tundraboy

Apple has been blamed for many things, but blaming it for one's own sociopathic toxicity is something I haven't heard before.

If you hadn't functioned without a moral compass for so long that billions of people have begun to notice it, don't blame someone else for people welcoming measures to evade your toxicity.

There is no understating how important Jony Ive was in Apple's recovery from its near death experience.  But there is only so much minimalism that you can do with products that are basically flat bricks with a screen.

Ive set the Apple design language (which is a great design language), then he went overboard when the iPhone got bendy, when pro users started complaining that there aren't enough ports for them to do their jobs properly, when the trashcan Mac overheated, and when the MacBook keyboards became as durable as an Italian sports car (or any Italian car, actually).  Under Ive, Apple was a mass marketer whose design chief thought he was still designing for a low-volume tech boutique.

I first suspected that Apple design was getting unmoored from Apple tech when the Apple Watch came out with a ten thousand dollar gold model that would be dated tech in one year.  I thought the gold model meant that Apple designed the watch to make the crystal, innards, and back of the watch upgradeable so that for around the price of the cheapest Apple Watch, you can upgrade your gold Apple Watch to the latest tech and thus be able to use it indefinitely.

What kind of idiot sells a $10K luxury watch that is last year's tech in one year and a useless lump of gold in 3-4?  Apple proudly advertised how they did a deep dive into the luxury watch market to learn from the established brands.  Did they not learn that with proper maintenance, a $10K Rolex you purchase today will still be running like new 50 years from now?  Wealthy people might not mind spending $10K on a watch but they do mind wasting $10K on anything.  That's one of the reasons they got to be wealthy.

As great as a designer Jony Ive was and is, it was time to go when form stopped following function at Apple.

It's the price, stupid.

When compact devices like smart phones move towards fully integrated solid-state construction, what will there be left to repair when something breaks?

At this point, repairability actually adds to the cost of manufacturing and impairs product quality.  Designed-in repairability will impair compactness, dust and water proofing, and assembly costs.  Not to mention security and privacy.  So most of us will be penalized with more expensive less capable devices just to benefit what is basically a minuscule cottage industry of repair outfits.

I am not saying that electronic junk is not a serious environmental problem but a long term solution doesn't lie in repairability.  Comprehensive, designed-in reduced material usage and recyclability is where the truly effective solution lies.

LimelightMuskoka said:

Mark my words it's a Mac Mini Pro with a HomePod built into the base. With Apple's low Power/Watt usage CPU's, it just doesn't warrant the refrigerator base. Then it hit me... it's full of speakers!!!  (Cue the 2001 Soundtrack!) It has many speakers in the base and those vents are not for heat but for SOUND. What if you took an original HomePod and Mac Mini Pro and put them together in a yummy Mac Studio Sandwich! Video professionals know that audio is KING and while the new displays are fantastic it also needs an elegant sound solution with the performance of the (original) HomePod.

Somehow, I am reminded of Calvin letting his imagination run wild dreaming up features for the space ship/gizmo/blaster he's designing.