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toblix

Apple Event September 12th

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While looking up what 'skeuomorphism' means, I stumbled upon an comment discussing divergent design philosophies at Apple. Here is a quote.

1. Serious design does not necessarily sell well. That's why it needs to be expensive to even exist.

2. What sells is sentimentalism, nostalgia, solemnity—what sells is kitsch. That's why kitsch can be so cheap. Because it sells so well.

That is true for any kind of design. And this is why iCal has this fucking leather surfac that makes any user interface designer puke wet feverish dogs.

hihi, wet feverish dogs

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Commerce is horrible, and so often works against good design. I think it was P.T. Barnum who said something like "You don't go fishing with your favourite food on the end of the line, you use a worm", basically meaning: Research your audience and give them what they want.

That Reichenstein comment reminds me of clothing design. Many people put loads of effort into making, printing and selling beautiful designs on, for instance, t-shirts, but are massively outsold by so much automated shit, thrown so hard that some of it sticks (Really interesting article at that link). Likewise, people craft amazingly designed ebooks, but apparently* something thrown together from wikipedia pages, poorly typeset and mashed up with some terrible ripped off images can give a much better return just shat out and sold on commission (there seem to be bots on Amazon that do this). People have terrible taste, and often don't make well reasoned decisions when buying.

I understand why it doesn't exist for plain reasons of budget, but I really wish there could be a skeuomorphism checkbox in OS settings. Skeuomorphs by default with a switch for the rest of us would keep everyone happy.

I didn't realise Apple maps was so terrible. I use Google maps a lot; now the phones aren't catastrophically underspecced it's making me glad I switched to Android.

* When researching it, one piece of advice I found was "Doesn't matter if digital products are terrible. They have a high margin, and most people can't be bothered to claim a refund, so you can suck up your refund rate, pay commission to sellers, and still rake in money". I don't think it's quite that simple, in fact that kind of ebook selling seems to be a scammy minefield filled with dead get-rich-quick wankers who tried to con each other, but: :( :( :(. I never tried it, because running a business like that would make me want to kill myself. If I do finish the reference book I once started writing, it'll be one of the good ones that doesn't sell amazingly, but I'll sleep at night. Low end ebooks are like the backdrop to a Coen brothers film or something.

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A thing that always strikes me as weird with Apple's presentation is the wildly varying amount of attention the various changes and new features are given, often completely unrelated to its actual importance. This latest one wasn't the best example, maybe, but they'll spend half as much time describing their new microprocessor as they do the ability to drag an email recipient from the CC field to the TO field or create a lame fake movie trailer in iMovie (and the crowd goes wild). They won't mention at all that they moved the headphone jack on the new iPhone to the other side of the phone, but they'll mention more than once that the iTunes 90 second song preview will continue to play even if you navigate away from the album page.

Also, the little movies they keep showing of new stores opening makes me want to puke all over everyone. Basically, I have extremely conflicting opinions of Apple.

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I'm actually a real fan of the skeblubobub design on the iPhone. Since switching to Android one of the things I miss is how clean, clinical, boring, and essentially the same every app looks. At first it wasn't so bad as Android's minimalist design is good, but now I've been using it for some time I'm just finding I get less of an indescribable feeling of satisfaction when interacting with the apps.

I can see how it might get out of control, for example I've heard some pretty bad things about how stuff like the Calendar app is handled on the iPad. But my iPhone 4 had a pretty much perfect blend of function and aesthetic extravagence, with things like its Calendar app and phone view being nice and clean while the simpler applications like the calculator, notepad, to-do list, etc had a more fancy approach.

I think where this kind of approach to design falls apart is when you try to accomplish too much functionality within the constraints of a design trying to emulate the feel of its physical counterpart. You have to know where the cut-off point is and take the design in a more abstract direction, which is something I guess Apple's designers are starting to lose sight of due to conflicting leadership.

