4 ms·

The man has skills but this past due. Apple devices have become sterile, utilitarian, no passion. Sony set a very high watermark practicality and desirability

The man has skills but this past due. Apple devices have become sterile, utilitarian, no passion. Sony set a very high watermark practicality and desirability - subjective of course, but just look at what they've done over the years: https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/design/gallery/ https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/design/gallery/ I hope Apple can inject some creativity.

booi 4y ago
sony minidisc player is the epitome of design... or I'm just stuck in the 90's
- gandalfff 4y ago
  I'm not stuck in the 90s ... which model of Sony Minidisc?
- willcipriano 4y ago
  I had that growing up and loved it, it was a big upgrade over my discman, but for me the iPod 5th generation is the best personal music device ever created. I recently bought one (my original got stolen a decade ago) and upgraded it to use a 512gb SD card. It's still the king. Got a pair of planar headphones and I'm hearing things in Beatles songs I've listened to ten thousand times that I've never heard before. When I use it in the car, I don't have to take my eyes off the road to change the track, the subtle audio feedback let's you use the menu without looking at it. It fits well in the hand, I wouldn't want it any smaller or lighter (it's a little too light due to my SD card mod). No touchscreen, no internet connection and it holds my entire collection and then some. I don't even like Apple laptops or phones, but that thing is a work of art. Edit: The best part is I can service it. You could buy almost an entire iPod worth of replacement parts on eBay.
- iancmceachern 4y ago
  Not only the epitome of design, but the pinnacle of Mechanical sound playing objects. After this it's all flash memory and lcd screens.
mgh2 4y ago
Is design supposed to be transient to catch up with the times? Like fashion, the discipline is bound to change over time; fresh new thinkers are always needed to continually keep pace with innovation.
- hulitu 4y ago
  > Is design supposed to be transient to catch up with the times? The only thing design catches up is money saving. Computer cases from the 90 look infinitely better than the present day ones. Damn, even IBM ones look like someone "worked" on them. Today you will see cheap copies of the same thing with an axe applied here and there for variation. The same with other stuff (TV, monitors, keyboard, mouses). And cars.
  - eugene-agyeman 4y ago
    To you. They look infinitely better to you.
bmitc 4y ago
I can’t find the article right now, but I believe Ive hasn’t really been present, in the figurative and also literal sense, at Apple for over half a decade. There was a really good piece regarding this that I read probably at least a couple of years ago, where Ive basically retreated to his home, “running” things from there, and would require presentations to be done close to his home, where he would barely contribute feedback. I think he and Cook don’t get along. Ive is honestly a bit full of himself in a non-introspective way. I believe he wanted the Apple Watch to be a pure luxury object, and not just a smart watch. I’m not really sure I ever got the love for his designs. They are boring, cold, and often designed at the cost of functionality. I’m not sure how one gets to be so famous and rich struggling at both form and function. And with Cook being a logistics person, without a personality to be found, I’m sure their meetings were probably pretty awkward.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  Ive’s designs definitely changed over time. His history at Apple actually predates the return of Jobs, and he was responsible for much more expressive designs like that of the Twentieth Anniversary Mac, the Newton eMate, the PowerMac G3 AIO, and perhaps most famously the various generations of CRT iMac. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that he started leaning harder into the straight lines and cold metal.
- iancmceachern 4y ago
  I think most of his designs are pretty shameless knockoffs of Dieter Rams stuff, he does the same simple form thing that Rams pioneered.
Nextgrid 4y ago
> utilitarian I wouldn't say so. My feeling with Apple software in the past ~5 years or so is that it's been a slow devolution into "growth & engagement" and catering to idiots (and nudging them to do counter-productive things) rather than true utility. True utility would be to do a task, do it well, and don't change all the time. Instead, Apple has been devolving more and more into what you'd expect from a typical "growth & engagement" startup, with for example the Music apps on Mac and iOS being only a shadow of their past selves (despite iTunes having real problems). Design-wise, countless features have been replaced by copious amounts of whitespace and the trend shows no signs of stopping. Say what you want about skeuomorphism, but I'll take anything over absolutely nothing.
- function_seven 4y ago
  Smart Playlists! Back in the iTunes days, I had a smart playlist that consisted of songs that I last listened to between 6 and 7 months ago. Kind of a reminder of music that I liked, but maybe forgot about. I had several different playlists that were all dynamic and based on some combination of my listening history, download date, release date, and/or other ID3 tags. The new Music app is stupid when it comes to playlists. You have to manually create each one.
- pxmpxm 4y ago
  This - the nag screen to sign up iCloud when attaching photos in iMessage is prime example of this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250951130?answerId=251893660022#251893660022 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250951130?answerId=2518...
  - hulitu 4y ago
    This is for your security. You shall upload all your pictures on iCloud so they can scan them for CP. (and maybe sell some metadata or even data to ad companies) /s
- zamalek 4y ago
  > catering to idiots Lots of UI improvements, still no container/jail support in the kernel. It has never been more a lifestyle statement, and less a useful operating system.
paxys 4y ago
Apple devices are the opposite of utilitarian. Utility is routinely sacrificed for the purpose of shaving off 1mm to tout in marketing material.
- phyrex 4y ago
  That’s not true anymore in the recent iterations

