Apple design - page 3

In 2016, Apple proudly unveiled a new MacBook Pro that rejected the HDMI port, the MagSafe charger and the SD card reader of the past. Fast forward to 2021, and the company just released new MacBook Pro models with an HDMI port, MagSafe and SD card reader.

Why the reversal? Apple’s head of design Jony Ive left in 2019 after decades with the company. His tendency to push form over function led Cupertino down the wrong path in many ways. And Apple is just now undoing mistakes Ive was responsible for. Like taking out ports that most buyers wanted.

Apple Watch Series 7 may see the wearable’s most significant design change since the first iteration came out six years ago. The folks at phoneArena.com put together a set of 3D renders showing off the possible new look.

YouTube channel ChargerLAB got its hands on Apple’s new MagSafe Battery Pack and gave it the teardown treatment to see what secrets it contains.

The video, which you can check out below, shows off the magnetic battery pack’s dual-cell design. It looks like it essentially contains twin iPhone batteries — providing a total power output of 11.13Wh, based on two 3.82 volt batteries (7.62 volts combined).

The next-gen Apple Watch could get a huge makeover, with a new, flat-edged design and a green option reminiscent of the AirPods Max.

The redesign would bring Apple Watch into line with the flatter design language and form factor of current-gen Apple products including the iPhone 12, iPad Pro and iPad Air. Apple tipster Jon Prosser revealed the info about the upcoming wearable, likely to be marketed as Apple Watch Series 7, on an episode of his Genius Bar podcast with Sam Kohl.

Apple’s debut M1 iMac is a winner, according to the first wave of reviews that arrived Tuesday. The first iMac redesign since 2012 earns praise for its ultra-thin looks, its gorgeous 4.5K display and its M1-powered performance.

T3 hails it as “the world’s coolest desktop.” While it seems likely that other, better M1 Macs will follow — especially for power users who need a bit more oomph — the new 24-inch iMac certainly lives up to the hype.

Apple is holding its iPad wrong. The company designs its tablets as if the best way to hold one is in a portrait orientation. But landscape is actually more common, and Apple should make changes to the iPad’s design to reflect that.

The iMac Pro was sleek and fast and capable and ultimately … uninspired.

That’s Cult of Mac writer Luke Dormehl’s take on Apple’s recently expired pro all-in-one. He serves up a compelling “Dear John” letter to a weird period in Mac history. And it doubles as a lovingly hopeful look at what the future holds.

If you want to peer even deeper into the Cupertino crystal ball, we’ve got a hot mess of new rumors and leaks this week as we speed toward a probable Apple event on March 23. Catch up with this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it to enjoy on iPhone or iPad, or get the stories below in your browser.

The iMac Pro is seemingly nearing the end of its natural lifespan — and good riddance to it.

In fairness, the iMac Pro was not a bad computer. It was even, technically, a pretty great one. But it epitomized an era of Mac design that may have been the most uninspired and directionless in Apple history.

Something weird is brewing in Apple land. The company, which for years wasn’t big on embracing its past, has gone retro.

While the innovations — ranging from the first 5G iPhones to the exciting new Macs powered by Apple’s proprietary processors — keep coming, Cupertino is reportedly revisiting some of its past designs for its next generation of products.

And you know what? I like it.

AirPods Max are controversial for a number of reasons. For one, there’s the $550 price tag. But the odd-looking case Apple designed for these over-the-ear headphones also drew plenty of mockery.

The designers of AirPods Max defended their creation in an interview published Thursday.

“You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!”

That’s the Charlton Heston-pounding-his-fist-dispairingly-into-the-sand sentiment that shot through my mind when I saw what Apple did to the Clock app in iOS 14. Specifically, Apple ruined the app’s alarm feature, making it so unintuitive that you’ll struggle to believe it was made by the company that coined the phrase “it just works.”

How did Apple manage to take an app that worked spectacularly well and screw it up?

When it comes to design, Apple’s not a lazy company. Cupertino sweats the small details, which — like that anecdote about Van Halen’s “no brown M&Ms” concert rider — shows it sweats the big details, too.

That’s why Apple fans seem so surprised to see that the icon for macOS Big Sur’s Digital Color Meter has something, well, just a little off about it. Can you see what’s wrong?

There’s a lot to love about macOS Big Sur, but one thing that’s dividing Mac fans is its redesigned app icons. Some look good enough to eat. Others are so ugly they’ll make you want to use Windows (not really). And some have simply lost some of their charm as a result of simplification.

What do you think of Apple’s new desktop icon designs so far? Check out all of them right here.

Which iMac design stands as the best ever? Apple has unleashed some pretty radical revisions to its all-in-one computer over the years, and we ranked them all.