Whatever the case, I do think it's a good thing. I was genuinely tickled when I first got my iPhone and saw the level of detail put into these apps' aesthetics, without compromising the usability at all — even improving it in some cases due to the familiarity. It just has to be done right.

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Yeah, I don't think anyone is saying skeuomorphism is intrinsically a bad thing – at least I don't think it is. It can definitely be useful both aesthetically and usabilitilityably. The problem is knowing when to back off and say «enough is enough.» To me, it seems Apple is not doing that at all, to the detriment of a lot of their latest software.

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Yeah, I don't think anyone is saying skeuomorphism is intrinsically a bad thing – at least I don't think it is. It can definitely be useful both aesthetically and usabilitilityably. The problem is knowing when to back off and say «enough is enough.» To me, it seems Apple is not doing that at all, to the detriment of a lot of their latest software.

Have you seen the Podcast application? It has almost no new functionality compared to the podcasts tab of the Music application, but puts it over a picture of a reel-to-reel tape player. It's a nightmare.

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Have you seen the Podcast application? It has almost no new functionality compared to the podcasts tab of the Music application, but puts it over a picture of a reel-to-reel tape player. It's a nightmare.

I tried using it for too long before converting to Downcast. It was the thing that made me realise how crazy many of Apple's UI decisions are. I heard a lot about the calendar stuff, but didn't notice it since I never use the calendar app. Actually having to use the unfinished, unstable, user-hostile garbage that is the iOS Podcasts app really made it sink in.

On a more general note, I think the amount of great stuff Apple has done in the area of mobile phones has made people blind to the less brilliant stuff they're doing, and almost immune to criticism among too many people. Having used their phones for three years now, I've often been amazed at how their products are often lauded as almost perfect in every way despite glaring bugs or design stupidity, like the two full years everyone was forced to use their ugly, terrible notification system, and how the Settings app has these weird, inconsistent parts of application-specific settings in it, or how the current audio player just loses its state at times, or how the phone was physically shackled to iTunes for too long.

I'm not totally convinced by the reel-to-reel thing, but it adds plenty of new features. The question remains: How do you listen to Audiobooks in iOS6...

What new features did they add? I only remember it being worse at everything.

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What new features did they add? I only remember it being worse at everything.

They added the ability to actually download a podcast, which you could only do before by either plugging your iDevice into your computer or by going to the Music store application and searching for the show.

As far as playback goes, they changed their "back 30 seconds" button to "back 10 seconds" and added a "forward 30 seconds" button. They also added an auto-shutoff timer, for people who listen to podcasts as they fall asleep?

None of this is compelling to me and every returning feature is either unimproved or worse. For example, it will autoplay episodes of the same podcast in reverse chronological order, so if you want to listen to multiple Idle Thumbs episodes you listen to episode 74, then 73, then 72 by default. This is aggravating for podcasts that are "tune in next week for part 2" and it is the opposite of behavior in the Music application.

And instead of "2x speed" or "1/2 speed", your options are now "hare" or "tortoise".

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None of this is compelling to me and every returning feature is either unimproved or worse. For example, it will autoplay episodes of the same podcast in reverse chronological order, so if you want to listen to multiple Idle Thumbs episodes you listen to episode 74, then 73, then 72 by default. This is aggravating for podcasts that are "tune in next week for part 2" and it is the opposite of behavior in the Music application.

While this change doesn't bother me specifically, it does highlight one of the things I don't like about Apple's design philosophy. While my first instinct here is just to say "why didn't they simply add an option to let the user decide which of these behaviours they prefer?" I am immediately aware that this would entirely go against Apple's tendencies. The designers very much do not like adding options in any place they do not absolutely have to, and in general just try to guess what most of their users will want and go for that without the possibility of change. I sort of understand this tendency, and when their guesses and my desires line up it does make everything very clean and simple... but when they don't it just kind of leaves me in the lurch, doesn't it?

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Alright, local Apple nerd must chime in now.

