Great article. However, I still don't agree with this statement:
"And despite the criticism aimed at Apple's revised app icons, they are readily apparent at smaller sizes due to their simplicity and strong use of color."
The only issue I have with some (not all) of the icon designs are that they are too simplified or too abstract and that the colour palettes used are too strong. I also prefer more contrast between text and background with the use of thicker fonts and more prominent drop shadows for easier readability. In spite of my minor complaints here and in other posts, I'm extremely looking forward to using iOS7.
I was enjoying your article until I hit this idiotic, obnoxious paragraph:
Quote:
Some thoughtful comments and critiques, some purely ridiculous drivel such as the collections of randoms tweets of non-noteworthy people, attributed to "professional designers." As if making something your line of work automatically conveys upon you some sort of expertise in your field.
Don't be ridiculous—of course years of working in a particular profession makes you an expert in your field. That is the very definition of becoming an expert. Your strange, blanket statement would mean that you yourself are not an expert and, by extension, that your article is not worth reading.
Secondarily, the notion that "non-noteworthy" people are not capable of making thoughtful comments and critiques is patently absurd and offensive. So, as a society, we should only listen to social media whores who have chosen to sell themselves as brands? Or "experts" on the web, most of whom are regular, medium-talent individuals who became stars either through luck (usually after a single piece of their work goes viral in the industry and creates an assumption that profound talent exists where it doesn't) or because they are networked into the nepotistic swampland that is the "in" crowd of the tech world?
You speak a lot about the drivel and bad journalism in this industry (all of which is true), yet you contribute to it by allowing your article to devolve into a reactionary, defensive rant.
Yes, there are aspects of iOS 7 that people are reacting against now that will simply take some getting used to. But there are other aspects of the new design that are true usability concerns: unclear tappable regions, typography that confusingly runs into content, precious hairline interface elements that will be difficult for some users to see, strange cartoonish icons that diminish the high-end Apple brand... the list goes on. Perhaps most interesting of all, a lot of these flaws go directly against Apple's own research and Human Interface Guidelines (not to mention years of research outside the hallowed halls of Apple).
Take your advice and read your own writing—not just to clean up the numerous typos throughout, but to ensure that you are writing as a level-headed journalist and not a non-noteworthy fanboy.
Actually, Solaris is also BSD based and SUN was co-founded in 1982 by the main programmer behind Berkley Software Distribution, <span style="font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Bill Joy. NeXTSTEP didn't come into the picture till 1987, with a commercial ready product in 1989, NeXT Computer, i.e. The Cube.</span>
Actually if you want to get technical, The mach microkernel started in 1985 at Carnegie Mellon University. Darwin is a derivative mach microkernel which Apple currently uses. Mach was incorporated into unix in the late 80s. One of the original Mach developers, Avie Tevanian, was formerly head of software at NeXT, then Chief Software Technology Officer at Apple Computer until March 2006.
For the most part, I like all of this guy's articles a lot. I would like them better if there weren't so many examples of poor grammar, and factual errors. "There's" should be "There are" when referring to more than one thing. Windows XP shipped in October 2001, not in 2002. As for the grammar issues, you might be thinking "big deal", but I don't like seeing the English language degraded on tech blogs. It's a huge distraction as I read the articles. Is it really that hard to proofread before posting something?
Yes. His excuse is that he's a published author. Anyone with a book to their name is allowed to abuse English grammar and facts. The rest of us forum trolls must be perfect, lest we be corrected by the grammar police and shunned as idiots, or worse, foreigners. /s
The fonts are harder on the eyes than those in iOS 6.
You mean like the new, thin typeface used by AppleInsider?
