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Apple looking to reimagine user interface in iLife apps?

Friday, February 1, 2013 · 1:00 pm · 41 Comments

“Apple is recruiting for two Senior Software Engineers for the iLife development team and is looking for individuals who will be able to help ‘re-imagine how user interfaces should be built and work,’” AppleBitch reports. “The positions, posted today and yesterday, are based in in the California Campus and seem to be focused upon reinvigorating the UI for the iLife suite, which incorporates iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.”

AppleBitch writes, “In the recent reshuffle of Apple’s Senior Staff, Jony Ive was given responsibility for Human Interface software teams in Apple, of which iLife will likely fall under his remit. It is likely, therefore, that the next major version of iLife will contain a significant UI revamp that reflects Ive’s design preferences.”

Full article here.

Categories: News

Tags: Apple job posting, Human Interface design, iLife, Jonathan Ive, Jony Ive, user interface

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Comment Feed

41 Comments

Toonces

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:03 pm · Reply

Oh Thank the Lord! Bring it on Jonny!
Nerd Beautiful

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:07 pm · Reply

Yeah, in 2015. Wtf? I have to wait most of a decade to get a decent iLife upgrade? Insanity. (In my dreams they were near the end of a refresh already. NOT JUST STARTING TO THINK ABOUT ONE!)
- Bizlaw
  
  Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:49 pm · Reply
  
  This may be thinking for the next, next major revision, not something which could come out soon.
cascadians

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:10 pm · Reply

1st request: Upgrades that do not delete entire libraries.
- max
  
  Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:34 pm · Reply
  
  2nd request. iPhoto can be stopped from doing that HD filling, useless facial recognition thing – surprising maybe, but, I don’t need a computer to recognize people I’ve taken a picture of.
  - Jim
    
    Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:40 pm · Reply
    
    The facial recognition software has been a real boon for what I have been able to offer in my business. With repeat customers I can offer comprehensive photographic record of change over time. When it was first introduced it was a business differentiator for me, now it’s a loyalty promoter among my installed base.
    - tbone
      
      Friday, February 1, 2013 - 4:25 pm · Reply
      
      Apple did not invent facial recognition. iPhoto isa wiseness for anything beyond as storage place for your camera pictures. Aperture is a piece of junk. Lightroom is marginally better.
      
      iView Media Pro was wonderful until MSFT ruined it.
      
      The interfaces for all of these products is overloaded with seldom used junk while real utility is masked by a confusing interface.
    - Jesse
      
      Friday, February 1, 2013 - 6:32 pm · Reply
      
      @Max – meet Jim. @Jim – meet Max.
      
      But I agree with Max – is there any undocumented tip to turn off face recog?
      - max
        
        Friday, February 1, 2013 - 6:44 pm · Reply
        
        In Support Community there are a couple of posts about deleting Faces.db and then locking it when it tries to rebuild – but I’ve not been able to get it to work.
        However my digital library has grown over 10 years and has been transferred between successive iMac’s and on each occasion the faces/transfer thing has gone berserk and repeated photos more than once and the faces has kick in and delivered thousands of thumbnails which then transfer to the next gen imac as pictures rather than thumbnails and get ‘faced’ yet again – creating thousands more faces – and when you try deleting the bloody things they just rebuild themselves like the replicants in the Matrix !!
G Spank

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:17 pm · Reply

YES Jony Ive made a nice improvement to the new iTunes, and it will get better. Just get rid of the old red, green, and yellow dots already!

All Apple needs to do is release the TV, and get it right, and from there just improve on the system and iCloud integration.

Having Ives primarily on software development is gonna ROCK.

And don’t count out Phil Ives, either, he came up with the scroll wheel on the iPod.
PLEASE

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:35 pm · Reply

iPhoto 11 is an abomination. Just try rotating some pictures – it is like a Windows programmer got hold of iPhoto 09 and reprogrammed it. Extremely userUNfriendly. And worst of all – you can’t downgrade to iPhoto 09 ….
- Bizlaw
  
  Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:50 pm · Reply
  
  Rotating photos works great with my magic trackpad.
- mtngoatjoe
  
  Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:03 pm · Reply
  
  I have to agree, rotating with the trackpad is very nice.
- PLEASE
  
  Friday, February 1, 2013 - 3:02 pm · Reply
  
  It works? Really? I select 10 pictures to turn. I have to hit the EDIT button (instead of in iPhoto 09 just the rotate button). Then only the selected pictures are shown in a different “window”. I can’t select them all, I have to rotate them one by one! That’s ridiculous!
  
