“Even as eye candy has been added to the Mac interface, basic functionality critical to data integrity and reliable operation have been subtracted,” Robin Harris writes for ZDNet. “Is this Apple’s design chief Jony Ive’s fault?”
“I used to hang with industrial designers, and I appreciate the creativity and deep knowledge of industrial technology that the best of them have,” Harris writes. “But they aren’t software engineers.”
“In the last 10 years disk capacities have grown 100x and many users have 10s of thousands of multi-megabyte image, music and video files,” Harris writes. “For example, Mac OS X is still relying on the much-patched 1980s file system technology of HFS+ – something they planned to replace years ago.”
Harris writes, “Apple has plenty of money and expertise to fix these problems, but it will take sustained effort and attention from top management – including Mr. Ive – to fix these problems on the OS X and iOS. Mr. Ive is particularly important because he’s been given significant software responsibility by Tim Cook.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jony Ive is providing leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across Apple Inc. in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design. Apple’s software engineers are responsible for the underlying technologies (file systems, etc.), not Mr. Ive.
Opinions are like assholes…
I read the article and comments. Its worse than that. LOL.
An author who wants to bitch about how Apple should be perfect and a bunch of Windows lovers who just want to play with the system and patch things.
I would say its a hit piece.
Just a thought,
en
@ Elder Norm, thanks for the tip. I was going to go read the source article but you’ve saved me the trouble.
Regardless of his role, he has only just taken it, he’s had nothing to do with any shipping software, so any issues are nothing to do with him, how could he possibly be killing the Mac?
I was thinking the same thing… This seems to have no basis.
Robin, you stupid fuck, shut your assdumb trap and go back to flipping burgers.
heh heh, thats what she said…
How about taking your foul posts elsewhere? You are just a vociferous nasty person and we don’t deserve to be subjected to your wrath.
You just proved even a douche can use a thesaurus. Well done.
MDN is an intellectual gutter to begin with. You need to stop getting so fucking worked up over the way people express themselves.
Wow! You really showed me the error of my ways. Good for you. You even managed to stick in a little barb by using the ‘f’ word. How creative.
Phuk yeah. Is that “creative” enough for you?
Some people are able to achieve a certain level of class and you sure show your capacity here.
When you do nothing but whinge about people swearing on the Internet, all that you accomplish is to make yourself look like an insufferable douchebag. I am not a very creative person, but thanks for the fucking compliment.
You have my condolences. I hope you can move up a level or two in your capacity to express yourself in an educated respectful way soon.
@x
Do you really believe you accomplished anything with your post? Do you think we all have new found respect for you because you can vomit curse words?
What functionality is this guy talking about?
I’m hopeful Ive will cure the skeumorphic design disease infecting Apple. I wasn’t a fan, but neutral until the other day when I opened the page layout tools for Pages on the iPad. It changed to something that looks like a blueprint. Not only disconcerting, but wrong. Light tables used for page layout don’t look like blueprints, which use an outdated technology invented in 1861 to produce copies of engineering or construction drawings. It is just a wrong-headed paradigm impersonation when used to represent page layout tools..
Skeuomorphic. And there’s nothing wrong with it. I like it. It looks better than Microsoft’s turd of tiles.
I love the skeumorphic stuff. The blueprint represents the fact that you are building some structure. This is quite apt for this part of pages.
Just pointing out that there are people like me who have a totally different view than you. Best idea would be to give an option….Skeumorphism ON/OFF.
Some skeumprphic design elements are OK, some are a little goofy and some are just wrong.
OK – page turn animations when reading books (help the user with the process
goofy – leather covered address book or notes folder (useless eye candy that takes time to code and introduces more opportunities to get code wrong)
wrong – something that looks like a blueprint when the real world equivalent does not (can’t even claim to help by making the appearance like familiar tools used in the task)
You just don’t need a lot of decoration that serves no functional purpose. KISS always works.
I think a few whimsical skeumorphic design elements helps to make the experience a little more personal and dare I say it – “fun”.
As long as they don’t actively DETRACT from getting the task at hand done (and in a few instances some of them currently they do) then I am all for their use, and prefer them over just a plain, sparse interface. If everything was just grey and flat shaded throughout the entire UI, it would drive me crazy, even if I could still get my work done.
