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I wonder if you get told in advance who will be performing the actual knighting? Let's face it, most people won't get the chance to get honoured twice (or even once) so it must be a little bit of a bummer if you don't get Her Majesty herself doing the duty on your day!
 
According to the BBC: 'The Queen is meeting hundreds of leading cultural figures at one of the most glittering gatherings of actors, writers and artists the UK has seen.'
Oh and guess what? 'Apple designer Sir Jonathan Ive was invited, just hours after receiving his knighthood.' Guess he will meet the Queen after all.

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Ive said it before and...

Well of course. Why would he say anything else? You reckon he'd say "My best work was the iMac G4 released in 2002, everything since then has been ****?"

Though I would consider the iMac G4 to be his best work :D

I concur with your opinion of the iMac flat panel. I recently decided to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Jony's wonderful G4 iMac by buying the most recent iMac and packing away my 15" G4 for posterity. At some point I may have to take it out just to admire its unique form. And the thing has never had a single problem, unlike all my iBooks and MBPs.
 
All kidding aside, I greatly admire this man, he was good friends with Steve, each had a great deal of respect for each other,we're very good friends.
All his talk throughs after each product release, always peaked my interest, he clearly LOVES what he is doing, as much as his love for His home England.
He'll retire early, and go home, very rich, very well respected.
Mr "Sir" Jonathan Ive has a few :apple: years in him yet, God bless, God Speed:apple:

so for an s you broke my package???:confused::rolleyes::cool:
 
I concur with your opinion of the iMac flat panel. I recently decided to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Jony's wonderful G4 iMac by buying the most recent iMac and packing away my 15" G4 for posterity. At some point I may have to take it out just to admire its unique form. And the thing has never had a single problem, unlike all my iBooks and MBPs.

Yes, a very original design, and very practical too in terms of adjusting screen height for kids… but gosh, I seem to remember having all sorts of problems with that model. From memory, one had a major failure where it wouldn't startup, and more than one of them had optical drive failures.
 
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/0...an-ive-winced-over-some-apple-design-choices/

Glad to see we're not the only ones that are wondering what Apple is doing with iCal and Addressbook.

From the article linked to above:

"Don't like the stitched leather UI on a number of Apple's iOS and Lion applications, like Find My Friends, Maps, and iCal? "

I could not agree more.

If I wanted and 1950's style old school messy paper desk calendar, with tear off pages, as depicted in iCal... I wouldn't be using a brand new MBP.

The new "look" of iCal is but one example of some of Apples very disappointing choices in software "look & feel".

Whoever designed this disgusting looking stuff should be sent off to the Hallmark Greeting Card Company...

Agreed. I actually find *that* part of the interview the most interesting.

Really hope Apple realizes that "stitches," "torn paper," "leather," etc. needs to go away. Fast.

w00master

It is this year's brushed metal. *shudder*

I agree. We all talk about the wonderful design coming out of Apple, but I think there is often a very real tension between the approach of Ive and co—of elegant, minimalist design, where less is usually more—and the tendency for the GUI designers to want to tack on superfluous eye-candy, like faux brushed metal, leather stitching, etc, etc. Nice to have some confirmation of this tension from Ive himself (albeit via an off-the-record 'wince')! As a designer, I can imagine how that must irk him sometimes, because the final product is an inseparable combination of the two—hardware and software.

I honestly think some of the most attractive GUI design in recent years has been coming from the Windows Phone team… and believe me, I never thought I would ever say that about Microsoft! They've been forced to come out with something different by finding themselves at the back of the pack for once.

I'd love to see Apple at some point lose the fascination with faux surface textures and real-world UI imitations, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future. Does Apple have a GUI design head, the software equivalent of Jonathan Ive? If they do, I guess he keeps a much lower profile.
 
I'd love to see Apple at some point lose the fascination with faux surface textures and real-world UI imitations, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future. Does Apple have a GUI design head, the software equivalent of Jonathan Ive? If they do, I guess he keeps a much lower profile.
Scott Forstall? But Jobs obviously approved. And look at some of the slides for keynotes. faux wood grain on bar charts, 3D pie charts, etc. Most visual design experts that work with charts for dashboards/scorecarding frown on anything 3D as it adds nothing to the information you're trying to convey (and most often taxes up extra space), and also frown on the use of pie charts in general.

I'd love to see a brand new iOS UI released at WWDC but I'm not getting my hopes up.
 
