And that may be the best summarization of the way that Apple seems to think about software on these devices: they believe apps should be optimized where really they should be reimagined.
Tag: Apple
iPad at a Crossroads
Jonathan Ive on products you can’t use
If you eat something that tastes awful, you assume the food’s bad. But when you use a product that you can’t use, you don’t assume it’s the product you assume it’s you.
Jonathan Ive – Vanity Fair conversation with Graydon Carter.
The Diminished iPad. Ben Thompson writes about the diminishing importance of the iPad. I love my iPad Mini as a reading device. But, I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the same level of necessity as my iPhone and MacBook.
Apple Watch. Gruber’s entire Apple Watch post is worth reading. Toward the bottom there’s a bullet point that really stood out to me:
Rather, I think Apple Watch is the first product from an Apple that has outgrown the computer industry. Rather than settle for making computing devices, they are now using computing technology to make anything and everything where computing technology — particularly miniature technology — can revolutionize existing industries.
Apple’s cloud
Around 11:30 today I dropped my iPhone from about six inches off the floor. It somehow landed in the one spot of the corner where the screen doesn’t crack or shatter but also isn’t quite whole. It looked as if the adhesive bonding screen and glass loosened.
By 12:10 I had a Genius Bar appointment. After talking with a wonderfully helpful employee I had a new phone in my hand for free. 40 minutes later it was as if I never dropped my phone in the first place.
iCloud made restoring that easy. Every application, every photo, every setting was right where I left it. I had to re-enter my password in a handful of apps and that was it.
Apple may have weaknesses in their web services, but the safety net iCloud provides feels truly magical.
What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong. Fantastic essay from Ben Thompson about Clayton Christensen, Apple, and theories of disruption.
Thomas Brand, writing about the importance of setting the right expectations:
The most valuable part of setting expectations is telling the truth, even if the truth means you don’t know, but are willing to find out. I am much more likely to remain a customer of companies that treat me with respect by setting expectations, and sticking to their word.
So true. Trying to set a false expectation or trying to cover up that you don’t actually know the answer may have short-term benefits, but in the end the customer will find out the truth. If you’re up front and honest with them from the start things work out much better.
This post from Marco Arment, about a less-than-stellar experience his grandparents had at an Apple Store, is such an important lesson to learn:
It wouldn’t be the first time a technology expert lacked empathy for a customer, or made bad assumptions about what would be fast and easy for the customer to do on his own — especially when deciding to perform an easy, predictable, cure-all “restore”.
Reminds me of something I wrote earlier this year about asking questions and avoiding assumptions. Spending the time to do something right matters much more than doing it quickly.
Status
Just updated to WP for iOS 3.1. Pretty solid improvement in things. I love that I can use post formats in the app now.
But when Apple announced the Retina MacBook Pro at WWDC, revamping all of my apps and my web site jumped to the top of my list of priorities…
Why? Because HiDPI customers may be a fringe group, but they are a forward-facing fringe. They represent the users of the future, and the more we cater to them now, the more deeply embedded our products and designs will be in their culture. The future culture.