Slashdot Mirror
Early Apple Designs Revealed, Courtesy of Hartmut Esslinger
SternisheFan writes with an excerpt as carried by CNET of former Apple design chief Hartmut Esslinger's upcoming book, titled Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change. Writing of Steve Job's integration of design as an essential element across the company as a whole, Esslinger says:
"The company's [then] CEO, Michael Scott, had created different business divisions for each product line, including accessories such as monitors and memory drives. Each division had its own head of design and developed its products the way it wanted to. As a result, Apple's products shared little in the way of a common design language or overall synthesis
In essence, bad design was both the symptom and a contributing cause of Apple's corporate disease. Steve's desire to end the disjoined approach gave birth to a strategic design project that would revolutionize Apple's brand and product lines, change the trajectory of the company's future, and eventually redefine the way the world thinks about and uses consumer electronics and communication technologies." CNET shows off a few of those old designs (many of them appearing unsurprisingly fresh), but for much more of them see these images at designboom.
Whatever the design, it's if made in the Foxconn factory, I will never buy such product from slave labors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/business/signs-of-changes-taking-hold-in-electronics-factories-in-china.html?_r=0
If you really want to be honest with that attitude take a good long look at the labour practices of every manufacturer you buy products from. I think you'll find your list of acceptable brands will have to be drastically reduced. Every major manufacturer takes advantage of mistreated labor forces somewhere in the world and that includes most of the food stuffs you buy.
I'm glad you have taken a stand, but I'm sorry to hear you have eschewed all consumer electronics. How did you post the above comment?
Whatever the design, it's if made in the Foxconn factory, I will never buy such product from slave labors.
So you won't own a smartphone? Or even a "feature phone"? No cell phone at all? No tablet of any kind? No portable music player?
The Samsung slaves from the neighbouring production line at Foxconn making your eWaste will be eternally grateful for giving them more work to do.
so your going to give up everything and live in a cave are you... good luck with that... dont forget to get rid of the soapbox your standing too ok :)
I don't understand this - how are ventilation stripes a design language?
Can someone explain what the hell is snow white design language created by this guy.
if you don't believe me, look it up yourself: Wikipedia Link
You know it's time for the next revolution when your rulers' names end with roman numerals.
Don't you understand? Only Apple has ever used inexpensive overseas labor. Android phones are made by happy elves on Main Street America in shops powered by unicorn breath.
of Mac Mini, NEC monitor, Logitech bluetooth mouse, Kensington USB keyboard, and Tivoli Audio sound system has absolutely no "design language or overall synthesis in essence" and yet works just fine.
This is not design, it is fashion - fad if you will !! Design has purpose !! Fashion does not !!
WTF does this have to do with the article? Or do you just go around randomly posting this on most Tech articles? Or are you just an anti-apple troll?
http://visual.ly/braun-or-apple
http://www.metrohippie.com/dieter-rams-top-10/
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
"Whatever the design, it's if made in the Foxconn factory, I will never buy such product from slave labors."
So you will never buy any hardware from....
Acer ......
Amazon
Apple
Cisco
Dell
HP
Microsoft
Motorola
Nintendo
Nokia
Samsung
Sony
Toshiba
Vizio
It's still good to keep the bad working conditions in discussion. It doesn't make it any better if we just raise our hands and say that every manufacturer is like that. There's probably things there that actually could be improved and we could still have our precious gadgetz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DX1iplQQJTo
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I will never buy such product from slave labors.
Before you go all holier-than-thou on us you might want to consider the full implications of what you are saying. First off, "slave labor"? I think you do not know what real slavery is so your hyperbole is really a bit out of line. Foxconn might not treat their employees well but its hardly slavery. They do not own their employees even in a figurative sense. Slavery is something far, far worse. I've actually been in a sweatshop in Chengdu where they were making parts for Dell monitors. I've seen dozens of manufacturing plants in China with my own eyes. I've seen all of this stuff first hand. There is NO electronics manufacturer that is innocent here. You will find that there is no alternative that is any better if you really look into this situation. Anything you can say about Apple/Foxconn you HAVE to say about pretty much any other electronics manufacturer as well as those for countless other products. You are actually saying that you will not buy a wide variety of products.
