Applevolution

Apple computer over the decades, got to love the 98 iMac! changed the way people viewed computers forever

Apple iPod Touch

I saw this in the newspaper this morning... and it just made my jaw drop, I had no idea that Steve Jobs had something like this up his sleeve, just when you thought your iPod Video was the best media player money could buy...behold the NEW iPod.

The new Apple iPod touch has features that just make the mind boggle, especially in a device that starts from as low as €299 for the 8gb model. (or if you happen to be passing through the US its is $299 which today converts to €218)

The new iPod at a mere 8mm thick, boasts what according to Steve is a "Gorgeous" (gotta love the enthusiasm eh?) 3.5 inch touchscreen that displays videos, photos, a version of iTunes and an extremely slick interface operated by the touch of your fingers.

Perhaps the most amazing feature, and my personal favorite is the ability to receive wi-fi signal and display it on the Apple web browser Safari (think Internet Explorer, but slightly better). This means that in your house, on the move, anywhere where there is an open wi-fi signal you can be surfing the web on your iPod touch.

My awe for this device is not entirely unconditional however. With battery life on my video iPod being so minimal, I find it hard to believe that a decent amount of audio playback hours will be achieved on a player that has to power a backlit screen twice as big as the previous one and support a fancy touchscreen interface to boot.

I also can't see the business sense behind releasing this new iPod, I personally believe this will take away some of the hype and buzz surrounding the iPhone as some of the big hitting features that people would have bought the phone for, can now be obtained at a much lower price with the iPod touch, some may argue that the two will compliment eachother, I predict cannibalisation of sales.

Despite having one or two reservations, I think this iPod will blow all competition out of the water and hang them out to dry, the iPod is dead, long live the iPod.

iPhone Cubed

I must admit, I am quite jealous of my buddy Luke who recently paid a visit to the California area and got his grubby little hands on a iPhone or two, and had a little mess around on them. Luckily rather than just gloat about it, he made me a short video of how the phone looks and in particular how my blog looks on the iPhone. (see the video below)

After seeing this, I am more than a little impressed, the phone itself looks really great and the interface is so slick and seamless, what’s more, I am entirely sure that I want one… NOW!!!

I would imagine that when the iPhone gets coupled up with a network provider over here in the emerald isle, they will sell like hotcakes. Over the past while I have seen a lot of blackberry phones, and as cool as they are, they are NOT iPhones. The one factor I would personally imagine being an obstacle is that because the front of the phone is solely a glass screen that typing will be quite hard due to the fact there are no physical boundaries between characters etc, but I wait to be proven wrong.

The cost of purchase and monthly fees are also mildly extortionate, but I am willing to bet my bottom dollar (or euro) that Apple will release a “dumbed down” version of the phone (one that doesn’t run a proper computer operating system) and then things will really explode.

Jonathan Ive, Apples forgotten saviour

Most people if asked, would put Apples success in recent years down to one man, Steve Jobs. I whole heartedly agree that Steve Jobs has been the driving force behind the computer company’s resurgence from its darker days, however, it would not be fair to over look the contribution of a certain Mr. Jonathan Ive, the chief designer behind so many of Apple’s products.

The London born designer and co founder “Tangerine” a design consultancy, was head hunted by Apple back in 1992 and went about designing computers that he thought would complete the user experience of using an Apple computer. Ive was responsible for the design of the iPod, iMac, Powerbook and the upcoming iPhone, and says that the projects have been developed with the intention of keeping in mind “ease and simplicity”.

A modest man, Ive rarely boasts of his exploits and remains relatively unknown to the general public, however his achievements have been recognised by
Industrial designers society of America – industrial design excellence

1. Design Museum – designer of the year 2002 and 2003


2. The Sunday times - one of Britain's most influential expatriates


3. Macworld – Joining company voted 6th most significant event in Apple history
   

So next time you use ur iPod or an admire the design of an Apple computer, keep in mind the man behind its design, Jonathan Ive.

