Scott Forstall leaves Apple

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I don’t know much about Scott Forstall, I have only read the news, but I know a lot about what it’s like to use Apple products and there have really been some flaws that he’s been responsible of. Since I can’t use Siri in Swedish it hasn’t been especially useful for me and I can’t talk of my own experience, but it seems that there has been a lot of complaints. I have used Apple Maps while finding my way from Sorunda to Täby in Stockholm and it worked splendid – so I can’t really complain about that either, except that here on Gotland we only get the streets right, but not the house numbers… Though, Gotland is an island with 57.400 inhabitants, so we are not the biggest place, it’s understandable that we might have to wait a little longer for a a map that works, than big cities.

To me the big problem is the design of iCal and the Adress book. I quote Cult of Mac:

Yes, iOS is still an incredible product, but the skeuomorphic leather and wood grain interfaces that Forestall’s teams have added over the last two years have made iOS feel dated.

Why on earth did they make it like that? It’s not the Apple-way to do it. I would be furious if I was Jony Ive. It’s remarkable that Jony hasn’t had the last say in that design! Let’s hope he gets it now. Because, really… fake leather and fake wood is not what I expect from Apple. I expect futuristic, minimalistic, crisp and functional design. Design that stands on it own and don’t have to mimic other materials.

It’s not the first time we read critics about the leather and wood design and I think it’s the crossing point that shows if you get the Apple way or not. (Okay who am I to know that, really? Even so, it’s my apprehension of the Apple way) Since Forstall seems to have been so stubborn about it, it also shows that he lacked the ability to listen to experts in design. I wonder how much damage he actually has caused, measured in dollars?

Now I expect Apple to take a new grip on these skeuomorphic design elements!

Help Apple Maps!

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Edward C Baig had no problems with Apple Maps.

I have read a lot about the disappointments with Apple Maps and even if the maps were totally right when we drew from Sorunda south of Stockholm to Täby Centrum north of Stockholm (see the blogpost below), I’m still aware of that at some other places Apple Maps really sucks. It’s not something you can neglect. Maps are only useful when they are right. One of the most depressing articles I read was My next phone will be a Samsung, not an iPhone 5 by Michael Grothaus.

The Apple Maps are actually so bad that Tim Cook gave an official apology today.

Here on my island, Gotland, I have noticed that Apple Maps can find the streets but not the street numbers. So, Apple Maps works pretty well, but not optimal. So far.

Should we be mad at Apple because of these maps? No, I don’t think so. As far as I can tell they made the wisest decision they could. (Actually, no one ever makes nothing but the wisest decision – though sometimes it might seem as the decision was not the wisest afterwards.) They just couldn’t go on using Google Maps. Google would not allow them to use turn-by-turn in iPhones, but Google would use turn-by-turn in their devices! Hey, that would give Google a huge advantage! Of course Apple couldn’t accept that. I guess that older conflicts between these big companies played a role as well.

Therefore I totally accept that Apple had to make this decision. Next question is: how will they solve it? But another question is: can I do something to help Apple to make Apple Maps better? The answer is that I can do something to help Apple and I will gladly do that, because it makes me feel good if I can be part of making Apple’s products better. I already do this with always sending suggestions for how to make iWork better. Now I will make an extra effort to check Apple Maps AND every time I find something that’s not right, I will report it. It’s easy to report any faults you find, if you ”look behind the map” you find different options, but if you look above that, you will find, in very small print ”Report problem”.

Now, if you like Apple a lot like I do: make sure that you report every fault that you find. That’s the input Apple need.

Apple Store in Sweden and Maps

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Since we are Apple-fans we had to take the first chance to visit the Apple Store that opened in Täby Centrum September 15. We couldn’t be there at the opening day, but September 21 we managed to go to the mainland.

Three days before the opening of the Apple Store – which is the first Apple Store in Sweden – it was an Apple Event when they launched the iPhone 5 and the day before we took the ferry to Nynäshamn the updates for both iOS and OS was available. One of the new features in iOS6 is that the original app with Google Maps now has been replaced with Apple Maps, which of course haven’t had as much time as Google Maps to gather all the needed information. That’s why people started to complain because they found faults at once. In Sweden it seems like Gothenburg and Vara didn’t appear on the map for example, but I think they solved it immediately, because when I checked both towns were on the map. A lot of people thought that one couldn’t trust Apple Maps, so of course we had to test it!

We started the trip in Sorunda, south of Stockholm, early on the Friday heading for Täby Centrum. We did have a common gps in the car, but it chose to get broke on this day, so I picked up Apple Maps at once. After a couple of minutes Roine stopped the car to start his TomTom-app, that is an app with a gps-system and it’s technic is also part of Apple Maps. We used both apps parallel, though I shut down the sound on mine.

We found out that both the apps found the way, no difference. I thought that the instructions maybe was a little bit easier to understand on Apple Maps, but there were really no practical difference, except one thing: in TomTom you can chose to avoid road tolls. You can’t do that in Apple Maps. So far. I assume that this feature will come.