If you want to not buy products made in substandard working conditions, I respect that stance. But you are going to find it is not as simple as you think. There aren't any innocent parties and in many cases what we consider horrible working conditions are actually a step up from the alternatives. The important thing is that conditions continue to improve. There is considerable evidence that conditions are improving even if progress is sometimes painfully slow. There are more effective ways to improve working conditions than a silent boycott by yourself. Get involved with organizations trying to make a difference. They're out there if you really actually give a damn and want to make a difference.
I wonder if they noticed that the pictures of the Macphone they show were taken with the product upside down.
Because of their high profile among mainstream consumers, Apple is one of the only companies pushing Foxconn to improve working conditions. I'm sure there are public relations considerations driving Apple's moves, but singling them out as the OP did leaves him open to criticism.
> "The company's [then] CEO, Michael Scott"
Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change
That's what she said!
Steve's desire to end the disjoined approach
That's what she said!
bad design was both the symptom and a contributing cause of Apple's corporate disease
That's what she said!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Hartmut needs to design a line of products for shaving.
Have gnu, will travel.
Every major manufacturer takes advantage of mistreated labor forces somewhere in the world and that includes most of the food stuffs you buy.
Red light in the cockpit, mods. When someone uses the words "everyone, always, never, all," or other universally true (or false) statements, you really need to engage your bullshit detectors. By this poster's logic, anyone who works in manufacturing is being exploited. That is the position of an anti-industrialist, and it's not a tenable one. Yes, labor is exploited, but it's not as pervasive as the poster is claiming. Cars are a major manufacturing industry in this country, and they're union shops with health benefits, retirement plans, etc. They may not be the greatest jobs to work, but they pay a living wage and employees are treated with a measure of respect. So right there, the claim of every manufacturer is busted.
That said, the original poster is excercising his freedom of choice in the marketplace -- he is making purchasing decisions based on his personal ethics. This is to be commended. It is also making a difference because not everything in the world is produced in a Foxconn factory, or similar factory. I will stop short of saying this poster's behavior happens often enough in the marketplace to actually drive a noticable change in it, but simply underscore that his purchasing decision and the ethics underpinning it, are not an onerous burden. It's possible to live free of slave-labor products.
It is not easy, however.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
What computer did you use to write that comment?
I recall these internet appliances that would allow us to cheaply access email and the WWW. Since so many were still using dial up, a land line phone was a common sense addition. Few imagined that cell phone rates would fall so quickly that phone calls would almost be given away, and what you pay for was data. This lead to the internet appliance that was not imagined, the smart phone, and the larger table on which we use Skype, which with we call anywhere for negligible costs, at least by developed world standards.
This is funny because so many said the internet appliance would never be viable. Maybe that was true in a very restricted sense, but not in a broad sense. In the same sense that there was no market for microcomputers.
Which is why I get so annoyed when people dismiss a concept because they do not like a design. Sure the Tandy 100, 200, PC-6 might not have been many peoples idea of a programmable portable device, but they had many of the ideas that people want today. A keyboard, programing on device, removable storage. It is interesting to note that many successful mobile devices do not include such features. But that is who progress works. We start by mimicking existing technology, then move to novel ideas.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
No matter how you feel toward Apple, those designs show how forward thinking they were. Keep in mind that most of those designs are from 1982. Two years before the Mac's debut, and at a time when we were all beating on our Atari 8-bits, Apple IIs, and Commodore 64s.
I'm especially intrigued with the split screen monitor designs. Dual monitors in 1982? Dual flat screen monitors? Pretty amazing.
And the baby mac resurfaces 14 years later as the iMac.
