"WinTel PC efficiently generated billions of dollars in revenue that was funneled right back into development at Intel and Microsoft. Between 1995 and 2005, WinTel did little more than plug up the pipes of technology, holding everyone back while collecting incredible revenues but delivering only the most minor dribble of updates."
You see similarities between this and Apple with iOS?
If you equate the PC in 1995 to the iPod in 2001:
in five years Microsoft delivered a PC running Office faster and playing more, nicer games and running Win2000
in ten years Microsoft delivered a PC running Office faster and playing more, nicer games and running a beta of Longhorn
in five years, Apple had delivered a series of iPods, now playing video, podcasts and games - a vast improvement upon the simple G1 iPod
in ten years, Apple had delivered iPhone 4S with Safari, Siri and Retina Display and iPad 2, ushering in the multitouch smartphone, tablet and App Stores
That's an incredible difference in the pace of innovation
They've done pretty much everything else but do that. They've skinned it to death and barely mention Android in their product launches.
I fully expect the Galaxy S5 to run the "GalaxyOS". Either a forked version of Android or Tizen that is compatible with Android apps but runs its own Samsung Galaxy Store apps too.
I've always been told that a 'expert' is only a person that's done something before you and seeing as how none of these 'experts' have actually had a hand in developing a OS I never give much weight to their opinions.
Exactly, hence the sarcastic quotation marks. That Tumblr account someone posted was as annoying as can be.
I detest wannabe artsy critic types. What's the saying? Those who can't, teach. Those who can't do that, critique. Ugh.
I very much appreciate the layered approach of iOS 7, the layered approach portends greater customization as does the functionality the layered approach has already made possible. I believe the layered approach has decoupled certain aspects of design from the underlying functionality which is the real genius behind iOS 7.
I do not like the light, colorful approach, however. In my opinion, Apple listened to detractors far too much; preferring animated effects over gradients, shadows and textures. I prefer the semi-transparent black glass interface design Apple has used which I consider effective, efficient and elegant.
I especially prefer textured buttons that make the button functionality obvious. Apps do not necessarily need texture but removing texture from buttons removes visual clues. Indeed, skeumorphism is often beneficial in providing visual cues to product behavior.
Apple has simply substituted certain UI effects for different UI effects.
In my opinion, the ideal is somewhere between the two with each effect used to indicate features and functionality as necessary. I would much prefer if Apple offered iOS 7 features and functionality with a choice of semi-transparent frosted glass design (for white iPhones) and semi-transparent black glass design (for black iPhones).
The end result is that app icons have lost some gradients, shadows and textures in exchange for animation effects. Does the exchange actually improve the usability? In some instances I believe it does but in some instances I believe it does not. I tend to believe there was a happy middle ground I would have preferred. I am interested in how the public votes with their dollars.
To me at least, the parallax effect actually gives a better impression of depth than the fake 3d look of iOS 6.
I have the iOS 7 beta on my iPhone, and each time I go back to my iPad (which is running iOS 6) I notice how the home screen feels actually flatter than iOS 7, despite all the glossiness and shadowing effects in iOS 6.
And for those who experience heavy battery drain running the BETA (is that hard to understand, BETA?), it doesn't have anything to do with the motion/parallax effects. There's a very specific bug in Beta 1 with the App Store/ iTunes store process draining the battery in the background even when the device sleeps. This bug only happen on certain devices that where restored with an iTunes backup (something Apple warns against, if you are a real dev you should know that.).
To me at least, the parallax effect actually gives a better impression of depth than the fake 3d look of iOS 6.
I have the iOS 7 beta on my iPhone, and each time I go back to my iPad (which is running iOS 6) I notice how the home screen feels actually flatter than iOS 7, despite all the glossiness and shadowing effects in iOS 6.
I like the parallax effect as well but I like the gradients, shadows and textures quite a bit as well. I suspect that Apple is laying the foundation for increased customization of the user interface though which may be an improvement.