Seriously though, I'd like to see at least a bolder typeface option under Accessibility, for those with lower visual acuity. I'd also like a "night mode" so that I'm not looking at a screenful of white in the dark. /twocents
I dislike parts of iOS 7 for good reason. The icons are objectively ill conceived by an Apple marketing team. The new back button is a step backwards: as explained by that article Gruber linked to. The fonts are harder on the eyes than those in iOS 6. And the home screen parallaxing, panoramic wallpaper and moving wallpapers are distracting, inelegant and un-Apple. The lock screen unintuitivly indicates how you unlock, those top and bottom arrows are completely unnecessary, and the lock screen camera icon is ugly, and unintuitive compared to the camera icon on the iOS 6 lock screen.
To put it in perspective, when Apple added the camera icon to the lock screen in iOS 5 I actually like the design, and when I used jail break I found the best theme was the default: which is why I never used theme my iPhone.
These are your reasons not necessarily "good reason". Everyone will have their opinion. Mine is to keep an open mind until I actually use it. Besides plenty can change between now and when it ships.
One comment on accessibility and the legibility of light font faces used in iOS 7:
Apple is miles ahead of anyone else in accessibility. So perhaps it may be a safe assumption to think that Apple's designers did in fact consider that in their redesign, rather than just blowing out some quick mockups and calling it a day. Also, the keynote publicly outlined that users can change font size across apps that support this, a feature that is not part of accessibility but merely a preference. Apple does some cool new things to type across iOS 7 that enhances clarity.
On top of this, there is additional work to add accessibility features for users with visual impairments. So rather than worrying in general about the fate of those who might have trouble with Helvetica Neue, it might be okay to wait and see what people with actual visual impairments (or expertise in accessibility, like Apple) react to the entire package, not just the default settings portrayed in screen shots.
I think the new Mac Pro will come in a "mini" flavor. That is to say, I think it's a reasonably economical platform. So they can make the high end that they showed off, but by simply replacing the GPUs & CPU, they can make a cheaper version. I wouldn't be surprised to see models as cheap as $1,299 (with more pedestrian CPUs and maybe a single GPU)
Yes, that's the Mac Mini. It comes in a Server flavor. Up to 2TB of internal HDD and Quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, starting at $999.
I don't see how you step up to a Xeon processor (even with fewer cores), FirePro GPUs (Phil Schiller said it would come standard with dual GPUs, so there goes your single-GPU claim), ECC memory, and some about of double-speed SSD (even if a paltry 128GB) and somehow end up at $1299. I don't see it happening. It just doesn't add up. They'd lose money doing that. I don't think I could build a Xeon-based, SSD machine with dual FirePro chips in a vanilla PC box for $1299.
I'm thinking Apple might do us a big one and start it at $2499 in stripped down configurations (4GB of RAM, 2GB of VRAM, Quad-core Xeon, and maybe 256GB SSD).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessi
I think it's hilarious when people accuse writers of being "biased". Obviously, anything that agrees with your ideology is "objective' and anything that doesn't is "biased" so you can just reject it out of hand.
Accusation of "bias" is like saying "I reject all of reality that disagrees with me!"
Frankly, the people who pretend to be "unbiased" are usually making worse arguments than those who aren't hiding behind faux objectivity.
Agreed. The "logic and reason" crowd on these forums are effectively blind to their own bias, which more often than not here is anti-Apple. They calibrate "objective" to their bias, and judge everyone else accordingly. A while back, there was someone who argued that Apple's high customer satisfaction ratings were wrong because Mac users were incapable of having an informed opinion about their own satisfaction unless they had also owned PCs from DELL, HP, etc. presumably as a basis for comparison. Customer satisfaction surveys are brand happiness surveys. Their claim was that Mac users aren't being "objective" about their happiness with Apple. Well, duh.
I always enjoy debating the "premium" pricing of Macintosh computers. The truth is that when you buy a computer from Apple, you are getting hardware that is fully loaded with every feature that you'll need for several years. Compare that to a PC that is "half-price" but already uses yesterdays technology and is obsolete the day you purchase it.
Has anybody noticed the emphasis on iCloud in iOS 7 is going to make a user pay their carrier more money for a data plan and that AT&T no longer offers an unlimited plan. Get ready to pay a lot more — we can't all live in a wi-fi environment.
