Apple design - page 4

It’s obvious that the new Mac Pro, unveiled this week during Apple’s WWDC keynote, is a reboot of the venerable Power Mac G5, a machine released in 2003 that featured a distinctive “cheese grater” grille.

Aside from looks, there are many similarities to the G5, plus a couple of ideas from other older Apple machines. Here are some of the clearest design influences on the new Mac Pro.

This week on The CultCast: WWDC 2019 is right around the corner, and a new report sheds light on everything Apple’s prepping to reveal. We discuss! Plus: The magic of Corning glass, and how making your iPhone just slightly thicker would make it indestructible. And we reveal how (and why) Jony Ive created the massive mystery rainbow stage now present at the heart of Apple Park.

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The mysterious, rainbow-colored stage erected inside Apple Park bears all the hallmarks of the company’s meticulous design, according to an Apple document provided to Cult of Mac.

It’s the latest creation by Jony Ive’s team — and it’s just as thoughtfully and intricately designed as you might imagine.

An article explaining the project to Apple employees sheds light on just how much thought, time and intense effort went into building the rainbow Apple Stage. And Jony Ive’s ruminations on the project show he and his collaborators put a lot of thought into it.

Update: Corning sent an email to clarify some of the claims made in this post, which I’ve included in the body of the post and at the bottom.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Even though the latest iPhones are made from glass front and back, they would be “nearly unbreakable” if just a bit thicker.

That was the message from glass manufacturer Corning during an open house at its Silicon Valley research center Tuesday.

“If the glass on the latest smartphones was just a little bit thicker, it would be nearly unbreakable,” said Dave Young, a Corning marketing communications specialist, at the event.

Newly leaked schematics might provide our first look at Apple’s next-generation “iPhone 11.”

The technical drawing lends credence to rumors of a major camera upgrade for the upcoming device. However, if the iPhone 11 schematics prove legit, fans might not be happy with the placement of the smartphone’s camera lenses.

The iPad mini hasn’t gotten a sequel since 2015. However, if you’re expecting this year’s rumored refresh to be a massive leap forward, you might want to think again.

At least that’s the take based on an alleged CAD render seen by noted leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka @OnLeaks. While he did not share the image, he suggests the supposed leak indicates the next-gen iPad mini will not see any major external design changes. iPad mini lovers — brace yourself for a simple spec bump.

According to rumors, iOS 13 will bring a redesigned home screen to the iPad. It’s about time. The grid of apps might have worked fine on the iPhone before the App Store, but after nine years of using the expanded version on the iPad, the joke is starting to get old.

So, if Apple is finally ready to make a home screen worthy of the iPad, we have a few suggestions.

The 2018 MacBook Pro might be the most disappointing laptop Apple has come out with in years.

Despite being one of the lightest and most powerful Macs ever, The CultCast host Erfon Elijah finds the 2018 MacBook Pro fraught with problems. In his latest video, he goes through all the reasons — from the lack of ports to the crappy keyboard — why he thinks the new machine is far from perfect.

Let him count the ways the new MacBook Pro falls short.

A few of us here at Cult of Mac work on iPads pretty much exclusively. Apple’s tablet proves more than capable of “real” work, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Far from it, in fact. The iPad Pro 2018 is a fantastic machine that invites you to use it for everything. But that only makes the frustration worse.

Today I’d like to talk about what really drives me nuts about the iPad.

The national nightmare that was “bagelgate” may be over, but Apple is apparently swimming into more controversial emoji territory. This time, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is pointing out that Apple’s squid emoji is physiologically incorrect.

Essentially, Apple’s lack of biological accuracy means that its squid emoji would, among other things, poop out of its face. For shame!

The long-awaited MacBook Air update sports an all-new design and more powerful internals, but early reviews indicate there’s still room for improvement.

It’s also the most expensive MacBook Air to date. So, should you spend $1,199 on it when it lands in stores this week? Here’s what the first 2018 MacBook Air reviews have to say.

According to early reviews, you should absolutely rush out to get a new iPad Pro when the tablets go on sale Wednesday.

The iPad Pro was already the best tablet money could buy. And yet, Apple somehow made it even better with an improved design, an edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display, and an A12X Bionic chip that delivers unbeatable performance.

Don’t just take our word for it. See what the reviewers are saying below.

The iPhone XR is out and, for the first time in years, Apple’s most exciting device isn’t the one that commands the really big bucks. For all the talk of an “Apple tax,” 2018’s coolest iPhone starts at just $749. That’s half the price of a top-of-the-line iPhone XS Max.

And that’s seriously great news for fans.

Dieter Rams, a god-like figure to industrial designers around the world, usually speaks very glowingly about the design of Apple products.

But in a new documentary with the aptly minimalist title Rams, he expresses a growing sadness and frustration over the disposable excess that Apple and other Silicon Valley tech companies produce.

The new iPhone XS and XS Max are generating rave reviews. Having marked the iPhone’s 10th anniversary with last year’s awe-inducing iPhone X, Apple has now set the stage for a second decade of smartphone innovation.