In my opinion, some apps had far too much of a pretense of skeumorphism from gradients, shadows and textures. In particular; Game Center, Find My Friends and a few others seemed inappropriate. The legal pad skeumorphism of Notes was quite pleasant to me, however (more functionality would be nice though).
That's an incredible difference in the pace of innovation
I dunno about that. Mankind's knowledge and expertise increase exponentially with time. Skipping back a few years, the pace will always appear laggard compared to today, when the rate of change in the pace (acceleration) was the same.
There is a great deal of conscious misdirection and mis-interpretation going on in this article, so while I agree with the thrust of it and the main conclusions are inescapable, it comes across as disingenuous because of the obvious duplicity.
For instance when discussing the charge that iOS 7 has borrowed it's typography from Windows 8 (it clearly has), the basis of the debate is slyly changed to "who invented Helvetica anyway!" which is beside the point. The charge is about the use of a thin font in a large sans-serif typeface as a major UI element and styling theme. Who invented Helvetica is actually irrelevant to the charge.
There are more incidents of the same thing but any habitual reader of this site if fully aware of the authors tendency to cheerlead in this manner.
I would argue that these articles are unduly wordy as well and could well use a second author or editor to both look over the original authors work and edit it down to a much shorter, "punchier" piece. I guess no one appreciates a good editor anymore and everyone thinks their every thought and word is "gold."
Agreed. It's a lot of personal opinion and personal attacks. Comments like "no one noticed or complained about Windows anyway" is just ignorant of the facts and bad research. I use a PC and tons of people (myself included) HATE windows 8 and will never upgrade to it.
And people here use the word "troll" too often here. People who take the time to make honest comments are not "trolls". Just because you don't agree with their comments and are an uber Apple fan with blinders on, doesn't mean everyone who is critical once in a while is a troll.
I understand Gazoobee's frustration. I too agree with the gist of the article, but even for an editorial the childish slams and name calling against Microsoft and Google just seems unnecessary. I don't think it's too hard to write an article without so much snark.
It pretty much reads like this: "Apple innovates, Apple makes all the profits, and look at these f**king losers; why do they even bother? Why don't they just f**k off and die?"
I know - I thought this is what the apple-hater crowd does. C'mon Dan we're better than that. Don't write flame bait or discredit your otherwise effective arguments with juvenile cheerleading and name-calling. I promise I'll post comments in the more grown up and classy articles - but if you keep on with this one-sided juvenile attitude, then I'l give up and doubt everything you write.
Here's what's going on: When it comes to highly complex, mass market consumer products, integrated manufacturing and design will eventually beat the non-integrated (or 'diffused' for lack of a better term) model EXCEPT when overwhelming market power is able to blunt the advantages of the integrated approach.
When competition is so intense that manufacturers are forced to eke out the last ounce of performance and efficiency out of their products, they will pour more and more effort into optimizing and fine tuning the product and its components to eliminate every last bit of inefficiency, whether engineering or economic. An automaker can't do this if it is using an engine that is designed by the engine maker to be sold to several auto companies. A smartphone company likewise is hampered if its OS is designed to be a one-size-fits-all solution. Sure, early on, the auto industry, as the outgrowth of the carriage industry, had independent engine, chassis, and coach builders. But in the beginning, autos were not a mass market and competition wasn't that intense. Today, all auto companies and their products are highly integrated. The ones outsourcing their engines are low volume specialty shops selling tremendously expensive product.
With a massive marketing and advertising budget, Samsung was able to give the illusion that its product is as good and as refined as the iPhone. Well, latest news is that Samsung has cut back smartphone component orders significantly and the stock market has responded. As this relentless drive to optimize, refine, and perfect smartphones continues, the distance between iOS and Android will get wider and wider. We see it now in the vast difference in energy efficiency. There is no magic bullet in extending battery up time per charge, it's all hard painstaking work designing all your components including the OS to operate efficiently by itself and in concert.
The exception of course is the Windows PC but that's because Microsoft's monopoly was able to neutralize all competition and so there was no need to put any effort into optimizing, fine tuning and perfecting. Without any meaningful competition, we thought we should be happy enough just to know that when Windows starts to get bogged down, we can always reboot, and when the arterial clogging becomes unbearable, we reinstall. What foolish dolts we mortals were.
