I’ve been reading in a few places about Apple having a minimalistic attitude towards products and this explains the missing features on the iPad. While I do think Apple has a minimalistic attitude I think folks are just deluding themselves if they think this explains a lot of Apple products.
Yes, the minimalistic attitude explains such things as the one button mouse, the non-removable battery, and a few other things.
Yet I think it clear that the lack of a SDK on the original iPhone had nothing to do with this. Rather Apple had a half assed SDK that wasn’t ready for public release yet. (You saw something similar with the Pre) Likewise the lack of cut and paste was just because Apple hadn’t finished it. (I think they should have had cut and paste ready, mind you — that’s an amazing lacking feature that had to wait until iPhone OS 3.0) I think the lack of multitasking has less to do with minimalism than the fact that most iPhones just don’t have the memory or CPU power to handle it. I’m very confident that iPhone 4.0 will have it.
Where Apple screws up (say the incomplete bluetooth stack in the iPhone) it’s probably because they chose to focus on a few things and get them right. But I also think Apple has consciously been looking at the upgrade cycle. Honestly, there was no reason why tethering and cut & paste had to wait for 3.0. They could easily have added it earlier. But then what would they have provided for the 3.0 release? I think we’re seeing this with the 4.0 release as well.
Some of this is, as I mentioned, understandable. Features take time and if you want them done well it takes longer. (Compare the “flow” of an iPhone to even the Nexus — the Apple features simply work better)
I do think though that Apple has inexplicably left things out for too long that should have been added. Things that just can’t be explained by minimalism or insufficient resources. And that’s a bit troubling.
This entry was posted on 2010/02/09, 12:03 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.
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Keep your iPhone wifi connection live. That way you're not always turning the phone on just to access it from the Finder. Add the Insomnia SBSetting to turn this off when not in use.
The psychological benefits of schedules. Sadly I've found this as well. The main reason I quit doing IT is people would want me in at 9 and be in late working on the machines.
Windows Live Sync for Mac available. I might give this an other try. In the spring I'd looked at a ton of syncing options and none of them, including Microsoft's, were up to the task. I loved the idea of Live Sync (then Live Mesh) but it just didn't work well in the beta.
Sharing your dotfiles. I really need to go back and reorganize all my .bash_profile stuff. Maybe that'll be a good way to get a few more scripting posts up here.
Problems with Google adsense. Customer relations have long been Google's achilles heel. For most of their services there is no one you can call to even get a simple answer as to what is wrong, let alone fix it. When cell carriers are a huge step up in customer service you know there's something wrong.
1/3 of AT&T iPhone 4 users would leave to Verizon if given a chance. I bet they say that because they didn't look at the early termination fees and having to buy a new phone. That said I hope Apple goes Verizon if only to make the network better for the rest of us who stay. (For the record - no trouble with my iPhone 4. Some places it's better and some places worse.)
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Is It Just Minimalism?
I’ve been reading in a few places about Apple having a minimalistic attitude towards products and this explains the missing features on the iPad. While I do think Apple has a minimalistic attitude I think folks are just deluding themselves if they think this explains a lot of Apple products.
Yes, the minimalistic attitude explains such things as the one button mouse, the non-removable battery, and a few other things.
Yet I think it clear that the lack of a SDK on the original iPhone had nothing to do with this. Rather Apple had a half assed SDK that wasn’t ready for public release yet. (You saw something similar with the Pre) Likewise the lack of cut and paste was just because Apple hadn’t finished it. (I think they should have had cut and paste ready, mind you — that’s an amazing lacking feature that had to wait until iPhone OS 3.0) I think the lack of multitasking has less to do with minimalism than the fact that most iPhones just don’t have the memory or CPU power to handle it. I’m very confident that iPhone 4.0 will have it.
Where Apple screws up (say the incomplete bluetooth stack in the iPhone) it’s probably because they chose to focus on a few things and get them right. But I also think Apple has consciously been looking at the upgrade cycle. Honestly, there was no reason why tethering and cut & paste had to wait for 3.0. They could easily have added it earlier. But then what would they have provided for the 3.0 release? I think we’re seeing this with the 4.0 release as well.
Some of this is, as I mentioned, understandable. Features take time and if you want them done well it takes longer. (Compare the “flow” of an iPhone to even the Nexus — the Apple features simply work better)
I do think though that Apple has inexplicably left things out for too long that should have been added. Things that just can’t be explained by minimalism or insufficient resources. And that’s a bit troubling.
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This entry was posted on 2010/02/09, 12:03 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.