Seriously, look at the design of the invite. Calendar says Tuesday (October) 4th. Clock says 10am. Map app says this will take place at 1 Infinite Loop. And the Phone icon makes it clear this will be an iPhone event (rather than an iPod Touch / iOS event), with one unread notification alerting you that there is something you must pay attention to.
They say everything in 4 icons. So awesome.
I used to own an iPhone 3G and was pretty mad that the calendar icon changed day to day but the weather icon always showed 23 degrees C, sunny. So very frustrating, especially in winter when it's -35 and windy.
I now run Android and have Beautiful Widgets showing me the correct weather. :)
One is always predictable and one requires you to check for new information before you display it. The concern was definitely battery life & update frequency, so they just left it as a static icon.
The weather widget in iOS 5 is a better compromise, it just quickly grabs the weather info when you start pulling down the notification drawer.
If you change the region format from whatever you have to United States, it will however display 73 degrees F and sunny. I don't want to sound like a fanboy but this is some serious attention to detail.
It's not so much 'junk data' because it isn't perceived as data in the first place. It is still a good design decision because someone used to Fahrenheit wouldn't like seeing it was freezing outside, nor someone used to Celsius that it was boiling.
Your anecdote reminds me of when I think iOS4 or thereabout came out.
A friend was going nuts going OMG OMG THE WEATHER APP UPDATES LIVE NOW. It turns out it just happened to be 73 or whatever degrees out at the time after he updated.
For these small things like weather updates I agree that apple needs to allow developers to update the app icon or whatever with some alert system on the home screen. It wouldn't be overly difficult to implement.
I don't know though. I can see it from apples standpoint; think of the shit storm that would happen when a G rated app showed some x rated stuff on a update. If they want to keep the curated walled garden clean they would have to restrict it like crazy or have updates go through apple inc before approval.
Oh don't get me wrong I'm not saying they need to do this right this instant. But I think a bit of an expansion of the ios notifications to overlay some text over the icon would be a marked improvement over static icons.
I imagine Jobs will be there. He'll probably avoid the stage in order to not upstage Tim Cook's first big event but Cook may ask him to come out briefly at the end or they might do a call like you suggest.
I loathe giving this any more attention but I feel it is important to say that this is in no way a proof.
It’s very easy to look for supposed marks of manipulation and very easy to find many of them – even if nothing was actually manipulated. There are just too many weird artifacts and optical effects, not all of them are marks of manipulation.
What you linked to isn’t a smoking gun in any way. It’s utterly unconvincing.
If anyone can convince the mass market that they care about a voice interface, it's Apple. But there are some things not even Apple can do, and I suspect this may be one of them.
Hasn't exactly that feature already somehow failed with the iPod Shuffle, which has physical buttons again? I haven't bought or ever seen that device or the 4th gen successor to make a hands-on judgment. But it seemed like a step back from VoiceOver from the outside. (I loved my 2nd gen Shuffle!)
I've never personally been able to get any use out of the voice control feature of iOS. In fact, after trying it a few times, the only time I invoke it now is by accident. I hope that Apple kicks some major ass on this feature and creates another "how did I ever live without this" moment.
I use it while driving to call people without having to dial with my fingers. Unfortunately once the call is placed I still have to use my fingers to set it to speakerphone.
When I can ask my smartphone "what time is the next bus arriving?" without having to touch it, that's when it's a really smart phone. I hope it's that level of a kick.
A family member tried it on an original Droid, and it was a miserable failure for her. I was a bit mystified, comparing this experience with the positive comments I'd read. Might be her voice in particular; I turned on the "personalized tuning" setting, but it did no good.
wow, that's just evil. TELUS (phone company here) has been running ads in really heavy rotation pushing the tagline "there's never been a better time to buy an iphone 4", and stating "offer ends october 4th".
Is the iPhone 4 still the same price that it was when it came out?
This reminds me of April 2010 when I wrote a couple articles about how Apple is fairly unique among computer manufacturers for charging enormous prices for old hardware and going so long without update or a price drop. In April 2010, depending on the week, you bought a Macbook Pro that was miserably outdated or a Macbook Pro that was very modern for precisely the same price.