On the iPhone 5: *love* the new look. Think it works better in black than it does white. Would be *perfect* if it wasn't for the bits of glass on the back. The 4" screen ... I dunno, really need to try it before passing judgement. I'm worried about the one-handability of it. Still, largely a thumbs up.

I've heard "disappointed", "boring", "predictable" a few places. ​I dunno, they upgraded everything.

The phone being leaked was probably a factor in that (totally a shame too, it's fun being surprised every year). But the other factor is this is just how Apple rolls. They don't change things for the sake of change. I get the feeling the industrial design of the iPhone is here to stay for a while. Similar to the MacBooks (and iPods, to an extent) they've found something that works, so now they iterate. Seigler wrote a pretty well though out article on this.

On the Lightning connector: it can be connected either way. This is The Best Thing.

On a smaller iPhone: Erkki mentioned this, and I think it might happen. The idea behind the iPhone has always been that "the screen is the interface" so give it as much room as possible. I don't think the screen would get any smaller, but the area around it could. The screen could run edge-to-edge, top area could shrink, etc.

On the new Maps app: Thunderpeel mentioned this, and yeah, I've heard similar. (I'm too lazy to install beta iOS builds these days) This is the part of the Apple Master Plan that could falter IMO. Historically, their online services have been weak, and sure, it's getting better, but I'm not sure how they top Google. It's no coincidence that this excellent article on Google Maps ran after so many years of general secrecy. The money quote:

I came away convinced that the geographic data Google has assembled is not likely to be matched by any other company. The secret to this success isn't, as you might expect, Google's facility with data, but rather its willingness to commit humans to combining and cleaning data about the physical world. Google's map offerings build in the human intelligence on the front end, and that's what allows its computers to tell you the best route from San Francisco to Boston.

It's such a shame too, because Google and Apple are the perfect couple. Like the Steves that founded Apple, one has this insane technical know-how, and the other knows exactly how to package it up into a winning product.

On skuemorphism: wot Thrik said, basically. Get rid of it entirely and things get really boring. Windows Phone is even worse than Android in this regard. Largely, the iPhone 4 apps get it right (Reminders looks a bit gross IMO, but usability-wise it works).

iPad's Calendar app is terrible though, and actually has the opposite of the problem Thrik describes. Going between months (by tapping next/previous) triggers a page turn animation, but swiping between pages doesn't actually work. The design (and feedback) are telling you one thing, but the functionality says otherwise. Similarly, iBooks acts like a book open on a desk, but the number of pages on either side never changes. Your current page is always the center of the book.

Passbook is not so bad though. From what I've seen, it's essentially a skinned list view. Sure the SHREDDOR might be a bit over-the-top, but it's a nice touch for a non-frequent operation (similar to the paper-crumple of trashing an email).

It's something I really hope Apple figure out though. They moved away from pin-stripped windows in OS X, so there's hope yet!

And finally,

On OMG HOW FREAKING COOL IS the iPod nano!?!?!?!: Seriously, I want one, but have no way to justify purchasing one. I'm dying for someone to jailbreak the sucker so I can write games for it.

(oh man, wall-o-text. sorry guys, i've been on "vacation" back home helping my family move house, and there's no one to talk tech with, and had to get that all out)

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Yeah the new iPod Nano looks absolutely superb if you're after a dedicated workhouse music player (which many people still are for many reasons). It does feel like Apple can't make its mind up regarding what to do with the iPod brand because the Nano in itself has gone from kind of big to really small, and now bigger again. Then you've got the iPod which is actually a PDA, minature tablet, or whatever the fuck you describe an iPhone without a phone as.

I think they really need to start simplifying their brands and removing the clutter. Hopefully this pretty much perfect Nano is a step towards that.

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The lightning connector stinks. Mini USB would have been better for everyone that wasn't Apple. It's just an excuse to charge exorbitant amounts of money for a cable.

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