All of Apple's smartphone competitors know that they have to integrate or die. But unlike Apple, none of them has the breadth and depth of hardware and software skills and knowhow that are required to run a successful mobile computing company.
Relax. This is a beta. It is not meant to be used by anyone other than developers and only on testing devices. All beta releases in the past were like this and sometimes worst.
I am relaxed. I just said that on 4/4S it's unsuabale.
I think what has been unfortunately missed is the main reason for the huge iOS change and that is since Ive was put in charge of all design, you had a designer, not a developer, designing the UI. These changes, or at least some, could have easily been introduced and probably would have been if Ive was in charge earlier.
But that is the history, and Apple will have to take its lumps for "copying" until future iterations of iOS when Ive really gets into stride.
Just imagine if this was a fairly quick iOS release, considering the turnover and turmoil at Apple after Steve. I think Apple is settled down now and we will see more Apple magic very soon.
This is perhaps the most insightful and best written piece on AppleInsider I've ever read.
Though the analogy of "WinTel as a hair clog in the pipe of progress" is harsh -- it's also very apt. As much as corporate America was enamored of their dominance -- it failed to realize how they achieved the dominance by stifling real progress.
Apple isn't making the classic mistake of the monopoly abuser -- they keep trying to obsolesce their own technology -- which shows they are still a company with legs and are not sitting on their hind ones. I think even an objective person would look a the numbers and the pace of their tech and see that they are the market leader in about 4 areas.
Here in Portugal (and Spain) Android is much more mainstream than iPhones, for a variety of reasons. One of them is that the nearest Apple Store is in another country (Spain), and the second is that Samsung and their ads are everywhere.
One of those things that every android user knows (and must know, really) is how to switch Wifi, 3g, bluetooth, etc. on and off. It's actually easy, and they have to do it... you will realize why, soon enough.
A few days ago, a few americans arrived here to study during the semester. iPhones everywhere! Since I own a mac and am a good-looking son of a b*cth, the girls (and the boys lol) approached me and asked if I knew how to set the internet on their iPhones. On iPhones, the process is very easy because you don't even need to configure the network, it's only username and password.
First question (by me):
-Ok, I know how to do it. Can you please go to settings and Wifi? They answered...
-"How do you do that?!".
After a brief conversation, they (all of them!) said that they never got that deep into the settings app (lol). The bluetooth was always on. The Wifi was always on. GPS was on. 3G was on. One of them was really hot so I was turned on too. Everything was on.
For an Android user, it is unthinkable to have the phone in those same conditions and have more than 2h battery life, even on "high end" devices. Things like that are only a privilege to iPhone users, so when they complain that their phones only hold a charge during 8h, I laugh.
It's like people saying that the S4 and the note have much bigger batteries, so they have a much better battery life... Meanwhile the iPhone and iPad wins every test when both screens are on, and on extensive tasks there is no contest.
Apple is doing a great job with their mobile processors and batteries. The a6 was a marvel, the things that they manage to do with small batteries are great. Can't wait for the end of the year...
Ok, what this has at all to do with discussing beta software performance on a certain device model?
All of these things that are coming to light, and this is just suppose to be a very early beta of the software. We went from 'That's all they got done in seven months?' to 'Damn, they did all that in only seven months?'
Can't wait to see the next beta release, I'm guessing the visual changes will be pretty severe. And in a good way.
There is a great deal of conscious misdirection and mis-interpretation going on in this article, so while I agree with the thrust of it and the main conclusions are inescapable, it comes across as disingenuous because of the obvious duplicity.
For instance when discussing the charge that iOS 7 has borrowed it's typography from Windows 8 (it clearly has), the basis of the debate is slyly changed to "who invented Helvetica anyway!" which is beside the point. The charge is about the use of a thin font in a large sans-serif typeface as a major UI element and styling theme. Who invented Helvetica is actually irrelevant to the charge.
There are more incidents of the same thing but any habitual reader of this site if fully aware of the authors tendency to cheerlead in this manner.
