MyAppleMenu

The Freedom-Without-Clearance Edition Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Apple Ends Consulting Agreement With Jony Ive, Its Former Design Leader, by Tripp Mickle, New York Times

In recent weeks, with the contract coming up for renewal, the parties agreed not to extend it. Some Apple executives had questioned how much the company was paying Mr. Ive and had grown frustrated after several of its designers left to join Mr. Ive’s firm. And Mr. Ive wanted the freedom to take on clients without needing Apple’s clearance, these people said.

HRH Prince Charles And Sir Jony Ive On Designing For A Better World, by Deyan Sudjic, Wallpaper

Sir Jony Ive signs off the website of his creative collective, LoveFrom, with two startling, contradictory words: ‘Love’ and ‘Fury’, connecting them with a meticulously drawn ampersand. They suggest a more complicated and surprising designer than the purist who gave the enigmatic first-generation iPhone its Dieter Rams-inspired calculator interface.

Ive is unfailingly polite, solicitous and considerate in conversation, and yet every so often he uses the word ‘fury’ or ‘furious’, or ‘angry’. It makes him sound a bit like William Morris, who gave up design to campaign for socialism, complaining within the hearing of his clients of spending his life ‘ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich’. Ive certainly isn’t giving up design, but he suggests that, when discussing work in his studio, he is sometimes arguing with himself: ‘mostly it is an internal monologue’. He belongs to a generation of designers who grew up reading Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World, which made the notorious claim that ‘there are professions more dangerous than industrial design, but not many.’

Stuff

Looking For A New Mac? The M1 MacBook Air Is Still A Good Option, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

After using the M1 MacBook Air for almost two years, I can confidently say that it remains one of the most cost-effective computers currently available on the market. For its price, you’ll get a laptop that is faster than most computers, and that is even more powerful than a MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i9 processor.

'Scusi' For macOS Transcribes Audio Messages You Don't Want To Play, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Scusi is a new app that wants to help you with that friend or coworker who loves sending long audio messages on iMessage. If you don’t have time or simply don’t like listening to them, that’s the perfect app for your Mac.

Nomad Leather Cover For Siri Remote Review: Fixing Apple's Missteps, by Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

Nomad has released some niche Apple accessories, but this one may be one of the most unique: an all-leather cover for the Apple TV's Siri Remote that holds an AirTag for easy locating. While it may be a bit superfluous for some, it's a great-looking add-on.

TagVault: Wallet Review: Get A Good Fit For An AirTag In A Wallet, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

Get a TagVault: Wallet if you want the least possible material in your wallet to protect an AirTag and keep it in place.

Notes

Hundreds Of Tech, Business And Nonprofit Leaders Urge States To Boost Computer Science Education, by Kurt Schlosser, GeekWire

More than 500 business, education and nonprofit leaders have teamed with Seattle-based computer education nonprofit Code.org to issue a call to state governments and education leaders to bring more computer science opportunities to K-12 students across the U.S.

Severance, Ted Lasso And More Nominated For 2022 Emmy Awards, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple TV+ shows that include “Severance” and “Ted Lasso” have been nominated for 2022 Emmy Awards, the Television Academy announced today. “Ted Lasso” has been nominated for Outsanding Comedy Series, while “Severance” has been nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.

Ev Williams Gives Up, by Casey Newton, Platformer

There’s no shame in a startup trying lots of different ideas. But Medium’s ideas were often coupled to to the livelihoods of journalists and the publications they worked for. It’s one thing to have a singular vision and change your tactics along the way; Williams vision for what Medium was transformed almost continuously.

Bottom of the Page

It is quite likely that I cannot afford to buy anything Sir Jony Ive designs henceforth. But I am still very interested to find out all the new stuff that he will be designing.

~

Thanks for reading.