When we reached Täby Centrum we started at a café. Like a mental preparation. Then we went to Apple Store and wow: we were there!

Apple is not a company that only produces and sells computers and other electronical devices and Apple Store is not only a store that sells stuff. Everything about Apple is well thought-out and goes together. It’s a philosophy, a wish to make difference, to create a wholeness with design and function, to simplify, to create a fantastic user experience, to encourage creativity and support productivity and to find a way to charge that both customers and content developers can benefit from. Their idea is not to sell with low prices. Instead they set their prices high enough to be able to deliver quality also when it comes to support and service. Which in the long run also is good for the customer.

Apple Store is part of what we pay for. The access to the fantastic staff, Apple Genius, who treats the customers with personal engagement and offers courses in the store. To me it was happiness to enter this learning environment. Even if I might not use this possibility by myself, it’s a good feeling in my heart to know that others can participate at those courses. We saw a group with older persons sitting around a table learning how to use iPhones with their laptops.

Afterwards I said to Roine: ”Imagine how often we come to places where we think that they don’t use the available technic as good as they should. I think that Apple Store is the first place I have been to where I haven’t felt that I want to change their way to use the technic. ”

For example, the staff walked around with an iPhone with special equipment so that they could register a customer or make the payment directly, anywhere in the store. With the result that they had no people standing in line.

We bought just some small things like EarPods and funny iPhone shells. We went home with even more positive feelings for Apple as a company, then we had before.

It’s not about “just the rounded corners”

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I read this article written by Mr Roger Key and I think he makes some clever assumptions, but there are two things that makes me puzzled:

The use of the words ”passionate” and ”emotional”:

There are questions about whether Jobs was alone in his passionate Google-hate and whether Tim Cook is prepared to carry on the battle in Jobs’s name. Some people think that Cook is less emotional and might seek an accommodation, but so far there’s no evidence of that. It’s likely that Jobs wasn’t the only one who felt the way he did and that some of his team still want the heart of Google’s city burnt to the ground.

I agree that Steve Jobs probably was very engaged in this matter and I would probably also be able to use the words passionate and emotional to describe it, but in this context it’s used like if the opinions about Google was ”just a passionate and emotional thing”, which therefor not should be counted on as a real matter. Real as in ”real business”. I think that’s a misunderstanding about business. Business is not cool and rational, business is about passion, emotions and to get the right feeling. That doesn’t mean you can’t still have knowledge and experience. Quite the opposite actually.

The more you know about a subject, the bigger engagement, the more emotions.

The next thing that makes me puzzled is:

Apple can’t claim to have invented “roundness” or “black.”

No, they can’t and even if that’s what it might look like in the juridical texts, I’m sure it’s about how you combine all this design elements and technical features to create a wholeness. It’s not about ”round corners generally on everything in the world”. It’s about how it’s used on the icons on the iPhone’s screen. Design and layout is about how you combine and it’s even about how you use the empty space in a layout. These things matters when you create a graphic och digital ”personality”.

The value of design

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Every day we are surrounded by a lot of items that someone has deigned. Some people notice the design, see how smart the designer has been with the pedagogic or function so that it gets easier to use the item. This is also valid for digital design.

Others don’t seem to care about this at all. Maybe they see that something looks better than something else and believes that design is a question of looking good. Others don’t even see if something looks good, they think anything can do… Often it’s very hard for people like us that works with designing print and websites, to understand that so many people doesn’t seem to care a bit about if it’s possible to read information, if it makes sense, if it’s possible to find what you look for and if it feels nice and interesting to read. Design takes part in every part. Design supports function.

The old wailing about Apple was built upon the idea that the devices looked good, but didn’t work so much better than a PC – well, the PC-people did of course believe that PC was a lot better because of a lot of technical functions that they were babbling about frenetic. Then it all changed. Apple is the most valuable company in the world. That’s because they work in a holistic way so that technology and design walks hand in hand to give the customers a good user experience. You can’t just go for technology and neglect the design. Over and over again Apple has showed that they care deeply about design. And it pays off.

It’s interesting to see that the PC and Android people don’t seem to have understood the meaning of how technology and design leads to success – working together!

Friday’s verdict when the Californian court made it clear that Samsung has copied Apple in several ways shows it so well. Some of it is namely about the design, for example the shape of a square icon with rounded corners. I think that the Samsung people better understands that the part of their copying that consists of more technology would be important, but that they haven’t thought about design as ”really important”. I think that they put a lot of effort in solving a lot of technical issues and then the design has just been like a little cherry on the top, something you just add in the end. Nothing important. ”Just do something that looks good! Apple seems to have a good sense for design – try to make it similar!” Just like that. And it got even funnier when they copied Apple’s boxes, but without thinking about if they would be easy to open…

I wonder if they now have understand how it all goes together? Or do they only think that it’s unfair?