I am happy with what I have seen so far in iOS 7. For months I have been saying that it would be the largest update since the the introduction of the iPhone and Tim Cook used those exact words. It was painfully obvious that iOS 6 was indeed stale and in need of new features as well as a whole new look. The new Mac Pro is also growing on me but I will have to wait and see a price and see it in person before I make a decision.
To me it looks fresh, clean, and just more modern. Not quite sold yet on the "flat" concept but will need more time to evaluate that. They did a great job at fulfilling many of the top feature requests on wish lists out there. They also have plenty of time left to refine it further and polish the chrome so to speak. I hope the camera app will also see some new features and settings since the current one is too basic but at least the gallery has better organization now. There is no way that everyone will love the new look. It's always like that with major redesigns. Even if everything about the new design was perfect there would always be a large group of people to hate it for various reasons; some like the old design better while others simply hate change. Overall I am very excited and think this goes a long way to modernizing iOS.
I think Apple should add themes. If Apple wants to keep control of iOS's look then only Apple created themes can be applied. I can understand why they wouldn't want to open up themes generated by the public (beside jailbreaking). I'm not looking forward to the thin fonts and light backgrounds when using the phone in the dark. If they had a dark theme with thicker fonts and more subdued colours, they would reduce a lot of the criticism they are receiving right now. I understand that asian countries appreciate the neon in-your-face colours more than western countries but Apple needs a way to cater to all parts of the world. If Apple added a few themed GUI's, that would accomplish that.
These are your reasons not necessarily "good reason". Everyone will have their opinion. Mine is to keep an open mind until I actually use it. Besides plenty can change between now and when it ships.
Plenty can change, true. Though usually not a whole lot. And I have used it.
I think Apple should add themes. If Apple wants to keep control of iOS's look then only Apple created themes can be applied.
No. No. No. Rather than themes they need to seriously consider the strong negative feedback on iOS 7. In the words of Gordon Ramsay, "I only care about negative feedback".
Actually if you want to get technical, The mach microkernel started in 1985 at Carnegie Mellon University. Darwin is a derivative mach microkernel which Apple currently uses. Mach was incorporated into unix in the late 80s. One of the original Mach developers, Avie Tevanian, was formerly head of software at NeXT, then Chief Software Technology Officer at Apple Computer until March 2006.
Yes, NeXTSTEP/Openstep is Mach Microkernel 2.95 developed by a Avie at CMU, and later extended to now projects like The Hurd. NeXTSTEP is the Mach Microkernel with a modified BSD4.3 filesystem layer on top and Mach messaging specifically designed by NeXT to leverage the designs of the ObjC language.
Solaris is actually a cherry picking of BSD, System V and Xenix. It's as little BSD as possible, mostly System V and parts of Xenix thrown in.
Yes, Darwin is no longer a true microkernel, but a hybrid micro/macro kernel called XNU.
Comments
Great article. However, I still don't agree with this statement:
"And despite the criticism aimed at Apple's revised app icons, they are readily apparent at smaller sizes due to their simplicity and strong use of color."
The only issue I have with some (not all) of the icon designs are that they are too simplified or too abstract and that the colour palettes used are too strong. I also prefer more contrast between text and background with the use of thicker fonts and more prominent drop shadows for easier readability. In spite of my minor complaints here and in other posts, I'm extremely looking forward to using iOS7.
I was enjoying your article until I hit this idiotic, obnoxious paragraph:
Quote:
Some thoughtful comments and critiques, some purely ridiculous drivel such as the collections of randoms tweets of non-noteworthy people, attributed to "professional designers." As if making something your line of work automatically conveys upon you some sort of expertise in your field.
Don't be ridiculous—of course years of working in a particular profession makes you an expert in your field. That is the very definition of becoming an expert. Your strange, blanket statement would mean that you yourself are not an expert and, by extension, that your article is not worth reading.
