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.
Don’t expect too much from Apple’s first virtual reality headset. A new report warns that Cupertino’s first stab at a wearable VR system, which could come in 2022, will be expensive with a limited set of capabilities.
The device is believed to be designed primarily as a “niche precursor” to more ambitious AR/VR glasses that Apple plans to launch later.
Since leaving Apple in the middle of last year, Sir Jony Ive has launched a new design agency, LoveFrom, and taken on clients including Airbnb. Now he could be headed for the figurative driver’s seat at Ferrari — as the Italian luxury carmaker’s next CEO. Possibly.
According to a report from Reuters, Ive — by far the best-known designer in Apple history — is in the running to take over as Ferrari’s next CEO. Given Ive’s love of high-end cars, that has to be a job he would be tempted by!
This week on The CultCast: The reviews are in, so let’s talk about iPhone 12! Plus: The honest truth about iPhone 12’s 5G; the original HomePod gets powerful new features, and Jony Ive gets a brand-new job.
And now, The CultCast has video! Or subscribe to our audio episodes if you don’t like our faces.
Sir Jony Ive, who once headed up the design of all Apple hardware and software, is now working on future Airbnb products. His design company, LoveFrom, will collaborate over the next several years with the vacation rental service.
Apple’s VR and AR headset ambitions fueled a clash between Apple Technology Development Group executive Mike Rockwell and former design boss Jony Ive, who left Apple last year, a new Bloomberg report claims.
The article traces the development of an Apple VR and AR headset to late 2015. It claims Apple dedicated up to 1,000 engineers to work on a project aiming to be the first major new product since the Apple Watch. However, the project has been subject to disagreements about its direction.
Apple’s Information Systems & Technology division (IS&T) has come under scrutiny in a new book that analyzes the business practices and cultures of America’s biggest tech companies.
Scoring a coding job at Apple is a dream gig for most developers, but an excerpt from Alex Kantrowitz’s book, Always Day One, reveals that if you accept a job on the IS&T team, you better be ready for “a Game of Thrones nightmare.”
You’re at home with time to ponder stuff. That’s what industrial designers, including legendary former Apple design chief Jony Ive, do for a living.
This week, you can take a free peek inside the head of Ive and other renowned designers with the documentary Objectified.
Jony Ive has been largely quiet since his departure from Apple was first confirmed back in June. But now Ive has resurfaced — through a charitable contribution to the Daily Mail newspaper’s orchard-planting campaign.
Ive, who was instrumental in placing trees into Apple Stores, has donated 100,000 British pounds ($131,000) to the paper’s Be A Tree Angel campaign. Ive’s contribution will enable 1,000 orchards to be planted in 1,000 schools across the U.K.
Former design chief Jony Ive today disappeared from Apple’s leadership page after leaving Cupertino.
Ive joined Apple in 1992 and led its design team from 1996. He is credited for helping rescue the company from the brink of bankruptcy with a slew of iconic products.
It’s not quite the end of Ive’s relationship with Apple, however. His own design company, LoveFrom, will hold the iPhone-maker as one of its primary clients.
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.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max promises up to five hours more battery life than the iPhone XS Max that precedes it. That’s around a 33% increase1. This battery boost could come down to a more efficient OLED screen, a bigger or better battery, a more efficient processor, or — most likely — a combination of these factors.
But whatever the reason, this marks the first time iPhone battery life jumped so much in one generation. Usually, the iPhone sacrifices any excess battery life to get thinner or lighter. And yet the iPhones 11 Pro come in heavier and a hair thicker than their iPhone XS predecessors. What’s going on? Has Jony Ive’s reign finally ended?
The Apple Card isn’t just another credit card. Apple is a hardware company, after all, so its card is special, mkay? If Jony Ive hadn’t disappeared from the Apple lot, then we’d probably even have a Making Of video, with Whispering Joni1 burning with quiet passion about how this is the thinnest, strongest card that Apple has ever made. How Apple’s designers needed to invent an entire new production process to recycle titanium plates reclaimed from broken legs. Etc.
