If you think iOS is stale…

A lot of people (everyone?) have been calling for iOS to change. A lot of people say iOS is stale.

But it isn’t iOS that is stale.

If someone claims that iOS is stale or boring or too simple, and that Apple needs to make changes, it isn’t because iOS is actually stale, boring, or too simple.

So what is it then?

Something terrible and real: Conditioned consumerism.

Our consumerism conditioning is vast and profound. It is intentional and total. It goes back to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Sigmund Freud’s cousin, Edward Bernays, brought Sigmund’s ideas of how the human psyche works to America to use in marketing and business. BBC made a chilling documentary about it: “The Century of Self”.

I am not able to verify this, but I have heard from insiders that Disney changes their “star” regularly so that children will become conditioned to want the newest thing. For example, for awhile, Hannah Montana was everywhere: on billboards, lunch boxes, skirts, pencils, CDs, magazines, TV, in concert. But then, in a blink, it was Jonas Brothers. And then, as if they never existed, it was Selena Gomez.

Putting new taillights on a car does not make it “ALL NEW!” and better. In fact, it is just as likely that the “new” taillights make it uglier. The only thing that changing the  tailights each year does is play into conditioned consumerism. It reveals a profound lack of faith in your product and a profound fear of the extent of the conditioning of your customers.

Apple is the only company not playing this tragic, pointless game. Sure, they make new versions of their products, but the new version looks exactly like the previous version… and the one before that. They did not change the look of iPhone 4 even after having to deal with “antennae gate”. They rarely change the look of their laptops, and when they do it’s because they have made it better in meaningful ways, i.e.: milled aluminum (stronger, lighter, thinner, better for the planet). They haven’t changed the poor Mac Pro at all in years, yet it is still for sale.

Do you ever stop and read the names of products of other companies? If you care about things (anything!), the names will grieve you.

• Casio Elixum EX-S12
• Nikon Coolpix AW110
• Samsung  WF457ARGSGR/AA (with VRT Plus™, PowerFoam™, PureCycle™, and SpeedSpray™. I am not making any of that up.)
• Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7 (which is actually version 6.1)

What do the words and numbers mean? Nothing. And they change with each model.

Here’s the point: iOS is not stale. It does not need to change because some consumers are bored with it.

That only shows the depth of the consumerism. An imprisonment so total that the person doesn’t know they are locked up.

iOS is a great example of what Apple is doing different. They work to get it right the first time. They work to solve new problems from the start. They update to incorporate better technologies, materials, and ideas. Each iterration is better by Apple standards (ie: thinner). They do not makes changes to appease.

The greatest proof of this is how they are copied. It is not an exaggeration to say that the entire computer, and now smartphone, industries follow Apple. From products to services to colors to icons to store layouts to marketing to packaging to keyboard designs. The copying is total.

What Apple is so rare so terrified that they are but the only ones. They are making art. We do not get an updated Mona Lisa each year. Similarly, Apple is not playing the game that every other major company in every other industry is playing. That shows a company who wants to get things perfect the first time. Which, of course, they don’t always do. No one does. But at least they try. At least they care. At least they are not playing games.

Apple is not playing catch-up, they are not hoping for a piece of pie someone else baked, they are not hoping for one home-run, they are not coasting.

Their stated goal is: to put a dent in the universe.

“Bu… bu… but Apple steals as much as anyone. They totally copied Android notifications. They are totally scared by the 7” tablet and are playing catch-up.”

Shut up.

You cannot copy yourself. Apple pioneered and popularized the modern smart-phone. Everyone else making a smart-phone followed Apple. Arguing that Apple stole notification is like being indignant that I only started using HDR on my photos after my friends stole all my photos and used HDR on them. Who cares if I added HDR later than my unscrupulous friends? They were my photos.

Sputtering on about Apple copying the 7” tablet idea is like thinking you have a point by saying that Marconi copied Edison’s idea of a smaller radio. Marconi (building on Tesla’s work) invented the damn thing. Edison just ripped it off.

The Future is…

The future is: Change. Great thoughts by in incomparable Asymco:

“Once you change the method of distribution, the product has to change.”

“Create a platform and give people the freedom to create on it.”

Cross-reference great thoughts by MG Siegler:

“Build the app for people who have never used a personal computer. They are coming.”

Continued thought: The tool or system is more expensive and complex than the thing it helps produce.

For example: Windows XP* has 40 million lines of code. If the average line of code has five “words” in it, then Windows XP is the equivalent of a book of 200 million words. Or… if the average book has 350 words per page, then Windows XP is the equivalent of a 570,000 page book.

