receive to our weekend Apple Breakfast column , which includes all of the Apple intelligence you missed this calendar week in a handy collation - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes gravid with a morning loving cup of coffee bean or Camellia sinensis , but it ’s cool if you want to give it a read during tiffin or dinner hr too .
Design by committee
Former Apple design supremo Sir Jonathan I ve was in the news program this week , following the announcement that hedesigned the red nosefor this year ’s Comic Relief Jacob’s ladder event in the UK . If that sounds like a comedown for the guy behind several of this 100 ’s most iconic Cartesian product , take a look at thehorrific nosesComic Relief has sold in the past times . This was an urgent commission .
Nevertheless , I ve ’s adulterous activities will probably trigger a horse sense of “ what might have been ” among seasoned Apple watchers . Officially his tenure as head word of the Cupertino design shop ended in 2019 with a consultancy transcription bear on until last year , but it ’s generally feel that his involvement in the daytime - to - daytime design body of work reduce significantly when he was give the title ofChief Design Officerin 2015 . It ’s unmanageable not to imagine the direction that certain Apple products might have taken in the past few years if Chingford ’s finest still had his hand on the tiller .
Would the details - obsessed I ve , for object lesson , have put up with the 10th - gen iPad ’s Apple Pencil support ? With no prevailing voice leading the way – Tim Cook does n’t seem the case to pull rank on designing decisions , while I ve ’s successor , Evans Hankey , does n’t have anything near the same clout – one suspect the answer was reached via committee . One penis of the team will have championed the borrowing of USB - C ; another will have insisted on a budget design with no room for a magnetic charging connector ; and a third will have explained why theApple Pencil 3 optionwasn’t feasible . And while each individual contribution made mother wit in closing off , the consequence was afarcical dongleand gobs of unimpressed reviewer .
What I ve brought to Apple was a ordered personal visual modality . That does n’t stand for Apple ’s plan on his watch were always everlasting , of course ; there were plenty of missteps . In broader terms , his arch - reductivism could be frustrating for those who want more physical controls , and one suspect that his deviation was an authoritative factor in the Apple Watch finally being allowed a much - appreciatedextra buttonand the Mac Studio getting front - face interface . But the mien of a strong personality at the forefront of the figure team mean Apple was better equip to take endangerment , and more potential to produce products with its own ethnic imprint . The Action button is skillful , but it ’s also the form of thing that almost any technical school companionship would have made .
Maybe Apple is no longer a company that focus on individual personality , or indeed on thinking unlike . This week we also become the newsworthiness that I ve ’s replenishment willnot be supersede , with a core group of 20 designers rather report directly to the chief operating officer , who is no alien to contrive and likely has his own ideas . If design by committee has been the de facto approach for the past four years , it ’s now been made official .
Committees tend not to make blunders – it takes a strong leader to really mess something up – but they do have an inherent aptitude for unsatisfactory compromise . Or for the refusal to make any warm choice at all , which may be why we ’ve been see so many similar iPhones and iPads over the past few old age , so many Macs with groundbreaking components and laurel - resting designs . It persist to be seen which of those categories , forethought or compromise , will be applicable to the central launch we expect this year and in 2024 . Will Apple finally make a foldable gadget , when it knows that folding devices mean higher Leontyne Price tag , new designs , and the risk of forcible malfunction ? And is the close at hand AR headset a parcel of compromises ? I do go for not .
metalworks
Apple’sfinancial resultsare out , and down is up : iPhone drop-off , iPad zoom , and ahuge quarter is too small .
leave anew HomePod , Apple needs an helper that’sactually smart .
An x - employee hasclaimed Facebook appscan purposefullydrain your iPhone battery .
TheHomePod 2is a good speaker that should have beena killer soundbar .
Even with theM2 Pro , Mac gaming isas big as it ’s ever been .
Samsung’sGalaxy S23 phone are so boringthere’snothing for Apple to steal .
If you ’re relying on Apple toget work done , you’rebetter off going it alone .
Accordingto the NLRB , Apple ’s vow topunish leakersviolates prole ’ rightfield .
The rumor mill
Thefolding iPadwill be the Apple Watch Ultra of tablets , figure the Macalope .
Awell - honor analystis ‘ positive ’ Apple islaunching a folding iPadnext year .
Everyone is going to need tobuy an iPhone 15 Ultrathis pin . Are thereany features it wo n’t have ?
TheApple Watch Ultrais again rumored to get anext - gen microLED presentation .
Here’severything we ’ve heardabout theApple Watch Series 9 .
Podcast of the week
The rumour mill is churning out supposition about just about every merchandise in Apple ’s lineup , so we cogitate we ’d go over some of them on the show .
you may catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Software updates, bugs & problems
security measures research worker have warn of anew Google malware scamthat couldinfect your Mac .
And with that , we ’re done for this week . If you ’d wish to get regular roundups , sign up up forour newssheet . you could also follow uson Twitteroron Facebookfor discussion of break Apple word narrative . See you next Saturday , savour the rest of your weekend , and stay Appley .
