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Industrial Design Excellence Awards 2004

burgburgburg writes "The IDEA 2004 awards (Industrial Design Excellence Awards) have been announced. Apple won 2 Gold (for the iPod Mini and the G5), a Silver (for the iSight) and a Bronze (for the Apple Wireless Keyboard). Some comments: 'Like a modern touchstone the iPod Mini is a product people will love to hold. The designers skillfully integrated the satin aluminum case with flush controls and a simple touchpad interface to create a jewel-like piece of technology.' - Monty Montague, IDSA, Design Principal, BOLT. 'The G5 is impressive with visually lithe qualities and a host of thoughtful and innovative user features wrapped in aluminum. Its well-engineered technical features, such as its cooling system and internal component mounts, are honestly and elegantly executed. The G5's aesthetic is a pure and graceful expression of Apple's philosophical precept of leaving no detail un-designed. This is what results when engineering and design play nice with each other.' - Christopher Alviar, IDSA, Principal, CG/A"

14 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Also important to mention that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    ...iSight got the same award as an angle grinder, and the iPod mini took the same award as a heavy duty thickness planer... and a salad bowl.

    To be honest, looking at all the winners in the different categories, the Apple ones aren't anything special. Looking at Computer Equipment category, I see Samsung, HP and Logitech alongside Apple's G5 - all worthy of equal praise IMO.

  2. Re:Apple Wireless Keyboard by adzoox · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can use it on a PC - but note that the windows key (command key) is out of place.

    You might need a keyboard remapper kext to remedy tht and might want to take mineral oil to the two keys that are out of place.

    It's the same thing though as PC keyboards.

    I use an Eluminx glow keyboard that is PS2 with my Macs. The Windows key is on the keyboard and I just did what I told you above.

    The Apple bluetooth keyboard even works with my Ericsson cellphone.

    --
    Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
  3. Great book by tsangc · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you're interested in Apple's corporate design, there's an excellent book called Apple Design: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group--

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/18 88 001259/103-7823380-3150263?v=glance

    I found it while ago at a bookstore and it's quite good.

  4. Re:Who is tired of the billions of Apple articles by Gropo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Learn how to use the filter, Stanley!

    --
    I hate Grammar Nazi's
  5. Re:An Idea by lachlan76 · · Score: 3, Informative

    this makes using the keys on a small phone easy for western hands that are often bigger.

    There is the slight issue of my thumb covering the screen. Hard to SMS when I can't see. And I do have a small phone, a T100, so I would know.

  6. Re:Apple Wireless Keyboard by Chucker23N · · Score: 4, Informative

    As the Apple *wired* Keyboard and Mouse work just fine with most USB-supporting operating systems (the Apple button gets turned into a Windows button, etc.) without any need for additional drivers, I doubt it'd be different for the Bluetooth versions.

    On the other hands, the FireWire iSight does currently, AFAIK, *not* work with other operating systems.

  7. Re:Other Cool stuff as well by trashme · · Score: 3, Informative

    What about the hammer moving the center of gravity towards the head of the hammer? Or the curved top so nail removal has a smaller chance of damaging the surface?

    The hammer may not be worth its price, but don't say they did not improve functionality when designing this hammer.

  8. Re:Apple Wireless Keyboard - Review? by ratsnapple+tea · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't know what other reviews you saw, but there's definitely no lag, and the keyboard and mouse are both 128-bit encrypted with adaptive frequency hopping (whatever that means), which I believe is the standard. C'mon, would you expect anything less from Apple? :-P

    http://www.apple.com/keyboard/

  9. Re:Hooray for Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "Dell, Toshiba notebooks don't come in titanium/aluminium cases."

    no but IBM & a few no-name OEM laptops do, if thats a feature that you want (& are willing to pay extra for)

  10. Re:Other Cool stuff as well by cosmo7 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Define "improve".

    Improve used to mean to make good use what was available (this meaning lives on as improvise).

    So when Washington said "True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion." he didn't mean he was bound to make the occasion better, rather he was bound to make good use of the opportunity presented.

    Now improve means to enhance, so the word is recursive.

  11. Re:Hooray for Apple by Klanglor · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yep! but IBM has that booring Standard Formal Business Design. You do get Air-Bag technology inside your Harddisk, Titanium Chasing wrapping the case...

    But the Notebook itself is ALWAYS BLACK since a good five 10-year.

  12. Re:That is a load of crap by Davoid · · Score: 2, Informative

    In Mac OS X I find that "Preferences" are under neither "File" nor "Window"... but under 'whatever theappnameis'. System Preferences are both in the Dock and in Apple Menu.

    In Linux (Gnome) I find that "Preferences" are under "Edit". Global user preferences are under main menu --> "Preferences". Global system preferences are under main menu --> "System Settings".

    Either setup seems to make sense.

    The thing that seems to throw off most users is that to "Quit" an application in Mac OS X one has to go to the 'whatevertheappnameis' menu and not the "File" menu as in all other apps on all other systems that I can think of. Eventually users seem to get over it... depends on how much time they spend in each kind of system.

    --
    "Don't sweat the technique."
  13. Re:one thing by Fred_A · · Score: 3, Informative

    When the whole site has been designed with flash, as is the case here, you can only bookmark the page that calls the flash file, not a page within the "flash site". In essence you can only bookmark the homepage.

    The indexing engines cannot follow links internal to a flash sites so the content that is in the file will not be indexed. Therefore a web site designed as a flash file cannot be found through a search. And when it will be found through a search (whenever the clueless designers will have win, should be any day now), getting at the content will remain a problem because you can only point at the "home page" (see above).

    You could also say the same for pages in Mandarin, or say the same for writing web pages on grains of rice. I never mentionned CSS as an alternative (which it isn't).

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.
  14. Re:Actually in the past year or two by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I know I'm not the average Mac user, but I work in the professional audio and post-production industry. This industry has been headquartered on Apple machines damn-near forever.

    We still run ProTools, yes there are other alternatives out there budding on the horizon, but there's not ready for prime-time yet. PT requires PCI cards, the largest of the systems uses three cards. That fills up a G5.

    We also need to add a SCSI card (we still use scsi for a variety of reasons, mostly on removable storcase carriers) and a Video output card (like a Fuse or Igniter). We also typically replace the internal modem with a Serial port, and that ties up a slot. This is used for MIDI, MMC, and other serial devices that may be connected.

    Even a "bare-bones" system for us requires 4 slots, 3 for Protools and a SCSI card.

    On G4 based systems, which we still use (we don't use G5's because there's not enough slots and they don't run 9, and Protools for X is quirky, not to mention the HD plugins) We get 4 PCI slots, so we use a PCI expansion chassis, which takes a slot, then SCSI, then Video Out, then serial. The G4 case is a better case for expansion purposes.

    True, most people don't need all the slots in a G5, but Apple is limiting the professional audio market, which the G5 is targeted at, and does not offer a comparable solution.