What, me worry?
Where are your computer and your phone made?
We're talking consumer electronics here. Computers and phones primarily.
Nokia used to manufacture in Finland amongst other places, so one may assume the conditions there were reasonable. But I suspect they don't manufacture there any more.
Apple does some of it's manufacturing in the USA, and has announced they are going to be doing more. Again we can assume no sweatshop conditions there.
So who else?
I'd suggest at this stage Apple is probably amongst the best of the consumer electronics brands as regards worker conditions. Because they're pretty much all manufacturing in the far east, and Apple, given all the bad press they got on the issue, is the one who's doing the most to counter bad practices. And they are also not trying to compete in the bottom end - where there is no margin for improving worker conditions.
When I read, "Design forward, creative strategies for sustainable change", am I the only one who interprets this as, "I'm a douche, new age style"?
And WTF is sustainable change? Change is change. Sustainable is continuous. If things are changing, they're not sustainable. A constant state of change is the very definition of a bunch of unsustainable things. So what the really means is, "we're going to keep pulling the rug out from under people" which brings me back to my first point: It's all about being a New Age douche, which fits Apple perfectly I guess.
Heh. :)
I'd suggest at this stage Apple is probably amongst the best of the consumer electronics brands as regards worker conditions. Because they're pretty much all manufacturing in the far east, and Apple, given all the bad press they got on the issue, is the one who's doing the most to counter bad practices. And they are also not trying to compete in the bottom end - where there is no margin for improving worker conditions.
Bad suggestion. Come over in Zhengzhou, Henan, and see the weekly queue of 300 workers in the iPhone factory, that are replacing those who left because 2k RMB isn't enough to accept such working conditions (and we're talking about very poor people here for who 2k RMB is quite decent). It seems Apple is really successful with it's PR about all this, but reality is really different.
Much early personal computer design was dominated by the "where do we put the back part of the CRT" problem. You see that in the article's pictures. Once screens became flat, and electronics became small, there was more design flexibility. Not much is done with it, though.
Organic designs have been tried over the years. Olivetti did some beautiful designs in the 1960s and 1970s, and most good museums of modern art will have a few Olivetti objects on display. Bang and Olufsen designs are much admired by designers, but the reaction of most people is "what's that?" There are limits to what consumers will accept.
Phones seem to have ended up as bricks, for now. For a while, flip phones were mainstream, but we now seem to be back to bricks, just thinner ones. Slightly larger devices are either flat bricks or big flip phones. There's little curvature in mobile devices. What matters is what's on the screen. (And the ability to fit the thing in a pocket or bag.)
The same thing happened to movie theaters decades ago. Movie theater auditoriums were once built in fanciful styles ranging from Moorish palaces to "atmospheric" theaters with the illusion of an open sky. Theaters had elaborate curtain systems, with both horizontal and vertical curtains. All of that is gone. Today the auditorium is a lightly decorated box with a bare screen. But the seats are better, the aisle lighting is better, and the projection and audio are much better. Function has triumphed because what matters is on the screen.
The next thing is supposed to be headwear, in the form of glasses with displays. It's not clear if that will catch on. Bluetooth headsets as jewelry never did.
Looks like the 'cat is out of the bag' big time.
All those years of commercials about 'Think Different', 'Innovate', 'Create' were just a smoke screen. All the designs, even the Apple I, had nothing to do with Jobs' 'Genus'. Jobs was just a carpet bagger with an anger management problem, other than the drugs.
And you still haven't answered anyone as to where the computing device you're using right now was made. You're a coward and a hypocrite.
Mac Mini, NEC monitor, Logitech bluetooth mouse, Kensington USB keyboard, and Tivoli Audio sound system
How exactly were we supposed to divine you understood anything about design from that mish-mash?