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...and more than one of them had optical drive failures.

It's funny that Apple users report optical drive failures at such a high rate - and cite "optical drive failures" as a reason to eliminate optical drives.

Perhaps a better solution would be to push Apple to buy higher quality optical drives....
 
It's funny that Apple users report optical drive failures at such a high rate - and cite "optical drive failures" as a reason to eliminate optical drives.

Perhaps a better solution would be to push Apple to buy higher quality optical drives....

The extra $2 would kill their bottom line.
 
Sir Makes a lot.
Or Sir Ive GotAnIdea.

----------

It's funny that Apple users report optical drive failures at such a high rate - and cite "optical drive failures" as a reason to eliminate optical drives.

Perhaps a better solution would be to push Apple to buy higher quality optical drives....
You know full well that this is hardly a representative sample, any more than the 100% failure rate of the optical drives in every Windows machine I have ever owned (grand total of 2) and 0% failure rate in every Mac I have owned (now about 10, although one admittedly had a failed HDD). Every manufacturer buys optical drives from the same pool of suppliers, and being mechanical parts, they fail more frequently than most other computer components, regardless of brand.

----------

The extra $2 would kill their bottom line.
Yes, it might cost the bottom line as much as a set of blueprints for the mothership/Apple Campus II.
 
It's funny that Apple users report optical drive failures at such a high rate - and cite "optical drive failures" as a reason to eliminate optical drives.

Perhaps a better solution would be to push Apple to buy higher quality optical drives....

I don't remember hearing that as a common argument. It's not without some merit though… The more stuff you pack into a single enclosure (especially stuff with moving mechanical parts) the greater the chance of something breaking down… and when it does, you're potentially without your whole machine while it gets repaired.

For what it's worth, I was one of the people arguing for Blu-ray while Apple was thinking about ditching optical drives altogether. I just thought it was premature. But on rethinking things a bit, I observed that the optical drive in my MBP sits unused 99% of the time. That being the case, why not have an external drive that you plug into your machines when needed? So it's one of those things I revised my opinion on.
 
Scott Forstall? But Jobs obviously approved. And look at some of the slides for keynotes. faux wood grain on bar charts, 3D pie charts, etc. Most visual design experts that work with charts for dashboards/scorecarding frown on anything 3D as it adds nothing to the information you're trying to convey (and most often taxes up extra space), and also frown on the use of pie charts in general.

Most frown on the use of pie charts? I'd not heard that… I'm a designer and I love a good tasty pie chart! But I'll agree with you about the wood grain, etc.

For a bit of a 3D-pie-chart related laugh, see here… (Offensive language warning.)

I'd love to see a brand new iOS UI released at WWDC but I'm not getting my hopes up.

They've only just applied all the leather work to the Mac OS, so yeah… I don't expect we'll see a 180 degree turnaround any time soon.
 
Most frown on the use of pie charts? I'd not heard that… I'm a designer and I love a good tasty pie chart! But I'll agree with you about the wood grain, etc.

For a bit of a 3D-pie-chart related laugh, see here… (Offensive language warning.)



They've only just applied all the leather work to the Mac OS, so yeah… I don't expect we'll see a 180 degree turnaround any time soon.
Thanks for the laugh. :). As far as pie charts, I was doing some research on effective dashboards and scorecards for business and a lot of the material I read frowned upon pie charts, that there are better ways to visually represent something.
 
Every manufacturer buys optical drives from the same pool of suppliers, and being mechanical parts, they fail more frequently than most other computer components, regardless of brand.

...but only one manufacturer almost exclusively uses the more complicated slot-loading drives.
 
I hope what he means is a totally redesigned iMac. :rolleyes:

I also hope the new iMac will still have optical drive because I'll need it (not just 1% of the time) and I prefer not to have an extra external hardware and cable cluttering my desk.
 
I agree. We all talk about the wonderful design coming out of Apple, but I think there is often a very real tension between the approach of Ive and co—of elegant, minimalist design, where less is usually more—and the tendency for the GUI designers to want to tack on superfluous eye-candy, like faux brushed metal, leather stitching, etc, etc. Nice to have some confirmation of this tension from Ive himself (albeit via an off-the-record 'wince')! As a designer, I can imagine how that must irk him sometimes, because the final product is an inseparable combination of the two—hardware and software.

I honestly think some of the most attractive GUI design in recent years has been coming from the Windows Phone team… and believe me, I never thought I would ever say that about Microsoft! They've been forced to come out with something different by finding themselves at the back of the pack for once.

