As per the latest news- Rhino is porting to Mac in a few months, along with Unigraphics NX4. I dont know abt solidworks, but that would be nice too. And if Autodesk puts in some effort, the Win-Mac playing fields would come a lot closer IMHO. I wud love to have the option of buying a mac, but will not do that currently because of the lack of ID tools (and $$$ in pocket!)
Funny. I’m looking at my G4 iMac right now…3d primitives, extrudes, fillets, handful of boleen operations. Yeah, that’s about it.
Their job posting from a few months ago listed Studiotools and Unigraphics.
The first-gen shuffle was the epitome of simplicity.
Not a draft-angle or fillet to be found.
You could bang-out final art in Adobe Illustrator in an hour.
I know the software that Jonathan is using. It is called brain.
The first-gen shuffle was the epitome of simplicity.
Not a draft-angle or fillet to be found.
You could bang-out final art in Adobe Illustrator in an hour.
Hmmmm…not sure how to take this comment. Its a surprising comment coming from a Designer…kind of shooting the profession in the foot.
I don’t need to lecture anyone here about what it takes to design a product.
I’ve been using that version of the Shuffle for cycling over the past 1.5 years. It’s VERY difficult to turn on and off. Apple made it so minimalist that it lost some of its function. If my hands are sweaty at all, it’s next to impossible to slide the flush-fit power button back up. Poor design, IMO. The Shuffle is made for active people. Why didn’t they think of that when designing the buttons? Sure, it looks incredible, but dang, it sucks to use sometimes.
Heck, I had the original Rio PMP300 back in 1999. It was HUGE in comparison, but was much easier to use. Makes me wonder if we’re stepping backwards. Look at how small and utterly useless most cell-phone buttons have become!! The Hardees Thickburger-fueled fat-finger society surely can’t use those things very well.
How so?
I didn’t say the design was easy, I said the documentation of the design was easy.
Apple’s new era of design is founded on manufacturing innovation more than style innovation. They’ve admitted that their designers spend most of their time at the factory. I bet that’s not true for most of us. The shuffle was easy to ‘apply the Apple style guide to’ and document, but it wasn’t easy to manufacture and assemble–that’s where the innovation went. (Not only is there no draft and no fillet, there’s no draft-angle or witness lines. How many products can you say that about?)
How so?
I didn’t say the design was easy, I said the documentation of the design was easy.
Gotcha. I definitely misread. I interpreted your comment of “final art” drawings as sloughing off the design as something that could be banged out in an hour so…therefore minimizing the effort required to get the product to where its at.
Final documentation is a whole other story…my bad.
I have to say, I know there is alot of work in any design, no matter how simple the outside shape may be. However, I would be bored working at Apple. Every aesthetic concept is the same, just an added note at the bottom of the brief, “make half the size of current product”. The engineering is amazing, the quality control is superb, but I would just be crying out, “let me draw something un-square!”.
I can’t wait until someone with as much balls and charisma as Steve Jobs decides to slap some cash on a table and go with the design best described as, “not at all like an iPod”.
Mr-914
Interesting idea! This same conversation is happening on another post
Can you imagine if they took the gamble though? It’s a huge risk to take considering the consumers that are hooked on the apple aesthetic (as I said elsewhere today, if you want to understand Apple consumers, try to find some text on ‘Pristinian’ consumers, coined by Colin Campbell)
Also, wasn’t it said in the apple design book (don’t know what it’s called) that they spend an ‘embarrasing amount on prototyping’. You never know, there might be some sort of crazy prototypes which are completely un-Apple. We’ll never know. Have a look on ipod lounge ( www.ilounge.com ), some interesting designs by random people
I can’t wait until someone with as much balls and charisma as Steve Jobs decides to slap some cash on a table and go with the design best described as, “not at all like an iPod”.
What?
You’re getting tired of hearing clients say something along the lines of, “I want it to be like as good as an Apple product, if not better”?
IP: You mean they are the same out west as they are in Québec. Sacrement, I was thinking of making an escape to Vancouver, now that is shot down!
Georgeous: I’ll look that pristian consumer up tonite.
Apple I think should continue doing what they do best. I wish there were 10 or 100 Steve Jobs at all different companies saying, “Let’s dare to be different”. Apple didn’t get where they are by following. Why do managers think they will have the same success by following Apple? Argh!
I don’t think Steve Jobs says that. When he re-joined Apple, he simply returned them to their roots.
I think he’s more interested in doing ‘insanely great’ stuff. It just happens that few other companies do it as passionately, so it comes off as ‘daring to be different.’