So, if you have an Apple Card, Apple wants you to treat it with respect. And that’s why there is now an official support document telling you how to clean it.
Apple’s removal of the pricey Designed by Apple in California book from its online store marks the end of an era.
Apple released the book, which retailed in two sizes for $199 and $299, in November 2016. The retrospective paid homage to the design work of Jony Ive since the late 1990s. Now that Ive is no longer at Apple, the company seemingly decided to draw a line under the book as well.
Jony Ive told the world in June he’s ready to stop being Apple’s Chief Design Officer but it seems likely he told his employers months before that. New research shows Apple went on a hiring spree in its design department early this year.
At the same time, the company has apparently been following a general “fewer suits, more hoodies” hiring strategy.
When Apple’s Chief Design Officer announced he’s leaving the company, he also said it was to start his own design firm. Jony Ive began has begun making that plan a reality, as he filed a trademark for the name of his new enterprise.
Apple operations chief Jeff Williams is the most important person at the company after CEO Tim Cook, according to a new report.
Williams, who has also taken over Apple’s design studio following the departure of Jony Ive, is thought to be first in line to replace Cook when the time is right.
“He’s very much in the mold of the current chief executive: a paragon of operational efficiency and even temper,” said several current and former colleagues.
The iconic rainbow Apple logo that originated in 1977 could make an appearance on Apple products in the year 2019.
Apple killed the beloved rainbow logo in 1999 in favor of the single color used presently, but a new rumor claims the company is considering bringing it back.
It’s been more than a week since the shocking news that Jony Ive is leaving Apple, and everyone is still trying to make sense of what it means for the company’s future.
According to some, it’s an internal coup: Tim Cook’s operations team finally wrested control from Ive’s industrial design crew, and the company‘s glory days of innovation are over. Others claim Ive’s days have been numbered ever since his dream of a solid gold Apple Watch flopped.
How can there be so many conflicting accounts of one man’s departure? Surprisingly, it may be for the same reason that the final season of Game of Thrones sucked. It all boils down to how we tell stories.
Walter Isaacson says Apple has lost “these two spiritual soulmates who just lived and breathed the beauty of products.”
The Steve Jobs biographer believes the company still know how to execute, but that it has missed out on a number of opportunities for exciting new products — including an Apple TV set.
Apple’s COO Jeff Williams won’t take on the departing Jony Ive’s title of Chief Design Officer but he’s nevertheless stepping into the role.
A new profile in The Wall Street Journal quotes sources who question whether Williams has the vision to take Ive’s place. Even so, some are looking at this executive to someday replace CEO Tim Cook.
This week on The CultCast: A new report details why Jony Ive is departing Apple, and it paints a troubling picture. Plus, Leander tells us about the “fiddle factor,” the unique quality that made Ive our time’s greatest designer.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..
There’s a plenty of court intrigue about the reasons for Jony Ive leaving Apple.
John Arlidge, who interviewed Ive for the U.K.’s Sunday Times in 2013 and 2014, has an interesting take. In an article for Wired, Arlidge points out that Ive’s split from Apple comes at a time when it’s pivoting away from hardware.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is firing back on a report that surfaced over the weekend claiming design boss Jony Ive drifted away from the company.
Ive allegedly stopped coming into Apple HQ as frequently once the first Apple Watch launched, according to the Wall Street Journal‘s report. The newspaper also claimed Tim Cook’s inattentiveness to the design team caused the two sides to grow apart. Responding to an NBC reporter via email, Tim Cook said the story is “absurd.”
Unlike the way Apple used to brag about its record iPhone sales, the company never reveals how many units the Apple Watch sells.
According to a new report, there may be a good reason for this secrecy. In its first year, the device proved a big disappointment for Apple.