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The only thing that would lead me to get a non-iPhone would be if I chose to go phablet. I can’t see it happening though but I do believe there is a good niche for those sorts of devices. As you rightly say they are fundamentally different devices.

1 day ago on What makes the iPhone so good?

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Why do I love the iPhone? Let me count the ways…

1. Hardware – I genuinely believe the iPhone 5 is the nicest consumer product I’ve ever owned. It took the crown from my old 4S. It’s small, slim, light and solidly built from great quality materials. The design is timeless. In decades to come design museums will display iPhones as paragons of great design – I doubt the same will be true of most other smartphones – especially the flashy but forgettable Samsung Galaxy range. The closest I’ve seen to the quality of the iPhone in pure design terms have been the HTC One and the new Blackberry Z10. The Nokia Lumia range has some strong points but they’re bulky too.

2. Updates! I get updates. The latest OS once a year even for older phones and timely patches and updates in between.

3. Software – iOS may be in need of a spring clean but it’s easy to use and deceptively powerful. I’ve played with Android handsets and they feel… fussy. Windows Phone 8 is nice but it’s also confusing.

4. Apps – if there’s a great app out there then it’s almost always out on the iPhone first.

5. Ecosystem – I can get great accessories and services that are designed to work with my iPhone.

6. Service – dealing with Apple is easy!

Having said all this, I firmly believe that we now have 4 viable and high quality smartphone options – iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. I don’t think Blackberry will last but it’s great to have four good options. I’d love to see all four succeed – we don’t want another Windows monopoly situation.

1 day ago on What makes the iPhone so good?

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I don’t agree that the brightly coloured laptops and iPads were Ive’s best work but I do agree that they were and remain excellent designs. These iBooks were designed and built in 1999 – when the average laptop was a boring, grey box. These and the iMac G3 are design classics which hold up astonishingly well after 14 years.

I think we should also note that Ive has matured as a designer. The iPhone 5 and iPad mini, his most recent work, are, for my money, the best designs he and Apple have ever produced. And that’s to be expected. When those iBooks were made he was only 32. He has got better with experience.

23 days ago on Apple exploring iOS 7 email and calendar overhaul, says Bloomberg

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The little black dress and the well fitting jeans are examples of where good fashion and good design came together. They are examples of good design being timeless. So, yes, good fashion can be timeless, but only when it is also good design.

23 days ago on Apple exploring iOS 7 email and calendar overhaul, says Bloomberg

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“Design is like fashion; trendy and always changing.”

I have to say, I don’t entirely agree with this statement.

Fashion is all about trends and popularity; fashions change all the time because what is fashionable depends on what people find new and interesting at any given time. We perceive something as “cool” or “now” based on how closely it resembles current fashions and trends. Design, on the other hand, is more like science – it changes but not due to opinion or trends, design changes when we learn more and new theories replace old ones. Good design does not depend on perception just as a strong scientific theory doesn’t require you to like it.

That is to say, design underpins how fashions and trends are expressed but it isn’t the same as them. If this were a layer-cake design would sit below “the fashion layer”. Design is a set of principals which slowly evolve over time as our understanding improves, while fashion dictates the way those principals will be expressed. If bright colours become fashionable then we will see designs with bright colours, but a good design remains a good design and a bad one remains a bad one, whatever the current fashion.

iOS may no longer look fashionable, but the design remains as good as it ever was. But a poorly designed UI wouldn’t become good just because it was expressed in a way that is fashionable.

23 days ago on Apple exploring iOS 7 email and calendar overhaul, says Bloomberg

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I applaud this post. The whole “boredom” argument is infantile. It’s like saying that you’re bored of eating with a knife and fork when the thing holding your attention shouldn’t be the utensils! If you’re thinking about the cutlery then the real problem is you’re eating boring meals.

iOS is a utility – the content is what I want to engage with, not the content delivery system. When I unlock my smartphone I don’t want to spend time finding things and customising things. I want to spend my time using apps; reading emails, surfing the web, checking my Twitter feed and Facebook updates and playing games. If I’m “bored” of using my phone then the problem isn’t the phone, the problem is the content.

And who can be bored on iOS? iOS has the best App Store, the best games and the best media support. Stop fiddling with your wallpaper and download some games! Instead of wishing you had live tickers on your home screen, why not watch something on Netflix, listen to a podcast from iTunes U or take some cool pictures with your panorama camera?!