  Often used functions should be immediately accessible. This instead is criminally insane.
  - PLEASE
    
    Friday, February 1, 2013 - 3:08 pm · Reply
    
    P.S. Just tried again. The “Select All” menu is enabled but it is not selecting anything. That too is against Apple’s own user interface guidelines.
    
    iPhoto11 is crap.
    - DJ
      
      Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 7:02 pm · Reply
      
      Agree. ITunes too.
  - Jonathan
    
    Friday, February 1, 2013 - 4:24 pm · Reply
    
    command+r
    - chasinvictoria
      
      Friday, February 1, 2013 - 9:33 pm · Reply
      
      The actual problem is that the user is crap. As stated by Jonathan, cmd-r — which, incidentally, has ALWAYS been the command to rotate pictures. (hint: option-command-r rotates them counterclockwise, and yes it works in batches!)
      
      Conclusion: the problem is not iPhoto, the problem is an ignorant user with an attitude.
      - PLEASE
        
        Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 2:38 am · Reply
        
        I have been using Macs since 1987 and am doing the computer support for quite a few people. Calling me ignorant when you can’t even understand the problem is a bit rich.
    - Please
      
      Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 2:35 am · Reply
      
      I know the shortcut – BUT I CANT SELECT MORE THAN ONE PHOTO!
I-I-I

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 1:35 pm · Reply

i hope they re-imagine a way to bring iweb back to iLife
- Jim
  
  Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:38 pm · Reply
  
  While it might not mean much to the Facebook page creators out there like it would to you and me, I hope Apple makes web *site* design easy again (not web page design). I remember back in the days of the Macintosh Office we realized that with programs like Ready, Set, Go! we didn’t need to learn Postscript to get the most out of a LaserWriter; and then thinking that we shouldn’t have to learn HTML to get the most out of a web browser. Well I was sure proven wrong! But Apple has always had a way of looking at what the *user* is trying to do and elegantly accomplishing that on the back end. The existing crop of web site design tools are usually really pretty and have great tutorials that show off their templates really well, but rapidly break down when you’re trying to do things like site menus without having to drop into the underlying coding tools. Remember in iWeb not even having to think about your site menu?
  - I-I-I
    
    Friday, February 1, 2013 - 3:22 pm · Reply
    
    I miss iweb… there are similar apps, but no one is like iweb
  - Toonces
    
    Friday, February 1, 2013 - 5:36 pm · Reply
    
    Have you heard of Squarespace? It’s superior to iWeb in every way possible. What is it with this iWeb love affair. I just don’t get it. I love Apple’s software as much as the next guy, but iWeb was hobbled from the start. There are much better tools out there, and Apple knew that when they gave it the axe.
    - Jim
      
      Friday, February 1, 2013 - 5:50 pm · Reply
      
      I hadn’t! I’ll go take a look, so thank you. I had, just about a month ago, done the obvious search-term looking for what was out there.
    - Jim
      
      Friday, February 1, 2013 - 6:34 pm · Reply
      
      Well, so that’s not a fair comparison, in a way. Squarespace is a hosted solution with a monthly fee. iWeb let you create the pages you put on your web site provide as a part of your Internet Service Provider. Squarespace looks really nice, I’ll grant you. But it’s sort of like asking “what’s the love affair with cars when you can just call for a taxi?”
      - I-I-I
        
        Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 5:03 am · Reply
        
        yes! YOU ARE RIGHT!
z b

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:08 pm · Reply

i truly do hope that apple doesn’t continue to dumb down their products like they have with final cut and the removal of iweb.
ragarcia

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:12 pm · Reply

iPhoto used to be my favorite application of all time. Now I dread opening it because of how slow it is.
Macdude

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:21 pm · Reply

“i truly do hope that apple doesn’t continue to dumb down their products like they have with final cut and the removal of iweb.”
FCPX is Phenominal and sad you don’t get it. My workflow is faster then ever. It’s brand NEW software and will get even better with updates but currently is doing amazing things. iWeb, while I miss, was spaghetti code! And the iPhoto comments about rotating?! Seriously… Have you used a Mac before? You can rotate 4 different ways!!! And Faces is totally useful… I need all pictures of uncle joe for his 60th birthday to choose from. You’re gonna search all your Events for him or use Faces? Stop the asshat comments!!
RL

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:22 pm · Reply

What about iWork. It has been forever since they updated their business software. I know it might be expensive to dedicate a team to update it, like a couple million dollars. If you put out software Apple, own it and come out with regular updates.
mtngoatjoe

