst are protruding lenses on iPads which cannot lay flat on the table.
That and magic mouse charging port if course but luckily this did not catch on with other vendors.
Otherwise the case would shade the lenses.
OTOH, I went into an Apple store recently and the industrial design has absolutely tanked since Ive left. I know nerds are happy about the extra ports etc., but the phones and macbooks are thicker and heavier and that is a step backwards for me. As for the iMac designs... yuck. I presume these are all designed without Ive, so stark is the contrast. The worst display I've seen in an Apple store, ever.
I _love_ the tradeoffs between size, weight, battery life and performance in my Macbook 14" laptop.
The older I get the more I believe this to be the most difficult aspect of making decisions. Saying 'no' to thousands of potentialities seems scary because it's a memento mori of the finiteness of individual lives.
As a sidenote, Safari 16 spellcheck on macOS 12 really does not like latin phrases.
I feel like people are rushing right past the article and commenting on their biggest pet peeve when it comes to Apple’s design decisions.
«One surprising thing about Ive’s approach is that conversation, rather than sketches, is how he often begins a project. Thinking—and then speaking about that thinking—is the raw material he works with. “Language is so powerful,” Ive says. “If [I say] I’m going to design a chair, think how dangerous that is. Because you’ve just said chair, you’ve just said no to a thousand ideas.»
The experience that I’m having is that there’s a fine line between a description being either too broad or overly narrow. The latter excludes lots of solutions that might be better than the obvious one at the time of writing. The former has everybody scratching their heads. :D
Meanwhile, thousands of hardware and software engineers who actually make the thing work are not in the news.
If you won’t shout about how great your own work is, how can you expect anyone else to?
“Le Corbusier remains a controversial figure. Some of his urban planning ideas have been criticized for their indifference to pre-existing cultural sites, societal expression and equality, and his alleged ties with fascism, antisemitism, and eugenics, and the dictator Benito Mussolini have resulted in some continuing contention.”
With such a public record on Corbusier, my first thought is that you need to qualify your analogy. You write that you did not mean it as a compliment. What exactly makes Ive the Corbusier of industrial design?
Also let me say this explicitly, this is not an invitation to debate the merits of Ive, Ive's work, or any associated topics like Apple hardware more generally. I mean, you can have the debate, I can't stop you, but I also won't be participating.