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Ask Tog!

post #1 of 9
6/22/09 at 12:52pm
Thread Starter 
Insta-faved. Not sure how I never heard of this guy but I'm now subscribed to his blog. He eloquently describes how Apple's insistence on simplicity is both a blessing and a curse, and is going to continue to hamper them as they cater more and more to the mass-market lowest-common-denominator and less on the power user that has been their bread and butter for so long.

Part 1:
Apple's Flatland Aesthetic, Part 1: The Mac

Part 2:
Apple's Flatland Aesthetic, Part 2: iPhone, iPod Touch, & Apple TV
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post #2 of 9
6/22/09 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Ask Tog!

Just flipping through the list of topics I mentally checked off one by one here:
AskTog Design Section

Now if only this guy was into Bluray =)
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post #3 of 9
6/22/09 at 1:21pm

Re: Ask Tog!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
Now if only this guy was into Bluray =)
You can ask Ted:
Blu-ray Won The Battle, Losing The War
A full year(?) after "winning" the format war Blu-ray still hasn't caught up to HD-DVD. Away from where we, the HT geeks congregate, BD has failed. Apple sees no reason to help a competitor that is on the ropes. Apple is betting that (HD) downloads will surpass BD soon enough, and we will be saying Blu who?

P.S. A lot of people have come back with arguments comparing BD adoption/time to DVD adoption/time. I say we live in a different world from 10 years ago -- successful products take off much faster. See iPhone/iPod Touch: zero to 41 million+++ in under two years.
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post #4 of 9
6/22/09 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Ask Tog!

Yeah yeah yeah. Honestly I don't give a damn about watching movies on it, I just want bigger recordable media.

Edit: This author is on crack.

Quote:
compared to 7 percent who purchased HD DVD players,
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post #5 of 9
6/22/09 at 1:38pm

Re: Ask Tog!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
Insta-faved. Not sure how I never heard of this guy but I'm now subscribed to his blog. He eloquently describes how Apple's insistence on simplicity is both a blessing and a curse, and is going to continue to hamper them as they cater more and more to the mass-market lowest-common-denominator and less on the power user that has been their bread and butter for so long.
Unless I am mixing him and Jef Raskin up, Tog has hated Mac OS X since day one (his own personal "not invented here" I guess). Considering how many light years ahead of the Mac OS 9 and previous versions OS X is, Tog is full of shit. And I say this as a Mac OS user since Mac OS 1.0 in 1984. Give it up, Tog -- OS 9 is gone, forgotten and won't be coming back.
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post #6 of 9
6/22/09 at 1:43pm

Re: Ask Tog!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
Yeah yeah yeah. Honestly I don't give a damn about watching movies on it, I just want bigger recordable media.

Edit: This author is on crack.

From the article:
Quote:
In a new Harris Poll, the results of which were released on Friday, only 11 percent of Americans own a HD DVD player, while only 7 percent own a Blu-ray player.
You can argue the Harris Poll is bad, but I don't see why the author is on crack -- the figures don't seem unbelievable to my untrained eye -- where is the evident error?
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post #7 of 9
6/22/09 at 2:44pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Ask Tog!

Do one in ten familes that you know own an HD-DVD player? Even a closeout one bought AFTER the format died? I bet in my circle it's not one in forty...
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post #8 of 9
6/22/09 at 8:22pm

Re: Ask Tog!

I've been reading Tog sporadically for years and really enjoy his insights. However, I ascribe to the common and simple critique that his own website* reveals his comprehension of human factors is not so strong as he claims.

But I've not read his articles in a while; glad for the reminder.

* Ah, it's not as hideous as it was a couple years ago. Perhaps he's applying his own research.

Skimmed the first article. Agree that the Dock is borked. (So is the Finder.)

As for iPhoto, his argument seems a bit asinine: Does he also expect iMovie to scale from news to Harry Potter production? GarageBand to scale from dabblers to producing Metallica? So why would iPhot scale from vacation photos to pro photo? Newbs who become experts with 10,000+ photos can buy Aperture or Lightroom.

This comment seems right on:
Quote:
Since the photos were all organized in iPhoto, it only makes sense that you sync them with...iTunes!
iTunes management of all things iPhone seems to violate basic Apple design sensibility Apple.

And this is quite intriguing:
Quote:
This flatness mania is damaging Apple developers. When the App Store first opened, I was buying everything. I’ve now stopped buying. I no longer have anything I want to throw away and nowhere to put anything new. I’m an early (and compulsive) adopter, but millions of others will soon reach this same point. The gold rush is going to suddenly be over, and it has nothing to do with people getting bored or the Apps becoming less interesting. It’s just that Apple has failed to give people a means of storing what they might buy.
A quick google shows an iPhone can hold 148 apps. Can you imagine Apple putting a 148 song limit on iTunes? Or a 148 song limit on its iPods? At free or $0.99, apps are as cheap and buyable as songs.
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post #9 of 9
6/23/09 at 2:40pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Ask Tog!

You can actually put as many apps as your storage allows now but only see the first 148. The others past that can be opened only using spotlight . This seems to be a VERY apple like solution =p
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