Original Apple 'i-Brand' Creator Says Naming Convention 'on its Last Legs'

[Rogifan]

It's not, its just that is very confusing the way it is laid out for the user. The focus is content discovery, a tiny shade away from advertising, instead of a user centric focus.

In principle it is simple...most people have their own music. Those people then subscribe to Apple Music. You now technically have access to all the music on the iTunes Store, and all of you music you previously own. But they make it so difficult for you to "acquire" that music.

I'd prefer it if the implementation were simply ALL music in one traditional looking library. There can be 1 dynamic tab for New/Recommended stuff for the discovery aspect, but the rest should be traditional music library tabs with all content in there. It would be massive, yes, but at least understandable.

So the focus of a streaming music service shouldn't be discovery?

 

[Iconoclysm]

Confuses you? HDDs are slooooooow. It really is that simple. New ones are faster than old ones, but in comparison to other options now available, no cache or multi-platter can compete.

There's no justification for Apple running bare boned HDDs in any Mac in 2016.

However, throwing around 5400 RPM like it would matter if it was 7200 RPM or more...it's nonsense. Don't ever say there's no justification just because you don't know it.

 

[SusanK]

I have been using Macs and Apple products since 1989. Macs used to be super-intuitive with easy to understand menus and options. Unfortunately I have seen a move away from simple user-friendly GUIs to elegant but confusing GUIs where functionality is hidden or available only if you "know the trick". While it may make for sleek looking GUIs, hiding functionality is getting more and more confusing to a lot of us older Mac users.

Here is an idea...why not hire some midwest folks over 60 to test your GUIs. They would come fairly cheap and would point out where the GUIs could be made more intuitive. Using 20 and 30 year old tech gurus to evaluate user friendliness is not advisable as to them everything is intuitive. Like the IT person who snickers when you say "I don't know how to....".

Like you I remember the elegantly intuitive products. I'm available to be a seasoned tester. No compensation necessary.

 

[JGIGS]

I'm using Google Music so I honestly don't know. Is Apple Music noticeably hard to learn how to use?

Ah well I feel Apple Music gets unfairly beat up on. Could the iOS app be cleaner and more simple? Yes. Can it have issues syncing smart playlist downloads from iTunes to an iOS device? Yes. However it's' the only subscription service the that I know that has smart playlist ability which is big to me. Also google music only lets you make playlists of up to 1000 songs. That's why I switched from google music to apple music.

And I'm someone who has been very critical of the current state of Apple but actually kind of like apple music. Even when I most likely go back to an Android phone in the future I'll probably stick with AM as my music subscription service.

 

[Santabean2000]

However, throwing around 5400 RPM like it would matter if it was 7200 RPM or more...it's nonsense. Don't ever say there's no justification just because you don't know it.

I'm not even sure what you're saying. It almost sounds like a threat?

http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage/ssd-prices-free-fall/1147938888
"With parity achieved in capacity and price, one has to ask whether HDDs will still be needed. SSDs are blindingly fast in comparison. Typically, large consumer SSDs are 5x the streaming performance and 5000x the random read/write rate. With low operating power and very low standby power, SSDs are ideal for large archives, too"

"Additionally, wear-out isn’t an issue with SSDs. Those two node uplifts in the manufacturing process add literally years to the device life, and the economics of 3D NAND allow for extra over-provisioning, making the write life of the drive well beyond its time in a data centre."

Apple is only persevering with HDDs with the goal of 'strongly encouraging' users to upgrade - at significant cost - to get a performance level that reflects 2016.

For a company that rakes in billions of dollars every quarter, it's just nickel-and-diming at its worst, whilst all the time eroding the user experience for which Apple was once known for.

To get back to the topic of 'i' naming, I really think all this other stuff is just showing how confused Apple is becoming. Some clear self-reflection on the core values of the company would not go amiss.

Tim, or replacement, needs to think about the simplicity that guided the company to get them where they are.

 

[tentales]

I'm wondering that very well, increasingly complex product line up, User Interfaces that are no longer as intuitive as they used to be.

Interesting read, but by the same token, Apple is evolving and sometimes that evolution is different then what some people want.

That was true when Apple had someone at the top that gave people something they didn't know they couldn't live without.
Evolution implies quality selection and improvements, not amassing countless product variants for consumers to select.
That's for the likes of Lenovo & co to do

The i-different is now indifferent.

 

[Mactendo]

i... is overused. It has to stop.

Nope.

 

[Juicy Box]

This moaning over 5400 RPM HDD's confuses me. You're aware of the speed of an HDD but are you also aware of its cache and how multi-platter drives access data more efficiently? I have a 4 cylinder 7 passenger SUV that does zero to 60 in 5.4 seconds, there's just a lot more to it.

Yikes, some car analogies just do not work. I doubt that car is NA.

I think most people understand that HDD RPM alone doesn't mean fast or slow. But, with all else being equal, the slower the RPM, the slower the performance.

I think that is what people are complaining about, but one positive attribute of a slower RPM, again with everything else being equal, is that higher RPMs, equal higher heat/energy.

Personally, I would prefer performance over less heat and energy, if the computer could handle the heat.

 

[anubis72]

Its going away, but it would be foolish for Apple to abandon the name iPhone, given its brand recognition.

I'm fine with the "iPhone," really. OK, maybe not but I get it.

Additionally, I like how Segall pointed out that the S version of the iPhone was under Steve's watch. I think they should have simplified that scheme years ago

I don't know that I understand what the fuss is about with "simplifying" this. Are you suggesting they call the iPhone 6S an iPhone 7, etc? I can understand that logic as well, but you know how tech people are about their dot releases? Yeah...

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Interesting.
The failure (or refusal) to simplify is my main beef with Apple at this point as well. ...which is relatively absurd, when you think of how much they ARE simplifying, trying to keep up with a veritable deluge of new features and technologies flooding in every day, choosing some, combining some, uniting, and reducing them to a minimal, essential implementation. It's a ton of simplification. But thats why it's so odd that they go through all that constantly, and then consistently put out iOS & iTunes UI's that look increasingly more and more cluttered, disconnected, cryptic, scattered, hidden, and unintuitive in general. I get it, there are loads of new features constantly being shoehorned into existing ux models as least disruptively as possible, but the front end is not keeping up with the back end, and it's getting ugly.

Nostalgia for the clean, efficient, straightforward slick utility of the original iPhone with 1.1.4 is formidable.

 

[arefbe]

"Ken Segall worked with Steve Jobs as his ad agency creative director for 12 years. In that time he led the team behind Apple's famous 'Think Different' campaign, and helped Apple create its 'i-brand' with the naming of the iMac, therefore Segall's overall evaluation of how the company has evolved since Jobs' death is likely to be a point of interest to many."


Or not.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

I miss the iCEO.

I miss Steve, too.