Secondarily, the notion that "non-noteworthy" people are not capable of making thoughtful comments and critiques is patently absurd and offensive. So, as a society, we should only listen to social media whores who have chosen to sell themselves as brands? Or "experts" on the web, most of whom are regular, medium-talent individuals who became stars either through luck (usually after a single piece of their work goes viral in the industry and creates an assumption that profound talent exists where it doesn't) or because they are networked into the nepotistic swampland that is the "in" crowd of the tech world?
You speak a lot about the drivel and bad journalism in this industry (all of which is true), yet you contribute to it by allowing your article to devolve into a reactionary, defensive rant.
Yes, there are aspects of iOS 7 that people are reacting against now that will simply take some getting used to. But there are other aspects of the new design that are true usability concerns: unclear tappable regions, typography that confusingly runs into content, precious hairline interface elements that will be difficult for some users to see, strange cartoonish icons that diminish the high-end Apple brand... the list goes on. Perhaps most interesting of all, a lot of these flaws go directly against Apple's own research and Human Interface Guidelines (not to mention years of research outside the hallowed halls of Apple).
Take your advice and read your own writing—not just to clean up the numerous typos throughout, but to ensure that you are writing as a level-headed journalist and not a non-noteworthy fanboy.
-TG
Quote:
Originally Posted by Howie Isaacks
For the most part, I like all of this guy's articles a lot. I would like them better if there weren't so many examples of poor grammar, and factual errors. "There's" should be "There are" when referring to more than one thing. Windows XP shipped in October 2001, not in 2002. As for the grammar issues, you might be thinking "big deal", but I don't like seeing the English language degraded on tech blogs. It's a huge distraction as I read the articles. Is it really that hard to proofread before posting something?
Yes. His excuse is that he's a published author. Anyone with a book to their name is allowed to abuse English grammar and facts. The rest of us forum trolls must be perfect, lest we be corrected by the grammar police and shunned as idiots, or worse, foreigners. /s
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
The fonts are harder on the eyes than those in iOS 6.
You mean like the new, thin typeface used by AppleInsider?
Seriously though, I'd like to see at least a bolder typeface option under Accessibility, for those with lower visual acuity. I'd also like a "night mode" so that I'm not looking at a screenful of white in the dark. /twocents
One comment on accessibility and the legibility of light font faces used in iOS 7:
Apple is miles ahead of anyone else in accessibility. So perhaps it may be a safe assumption to think that Apple's designers did in fact consider that in their redesign, rather than just blowing out some quick mockups and calling it a day. Also, the keynote publicly outlined that users can change font size across apps that support this, a feature that is not part of accessibility but merely a preference. Apple does some cool new things to type across iOS 7 that enhances clarity.
On top of this, there is additional work to add accessibility features for users with visual impairments. So rather than worrying in general about the fate of those who might have trouble with Helvetica Neue, it might be okay to wait and see what people with actual visual impairments (or expertise in accessibility, like Apple) react to the entire package, not just the default settings portrayed in screen shots.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessi
I think the new Mac Pro will come in a "mini" flavor. That is to say, I think it's a reasonably economical platform. So they can make the high end that they showed off, but by simply replacing the GPUs & CPU, they can make a cheaper version. I wouldn't be surprised to see models as cheap as $1,299 (with more pedestrian CPUs and maybe a single GPU)
Yes, that's the Mac Mini. It comes in a Server flavor. Up to 2TB of internal HDD and Quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, starting at $999.
I don't see how you step up to a Xeon processor (even with fewer cores), FirePro GPUs (Phil Schiller said it would come standard with dual GPUs, so there goes your single-GPU claim), ECC memory, and some about of double-speed SSD (even if a paltry 128GB) and somehow end up at $1299. I don't see it happening. It just doesn't add up. They'd lose money doing that. I don't think I could build a Xeon-based, SSD machine with dual FirePro chips in a vanilla PC box for $1299.
