Yes you are kidding if you claim that Steve didn't have the final say, to me the fistt and final say on the first iPad design.
Nobody's perfect, and dtw skeumorphism in itself isn't a bad thing, the lines are very thin between what poor, good, and great design is. ICal and contacts on the mac are indeed **** in design, and that's a as close to matter of fact and not opinion as anything in design can get. You seem intelligent enough for me to not have to repeat once more why. Particularly so contacts, with iCal not being better but not so apparently bad. Those two amongst other things in lion and of course the new atv ui show a lack of judgement by someone at the very top, makes sense if someone at the very top is Forestahl or Creg fedreighi.
Kids here and apple cultists may downvote my posts as much as they want, but shooting the messenger doesnt amount to anything at the end of the day. iCal, contacts, and atv will still look like ****, are **** in usability, and ill suited to the particular device they are meant for (mac and atv) for pandering to an iOS rubbish skeomorphism.
The irony is that the cream of the crop of iPad apps use very sparse skeumorphism elements to none at all. It's highly ironic that a company who prides themselves on aesthetics should not only not be in the forefront of design in their own device the iPad, but should also borrow said (at best) passable iPad interfaces and force fit them in devices such as macs and the atv where they don't make sense, because it doesn't make sense to have a 12 by 7 cm contacts book on the mac, period.
People can say as much as they want about talent at apple, but these certainly don't show any talent at all. And I didn't switch way back when to have to switch back to ms products such as outlook say and think, hmmm, the way apple counterparts are they are not half bad.