Steve Jobs - "stay hungry, stay foolish"

I really admire Steve Jobs, if you don't know him, he is the CEO and founder of both Apple computer and Pixar and has been recognised worldwide as a truly great innovator (Apple recently voted worlds most innovative company for the 3rd year running by Fortune magazine) and marketer. However his path to success wasn't always so clear, and in his speech to graduating Stanford students in 2005, he tells the story of how he got to where he is now.
If you have some spare time I really would recommend you watch this video, a great speech and a great life message to take away from it.

Its simple, Right?

I must admit am a bit of a stickler for simplicity and efficiency, I think its because I am generally quite a lazy creature, and when someone is getting paid handsomely to design something, be it a product or a service they owe it to the end user to make it as easy to use and as straight forward as possible.

If you read through some of my other articles you may well have gathered that I am somewhat of a fan of Apple computers and their operating system, mostly because they have perfected the art of making features much easier to use and more visually pleasing.

Palm were a company that were extremely popular in the 90s and produced handheld computers that could compute to, at the time, reasonably high levels, for each model in the design phase, the company had a designated "click counter”. The post came about when the CEO at the tine Geoff Hawkins had declared that any application or feature that was more than 3 clicks away from the main screen, was just not good enough and would have to be re designed.
I was watching a presentation on the TED (technology, education & design conference – great stuff here) website, given by David Pogue a Technology writer for the New York Times today, and he gave a perfect example of a company that definitely do not count the clicks and keep simplicity in mind. Microsoft

Rather than adopt the "dock" system seen on Macs, windows are determined that to access a program stored on your computer, you shall be forced to go through multiple menus and options. We start at “START” then to “All programs” - then search through the list of applications. In osX, you move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and click, that’s all.

When i want to turn my computer off, i need to go to an button on the screen called... wait for it...START, then I need to go to shut down, once I am there I am presented with a box of options which I then must scroll though, there are only 4 options in the box, wouldn’t it be so much better if they just made a window which had 4 buttons, rather than a pop down list?

I know that this stuff isn’t hugely important in the grand scheme of things, and it wont make many people lose sleep etc, but I think when you are making a product, that will be used by millions, and especially when you are in competition with similar products, it is you duty as a designer to make things the best they can be.

The problem with Mac ads

I recently watched one of the many episodes of the “I’m a mac” ad series. To get things straight, I like macs…alot, and although some of the ads in this series are just not funny, I do like the way they poke fun at pcs and deliver them a much overdue comedic beating. However from a business perspective there are numerous problems with the whole series of ads, some of them very fundamental in nature.

I personally like them because I understand them, and I think they cater to the whole Apple “in joke” brand of humour. However for your average computer user, who we can presume is relatively computer ignorant, the ads serve no real purpose at all. They don’t inform or persuade in any meaningful manner, conversely if we look at a typical Dell ad, it tells us what we get, when we’ll get it, and what a great deal we are getting. And obviously this has brought them great success, where as Apples “we’re cooler than thou” approach has had relatively limited success.

The most fundamental problem lies with who they are aiming these ads at.
The ads essentially act as funny little shorts that provide light entertainment for Apple fans, although amusing this is a true waste of advertising revenue. In case you didn’t notice, apple fans do not need to be convinced to go out there and buy an Apple computer anymore, they are preaching to the converted and fighting a war that for that person, has already ended. Apples hardware and software do all the marketing it needs to KEEP customers, and they do not need to run smug reminders to retain their loyalty.

Should apple ever decide to make meaningful inroads into the home computer market they will need to adopt a new marketing approach, I’m not suggesting they go out and out “Dell” on us but they need to adopt an advertising method that can inform the Appleaphobes among us what they are missing out on, rather than insult (that’s no way to make new friends) or worse tell them nothing at all.

Faces of Success

McDonalds, Apple, YouTube, Goooooogle