I'm thinking Apple might do us a big one and start it at $2499 in stripped down configurations (4GB of RAM, 2GB of VRAM, Quad-core Xeon, and maybe 256GB SSD).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessi
I think it's hilarious when people accuse writers of being "biased". Obviously, anything that agrees with your ideology is "objective' and anything that doesn't is "biased" so you can just reject it out of hand.
Accusation of "bias" is like saying "I reject all of reality that disagrees with me!"
Frankly, the people who pretend to be "unbiased" are usually making worse arguments than those who aren't hiding behind faux objectivity.
Agreed. The "logic and reason" crowd on these forums are effectively blind to their own bias, which more often than not here is anti-Apple. They calibrate "objective" to their bias, and judge everyone else accordingly. A while back, there was someone who argued that Apple's high customer satisfaction ratings were wrong because Mac users were incapable of having an informed opinion about their own satisfaction unless they had also owned PCs from DELL, HP, etc. presumably as a basis for comparison. Customer satisfaction surveys are brand happiness surveys. Their claim was that Mac users aren't being "objective" about their happiness with Apple. Well, duh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton
The Verge is just mad Apple doesn't cater to them.
The Verge sucks.
There are too many articles that have nothing to do with tech. When I started seeing political articles there, I stopping going there.
And now they're criticizing Apple's grammar usage?
I am happy with what I have seen so far in iOS 7. For months I have been saying that it would be the largest update since the the introduction of the iPhone and Tim Cook used those exact words. It was painfully obvious that iOS 6 was indeed stale and in need of new features as well as a whole new look. The new Mac Pro is also growing on me but I will have to wait and see a price and see it in person before I make a decision.
To me it looks fresh, clean, and just more modern. Not quite sold yet on the "flat" concept but will need more time to evaluate that. They did a great job at fulfilling many of the top feature requests on wish lists out there. They also have plenty of time left to refine it further and polish the chrome so to speak. I hope the camera app will also see some new features and settings since the current one is too basic but at least the gallery has better organization now. There is no way that everyone will love the new look. It's always like that with major redesigns. Even if everything about the new design was perfect there would always be a large group of people to hate it for various reasons; some like the old design better while others simply hate change. Overall I am very excited and think this goes a long way to modernizing iOS.
I think Apple should add themes. If Apple wants to keep control of iOS's look then only Apple created themes can be applied. I can understand why they wouldn't want to open up themes generated by the public (beside jailbreaking). I'm not looking forward to the thin fonts and light backgrounds when using the phone in the dark. If they had a dark theme with thicker fonts and more subdued colours, they would reduce a lot of the criticism they are receiving right now. I understand that asian countries appreciate the neon in-your-face colours more than western countries but Apple needs a way to cater to all parts of the world. If Apple added a few themed GUI's, that would accomplish that.
Yet another great article, Daniel.
Looking forward to more!
Plenty can change, true. Though usually not a whole lot. And I have used it.
No. No. No. Rather than themes they need to seriously consider the strong negative feedback on iOS 7. In the words of Gordon Ramsay, "I only care about negative feedback".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic
Actually if you want to get technical, The mach microkernel started in 1985 at Carnegie Mellon University. Darwin is a derivative mach microkernel which Apple currently uses. Mach was incorporated into unix in the late 80s. One of the original Mach developers, Avie Tevanian, was formerly head of software at NeXT, then Chief Software Technology Officer at Apple Computer until March 2006.
Yes, NeXTSTEP/Openstep is Mach Microkernel 2.95 developed by a Avie at CMU, and later extended to now projects like The Hurd. NeXTSTEP is the Mach Microkernel with a modified BSD4.3 filesystem layer on top and Mach messaging specifically designed by NeXT to leverage the designs of the ObjC language.
Solaris is actually a cherry picking of BSD, System V and Xenix. It's as little BSD as possible, mostly System V and parts of Xenix thrown in.
Yes, Darwin is no longer a true microkernel, but a hybrid micro/macro kernel called XNU.