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 2:47 pm · Reply

Most of what I’d like to see are tweeks to the existing system.
1) Better database repair. I’ve been using iPhoto since v4, and I’m crashing all the time with less than 30K images. I’ve done everything recommeded to repair and fix, but nothing works.
2) Faces: I want to tag a person without iPhoto using that photo to help find other photos with that person. My daughter is 4 now. I don’t need iphoto thinking every new baby picture is a picture of her. I don’t need iPhoto using Halloween photos, or photos of the backs of people’s heads.
3) Better face detection, and easier tagging when iPhoto misses a face.
4) Better drag and drop to the finder. I don’t need a reduced quality photo if I drag it to the finder.
5) Find duplicates!
6) A favorites area on the Faces cork board.
7) A “Don’t Name” option for Faces. Basically, ignor this face and don’t try to match it to anyone. Don’t even look at it even if I search for un-named faces.
korgri

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 3:38 pm · Reply

They can fix (restore) iMovie to the last HD interface for starters. Then they could make iPhoto have an option
like Windows Office Picture Manager – where you can
manipulate the photos without having to import them.
Toonces

Friday, February 1, 2013 - 5:32 pm · Reply

As someone who has supported iWeb users in the past, all I can say is good riddance to iWeb. I don’t understand why anyone would want that POS software back.
Tactileman

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 12:03 am · Reply

Great I hope it doesn’t get the iTunes makeover. Apple has got to pull their finger out. It’s starting to look like Microsoft. You koolaid drinkers need to get a life Apple is in dismal shape with their software.
dave smith

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 1:55 am · Reply

I agree about the terrible software coming out of apple lately.

iPhoto-Many features used to be a single click and now require multiple clicks or a keyboard command as noted here. Why they removed buttons that did simple functions is beyond me, there’s lots of blank space at the bottom of the app.

iWeb-Software that worked perfectly fine. Why kill it? Because apple doesn’t provide a hosting solution anymore. No revenue stream=no product for us.

iTunes-What a travesty. Look in any mac forum and it’s full of questions on how to get the old interface back. It’s pretty universally hated. It is so much harder to find my content now than it used to be. A serious step backward.

Safari-what the hell? It used to run super fast but when they revamped it the last time they killed the speed. Any more than a few windows open and it crawls to a halt while other apps continue to work just fine. i.e., not the machine’s problem but the app’s problem. Choke choke.

iCal-Will they EVER update this into something decent? At least throw us a bone and go back to the last version.

AddressBook-Serious step backwards. Looks like crap and is much much harder to work with groups now. Confusing compared to the old app and adds no new features that I could find. Again, just move back to the last version and THAT would be an upgrade.

Mountain Lion-Mostly useless features and confusing changes that nobody asked for. Tons of people staying back at 10.6.8 because it works better but of course they miss out on the cloud goodness.

Apple needs to go back a few years and get lean and mean again. Make their apps work well and stop changing things just for the sake of change.
Grzioso

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 5:10 am · Reply

What about iDVD? why dont let this Apps to generate DVDs with HD contents as Toast does? Why don’t let iDVD burn o generate content for Blu-Ray?

Why don’t give iDVD a new name?

And YES there is A LOT of people world wide that need to BURN DISCS.

iLife is not only for Apple-newbies, iOS freaks or tech nerds.
- Levendis
  
  Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 11:23 am · Reply
  
  I agree! I wish they would bring back iDVD and “modernize” it a bit to be able to save it on Blu-Ray, also as a .mov file, an .avi file as well as on DVD with HD content!
  I still like to burn it on disks!
  Why can’t Apple do this?
Speedplay

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 6:40 am · Reply

And while Apple is looking for iLife engineers, it might also want to look for iWork engineers as well. I’m pleased to read that others who have posted here have noticed that iLife suffers from what appears to be the influence of MicroStupid geeks. Let’s hope that Apple is not looking for engineers whose mentality is tainted by MS indoctrination! Apple users want software programs that are intuitive and easy to use, not programs that are complicated, confusing, and counter-intuitive. iLife ’11 suffered was a victim of the aforementioned. Perhaps it’s time for Mac users to begin writing to the Apple Board of Directors to ask some serious questions about the direction and future of the Mac and quality Apple software (not the OS) to support it.
DJ

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 7:00 pm · Reply

They can for a start put back the elegance and ease into iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes.

Each recent iteration has reduced the functionality of these apps.
Derek Currie

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 11:59 pm · Reply

Yes, iLife apps. And everything else 3-D in the OS XI GUI. I’m not just guessing here!