I'd love to see Apple at some point lose the fascination with faux surface textures and real-world UI imitations, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future. Does Apple have a GUI design head, the software equivalent of Jonathan Ive? If they do, I guess he keeps a much lower profile.

The problem I have with Windows Phone team is that they have the same sort of problem in reverse. Okay, Apple level skeuomorphism with iCal and Addressbook is bad because it ends up hurting your ability to use the apps especially in OS X (and looks garish). But, elements like the iBook page turn is nice and gives you a more natural indication of the page turn than the page sliding in and out of view. Basically, we're more trained to think you get more content by turning a page than moving a window to the right (or the content in a window to the left). Essentially, the GUI elements should do a job. Just because you can completely misuse skeumorphism doesn't mean you should declare all out war on it like Metro (although it is nice they're getting rid of that Aero glass thing in Windows 8).

PS: I think Instapaper toes the line well where it includes the page turn but doesn't include the tired bookshelf metaphor and instead uses blocks when browsing your library.
 
I don't remember hearing that as a common argument. It's not without some merit though… The more stuff you pack into a single enclosure (especially stuff with moving mechanical parts) the greater the chance of something breaking down… and when it does, you're potentially without your whole machine while it gets repaired.

For what it's worth, I was one of the people arguing for Blu-ray while Apple was thinking about ditching optical drives altogether. I just thought it was premature. But on rethinking things a bit, I observed that the optical drive in my MBP sits unused 99% of the time. That being the case, why not have an external drive that you plug into your machines when needed? So it's one of those things I revised my opinion on.

The optical drives go un-used in my iMac and MBP.

Looks like Blu-ray was a "bag of hurt" even for Sony. LOL!

Sony's Blues Caused By Blu-ray
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenpope/2012/04/12/sonys-blues-caused-by-blu-ray/2/

"Too self-satisfied by Blu-ray when it will be quickly surpassed."

Even the copy cat kings over at Ballmer & Co are ditching optical drives in the Xbox 720.

Next Xbox to lose the disc drive, says MCV
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/9/2856697/next-xbox-no-disc-drive-rumor

Physical media is like the floppy now. When I travel by plane for work, iPads and MBAs are ubiquitous throughout the cabin with people watching a movie. A much different scene from two years ago. My BD player has not been used in months and I am contemplating dropping my disc subscription from Netflix. Much easier to watch what you want instantly than waiting for a disc to arrive by mail (Or even worse, receiving a scratched/broken disc which has happened more often than I would prefer. At least I don't have to worry about scratched/broken discs with streaming). ;)

Netflix streaming users now outnumber DVD subscribers 2:1
http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-streaming-vs-dvds/
 
The problem I have with Windows Phone team is that they have the same sort of problem in reverse. Okay, Apple level skeuomorphism with iCal and Addressbook is bad because it ends up hurting your ability to use the apps especially in OS X (and looks garish). But, elements like the iBook page turn is nice and gives you a more natural indication of the page turn than the page sliding in and out of view. Basically, we're more trained to think you get more content by turning a page than moving a window to the right (or the content in a window to the left). Essentially, the GUI elements should do a job. Just because you can completely misuse skeumorphism doesn't mean you should declare all out war on it like Metro

Fair comment. Often it makes sense to use real-world visual clues, because that's the world we're all familiar with. Let's not forget the original desktop metaphor of course—despite some premature predictions of its death, we're all still using it 30 years later. That's proven to be a pretty useful one!!

I agree, finding the right balance is the trick. But if ever I had to decide between a simple interface that users understand and does the job well, and an ornamental one that adds nothing to usability, I'd tend to go for the simple one each time. Not so with Apple unfortunately. Like I said, they take the minimalist approach with their hardware design, but they can't seem to make up their mind when it comes to software. We have some moves to reduce visual clutter, like removing persistent scrollbars—and yet, with the very same OS release we have this faux leather look creeping in. Look, I can live with it, but it's not the way I'd be doing it if I was designing the GUI.

… although it is nice they're getting rid of that Aero glass thing in Windows 8

Oh… agreed. Aero looks like it has been cobbled together by the discarded parts of half-a-dozen other operating systems, and then tweaked by a committee of suits while the designer was on her lunch break. (And you know, that's possibly not too far from the truth!!) It's hard to fathom how that and the Windows Phone 7 UI could have possibly come from the same company.
 
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