booi 4y ago

sony minidisc player is the epitome of design... or I'm just stuck in the 90's

gandalfff 4y ago
I'm not stuck in the 90s ... which model of Sony Minidisc?
willcipriano 4y ago
I had that growing up and loved it, it was a big upgrade over my discman, but for me the iPod 5th generation is the best personal music device ever created. I recently bought one (my original got stolen a decade ago) and upgraded it to use a 512gb SD card. It's still the king. Got a pair of planar headphones and I'm hearing things in Beatles songs I've listened to ten thousand times that I've never heard before. When I use it in the car, I don't have to take my eyes off the road to change the track, the subtle audio feedback let's you use the menu without looking at it. It fits well in the hand, I wouldn't want it any smaller or lighter (it's a little too light due to my SD card mod). No touchscreen, no internet connection and it holds my entire collection and then some. I don't even like Apple laptops or phones, but that thing is a work of art. Edit: The best part is I can service it. You could buy almost an entire iPod worth of replacement parts on eBay.
iancmceachern 4y ago
Not only the epitome of design, but the pinnacle of Mechanical sound playing objects. After this it's all flash memory and lcd screens.

mgh2 4y ago

Is design supposed to be transient to catch up with the times? Like fashion, the discipline is bound to change over time; fresh new thinkers are always needed to continually keep pace with innovation.

hulitu 4y ago
> Is design supposed to be transient to catch up with the times? The only thing design catches up is money saving. Computer cases from the 90 look infinitely better than the present day ones. Damn, even IBM ones look like someone "worked" on them. Today you will see cheap copies of the same thing with an axe applied here and there for variation. The same with other stuff (TV, monitors, keyboard, mouses). And cars.
- eugene-agyeman 4y ago
  To you. They look infinitely better to you.

bmitc 4y ago

I can’t find the article right now, but I believe Ive hasn’t really been present, in the figurative and also literal sense, at Apple for over half a decade. There was a really good piece regarding this that I read probably at least a couple of years ago, where Ive basically retreated to his home, “running” things from there, and would require presentations to be done close to his home, where he would barely contribute feedback. I think he and Cook don’t get along. Ive is honestly a bit full of himself in a non-introspective way. I believe he wanted the Apple Watch to be a pure luxury object, and not just a smart watch. I’m not really sure I ever got the love for his designs. They are boring, cold, and often designed at the cost of functionality. I’m not sure how one gets to be so famous and rich struggling at both form and function. And with Cook being a logistics person, without a personality to be found, I’m sure their meetings were probably pretty awkward.

kitsunesoba 4y ago
Ive’s designs definitely changed over time. His history at Apple actually predates the return of Jobs, and he was responsible for much more expressive designs like that of the Twentieth Anniversary Mac, the Newton eMate, the PowerMac G3 AIO, and perhaps most famously the various generations of CRT iMac. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that he started leaning harder into the straight lines and cold metal.
iancmceachern 4y ago
I think most of his designs are pretty shameless knockoffs of Dieter Rams stuff, he does the same simple form thing that Rams pioneered.

Nextgrid 4y ago

> utilitarian I wouldn't say so. My feeling with Apple software in the past ~5 years or so is that it's been a slow devolution into "growth & engagement" and catering to idiots (and nudging them to do counter-productive things) rather than true utility. True utility would be to do a task, do it well, and don't change all the time. Instead, Apple has been devolving more and more into what you'd expect from a typical "growth & engagement" startup, with for example the Music apps on Mac and iOS being only a shadow of their past selves (despite iTunes having real problems). Design-wise, countless features have been replaced by copious amounts of whitespace and the trend shows no signs of stopping. Say what you want about skeuomorphism, but I'll take anything over absolutely nothing.

function_seven 4y ago
Smart Playlists! Back in the iTunes days, I had a smart playlist that consisted of songs that I last listened to between 6 and 7 months ago. Kind of a reminder of music that I liked, but maybe forgot about. I had several different playlists that were all dynamic and based on some combination of my listening history, download date, release date, and/or other ID3 tags. The new Music app is stupid when it comes to playlists. You have to manually create each one.
pxmpxm 4y ago
This - the nag screen to sign up iCloud when attaching photos in iMessage is prime example of this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250951130?answerId=251893660022#251893660022 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250951130?answerId=2518...
- hulitu 4y ago
  This is for your security. You shall upload all your pictures on iCloud so they can scan them for CP. (and maybe sell some metadata or even data to ad companies) /s
zamalek 4y ago
> catering to idiots Lots of UI improvements, still no container/jail support in the kernel. It has never been more a lifestyle statement, and less a useful operating system.

paxys 4y ago

Apple devices are the opposite of utilitarian. Utility is routinely sacrificed for the purpose of shaving off 1mm to tout in marketing material.

phyrex 4y ago
That’s not true anymore in the recent iterations