The thing geeks don't realize is that Apple doesn't sell "hardware" - they sell an appliance. This year's GE dishwasher won't get cheaper as the year goes on - it'll just get replaced by a newer model at some point. Similarly, a Toyota Prius won't get cheaper as the year wears on, it'll also just get replaced by a new model, at the same price (with the requisite temporary discount to clear old stock).
And the other thing that geeks don't realize: this is also how most of the world thinks, and how they want their products to be.
Also re: "miserably outdated" - this, again, only applies to us geeks. For us it's disappointing to not get the latest, shiniest chipset, or this year's "it" mobile GPU. But here's the rub: the year-over-year performance increase for a laptop in the same model line is, what, 15%? A March 2010 MacBook Pro will surf the internet, access email, and hell, play games just as well as a May 2010 MacBook Pro. They are, for 99% of users, identical unless you put it under benchmark conditions.
We geeks place way too much importance in hardware when thinking about the market in general. We have to remember that nobody else cares.
You have changed my mind. I think you're right here and must agree.
Unlike a dishwasher though, it still seems like a snubbing to any enthusiasts (I can only assume that dishwasher entusiasts are few, compared to Mac/hardware enthusiasts). But Apple (like most companies) cannot simply cater to such a minority, so c'est la vie.
Enthusiasts know that Apple product cycles are pretty predictable (especially now that they follow a bit behind the Intel roadmap), and there's plenty of tools to help you track if it's a good time to buy or not.
They more or less do - especially when you look at what the rest of the competition is doing:
Take Samsung for example. They had a good branding opportunity with Galaxy S. Galaxy S - the flagship, followed by Galaxy S2, S3, and so on.
Except their marketing department took a dive off the deep-end. Instead of marketing by this simple to understand name, they now have the Galaxy R, Samsung Hercules, Samsung Attain, Epic 4G... all of which are basically the same product!
Ditto goes for HTC. No fucking idea how to tell which is the low or high-end model from the naming scheme, and no way to tell which model came before another.
Or, leaving the mobile space for one second, Apple's offerings are simple: you have the MacBook Pro, which is updated from time to time. If you look at Apple's support site the naming is pretty clear: "MacBook Pro (early 2008)" is simple to understand - and a later MBP is unequivocally a better machine than a prior one.
Compare with, say, Toshiba. In their "Satellite" line (what does that mean anyways? which line would I want to purchase? The naming gives zero hints), they have the L635, L730, E305, L740, and P740.
What the fucking fuck? Do you want your customers to go get a PhD just to figure out your offerings or what?
Sony used to be much worse, but in recent years seem to have pulled their head out of their ass and started naming their products with some semblance of sanity.
In anycase - the iPhone's naming scheme is incredibly simple to understand - perhaps it could be even better, but still miles and miles ahead of the competition.
Same here (different country, different phone companies).
Everyone is obviously pushing hard to sell their iphone4-stock now, before Joe Sixpack gets told by the news-anchor to delay his purchase for the iphone5.
i get that they want to push it and get rid of their stock, that's just good business. what i don't like is that they specifically go out of their way to lie about it. they don't have to mention the time, they could just be pushing features or style. there's plenty of other ways to sell iphones.
It's not lying though. It is true that "There's [there has] never been a better time to buy an iPhone 4". It's not saying "There will never be a better time..." which would be indefensible.
It may not be the best time to buy an iPhone given that a version greater than 4 will be released, but if you specifically want version 4, then now is a good a time as any time in the past.
Nobody thinks that having four icons indicates that they finally made the smaller iPod Shuffle-based iPhone? There was speculation last year that they were looking at a smaller lower-priced entry iPhone with limited features based on the Shuffle. I would wear it running, so I'm hoping the four-icon picture isn't just a coincidence.
That would, indeed, be awesome. I take the iPad almost everywhere, so I have no need for an iPhone which is little more than an iPad Nano. Thing is, I need that "little more" - the phone part - as well, and want it as a separate device which I _can_ have everywhere. It's back to the "just a phone" desire, a device focused on making phone calls with Apple design sensibilities. Take an iPod Nano, insert a bigger battery & cellular chip, support Bluetooth headsets, sell millions.