It doesn't even seem like a set of components that are either the best technically (kensington keyboard, tivoli speakers) nor is it coherent in design. Someone who really embraces design would recoil from having discordant components (and note I'm including myself in that assessment as I sit here with a second screen being a cheap LG monitor).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Whatever the design, it's if made in the Foxconn factory, I will never buy such product from slave labors.
GPLHost-Thomas is a hypocrite. He's avoiding answering who made the computing device he used to post that message. But looking back through a few of his posts, we see that he bought an ACER laptop for his wife.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3274815&cid=42117409
ACER is a Taiwanese company who outsources it's manufacturing to Foxconn amongst others.
Caught red handed.
Amazon...
And speaking of Amazon, a recent story in the Seattle Times:
"Amazon's overseas labor policy: Trust us"
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020017651_amazonsuppliers30m.html
And of course just about all of our fashionable apparel are made in Bangladesh...
As long as us "consumers" demand the absolute lowest price-point, this is simply the way it is. Of course this bothers me, but most of the highest pitched whiners are doing so from their "bleeding edge" super thin whatever made by Foxxcon or a Foxxcon clone...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
How sad that slashdot is now the place for old news about old news that used to matter for geeks....
Cool designs bro. Call me when you want to pay some taxes. You know, those taxes that fund the patent office that allows your flawed \ fraud business model to exists in the first place.
Then how are you posting this?
How do you find any modern electronics that doesn't have any Chinese parts in it?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Not only are the Tivoli speakers and sub a great sounding nearfield system but they are cosmetically beat up and hand me downs. Enjoy your "synthesis in essence" whatever the fuck that absurd gibberish is actually supposed to mean.
Cool, make sure you boycott products from these FOXCONN customers too then:
Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
Amazon.com (United States)
In 2011, Amazon and Foxconn formed a joint-design manufacturing company. The move was meant to produce an Amazon branded smartphone sometime in 2012.
Apple Inc. (United States)
ASRock (Taiwan)
Asus (Taiwan)
Barnes & Noble (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Dell (United States)
EVGA Corporation (United States)
Hewlett-Packard (United States)
Intel (United States)
IBM (United States)
Lenovo (China)
Logitech (Switzerland)
Microsoft (United States)
MSI (Taiwan)
Motorola (United States)
Netgear (United States)
Nintendo (Japan)
Nokia (Finland)
Panasonic (Japan)
Philips (Netherlands)
Samsung (South Korea)
Sharp (Japan)
Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)
Toshiba (Japan)
Vizio (United States)
I probably put the floppy Drive in that tiger 2C. My first "tech" job way back in the early 80's. Damn I am getting old.
Forget about the over seas slavery claims, mega shipping warehouses in the USA are just as bad. If you've ever selected 3 day or better shipping times from a major company, someone worked their ass off for you and you supported that company in treating their workers as dirt.
What you say ?
The Apple Computer designs were not by Steven P. Jobs ?
They were ... BOUGHT ... with ... MONEY ... from a ... a ... German !
And ... so ... what does this say about the current ... G ... Geniuses since there is no German who will make the designs ?
powered by unicorn breath
while it may seem to violate conservation of energy, there is no free lunch... permanent storage of magic waste in reinforced casks gets more expensive all the time
If you want it cheapest, don't by it from Amazon. Buy it directly from the chinese market.
The quality is basically the same, but it's 1/10th of the price easily.
I'm glad you have taken a stand, but I'm sorry to hear you have eschewed all consumer electronics. How did you post the above comment?
There are plenty of Made-In-The-USA computers that are available on the second-hand market. Slashdot's CSS will probably work OK on some of them; perhaps a custom build of Firefox will work on a large class of these.
The real trick is trying to get your packets routed anywhere without using Chinese parts.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'm glad you have taken a stand, but I'm sorry to hear you have eschewed all consumer electronics. How did you post the above comment?
There are plenty of Made-In-The-USA computers that are available on the second-hand market.
And a few of them may even have been made without Foxconn connectors (guess what the "conn" in Foxconn stands for).
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.