But what about all the awesome iPhones that led us to this point? Which models are the classics that will occupy museum shelves long after they’ve stopped working? I decided to dive in at the deep end and rank every phone Apple ever made. Wish me luck!

iOS 12 was clearly designed for an iPad where Face ID replaces the Home button. Apple has revamped the tablet’s gestures for iOS 12, bringing us an easy way to return to the Home screen, and an iPhone X-style gesture to access the Control Center.

If you’re a long-time iPad users, these changes will seem a little jarring at first. You’ll soon get used to them, though, and even learn to love them. The new Control Center gesture, in fact, is a lot better than the old one.

Why couldn’t you type the F-word on the iPhone? Why did Steve Jobs make weird eye movements during demos? What kind of manager was Scott Forstall?

These and other questions are answered in a new book by Ken Kocienda, a former iPhone programmer who spent 15 years at Apple helping to develop the first iPhone, iPad and Safari web browser.

Published this week, Creative Selection, Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, is a fascinating account of Kocienda’s career that focuses on how Apple makes great software. (read our review here)

Here are some of the most interesting things we learned from the book.

In just a few weeks, Apple looks set to unveil the biggest upgrade yet to its popular wearable.
While the external appearance of Apple Watch has not changed much since its launch, recent leaks suggest we can expect a new form factor with a larger screen when Apple Watch Series 4 lands.

In the Photoshop mockup above, I’ve shown how Apple’s next watch might look if it slimmed down and added a larger screen (as the rumormongers predict). That would be pretty cool, but there are plenty of other potential upgrades I’m excited about.

Here’s my top 10 wish list for Apple Watch Series 4 new features.

Do you know your Sage from your Grape? How about your Bondi Blue from your Graphite? And who in their right mind could forget Flower Power or Blue Dalmatian? A new iMac museum exhibit will help you sort that all out.

If you know your Apple trivia, you’ll recognize all of those as “flavors” of the iconic iMac G3, which launched 20 years ago today. To celebrate the occasion, the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, is showing off all 13 colors of the iconic “computer that saved Apple.”

If you do any work with fonts on the Mac whatsoever, you will have run up against the font picker. It’s a piece of design that dates back to when the Mac only came with a black-and-white screen, and yet it’s still the only way to select a font on an Apple computer. That wouldn’t be so bad if it was a good design, but it’s not. The macOS font picker is little more than a drop-down menu. Worse, it’s a drop-down menu that changes every time you use it.

You can use the Mac’s font panel in some apps, but even then you’re faced with long and confusing lists.

Sam William Smith, a designer from Glasgow, Scotland, decided to do something about this. He completely redesigned the Mac font menu, and it’s great.

The YouTuber who sounded the alarm over serious thermal throttling on the new Core i9 MacBook Pro confirms that Apple corrected the performance-killing problem.

Following the macOS High Sierra update Apple issued yesterday, YouTube tech reviewer Dave Lee uploaded a new video showing that the patch did its job. After the upgrade, his new MacBook Pro is running faster!

This post is presented by Kase.

One of the main reasons to get an iPhone is the sleek, minimalist design. But plenty of the other necessaries — protective cases, replacement charging cables, etc. — look like afterthoughts or add-ons. Apple puts plenty of time and care into creating devices that prove pleasing to the eyes and hands, and we all pay plenty of money to enjoy them.

Anyone looking for Apple-worthy design and durability can dig this line of cases and cables from Kase.

When the first iMac debuted 20 years ago, it shook the tech world with its completely unorthodox appearance. The blobby, curvaceous and colorful computer looked, in Steve Jobs’ words, good enough to lick.

It was a statement computer, both for those who owned it and for those who made it.

However, with the iMac not having had a substantial redesign since 2012, Apple’s all-in-one desktop is getting a bit long in the tooth. It’s time for Apple to give it an overhaul with a new iMac design that would get the world excited about Macs again — and prove Apple remains committed to innovative computing.

In the three short years since Apple Watch debuted, Cupertino has massively improved its smartwatch. Remember the early days, when Glances took ages to load, only to show out-of-date information? When the Fitness app refused to stay in the foreground during a workout? Or when the side button launched a doodling app?

Since the launch, Apple has rolled out big upgrades to watchOS every year at its Worldwide Developers Conference. But there is still loads more that could be done to really unleash Apple Watch’s full potential.

With this year’s WWDC confirmed for June, here’s my wish list of the all the new watchOS stuff I’m hoping will be announced in San Jose, California. It’s a pretty long list, so I’ve broken it down into three separate posts, starting with usability. In followup posts, I’ll focus on fitness, apps and setup.

When the entire mobile phone industry heads to Barcelona next week for Mobile World Congress 2018, there will be one notable absence: Apple.

Cupertino doesn’t do trade shows. Not even really big ones like MWC. Yet, despite its absence from the massive Spanish trade show, Apple’s influence will loom large over Barcelona’s beautiful horizons.

Here are five things Apple fans should look out for at MWC next week.