Methinks coincidence though. Four icons is just enough to get the invite info across in a cute way, and there just isn't another suitable way to arrange them (a 4x1 line? not for advertising).
I don't know why everyone's assuming Tim Cook will actually deliver the keynote when execs like Schiller and Forstall have been doing the keynotes with Steve and Tim Cook never has.
I really can't wait to see how Tim Cook brings the new iPhone to the market. There's a lot of pressure on him to perform in the same way that Steve Jobs has in the past. He has, to his advantage, been more chatty with Apple employees via corporate webmail so I'm excited to see what he says and how he brings his team around a much awaited iOS 5 and iPhone.
The article is still speculating about the "iPhone 5" part, right? Last I checked, we still don't know if it will be a hardware upgrade (perhaps "4S"), a low-cost version, a world phone, a complete form factor upgrade ("5"), or some combination of these and other things.
Pretty unlikely, we probably would have seen some slip-ups in the iOS 5 beta if that was the case. As it stands they are still steadily improving the existing Maps with Google services, adding alternate routes and whatnot.
That would indeed be huge, but I'd be a bit worried, as Google Maps has been the market leader for some time.
More likely, they've made improvements that distinguish the iPhone in an Apple-esque way, and probably increased the likelyhood that iOS maps could be switched to say, Bing in a more direct fashion.
Considering the Maps app has a persistent google logo watermark on the bottom left (right above the arrow), I'd say close to 100% know, even if they can't say why.
It’s a reasonable question, however consider the following: If someone is late for a job interview and unkempt, do you question whether they will be on time for work and will have meticulous software development hygiene (by whatever standards you employ, e.g. tests, proper use of source control)?
It’s true that some unkempt people are very careful about their work, and some people who are late for an interview are on time for work. So I would personally probe further to make sure this is not a sign of a deeper lack of commitment.
Careful attention to detail in marketing materials doesn’t automatically mean careful attention to detail in product development. But you know, I doubt it’s a coïncidence that Apple's marketing materials are clean and simple, and they don’t play the “Intel Inside” sticker game, and they are restrained in the CrapWare they allow on their OS X machines, and so on and so forth.
So if you show me a busy, confused marketing item, I won’t automatically refuse to buy the product. But I will certainly probe to see if this is an anomaly or whther it is representative of their approach to product development.
"Next time somebody asks you why you prefer Apple products to competitors, show them this invite. Explains everything."
I suppose in your metaphor it would be: "Next time somebody asks you why you prefer Jim to his colleagues, show them how he dresses. Explains everything."
I think your formulation is reasonable and measured. I totally agree that Apple's marketing reflects something about the company. But the GGP comment is hyperbolic at least, sycophantic at worst. If I asked you why you like Apple products and you showed me this invite, I would probably disregard your opinion.
It's the kind of comment that makes many Apple fans seem like cult members, at least to me.
To be fair, there is a difference between saying that X demonstrates Y and saying that X proves Y. It is sometimes useful to say things like “Apple’s approach to ___ demonstrates how they approach product development.” It simply shows an example of something you believe carries over to their products.
The example that comes to my mind is how the original Macintosh was packaged. Someone at Apple had taken great care to design the “Opening the box and setting up your computer” experience such that the right booklet was the first thing you saw when you opened the box, the power cables, keyboard, and mouse were layered under the documents in the right order to set them up, and by the time you lifted the computer out and put it on your desk, it all seemed very natural to plug things together and turn it on. Their attention to the details of the unpacking experience demonstrated their approach to macintosh product development in the late eighties.
That being said, “X explains Y” normally suggests to me that X carries enough information that you can deduce the important things about Y from it. I wouldn’t personally suggest their marketing materials explain their products, so we agree on that.
You know, I actually judge people by the way they dress. This might sound like a very shallow thing to do at first but I think you get a non-trivial amount of information about a person just by looking at how they dress.
Fashion is a visual language and everyone is, deliberately or not, communicating something with it. If you communicate that you don't care about fashion, that's not a problem. If you communicate that you can't really afford very fashionable items, obviously, that's not a problem either. However if the way you dress is telling me that you don't care about yourself or your environment, that could be an issue.