I would argue that these articles are unduly wordy as well and could well use a second author or editor to both look over the original authors work and edit it down to a much shorter, "punchier" piece. I guess no one appreciates a good editor anymore and everyone thinks their every thought and word is "gold."
I think the "copying" Apple is doing is much less than the copying others are doing to Apple. Apple is using a simple and modern design that others have already used, but it also goes along with their company's theme, and is a style that has been around longer than any other company has implemented into a mobile os. And adding a shortcut to common settings isn't exactly a new thing to any OS.
Apple has pretty much made iOS the best mobile operating system, with the best and most useful and intuitive interface around. I'm very happy with it. To those who don't like the new icons, it's just a personal choice, I think they look really good.
It's not even on point for what I was arguing. You're just using my post to spout your own irrelevant garbage and launch a personal attack on me, and you're using the word "troll" incorrectly as well.
What's amusing is that Corrections is, as far as anyone can reasonably tell, an alias for DED. None of the other authors reply with an alias. I suppose there's a fair point that the other authors rarely reply in comparison. It's just that the alias makes it feel like sock puppetry in a way.
Comments
They've done pretty much everything else but do that. They've skinned it to death and barely mention Android in their product launches.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cpsro
"WinTel PC efficiently generated billions of dollars in revenue that was funneled right back into development at Intel and Microsoft.
You see similarities between this and Apple with iOS?
If you equate the PC in 1995 to the iPod in 2001:
in five years Microsoft delivered a PC running Office faster and playing more, nicer games and running Win2000
in ten years Microsoft delivered a PC running Office faster and playing more, nicer games and running a beta of Longhorn
in five years, Apple had delivered a series of iPods, now playing video, podcasts and games - a vast improvement upon the simple G1 iPod
in ten years, Apple had delivered iPhone 4S with Safari, Siri and Retina Display and iPad 2, ushering in the multitouch smartphone, tablet and App Stores
That's an incredible difference in the pace of innovation
I fully expect the Galaxy S5 to run the "GalaxyOS". Either a forked version of Android or Tizen that is compatible with Android apps but runs its own Samsung Galaxy Store apps too.
Exactly, hence the sarcastic quotation marks. That Tumblr account someone posted was as annoying as can be.
I detest wannabe artsy critic types. What's the saying? Those who can't, teach. Those who can't do that, critique. Ugh.
I do not like the light, colorful approach, however. In my opinion, Apple listened to detractors far too much; preferring animated effects over gradients, shadows and textures. I prefer the semi-transparent black glass interface design Apple has used which I consider effective, efficient and elegant.
I especially prefer textured buttons that make the button functionality obvious. Apps do not necessarily need texture but removing texture from buttons removes visual clues. Indeed, skeumorphism is often beneficial in providing visual cues to product behavior.
Apple has simply substituted certain UI effects for different UI effects.
In my opinion, the ideal is somewhere between the two with each effect used to indicate features and functionality as necessary. I would much prefer if Apple offered iOS 7 features and functionality with a choice of semi-transparent frosted glass design (for white iPhones) and semi-transparent black glass design (for black iPhones).
The end result is that app icons have lost some gradients, shadows and textures in exchange for animation effects. Does the exchange actually improve the usability? In some instances I believe it does but in some instances I believe it does not. I tend to believe there was a happy middle ground I would have preferred. I am interested in how the public votes with their dollars.
To me at least, the parallax effect actually gives a better impression of depth than the fake 3d look of iOS 6.
I have the iOS 7 beta on my iPhone, and each time I go back to my iPad (which is running iOS 6) I notice how the home screen feels actually flatter than iOS 7, despite all the glossiness and shadowing effects in iOS 6.
And for those who experience heavy battery drain running the BETA (is that hard to understand, BETA?), it doesn't have anything to do with the motion/parallax effects. There's a very specific bug in Beta 1 with the App Store/ iTunes store process draining the battery in the background even when the device sleeps. This bug only happen on certain devices that where restored with an iTunes backup (something Apple warns against, if you are a real dev you should know that.).
