512 Pixels

Juli Clover:

Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Greg Christie is set to depart from the company after clashing with Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design who oversees and guides the Human Interface teams, reports 9to5Mac. Ive first took on a role “providing leadership” for the Human Interface teams in late 2012, following Scott Forstall’s departure from the company.

Christie has led much of Apple’s software design and reports to Craig Federighi, who oversees development of iOS and OS X, but Christie interacts with Ive during design meetings. Christie’s team was responsible for redesigning iOS 7, which reportedly led to disagreements with Ive.

I’ll buy Apple’s line about why Scott Forstall is out, but this is troubling. While at least some of iOS 7’s troubles may be Christie’s fault, I tend to think Ive needs strong UI designers around him. We don’t know the full story, but I worry that Ive being all-powerful in this realm won’t end well.

Update: Gruber dismisses the drama in the 9to5 story, claiming this is more or less a simple retirement.

As someone who keeps their entire photo library on Dropbox, I’m pretty excited about this app.

This is pretty neat:

Hello from the Office for iPad engineering team!

In the first week since launch we’ve seen over 12 million app downloads and heard a lot of valuable feedback. We’re already incorporating that feedback into future updates, and to kick things into high gear, we are partnering with Reddit for the next 2 hours to give you an opportunity to ask us anything (well, nearly anything) about Office for iPad. We have developers, testers and program managers from each app team (Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad) here to answer your questions.

Last year, I got a preview of the Apple Pop-Up Museum, a show in Atlanta showcasing the best of Cupertino’s hardware over the years.

This year, some of the guys behind that project are back, with Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 2.0:

This year’s exhibit space will be greatly enlarged over last year, occupying the whole retail space of the store. About 2/3 of the space will be occupied by a museum display of personal computing artifacts from the Kenbak 1 forward. The remaining 1/3 of the retail space will contain hobbyist vintage computing exhibits. For those who missed last year or who would like to see it again, the Apple pop-up museum from last year’s festival will again be available.

If you are in or around Atlanta the first weekend in May, this is well worth the time and money to see.

If you’re wanting to jump into Evernote, Bradley Chambers just updated his excellent ebook on the program.

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After a brief break, I’m re-opening RSS sponsorships here on 512 Pixels. Details can be found at the link; get in touch if you want to help support the site and reach a bunch of awesome nerds.

I’ve been incredibly busy and my Instapaper account is overflowing with things I’ve wanted to link to but haven’t. So, here’s a list of stuff you should check out:

• Chambers Daily: One iTunes Library To Rule Them All — If you’re going to smash two iTunes libraries together, this is the way to do it.
• AnandTech: Microsoft Announces Windows Phone 8.1 — While Windows Phone may have just a tiny sliver of the market, there are some interesting things happening here. I really hope Apple improves Siri to be more like Google Now or Microsoft’s new Cortana.
• The Verge: George Lucas explains how he invented lightsabers — I never know what to think about George Lucas’ unique gift to bullshit his way through something, but this is cool nonetheless.
• Egg Freckles: Broken By Design — More thoughts along these lines about how Apple’s software is really worrying these days.
• Vox: Why the government should provide internet access — The government really screwed up with the recent decay of net neutrality, but treating Internet access as a public utility could solve lots of problems.

Priceonomics has a great article on Susan Kare, the designer of some of the most iconic pieces of computer UI ever done and one of my tattoos.

Apple PR:

Apple today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 2 through June 6 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At this year’s five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X, giving them the latest tools and technologies to continue creating the most innovative apps for the millions of iOS and Mac customers worldwide. WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions, over 1,000 Apple engineers, hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies and fine tune their apps, as well as the Apple Design Awards which showcase the best apps from the past year.

Developers can apply for tickets via the WWDC website (developer.apple.com/wwdc) now through Monday, April 7 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, and tickets will be issued to attendees through random selection. Developers will know their status by Monday, April 7 at 5:00 p.m. PDT. There will also be 200 Student Scholarships available, giving students around the world the chance to earn a free ticket (developer.apple.com/wwdc/students). This year the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and its alliance partners will help promote scholarships to female engineers and coders.

I’m not surprised by the addition of a lottery system. As a developer I’m sure I would find it frustrating, but it’s better than having roughly 4 seconds to buy a ticket.

That said, while I’ve never bought a conference ticket, I will be in San Francisco that week.

This week, 5by5’s international trio (hi mom!) of Apple users discuss Microsoft and Android (with an awesome special guest).

Sponsored by Squarespace (use code GREATEST for 10% off)

Joe Rosensteel, President of JoeSteel Industries:

Your photographs mean the world to you. They mean something less than that to us. Don’t get us wrong, we think they’re OK, but nothing special. We just want to help you store them. We do this with our magical technology: 4EverCloud™.

At The Prompt, we take photo storage very seriously. That is why we have announced this on April 2nd because we’re so, so, so serious about this.

A day you’ll never forget.