Find out which iMac came out on top in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. You can download it now from the iOS App Store. It’s stuffed with the latest Apple news, reviews and how-tos (plus some cool new Apple concepts). Or you can read the week’s top stories in the link roundups below.

Quirky but excellent new book iBauhaus traces Apple’s design principles to a German design school nearly a century old. Written by art expert Nicholas Fox Weber, the book won’t appeal to everyone.

If you’re exclusively interested in behind-the-scenes details of how Apple makes and sells its products, this book probably isn’t for you. If you shuddered through Jony Ive interviews heavy on design-speak, this definitely isn’t the book for you.

However, a certain segment of readers — myself included — will find iBauhaus really enjoyable. And they will learn a lot about the design of the iPhone along the way.

There were tablet computers before the iPad, but they were thick plastic laptops with the screens reversed, with awful, bendy TFT screens. The first iPad seems thick and clunky now, compared to the latest ultra-thin iPads Pro, but at the time it felt like a slice of the future.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad a decade ago today, some critics wrote it off as “just a big iPhone.” The only thing was, a lot of people really wanted a big iPhone. And ultimately, the iPad changed mobile computing as we know it.

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is a sign of a fundamental shift at Apple: It includes a keyboard that makes this laptop slightly less stylish but more useful. It’s hard to believe this would have happened in the days when chief designer Jony Ive’s habit of putting form ahead of function still reigned supreme over all Apple’s products.

As Ive slowly exits the company, we’re already seeing products less willing to make compromises in functionality in order to get super-sleek looks.

Despite the endless disappointments with iPadOS 13, there’s still no way I’d switch to a MacBook right now. MacBooks (and MacBook Pros) were always the gold (or aluminum?) standard for laptops — reliable, well-designed and long-lasting. Reviewers would even recommend that PC users buy a Mac and install Windows on it via Boot Camp. But today, MacBooks problems abound.

Apple’s laptops are a sorry bunch. And it’s not just the troublesome butterfly keyboard. Every week, I read tweets and blog posts about freelancers and employees of big companies alike losing valuable time as their MacBooks go back for repair for the third or fourth time. So what is happening? What are the biggest problems with today’s MacBooks? And can these MacBook problems be fixed?

Hot dang, Apple’s still got it. The new AirPods Pro are fantastic.

They’re truly great headphones, and every major new feature improves on the old AirPods in big and significant ways.

• The sound is fantastic — a big upgrade.
• Their active noise cancellation is as good as Bose and Sony headphones (and maybe even better). Finally, you can use AirPods on airplanes.
• Transparency mode is weird magic.
• Best of all are the new Force Sensor touch controls, which take a minute to get used to but are way better than tapping. They’re my favorite new feature, and I burst out laughing with delight when I got the hang of it.

I freakin’ love the new AirPods Pro!

As an iPhone UI designer, you need to have a thick skin. First, you have to defend your idea internally at Apple. Then members of the public endlessly critique your work upon its release. The one thing you probably don’t expect, though? For the president of the United States to slam your painstaking creation.

That’s exactly what happened to former Apple user interface prototyping team member Linda Dong. In a Sunday tweet, she commented on President Donald Trump’s recent declaration about the iPhone X interface.

The send message button on the iPhone is misaligned and for most of us, a 3-pixel discrepancy won’t cause heartburn.

But a few designers are reaching for the antacids this week after one of their own pointed out the misalignment on Twitter.

Thanks to the recently launched iPadOS, I can finally do simple things on my iPad that I’ve always been able to do on my Mac. Like opening multiple documents in the same app, or installing fonts.

Trouble is, while these things are easy to do on a Mac, they’re fiendishly difficult with an iPad.

In the early days, everyone celebrated the iPad for being easier and more intuitive to use than a Mac. But as Apple crams in more features, that is no longer true. iPad is still easier to use for simple things, but it is much harder and more cumbersome for performing advanced tasks.

Did your Apple Watch’s Infograph face go monochromatic for seemingly no reason at all? If upgrading to watchOS 6 sapped your Apple Watch Series 4 of all its multicolored complications, there’s an quick way to bring back the glory … mostly.

It’s easy, but it’s not as obvious as it could be. Plus, some people aren’t happy about the way Apple changed the Infograph face’s customization options.

Apple’s redesigned Fifth Avenue Store reopens public tomorrow, bigger and better than ever. However, the landmark New York City store replaces a trademark Apple architectural design — the glass staircase — with a twist.

Does the above picture of a lotus seed pod freak you out? If so, there’s a chance you suffer from trypophobia, the fear of small holes in certain configurations.

You know what else apparently could trigger your trypophobia? The new iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Plus with its cluster of three lenses. And according to the doctor who published the first study of the phobia in 2013, that’s totally plausible.