I feel like some of these updates aren't for us.
krel said:
I don't get why everyone's so upset about these widgets. How would you prefer they were designed? ... They need to be so colorful and distinct so that they can be utilized effectively.
I think this is Apple's take on how tacky windows is. The ripple effect and the stickies flip are sort of "windows-ey" notions.. didn't Longhorn have stuff hiding on the back of their 3d-windows? But Apple makes it a lot more clean and autere looking.
But one of the things keeping apple's market share as low as it is, is their impeccible taste. In all things. Don't forget, fine bordeaux isn't the most popular drink in America. And it's not just because beer's cheaper. It's becase Budweiser takes no development of your palette to "enjoy".
So apple has released some software which is just incredibly tasteful, and well thought out, and gorgeous. It's not hard to see the design philosophy in the case of the PowermacG5 show itself in the interface of Motion. Motion probably has the most advanced, well developed interface going.
But things like Motion aren't going to bring in the Wal-Mart crowd. It's austerity is actually alienating.
But these gaudy, huge widgets might. Apple will never stoop to the HP technique of covering their hardware in hideous colorful stickers. But the fact is, that type of thing attracts a certain crowd.
that low end market aren't power users. when they're looking at a computer, even aat the apple store, they aren't going to dig through an applications folder and load up iMovie and edit a movie and say "hey this is in the long run easier than windows."
but what they might do is see the dashboard, goo-goo-gah-gah over the bright colors and shiny buttons, see how easy it is to
get at the information they use the most, and hopefully assume the whole computer is that easy to use.
Most people don't do that much on their computer. they probably just use safari, -maybe- word but probably apple works, and maybe ichat. And that's about it. And these widgets, which are actually probably the most time saving, handy, useful things that relate to our life outside of the computer.
Wasn't the computer supposed to be a time-saving device?
Apple shouldn't make a PDA, fine. But how awesome would it be to have a hand-held Sherlock unit that could run these dashboards? It'd do probably about 90% of what I actually want out of a computer. Screw organization. I always forget to put things in a datebook, and forget to check them, but I never have to remind myself to wonder about the weather, or movie times, or the definition of a word, or a google search - these are things which could have a very real and huge impact on our daily life, the things we actually love technology to do.
Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part but I think that might be Apple's best chance with a low-end, convergence device. Cripple the hell out of it. But give me these dashboards, give me sherlock channels, and I think I'm pretty happy.