I like the parallax effect as well but I like the gradients, shadows and textures quite a bit as well. I suspect that Apple is laying the foundation for increased customization of the user interface though which may be an improvement.
In my opinion, some apps had far too much of a pretense of skeumorphism from gradients, shadows and textures. In particular; Game Center, Find My Friends and a few others seemed inappropriate. The legal pad skeumorphism of Notes was quite pleasant to me, however (more functionality would be nice though).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Corrections
That's an incredible difference in the pace of innovation
I dunno about that. Mankind's knowledge and expertise increase exponentially with time. Skipping back a few years, the pace will always appear laggard compared to today, when the rate of change in the pace (acceleration) was the same.
Agreed. It's a lot of personal opinion and personal attacks. Comments like "no one noticed or complained about Windows anyway" is just ignorant of the facts and bad research. I use a PC and tons of people (myself included) HATE windows 8 and will never upgrade to it.
And people here use the word "troll" too often here. People who take the time to make honest comments are not "trolls". Just because you don't agree with their comments and are an uber Apple fan with blinders on, doesn't mean everyone who is critical once in a while is a troll.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazda 3s
I understand Gazoobee's frustration. I too agree with the gist of the article, but even for an editorial the childish slams and name calling against Microsoft and Google just seems unnecessary. I don't think it's too hard to write an article without so much snark.
It pretty much reads like this: "Apple innovates, Apple makes all the profits, and look at these f**king losers; why do they even bother? Why don't they just f**k off and die?"
I know - I thought this is what the apple-hater crowd does. C'mon Dan we're better than that. Don't write flame bait or discredit your otherwise effective arguments with juvenile cheerleading and name-calling. I promise I'll post comments in the more grown up and classy articles - but if you keep on with this one-sided juvenile attitude, then I'l give up and doubt everything you write.
Here's what's going on: When it comes to highly complex, mass market consumer products, integrated manufacturing and design will eventually beat the non-integrated (or 'diffused' for lack of a better term) model EXCEPT when overwhelming market power is able to blunt the advantages of the integrated approach.
When competition is so intense that manufacturers are forced to eke out the last ounce of performance and efficiency out of their products, they will pour more and more effort into optimizing and fine tuning the product and its components to eliminate every last bit of inefficiency, whether engineering or economic. An automaker can't do this if it is using an engine that is designed by the engine maker to be sold to several auto companies. A smartphone company likewise is hampered if its OS is designed to be a one-size-fits-all solution. Sure, early on, the auto industry, as the outgrowth of the carriage industry, had independent engine, chassis, and coach builders. But in the beginning, autos were not a mass market and competition wasn't that intense. Today, all auto companies and their products are highly integrated. The ones outsourcing their engines are low volume specialty shops selling tremendously expensive product.
With a massive marketing and advertising budget, Samsung was able to give the illusion that its product is as good and as refined as the iPhone. Well, latest news is that Samsung has cut back smartphone component orders significantly and the stock market has responded. As this relentless drive to optimize, refine, and perfect smartphones continues, the distance between iOS and Android will get wider and wider. We see it now in the vast difference in energy efficiency. There is no magic bullet in extending battery up time per charge, it's all hard painstaking work designing all your components including the OS to operate efficiently by itself and in concert.
The exception of course is the Windows PC but that's because Microsoft's monopoly was able to neutralize all competition and so there was no need to put any effort into optimizing, fine tuning and perfecting. Without any meaningful competition, we thought we should be happy enough just to know that when Windows starts to get bogged down, we can always reboot, and when the arterial clogging becomes unbearable, we reinstall. What foolish dolts we mortals were.
All of Apple's smartphone competitors know that they have to integrate or die. But unlike Apple, none of them has the breadth and depth of hardware and software skills and knowhow that are required to run a successful mobile computing company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NasserAE
Relax. This is a beta. It is not meant to be used by anyone other than developers and only on testing devices. All beta releases in the past were like this and sometimes worst.
I am relaxed. I just said that on 4/4S it's unsuabale.