In other words: wow.

Conclusion: Get busy making mobile apps!

(* used only because we don’t know how many lines of code other OSes are)

A non-hands-on, angry-then-indifferent review of Windows 8. Metro. Windows Phone. Whatever.

Some tech pundits that I admire like Windows 8/Metro (whatever!), so maybe it is OK. Good, even.

At least, with Metro, Microsoft didn’t just blatantly copy Apple (surprising!*). It looks like Microsoft really tried to make a unique, useful product. But every time (every time!) I look at a picture or video of Metro, I feel blinding rage.

Why is there half a word or box or screen sneaking onto the screen? Why can’t I just have what I want to look at on the screen? Did I not get all the way into the screen I wanted? Scroll this way. Scroll that way. Swipe in from all four edges of the screen! Each edge contains a different prize!

Look out! Giant, primary-color squares. And rectangles. All different sizes. Where do I look? Whoa! Now one of them is doing something. Ahhh! Another is doing something. Why are they different colors? Why are they doing something? There is a word peeking onto the screen. Swipe… more boxes! Seizure!

Worse**, why is there so much text on the screen? There’s text everywhere. Every button, text box, menu, app, window, etc is laden with text. There’s thin font text all over. Boxes and text! Every screen requires a great deal of attention. I worry that the only way you’ll use it is by getting used to using it (which is the Windows works! Argh!) Said another way: could a child pick it up and use it? Could a person pick it up for the first time and use it?

Have all the companies that copy Apple not learned anything from Apple? Make things simple. Of course the old adage is true: “Easy is hard. Hard is primitive.” Making things easy to use is very difficult. But, still. I know that Microsoft has a ton of brilliant people there. I assume other companies have brilliant people, too. Perhaps who is at the helm affects the details more than one would think. I don’t know.

At least Windows 8/Phone/Metro/Not-Aero is more simple and coherent than Windows 1.01-Vista. At least MS is trying and taking a brave (for them) step.

So, whatever. I’m glad Metro exists. But I’m glad I don’t have to use it. I hope MS can keep evolving this product in good ways.

* Come on. Even if you’re trying to be balanced, objective, or not look like a fanboy, you cannot rewrite history.
** It’s not a good sign when a paragraph begins with “Worse…”

iOS 5… by Microsoft?

The parts that are new in iOS 5 look and feel like they were designed by Microsoft.

Here’s what happened when I upgraded:

• All music is gone.
• All apps are gone.
• All PDFs are gone.
• All ebooks are gone.
• All TV shows, movies, Podcasts are gone.
• Updating to iOS 5 reset my iPhone 4 to factory settings. iTunes warned me that it would do that, but it also assured me (in the same window) that it would back-up my iPhone.
• * I just bought a new MacBook Pro, and this is the first time syncing it with my iPhone. I thought that could explain the problems. But five friends (without new computers) reported the same problems.
• iTunes backed-up my phone… but to where I don’t know. None of my stuff is in iTunes.
• All my bookmarks (and the folder they were in) were kept or re-added (I don’t know which).
• All the photos and video in my Camera Roll were kept/re-added.
• The move from MobileMe to iCloud did not work. I had to make sure every device I would want to use with iCloud was upgraded to the latest release, which took over an hour. Then iCloud tripped at the last step. Literally. The “Finish” step. It said it could not complete it at this time and I should check my service status (or something). Clicking on the link took me to a page I had never seem, which simply said that all services were working.
• I started the moving process again and again and again. The fifth time worked. (That could be a slogan!)
• None of my logins work. Long story short: I had to manually change my iTunes, App Store, and Game Center logins on all devices.
• I had to re-download all apps, ebooks, TV shows, movies, podcasts from their various homes.
• I had to re-load all music (from an external hard drive).

Total time to upgrade to iOS 5 and iCloud: 4 hours. (“The Fifth Time Worked!”) Reminds me of upgrading earlier versions of Windows.

Now, for the first time, the OS feels hacked together and is ugly in places.