It's not justifiable, it's just obtuse. The invite is being used as an example of the attention to detail and high quality that people like about Apple.
Or less likely, depending on the spots in question. For example you might take inordinate amounts of attention to detail in form factor and aesthetic appeal as emblematic of a fundamentally superficial approach to product development, and that it is emblematic that that will always win out over say actually better performing computers with actually better hardware.
In the context of the actual iOS, it indicates one missed call. (Which is pretty sly considering they're announcing the phone everyone was expecting in June)
Interesting. I have heard from so many friends that current iPhone camera is about as good as it can get. Curious what you are expecting more - just bumped up mega pixels? Not sure how much that would matter - going from 5MP to 8MP for e.g.
Better lens; more light in == better pictures(broad generalization). A teardrop shaped phone would allow it to have a larger longer lens up top but still feel relatively light and thin. I haven't done research on the iPhone 4's current ccd chip but there is always room for improvement on things. Not necessarily an increase in specs but an increase in response time, decrease in noise levels, larger ccd, etc....
I didn't indicate anywhere that megapixels == quality.
When you just about max out the quality of a given MP value with given hardware constraints, as I think the iPhone 4 has done, the only real way to go up is increasing MP.
I can't be bothered to dig up some review for you, as my observations come from personal experience. Your best bet is to look for HTC Sensation reviews with unmodified example shots and videos.
If you look at some of stuff at SIGGRAPH in computational photography, you could add a couple of more 5mp sensors and create some truly amazing images given the iPhone's programability. A 4 sensor iPhone (5mp or the newer 8mp) would be amazing.
Just put them right next to each other in a 2 x 2. The amount of room is pretty small. They should also improve the camera API to allow full use like the FCam API.
Nice. I was thinking of 3D stuff, though. That could be sort-of done in software (let user move the camera, estimate motion from images & sensors, compensate images for motion artifacts), but having two or four cameras at corners of the device would be easier, allow for photographing moving objects, etc. (pan iPhone is about as tall as human eye-eye distance, so this should enable non-macro 3D stuff.
I do not think we will stuff like that before we have 3D screens on our iPhones, though.
You can do some pretty amazing stuff to get much better pictures with multiple cameras. The stuff they did with the Nokia phone with 1 camera is pretty impressive, but having multiple can really do wonders. The other advantage to multiple cameras is the ability to have less dense sensors allowing more light.
I am not a big fan of 3D currently. I just don't see it as good for small devices and it is hard on the eyes. I really think that the other uses for computational photography would make for a killer feature on a main stream phone.
There was a photo posted online from within Apple that someone analyzed, and there was circumstantial evidence to suggest that it was from a new iPhone. There was a spec bump to 8MP, but the extra resolution didn't really add additional detail (which is common for 8MP phone camera sensors).
I guess we'll see next week whether that was the real device or not.
In what way? It's already on par with most point and shoot cameras and better than many. Resolution is well beyond useful levels for a phone; I'm surprised Apple is chasing higher megapixel numbers when 99% of iPhone photos get cut-down for web use anyway.
I can't imagine there being a difference between a physical button and a capacitive one when it comes to interrupting the kernel to say "hey exit this process". It's all in the design in how the kernel handles interrupts.
I'd imagine capacitive buttons. iOS doesn't work without a home button. And as for the obtuse undiscoverable gesture concepts that go along with the no-button ideas: Apple has to be the last company that I would expect to ship a phone that cannot be taken from any state to making a phone call while held in a single hand.
Wow. We're debating the presence of "one notification" to be a response to extremely speculative rumors of a "cloud iPhone" (in the day of poor batteries and data-caps?) Or that Assistant, even in this thread, is being touted as revolutionary? Or that people seem to attribute webOS with Android-style notifications despite being later to the game? The iPhone 4 is gorgeous and iOS is in a class of it's own, but I can not understand the blinders that come on around announcement time.
There are 3 comments in here speculating that the '1' is specifically about one model of an iPhone. There are at least 2 comments praising the magicalness of Assistant. The notifications misconception is one that is popular around here and even amongst the "geekier" people I know. I knew it wouldn't be a popular opinion, but my comments are not a terribly unfair depiction of the reaction to iOS announcements on HN.
