shortformblog:
Some design agency spent a lot of time coming up with a rough concept of what iOS 7 probably isn’t going to look like. But let’s just say it looks kind of cool.
Some good stuff, some awful stuff. Overall, a “B”. Expect about 1,000 more of these as we inch closer to WWDC.
Update: John Gruber has some good thoughts on the video:
The shape of app icons is not going to change from round-cornered squares to sharp-cornered ones (or any other shape for that matter). Apple owns this shape; this shape says “iOS app” in everyone’s mind. It’s even printed right on the hardware home button of every iOS device. In fact it’s the only thing printed on the front face of every iOS device.
It’s not clear why so many people seem to think “flat” equates to “square”. Because Windows Phone tiles are square? If that’s the case, chalk something up to Windows Phone — while they may not be doing well in market share, they seem to have a pretty good presence in mind share, at least from a “flat” design perspective.
Peter Nixey:
Just so as you know by the way and don’t freak out but, I’d like to sort my photos when I’m sat on the loo. Or in the bus, or anywhere else I want to kill time with my phone. I don’t want to edit them when I’m sat at my desktop - that’s work time. It really pains me that I can’t do that and so my photos just pile up in a big heap while I waste time reading things I don’t care about on Twitter.
When you consider that the iPhone is now the most popular camera (in the U.S. if not the world), it’s sort of ridiculous that the photo management on the device is so obtuse.
Yes, it’s better than anything found on any point-and-shoot, but it could be so much better still. Just as Apple has moved app and music syncing away from the desktop, they need to move photo management fully to the cloud as well. The photos on my iMac are the only files I need to backup on a Time Capsule anymore. Everything else lives in the cloud.
[via Techmeme]
iheartapple2:
(1999) Steve Jobs Introduces The World to WiFi
Just look at that response over something we take completely for granted now just 14 years later.
Love the camera man over-the-shoulder as the way to show it on the big screen.
And the hula hoop — look ma, no wires! — is just a brilliant, Steve Jobs touch.
Do you think consoles in general are doomed, then? Serious question. I don't play games much so I don't really have a horse in this race. I think asking Nintendo to make games for iOS – a platform that doesn't have any traditional game controls to speak of – is too farfetched right now. If Apple suddenly started selling an Apple TV with a game controller in the box, well then ...
Asked by brad-t
Not necessarily. But I think the market for gaming-only consoles has peaked. That’s why it’s smart for Xbox and Playstation to focus more on all forms of entertainment in the living room.
Console gaming will long have its die-hards. But casual gamers already far outnumber them. I think focusing on a dedicated gaming controller is the wrong way to think about it. Apple already has controllers in the shape of iPhones and iPads. Maybe a slightly re-worked iPod touch does come with a television device one day. But all they really need to do is open up an SDK for the Apple TV and the flood of games will follow.
Asked by brad-t
I, of course, realize this. But I don’t view the situations as all that similar. Apple fell because it was mismanaged over several years. Nintendo has fallen because the world has simply changed around them very rapidly. (Remember how insanely popular the Wii was just a few years ago?) And it’s not going back.
They need to become the Pixar of the gaming world — another company which focused on hardware once upon a time.
Bill Carter:
What truly turned their fortunes, however, was that in the first week that NBC shows were available for purchase on iTunes, episodes of “The Office” occupied four of the top five spots. Suddenly NBC was impressed, especially by the makeup of the audience: young, college-educated and affluent. Most shows were made available to such outlets as networks sought new revenue, but “The Office” fit the iTunes audience precisely.
From a show that was going to be cancelled to a nine season run. Makes you wish iTunes had begun selling television shows when Firefly was still around.
Gerry Smith reporting on the undercover cops in San Francisco using iPhones to lure would-be criminals:
As the officers stand up and head for their squad cars, Garrity issues one last order: “Try not to lose the fucking phones!”
Crazy:
Given that nearly half of San Francisco residents own an iPhone — the highest rate of any city in the nation — this stolen phone bazaar amounts to a crucial conduit in an illicit, increasingly global trade.
Crazier:
Nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco last year involved smartphones, according to police.
Mark Gurman:
iOS 7 is codenamed “Innsbruck,” according to three people familiar with the OS. The interface changes include an all-new icon set for Apple’s native apps in addition to newly designed tool bars, tab bars, and other fundamental interface features across the system.
Innsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria, known for its skiing. You may recall that all previous codenames of iOS builds have been named after ski resorts. iOS 6 was “Sundance”, for example.
Lots of good info from Gurman regarding Jony Ive’s iOS 7 design overhaul. Sounds like “flat” is indeed the new black.
![[via @cap]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/374ef6e987b4d9dcd90d0b8e0bc9a7e6/tumblr_mm8a20ACFB1qz4gevo1_500.jpg)