Apple has led the mobile space for some time now! I cannot speak to IOS 7....will wait until I can use the final release product on Apple hardware.
Great article...well thought out an put together....
But that is the history, and Apple will have to take its lumps for "copying" until future iterations of iOS when Ive really gets into stride.
Just imagine if this was a fairly quick iOS release, considering the turnover and turmoil at Apple after Steve. I think Apple is settled down now and we will see more Apple magic very soon.
This is perhaps the most insightful and best written piece on AppleInsider I've ever read.
Though the analogy of "WinTel as a hair clog in the pipe of progress" is harsh -- it's also very apt. As much as corporate America was enamored of their dominance -- it failed to realize how they achieved the dominance by stifling real progress.
Apple isn't making the classic mistake of the monopoly abuser -- they keep trying to obsolesce their own technology -- which shows they are still a company with legs and are not sitting on their hind ones. I think even an objective person would look a the numbers and the pace of their tech and see that they are the market leader in about 4 areas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pedromartins
I will tell you a story.
Here in Portugal (and Spain) Android is much more mainstream than iPhones, for a variety of reasons. One of them is that the nearest Apple Store is in another country (Spain), and the second is that Samsung and their ads are everywhere.
One of those things that every android user knows (and must know, really) is how to switch Wifi, 3g, bluetooth, etc. on and off. It's actually easy, and they have to do it... you will realize why, soon enough.
A few days ago, a few americans arrived here to study during the semester. iPhones everywhere! Since I own a mac and am a good-looking son of a b*cth, the girls (and the boys lol) approached me and asked if I knew how to set the internet on their iPhones. On iPhones, the process is very easy because you don't even need to configure the network, it's only username and password.
First question (by me):
-Ok, I know how to do it. Can you please go to settings and Wifi? They answered...
-"How do you do that?!".
After a brief conversation, they (all of them!) said that they never got that deep into the settings app (lol). The bluetooth was always on. The Wifi was always on. GPS was on. 3G was on. One of them was really hot so I was turned on too. Everything was on.
For an Android user, it is unthinkable to have the phone in those same conditions and have more than 2h battery life, even on "high end" devices. Things like that are only a privilege to iPhone users, so when they complain that their phones only hold a charge during 8h, I laugh.
It's like people saying that the S4 and the note have much bigger batteries, so they have a much better battery life... Meanwhile the iPhone and iPad wins every test when both screens are on, and on extensive tasks there is no contest.
Apple is doing a great job with their mobile processors and batteries. The a6 was a marvel, the things that they manage to do with small batteries are great. Can't wait for the end of the year...
Ok, what this has at all to do with discussing beta software performance on a certain device model?
Can't wait to see the next beta release, I'm guessing the visual changes will be pretty severe. And in a good way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
There is a great deal of conscious misdirection and mis-interpretation going on in this article, so while I agree with the thrust of it and the main conclusions are inescapable, it comes across as disingenuous because of the obvious duplicity.
For instance when discussing the charge that iOS 7 has borrowed it's typography from Windows 8 (it clearly has), the basis of the debate is slyly changed to "who invented Helvetica anyway!" which is beside the point. The charge is about the use of a thin font in a large sans-serif typeface as a major UI element and styling theme. Who invented Helvetica is actually irrelevant to the charge.
There are more incidents of the same thing but any habitual reader of this site if fully aware of the authors tendency to cheerlead in this manner.
I would argue that these articles are unduly wordy as well and could well use a second author or editor to both look over the original authors work and edit it down to a much shorter, "punchier" piece. I guess no one appreciates a good editor anymore and everyone thinks their every thought and word is "gold."
Oh, shut up.
Apple has pretty much made iOS the best mobile operating system, with the best and most useful and intuitive interface around. I'm very happy with it. To those who don't like the new icons, it's just a personal choice, I think they look really good.
What's amusing is that Corrections is, as far as anyone can reasonably tell, an alias for DED. None of the other authors reply with an alias. I suppose there's a fair point that the other authors rarely reply in comparison. It's just that the alias makes it feel like sock puppetry in a way.