macplusplus

chasm said:

waverboy said:

That’s the (hopefully ultimately true) news I’ve been waiting to hear!  My nearly four-year-old 128GB iPhone 6S Plus is running better than ever before on iOS 12.3, better than when it was brand-new even, so I’ll easily be able to skip the 2019 models and hold out for a hopefully notchless 2020 model, or maybe even a notchless-with-fullscreen-TouchID 2021 model.  So glad I’ll have completely skipped the silly notch and FaceID nonsense.  Maybe by then I’ll even be able to get black AirPods and my life will be complete at last.   

You may want to re-read the article; it doesn't say anything about notchless, it says "reduce the notch," and there is exactly zero chance of Apple moving back to the less-secure TouchID, so ... nope.

As the owner of a XR, I can assure you that the notch is ... nothing. It isn't seen at all in most programs and watching videos, etc, and is extremely unintrusive the rest of the time. Indeed, your post reminded me that my phone has one! If I have to sacrifice one percent of the screen in order to have super-secure FaceID, the world's best (by far) portrait/selfie camera, and animoji, I find that a trivial price to pay. Obviously if Apple can reduce the notch, then great -- but it has been a total non-issue for me and other X-class owners.

Ahem... Face ID is not super-secure, kids and siblings can fool it. And that, according to Apple’s own document.

hammeroftruth said:

Apple never showed it any love though. In its last few months of life, it was priced higher than the new MacBook Air, thus nobody bought it. 

Priced higher because of 256 SSD.

AppleInsider said:

Andrew O'Hara -- Smart Keyboard Folio

I was a pretty big fan of the original iPad Pro Smart Keyboard. I liked typing on it, liked being able to easily remove it, and liked using it to prop up my iPad when watching TV or movies. There was a fraction of users though who had issues with the presumed complexity of folding the cover around.

Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the Smart Keyboard Folio

With the second-generation Smart Keyboard Folio, Apple seems to have tried to make up for this and overcorrected. The Smart Keyboard Folio forces back protection onto users instead of making it only an option, as with the first generation. It added cost and bulk to the otherwise extremely slim third-generation Pro. With the case attached, the 2018 Pro is actually thicker than its predecessor.

It also can't be used to prop up a Pro without the keyboard sticking out, taking up a huge footprint on your desk. When not using the keyboard and folding it around the back, there's an awkward experience when users are holding onto the keys -- it feels squishy and just odd.

Here's hoping that the Ive-less design team comes up with some improvements for the fourth generation of Apple's pro tablets.

That Smart Keyboard Folio idea is totally wrong. But it is equally wrong to put the blame on Ive for that. That requirement must have come from the Marketing, that still presents the iPad like a Surface clone on Apple product pages, attaching that Folio to every iPad image. Officially it is an “accessory”, but apparently the Marketing doesn’t think so and presents it as an obligatory part of the iPad like in a desktop or laptop computer. If I have to buy something that looks like a laptop and requires a desk to be used then I would buy a laptop !..

AppleInsider said:

Like the 2013 Mac Pro, Ive's notable errors reflect a preoccupation with beauty that eclipses functionality. His worst work is in building mice that are refined down their most basic design elements until they are just really shitty to use. Perhaps a fresh approach would create an entirely new kind of pointer that worked exceptionally well, even if it didn't look like a beautiful mouse at all.

Reductio ad absurdum

I liked that mouse. No, not for the sake of saying something controversial but really it was a pleasure to use it provided that you are not "holding it wrong". The mouse moves mostly in circular paths on the table, this might be the reason of why the shape of the mouse matches its movement. It is relatively easier to move a circular mouse in circular movements than a rectangular mouse. One downside is that you may lose the orientation of the mouse during that movement, but no, this is not a totally free movement, it is controlled by the orientation of the cable, it was easier to reacquire orientation than losing it.

But then enter  people's habits and muscle memory... Just like today's users stroking their keyboards to the extreme because mechanical typewriter keys had a long travel path, the users of that mouse were trying to "grab" or "catch" it to the extreme, because they were used to PCs' brick size mice. You don't grab that mouse, you don't hold it in the palm of your hand, it moves freely under your fingers. Your wrist rests on the table, then your fingers move to drive the mouse: a way to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome because your wrist is not elevated. It is one of Ive's most clever creations not appreciated by the "clients"... But, that's business, ingratitude is part of it.

DAalseth said:

Ive has been great, but I truly believe his best designs and ideas came when he had Jobs there to balance his ideas with practical common sense. His original iMac, the iterations that followed, those were clever, creative, and functional. In the last few years we have thinner and thinner at the expense of keyboards that are comfortable to use. We have flat color schemes that are simply less user friendly. We have less interesting designs now that Ive does not have Jobs to push back. 

I wish Ive well, but I'm very interested in what the new blood in the design office does. We won't see what that is for three or more years, but it will be interesting.

Thanks to Ive, the necessary interface changes required by the high resolution Retina display has been achieved the best way, considering the absence of Steve Jobs. Thinness is not an artist snobbism, it is an engineering requirement for the dissipation of heat. Take the Watch, for example, reminds me of Jethro Tull’s album Thick as a Brick. Take the Pencil 1, not thin not short, thick and unnecessarily long. Design must bow to engineering requirements. Regarding keyboards, the repair statistics are there, and Apple certainly makes the necessary changes as new statistics emerge.

There will be no new blood etc. The designs in these markets are exhausted until the release of a breakthrough new invention. Of course one can always come with a steampunk or really cyberpunk computer or smartphone design (with or without Alcantara cloth). Those can only be niche ephemeral products and Ive or Apple wouldn’t deal with these.