And I especially dislike the forced attempts at making things look “high tech” – I really dislike it when people apply their geek sci-fi predilections to UI elements. I’ll personally take common and familiar objects over neon green swooshes and obnoxiously random geometric shapes any day.
Don’t disagree. It just isn’t needed at every turn in every app. Sparseness is good if you need to have a lot of information in a limited area, but even there a touch of color or some other device for emphasis can be good. But some Apps (not just Apple) get into what seems to be clutter for clutters sake. The ones that avoid the trap become standouts. My favorite sketching app is Paper by 53, very skeumorphic but simple to use. Or “Check the Weather” simple, but useful.
Agreed. When done properly, skeumorphism can be wonderful. When it is overdone, it can be horrible.
The whole point is to express something NEW with something OLD.
What would the “REAL WORLD” skeumorphic equivalent be for layout…..MS word? Well even that is old now I guess. Well maybe you mean something newer than that even? Well….. then that would be NO skeuomorphism at all.
So, lets not quivil quiviran, the newer you get the more you get to the NO skeumorphic case. And yes, I know it’s quibble and not quivil.
While the article sited appears to be pure troll bait, I, too, am concerned Apple is sacrificing functionality for design. I love the look of the new iMacs, but if Apple gave me the choice of one of the new thin iMacs, or a thicker iMac with a built-in optical drive and a case that is easier of a user to open and replace drives, I would take that choice in a second. Of course, I realize that I am in the small minority and making a different model for geeks like me would be expensive and the computers offered would cost more. But I would be willing to pay a stiff surcharge for the features I want. I also want a better way to use use the LCD panel down the line. I had a Sony Trinitron TV for twenty years. The image was as gorgeous the day I gave to my mother-in-law as the day I bought it. It pains me to no end to realize the iMac screen will probably be useable only as long as the iMac itself is functional. If the iMac was designed to be converted into a general purpose monitor with standard parts that could be repaired, the cost of the iMac would be so much easier to swallow.
So much nonsense. So little time.
Thew HFS+ file system works fine. Allocation blocks are sensibly distributed. Everyone clamors for ZFS et al without considering that these technologies give NOTHING to the average user. Not ready for primetime.
Go back to your comic books.
Well said.
HFS+ is still fine for now. If ZFS or similar was ready we would have it. It will come when it is sensible to do so, Apple never has been shy of dumping old tech way before others so there is a good reason why HFS+ is still here.
The bloated file size (in HFS ) of tiny files was a much more significant issue before drives became so big. Apple really should take responsibility for curing all the ills of the computing universe. Why not make them responsible for curing cancer too. Jonny come lately you must really suck for not having fixed my toast by now. You’ve had a couple of months already.
Why don’t these real tall dids that write this stuff work on a little accuracy in their writing?
HFS+ may be outdated, but the “80s” statement is completely irresponsible “editorial” writing. HFS+ was released on January 19, 1998 in OS 8.1. Get your facts straight. ALL of them. Then maybe we’ll listen to you pontification a little closer.
Well said MDN
Ives will be an inspirational Art/Creative director steering the changes not making them.
He’s killing the mac, in a sense. His love for design and new manufacturing processes are making Macs harder to build and service. If you design things in a way that makes a product difficult to manufacture, this is a problem. Jony seems to be doin this more and more. The iPhone 5 and the iMac are both reportedly not be produced fast enough. This hurts sales, financials, and the stock price. I’m sure some won’t agree, but why does i matter how much an iMac weights? If it is an inch thicker… What does it matter?
“….why does i matter how much an iMac weights? If it is an inch thicker… What does it matter?”
Unfortunately these are the kind of things that people only appreciate when they become used to them. Then they say the opposite.
It’s a desktop. How often do you move it? Is this a reason to reduce the number of units you can make? Is this a reason to earn less money? Someone needs to put Jony on a leash.
the SVP for Mac Software engineering is Federighi (the dude who did OSX Mt. Lion )
He’s a SVP just like Ive.
I’d be happy just to get TRIM support from non-Apple SSDs.
What’s this Mr. Ive all about???
He is
SIR – and well deserved.