• There is now a Video app. But it doesn’t have videos from the camera in it. Those are in the Photos app. The iPod app is now the Music app. No videos there.
• The new iPod app gets a new, horrible, Microsoft-esque icon. I am embarrassed for people to see it. The value and intensity of the color do not fit (with the rest of the Apple icons). The design, color, and thickness and drop-shadow of the music notes on the icon are wrong. Apple’s design philosophy is (still) “White”… except for that wart of an icon.
• The new ways that notifications work is quite a mishmash, especially for Apple.
  • The original alert was “Fisher Price” style. And we still have those one-at-a-time, rounded-corner, pop-up alerts.
  • But there are two other options. You set these options individually by app, so you can easily have all three styles!
  • The new fold-down, box-at-top alert is “Android” style—dark and small.
  • But there is a third(!) alert option: the pull-down from the top, which has the same dark theme as the fold-down, box-at-top, but the pull down window does not fold down, it is a third, different action. It really feels like using three different UIs… all at once. Ugh.
  • Did I mention that the Lock Screen notifications look (slightly) different than other notifications? Fun!
• “User be damned!” The “List – Date” buttons at the top of the Reminders window provide backwards visual feedback. Other buttons throughout the UI looked pressed when pressed. These twin buttons look neither pressed when pressed nor unselected when the other is pressed. Grr.
• Many people report that they need to triple-click the home button to get the camera button on the lock screen. But other people report that they need to double-click the home button.

Did this come from Cupertino or Redmond?

I upgraded to iOS 5

Well, I upgraded my iPhone 4 to iOS 5.

And had terrifying flashbacks of the ’90s when Apple kept shooting themselves in the foot.

When I connected my iPhone 4 to my Mac and opened iTunes, I had to wade through several confusing, seemingly-contradictory windows to upgrade to iOS 5. One window said that upgrading would restore my iPhone to factory settings (That doesn’t sound like what I want), but that same window also reassured me that my iPhone would be backed-up first (That sounds good).

Except upgrading to iOS 5 did restore my iPhone 4. It removed every app, song, and video. But… It kept all the bookmarks I had saved to the Home Screen(!) And it kept all the photos and videos in the Camera Roll(!).

The flashbacks became more vivid.

Next, I tried to move from MobileMe to iCloud. This did not work. I had to make sure every device I would want to use with iCloud was upgraded to the latest release. (Hour-long pause to get every device upgraded.) Then iCloud tripped at the last step. Literally. The “Finish” step. It said it could not complete it at this time and I should check my service status (or something). Clicking on the link took me to a page I had never seem, which simply said that all services were working.

So I started the moving process again. And again. And again… The fifth time worked. (That could be a slogan!)

The flashbacks continued, however, as none of my logins worked. Long story short: I had to manually change my iTunes, App Store, and Game Center logins.

Total time to upgrade to iOS 5 and iCloud: 4 hours. (“The Fifth Time Worked!”)

I posted a short version of this tale on Facebook and five friends commented. All had similar problems.

I now have iOS 5. And stomach-tightening flashbacks.

There is now a Video app. But it doesn’t have videos from the camera in it. Those are in the Photos app. The iPod app is now the Music app. No videos there. Is this better or change for change’s sake?

With its new name, the iPod app gets a new icon. An embarrassing icon. It looks like Microsoft designed it. The value and intensity of the color do not fit (with the rest of the Apple icons). The design, color, and thickness of the music notes on the icon are wrong. Apple’s design philosophy is (still) “White”… except for that wart of an icon.

Speaking of warts. The new ways that notifications work is quite a mishmash, for Apple. The original alert style was “Windows 7 / Fisher Price”. And we still have those one-at-a-time, rounded-corner, pop-up alerts. The new fold-down box-at-top alert style is “Android”–dark and small. But there is a third(!) alert option: the pull-down from the top, which has the same dark theme as the fold-down, box-at-top, but the pull down window does not fold down, it is a third, different action. It really feels like I’m using three different UIs… all at once. Ugh.

I also have to mention the “List – Date” buttons at the top of the Reminders window. They provide backwards visual feedback. Other buttons throughout the UI looked pressed when pressed. These twin buttons look neither pressed when pressed nor unselected when the other is pressed. Grr.

If this were from any other company in the world, I would notice but move on. But this is from Apple. The one company that cares about all the details.

Please make the flashbacks stop.

A global outpouring of grief and gratitude.

As MG Siegler alludes to, the response to Steve Jobs’ death has been different than for other deaths.

Different than when a celebrity dies, and folks scramble to get in on the news, and the media shows images of the celebrity’s life.

Different than when a politician dies, and one country mourns, but others celebrate.

What we are seeing is a global outpouring of grief and gratitude and recognition.

“He’s someone who will be talked about a thousand years from now.” – MG Siegler

The response fits the person lost.

(This is a second draft of my earlier post.)