The steady decline of Apple's greatness

fury

Administrator
Staff member
Just read this article on Business Insider: Apple Is Following Microsoft's Path In Alarming Ways

I have been thinking many of the same things as in this article.

I have been impressed with Apple products for a long time now, and have been a customer several times as well. My user interface design thought process has been heavily influenced by iPhones since 2007. Simple, clean, intuitive, and responsive. Without a bunch of unnecessary cruft.

But I've noticed a dramatic turn for the worse as of late, ever since they started doing what the blogosphere likes to call "skeuomorphism" in some of their offerings. It's this thing where they try to design the user interface for some new digital thing based on an old familiar metaphor, like a tape player or a leather folio or a jukebox.

Apple's podcasts app is, in my view, one of the most hideous examples

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1348428676.063816.jpg

You can argue that bringing an old interface into the new provides some familiarity, an anchor point. I'll buy that. But making the entire now playing UI look like a giant old reel to reel? Who in this day and age that listens to podcasts even had one? I'll bet not many. And it doesn't add anything to the experience. Spinning wheels tell you it's playing...well, you could've figured that out by whether you were hearing any sound. The thickness of the tape on either reel hints at how much of the episode has played, meanwhile the venerable progress indicator shows the exact amount of time, making the whole tape metaphor completely useless.

There's a bunch of crap that I don't find necessary or cool in Apple's latest software, and I think it's taking them a lot of time to dress it up that could be better spent making a good, usable app. I don't know who got put in charge of software design at Apple, but they need to be pulled off of it pronto.

Another example...the App Store on iOS 6 seems to be fairly shoddy. I'm sitting there trying to update a few apps (I don't want to update all of them at once) and it locks up and becomes unresponsive after a few button presses. Where has Apple's amazing attention to detail gone? Something like that never would have slipped through the cracks before Steve Jobs left the world.

I've been using an app called Podcaster 5 on my iPhone for a while now, and while it isn't perfect by any means, it's the best I've found so far. It's a digital interface, unencumbered by throwbacks to tape players or radios. I can mix video and audio podcasts together in a playlist, play everything at increased speed to pack even more information into my stuffed brain, and even get show notes and information about the show's hosts. It's a modern app designed for people who use a modern computer.

Maybe Windows Phone 8 will be the next UI from which I take my cues. Apple's starting to go down a path I can't in good conscience follow.
 

fury

Administrator
Staff member
It conforms to fit your body!

Turns out large super thin phones bend...doesn't even matter what logo they have on em. My Galaxy Note 2 sports a nice little diagonal curve.

I keep telling Apple every year, stop making the damn things thinner and thinner and thinner, and they're not listening to me. Fucking pisses me off. If they'd kept it the same thickness as the 3GS (or, gasp, maybe even just a tad more) and just filled the empty space with battery, it'd be more comfortable to hold and I could actually use the phone without being tethered to the charger. I have to carry 4 external battery packs ranging from 6000-10000 mAh nowadays because the damn thing doesn't last but 2-5 hours.

Sigh. At least they backpedaled on that user interface design. That shit was ugly.
 

Professur

Mushroom at large
If you ever break the glass on it .. let me know. I'm working a fleet of thousands of the damn NoteII .. broken glass has become my specialty.

If I was to buy a phone myself .. I think I'd have to go with the Blackberry Passport. Something that ugly has got to be good.
 

Noite Escura

The unpredictable
Those fu**ing things are too blackbox for my taste. I like having control of what I put and where I put in the damn thing. Even if it does crash a little more. My actual date has an Iphone 4S and I get angry every time I have to setup that bugger
 

Huge

Holla if you hear me!
Staff member
Steve is rolling around in his grave.

Mind you, the iphone is the only Crapple device I own; won't touch that android malware infestation or what Microsoft thinks you should be using. I think I will hold on to my 5S/7.x ios a little while longer.
 

Professur

Mushroom at large
Unfortunately a victim of HP's acquisition dept. Buy anything you can, whether or not we know what to do with it. Then realize it's not in our scope and kill it off.
 

Professur

Mushroom at large
If I was to buy a phone myself .. I think I'd have to go with the Blackberry Passport. Something that ugly has got to be good.


Sounds like quite a few others have the same idea...

BlackBerry, which began its comeback in earnest this week with a bizarre new square smartphone, posted narrower losses on slightly lower revenue in the quarter ending 30 August. Its hardware division was back in the black after five quarters of losses.

To see how far and how fast BlackBerry fell, see our analysis from earlier in the week.

The Canadian enterprise company aims to break even on cash flow by middle of next year – the end of its fiscal year. It lost $207 million (non-GAAP) or $11m (GAAP) in Q2 2015, on earnings of $916m. That’s compared to $966m revenue bagged in the preceding quarter, which yielded a GAAP profit of $23m. BlackBerry maintains a significant warchest: with $3.1bn in cash. The difference between GAAP and non-GAAP includes charges to its redundancy program, which is now compete – so that should help the bottom line.

CEO John Chen said BlackBerry had received 200,000 orders for its striking square “WTF-phone” (WTPh? - Ed) even though significant carrier-supported distribution hasn’t started yet. (You can order them via disties and direct from BlackBerry). The device is aimed at enterprises and professionals who might consider a more business-like second device. BlackBerry will launch a more conventional QWERTY phone - the Classic - before the end of the year.

Hardware and services each contribute 46 per cent to BlackBerry’s overall revenue.

source
 

fury

Administrator
Staff member
I liked Palm...I was a half assed believer in webOS--I have a Palm Pre, Pre 2, even got the Veer just for funsies. It was one of those "close but not quite" things. Then HP came and fucked it all up.
 

fury

Administrator
Staff member
And by half assed, I mean I had one, but I didn't switch from my iPhone. Naturally.
 
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