Interview With iMac designer, Jonathan Ive

rleyton writes "The Independent has an interesting interview with Jonathan Ive, the designer of the new imac (and the iBook, the iPod and original iMac...)" It's actually a pretty interesting even if you think the new iMac is repulsive. Personally I dig it.

Comments

Re:new iMAC

[jchristopher]

Please stop the damn MHz comparisons

Why? Even if you accept the fact that a 700mhz G4 can keep pace with a 1.4ghz Athlon (I've used both, and I believe it), the iMac is STILL overpriced. What's a 1.4ghz Athlon system going for these days? I'd bet you can build one with a name brand LCD and get a DVD burner too for the $1299 the iMac costs.

That doesn't make the iMac a bad computer, but it's ridiculous to call it competitive when a machine that is faster and more powerful can be purchased for several hundred dollars less.

You people are scaring me

[Control-Z]

Surely you don't like those incredibly propietary, disposable machines??

I'll take an aluminum PC tower case with a nice 1Gig+ CPU, 512MB of memory, Radeon AIW card, CD-RW, DVD, and a RAID array of 4 hard drives. And a separate, cheap, upgradable monitor. Try stuffing that in your iMac!

Don't nerds stress function over form any more?

Re:20 pounds?

[posmon]

rather heavy? you weak fucking pussy!

Re:The last company that tried to be "better"

[Reality Master 101]

... and people who don't need to update their hardware every year, which is almost everyone that DOESN'T read this web site.

There is no doubt that probably the majority of people will not upgrade their computers. However, I think it's more than just the "geek contingent" that many believe. There are a LOT of people who install their own memory, or add a modem card, or add a new video card, etc. These things are just not that hard for the average person. If it was just the Slashdot crowd, we wouldn't have have the major computer chains carrying components.

Their design may make them boutiquish, but if you take a closer look you'll see a computer that is truly designed with the mass market in mind.

I remember walking into a literal clothing boutique one time because I needed a belt. Being young and naive, I didn't clue in that it wasn't "my kind of place". Now, I should say that I like quality. But they wanted, and I'm not joking, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS for this leather belt. Now, it was a great belt, no question about it. But do you really need to pay that much more money for maybe 10% more quality?

Now, Apple is not 10 times the cost, like this belt (although they WOULD charge that much, if they could), but it's the same principle. They are charging a lot more money for 10% more quality.

It's too bad the geeks are still advising their relatives to get ugly grey boxes when they could be getting a much more user-friendly experience.

I'm one of those geeks that would never let my relatives buy an Apple if I could help it. NEVER. Because my relatives don't want a piece of art, they want to run the software that they want. And that overrides any "10% better" user-friendliness (if that) that the Mac might hold. Windows works extremely well for them.

Honestly, I don't know how people live with themselves recommending a Mac. I would feel totally guilty. It's OK if you want to get one for yourself, and are informed as to the huge software limitations, but to lead someone down that path is just wrong.

Re:Go read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenan

[erlando]

When I use Mac OS X, I can *feel* that somewhere in Cupertino there's an English major who was losing sleep at nights trying to make the text in the dialog boxes as clear and understandable as possible.

Too bad that it's a waste of time though..

Quality. Art. The "soul" of a machine.

Bull! 1) The machine is a tool. It's not meant to be a piece of art. 2) It has no soul. It's a thing. A dead object. I agree with you on the quality point though but sometimes it seems like Apple uses waaaay too much money on design. Pretty design does not equal quality. Not by a longshot.

For those of you who haven't programmed using Cocoa or haven't messed around much with OS X or actually seen and used a recent iMac in person, there's no substitute for the tangible results of Apple's years of dedication.

I wouldn't touch either with a ten foot pole. Cocoa is "Java for kids" (Java is bad enough..), iMacs are a pain and OS X is not where the money is...

Re:rabid anti-mac sentiment

[SackMasterZero]

dude you suck the shit out of a dead dog's ass.