Anyway, now I’m off to buy some more interesting cutlery.

23 days ago on How can you possibly be bored of iOS? 1 recommend

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Those would look great with the white glass/ceramic insets rather than black. The black is too… I don’t know… heavy? White would work better for these.

But, yes, a range of colours, finger print sensor, improved camera and faster processor, plus a few smaller upgrades, would be more than enough to set the next iPhone apart from the 5. That being said, I’d probably still go for black. It’s the colour of Ninjas.

24 days ago on Apple to skip 5s go strait to 6

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Granted, and I did say as much. But do you expect feature parity on older devices? A year is a long time in mobile hardware and it would be a shame to hold back delivering new features because older hardware can’t handle it.

Besides, the main thing is having the latest OS. Being on the latest OS build means you have the APIs necessary to run the newer apps and you have all the security patches, performance improvements, refinements and tweaks that newer phones come with. Not to be sniffed at!

25 days ago on Google Now comes to iPhone and iPad with new Search app update 1 reply

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That is pretty shocking.

This is one of those things I love about having an iPhone. Sure, some new features don’t come over to older devices and some newer, more high end, apps don’t always work on older devices but, in general, an iPhone bought this year will be on the latest OS for, what, three years? I can buy an iPhone safe in the knowledge that it’ll get the latest software and all the updates and security patches the moment they’re released for as long as I’m likely to use the phone. No bloatware added by my carrier either.

26 days ago on Google Now comes to iPhone and iPad with new Search app update 1 reply 6 recommends

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I agree that it’ll be hardware that differentiates these devices, I just don’t know that it’ll be the screen. You’d be surprised how many will pay the extra despite the devices looking the same.

Just look at 3GS vs 3G and 4S vs 4. People happily shelled out much more for the latest device despite them looking virtually identical. Now, imagine if the iPhone 4 had a plastic body too?

26 days ago on Low Cost iPhone Introduction?

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This thing makes me wish I was a home owner.

26 days ago on Nest thermostat update tracks the sun to keep temperatures steady 2 replies 11 recommends

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The tide very much is turning – the inevitable backlash.

Samsung made a big deal out of being the “alternative choice” when really they’re the biggest phone maker in the world. They made out that they were for people who didn’t “follow the herd” but what’s more herd-like that buying a smartphone from the world’s biggest manufacturer?!

But, as they became more successful, as always happens, people started to take more notice and they started to not like what they saw. Launch events dripping in sexism, Samsung paying people to bash HTC’s products, horribly cheesy crap like this. Samsung is not a company I would want much to do with as a consumer.

I should declare that I’m a die-hard Apple fan but my antipathy towards Samsung isn’t based on that. I don’t bash all tech companies who aren’t Apple. I’m a big fan of HTC and Nokia and I love using Google’s services. I had a Gmail account back when you had to get an invite! I’d rather see almost any other handset maker be successful ahead of Samsung.

26 days ago on Samsung Galaxy S4 launch party in India features terrible 'Gangnam Style' remake 11 recommends

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Does this mean that Google Now is now available to more iOS users than Android users?

26 days ago on Google Now comes to iPhone and iPad with new Search app update 4 replies 36 recommends

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1. I don’t agree that it’s a non-issue. Apple has tried to keep different screen sizes to a minimum for this reason.

2. Yes, my mistake. I had assumed that, like prior generations, Apple had used a cheaper screen for the iPod touch. Nice that they don’t.

While this will be a cheaper device it won’t be a cheap one. I suspect something far closer to the iPod touch than to a Samsung Galaxy Ace.

26 days ago on Low Cost iPhone Introduction? 1 reply

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I don’t see them going with the smaller screen size on the cheaper iPhone. There’s two reasons for this:

1. It would complicate app development. Presently the 3.5" screen is on the wane. In the future we will start to see Apps that aren’t compatible with the smaller screen. If Apple puts out another device with that size screen then they would be compelling developers to keep supporting it.

2. No re-use. Presently Apple is producing millions of screens that are just right for a lower cost iPhone -the screens in the iPod touch. It’s more expensive to produce two different lines so why not use the same part as in the iPod touch?

This is how I see the lower end iPhone – take the iPod touch, slap in a larger battery and 3G, use a plastic case, only 16GB of flash, lower end CPU – done. The iPod touch is already $299 so I don’t see why Apple couldn’t sell a phone like that for about the same.

26 days ago on Low Cost iPhone Introduction? 1 reply