Even while acknowledging the physical beauty of Apple’s latest design—yet another pocketable piece of art from Jony Ive and his legendary team, worthy of awards as much for its execution as the boldness of the chosen materials—it must be said that the glass and metal iPhone 4 has a certain impracticality that will turn off some users as much as it excites others. The challenges caused by its antenna system and scratchable, glossy body are ones that many users will want to mitigate with cases, which may have been beneficial for past iPhones but seem downright necessary now. For no good reason other than to look cool, iPhone 4 feels like it has taken yet another step down the “designed to be damaged and ultimately replaced” path, a point that Apple would surely spin as environmentally friendly due to the recyclability of its glass and metal. But if iPhone 4 was truly a nod to famed German designer Dieter Rams, as noted in the introduction to this review, it should respect his principles that good design is “long-lasting,” “environmentally friendly,” and “makes a product useful.” Products should be built to last rather than disposable, and items made to be moved in and out of pockets shouldn’t break after a few drops, or suffer networking problems when held normally in one’s hand. True environmental friendliness avoids the need for product replacement and recycling rather than exacerbating it; good design also makes a product useful, rather than making the user work around its limitations. As attractive as it is, iPhone 4’s case-dependent body design is the only reason it falls short of our high recommendation, and should Apple provide a reasonable remedy to the obvious problems here, we’ll take the rare step of revisiting our rating in light of that change.
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On Blown Capcitors
According to company memorandums and other documents recently unsealed in a civil case against Dell in Federal District Court in North Carolina, Dell appears to have suffered from the bad capacitors, made by a company called Nichicon, far more than its rivals. Internal documents show that Dell shipped at least 11.8 million computers from May 2003 to July 2005 that were at risk of failing because of the faulty components. These were Dell’s OptiPlex desktop computers — the company’s mainstream products sold to business and government customers.
MessagePad Color Palette
After all these years, the Newton design language still speaks volumes to me.
Palm Drops App Submission Fees
Dieter Bohn at PreCentral has posted this letter from Palm:
These are exciting times for Palm and our developer community. The Hot Apps promotion that we kicked off back in February is about to end with over 400 developers receiving a share of a million dollars. We recently launched the Summer Half Off promotion—a 50% discount for nearly every app in our catalog that was funded by Palm; developers still get their full earnings for each sale, but customers get half off. And we’re just getting started.
Jobs Comments on Conflict Minerals
Steve Jobs, via Wired:
We require all of our suppliers to certify in writing that they use conflict few materials. But honestly there is no way for them to be sure. Until someone invents a way to chemically trace minerals from the source mine, it’s a very difficult problem.
It sure would be nice if Apple were more public about this issue.
Empire Hotline Recordings Found
Fans old enough to remember the days before the Empire struck back in 1980 might recall a little-known promotion launched in the months preceding the first Star Wars sequel. As reported in the Spring 1980 issue of Bantha Tracks – the original Star Wars Fan Club newsletter – a telephone hotline was set up to allow callers to dial in and hear teasers for The Empire Strikes Back several months before the film’s release.
Apple Sells 1.7 Million iPhone 4s
Steve Jobs, via the Apple PR Machine:
This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.
APPL is sitting at $267 a share at this writing.
.50 Cal Round, Meet the iPhone
On Consulting
The always-amusing John Welch:
I can tell you that sysadmin consultants rarely get called in under good circumstances. Sometimes, but that’s only when you have a client who realizes they don’t have internal expertise, and need shit done quickly, too quickly to get it done in house. Those are the best, because there’s no hurt feelings, and you’re not a cover for intercine office wars.
That’s what we all want. No dicking around, no hurt feelings, no drama. You know my skills, I know your problem, we get shit fixed quickly, and everyone’s happy.
Josiah: St. Jude Patient of the Month
Josiah finished his last round of chemo today. Now everyone is just keeping a close on eye on things to make sure his brain tumor doesn’t start growing. My wife and I blog about his progress here.
He’s being highlighted in St. Jude’s fundraising for July. Check out the video.
Blendtec Blends iPhone 4
Some iPhones Have Swapped Volume Keys
Add this to the list of issues, I suppose.