Every day a new article on what’s wrong at Apple! If only simplistic observations told the whole truth: Life is far more complicated than black and white scenarios. Having said this, let me be clear: I have used Apple computers for years and have never questioned Apple’s commitment to quality computers. However, over the last several years, I’ve become very uncomfortable with continuing Apple’s commitment to its computers. Part of my concern resides with two factors: Apple seems to be drifting toward becoming a new AT&T, i.e., Apple Telephone and Tablet, moving slowly away from the computer; and, Apple seems to be driven by greed, i.e., money produced refreshing every thing it manufacturers as quickly as it can to generate profit. In regard to the first point, Apple appears to be obsessed with the iPhone and iPad, which appears to get its nearly undivided attention. And to the second, money appears to be the driving force these days at Apple based on the iPhone and iPad. Albeit Apple continues to produce excellent computers, where are the products that they support: To wit, how many Thunderbolt devices are there? How many USB devices exist? The so-called “superdrive” is sadly outdated. Pages is languishing into irrelevance despite the outcry from a chorus of software users who have literally begged Apple for an upgrade its nearly four year old iWork suite. And these are just a few of the issues we computer users are concerned about. If the day ever comes when Apple
kills its computers in place of a “computerized” iPad, many like me will abandon their loyalty to Apple, which has turned a deaf ear to its computer loyalists.
Jony Ive killed the Mac — for some people, not all — way back in 2007 when he deleted the anti-glare option from iMac. No debate that many people love glossy screens, but it’s also no debate that a large minority of people need glossy screens, in, not all, but some specific environments. Glossy is great, indeed superb, when you can control ambient lighting. I myself have access to a glossy-screen iMac in my household, and the glossy screen is superb when we align the iMac perpendicular to the sunny window. But in a fully sun-lit room, with windows on three sides of the room, with a sun-filled garden view on all sides, the iMac screen turns into a massive mirror. In that specific environment, the iMac is a total piece of junk solely because of the glossy mirror. Even the latest so-called 75% less reflective 2012 iMac still acts as a mirror in those environments. So, for people who need to use their iMacs in those environments, the iMac was killed off my Jony Ive. Don’t think that everyone can alter the positioning of their iMacs. If you’re a minion in a corporation, and are given a specific desk in a specific alcove, you don’t get to tell the boss to give you a different room simply because your iMac has a glossy screen. You suck it up and stay in the desk that you’re given. Likewise, with people with houses with multiple windows, why can’t people like that be entitled to use iMacs too? So just because YOUR environment is perfect for mirror-iMacs doesn’t mean everyone else’s environment is likewise suitable. And just because your eyesight is not damaged by the glare, just wait 30 years and there’s a strong likelihood that your eyes will also be affected by glare. Remember, everyone, including you, gets old. You don’t think so, and you think you’ll be young forever, but, hey, even Madonna with her macro diet is getting old too. So don’t be too hasty to slam people that need anti-glare screens on their desktop Macs. When you think of it, with a cash stash of $130 billion, it’s just ridiculous that Apple won’t supply anti-glare screens on any of its desktop gear. It’s some inane decision by Jon Ive to have a nice shiny object that’s equivalent to a work of art, rather than a practical piece of computer equipment that we use to get work done in our life. Where’s the justice in life? … when Jony Ive and Tim Cook grow older in about 1.5 decades, and their eyes start to deterioriate, and they find they need non-glare screens. At that time, around 2027, that’s the pay-day when they realise, oh my gosh, we inflicted the Apple community with these glare-screens. When Jony Ive and Tim Cook need anti-glare screens around 2027, when their old eyes are shot to pieces, maybe there’s some payback.
I’d be happy if they just fixed some of the quirks & problems in the Finder. Case in point: Since Snow Leopard (I think), if you’re in a Finder window that some app is adding files to (as in downloading multi-part binaries), AND you’re trying to select one or more items, it’s like playing Whack-A-Mole. The window scrolls whenever a new file is added, making it difficult if not sometimes impossible to select what you point at. And I don’t have enough room here to complain about Quicktime 7 vs QT 10. They crippled it.
In Finder, if you want all the fonts to be of a certain size, you select the font size and click – “use as defaults” – thinking that all the fonts in Finder will then be that size. No, it doesn’t. Since Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion, they haven’t fixed this bug. Search for it in Google, and you’ll see people grappling with this silly bug. C’mon Apple. Several years, a few iterations of the OS, and still not fixed? Truly, some things don’t matter if the money is rolling in.
Anal-yst