Design

Poll: who’s excited about black & white iOS 7 facelift?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

If you've been following Apple stories lately, chances are you came across a news piece last week that calls for a black and white iOS 7 redesign.

You know, the facelift reportedly in the works under the guidance of Apple's legendary design guru Jony Ive. It should be, in a word, awesome.

As asserted by the very reliable writer Mark Gurman, Ive not only got rid of skeumorphism, he also eliminated the shine and transparent gloss for one that’s flat and mostly black and white.

And with two weeks until Apple's June 10 keynote at WWDC 2013, we'll soon find out just how deep the rabbit hole of visual changes in iOS 7 go. For now, we're asking you to join the discussion and tell us where you stand on the black & white iOS 7 revamp...

Jony Ive’s iOS 7 remake: black, white, flat all over

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

When Apple's former iOS honcho Scott Forstall was dumped, stories were told of he and design guru Jonathan Ive nearly coming to blows over the prevailing use of realistic shapes and textures within the mobile software. Now comes a claim the design change of the upcoming iOS 7 will be "black, white, and flat all over."

Ive, Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design and newly-minted head of Human Interface across the company, has essentially proposed a radical break with the iOS former Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled in 2007, introducing a look and feel he believes will stand the test of time...

Online Apple Store gets Father’s Day revamp

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2013

After being down for nearly four hours, Apple last night tweaked its online Apple Store with a cleaner look and Father's Day gift promotion.

Gone are the navigation columns on the left and right sides to make room for product teasers that now occupy the entire width of the page.

As part of the redesign, key product hubs (the Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod) are now lined up horizontally across the store's top and the images are now larger. And because Father's Day is drawing near, Apple now prominently features its iPhone 5 and iPads on the store’s homepage...

Bloomberg: Apple’s design guru Jony Ive ‘methodically reviewing’ iOS 7 overhaul

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 1, 2013

It's been six months since Tim Cook reshuffled Apple's leadership team, firing iOS architect Scott Forstall over his abrasive management style and unwillingness to collaborate with other members of the executive team, namely Apple's industrial design guru, the 46-year-old Jonathan Ive.

As a result of the shake-up, Ive has assumed much broader responsibilities that now encompass all of Apple's design, both the look and feel of its hardware and software.

Apple's press release stated that America's most influential Briton "will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company" and today Bloomberg sheds more light on the difficulties Ive faces in the massively challenging overhaul of iOS 7, Apple's mobile operating system powering iPhones, iPads and iPods...

Alleged iPad 5 rear shell highlights new design

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 27, 2016

Case maker Tactuc is on a roll lately. After the vendor, in what some people likened to a PR stunt, last week released a batch of photos purported to depict a polycarbonate shell for a rumored less-pricey iPhone model, the company is back at it today with a new leak claimed to represent the rear shell of a fifth-generation iPad. There isn't much to glean from the photograph and, of course, we have no way of telling whether or not this is the real deal, an early prototype or a shell for some other product. However, the image does bear resemblance to iPad molds Tactus leaked earlier...

Google talks Search iOS app design

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 9, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fpggknHC2c

When it comes to UI design, Google up until recently used to make what you'd call Spartan programs, more often than not resembling old-school software your parents might use. What a difference a leadership change makes: after co-founder Larry Page took over from Eric Schmidt as Google's CEO in April 2011, we started noticing radical changes to how the Internet giant approaches app design.

I think it is safe to say that some of Google's contemporary iOS apps are starting to look arguably better than Apple's. But what's so special about Google's newly found design language? To answer that question, Google recently uploaded an interesting video to its Life at Google channel on YouTube. The entire clip is dedicated to highlighting how the new app design philosophy lends itself to the nimble, streamlined and interactive search experience on the Apple tablet...

Jony Ive envisions mail window, media controls and more for iPad’s Smart Cover

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 4, 2013

Who thought Apple's Smart Cover, first designed to simply protect the iPad screen without adding too much bulk to the device's form factor, would grow to become another platform for the firm's design guru, Jony Ive? A new patent application which identifies Ive as one of the inventors suggests the Smart Cover could become a mini screen, displaying new email and controlling music playback, among other possibilities.

In a patent filing published earlier this week by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Apple includes a redesigned Smart Cover which includes buttons to control your iTunes playback, along with a window where you can quickly check new e-mails or incoming texts...

Polycarbonate budget iPhone renderings to die for

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Another publication has commissioned Dutch concept artist Martin Hajek to bundle all the less-pricey iPhone rumors together in some plausible renderings. The 3D designer's fresh batch of conceptual renderings imagine the rumored device in two flavors, one with a screen measuring four inches diagonally and the other sporting a larger 4.5-inch display.

Hajek took into account credible talk of the budget iPhone adopting a polycarbonate shell, having combined that rumor with analysts speculating about some vivid colors, too. If you ever though using plastics would ruin the iPhone brand with unwanted and cheap feel to it, have a look at the images and think again...

BlackBerry CEO: iPhone UI is obsolete

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Following Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller's anti-Android comments on the eve of Galaxy S 4 launch and Apple's new 'Why iPhone' web campaign, the CEO of BlackBerry has unsurprisingly launched a critique of Apple's handset and its user interface, referring to the the fact that iOS now 5+ years old.

In his view, Apple is being out-innovated by others, right up to the point where the Cupertino company could get replaced "pretty quickly". Of course, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, like every other handset vendor in the ferociously competitive mobile market, is really drumming up his own platform by arguing that the iPhone is an old hat. Be that as it may, I'd choose my words carefully if I were Heins.

The struggling handset maker's market share and capitalization have all but evaporated because of the iPhone and now stand in the single-digit range and below the $8 billion mark, respectively. That's how much investors thought the entire BlackBerry biz was worth Monday morning. Now, contrast Blackberry's market cap to Apple's first-quarter net profit of $13.06 billion...

Here’s an iTV concept Jony Ive would approve of

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Resident Apple mockup artist Martin Hajek is on a roll lately. Just a day following his publication of the traditional iWatch concept which adorns the April 2013 cover of the MacUser magazine, he's back at it with a new Apple television mockup that has Jony Ive written all over it. The beautiful renderings are based on the familiar iMac look and sport the sinister black design, with details reminiscent of the iPhone 5. Go past the fold for the full awesomeness...

iWatch concept, the traditional edition

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Hot on the heels of releasing a set of renditions depicting what an iPhone 6 with a 4.6-inch screen might look like, 3D artist Martin Hajek is out with a new concept for the iWatch, Apple's rumored iOS-powered smartwatch that has been reportedly cooking in Jony Ive's kitchen for quite a time now.

Unlike a bunch of sci-fi renderings and some pretty radical mockups that couldn't be farther from the real thing (or so we hope, from the bottom of our hearts), Martin's new renderings featured on the April cover of the MacUser magazine employs a more traditional approach to what an everyman's app-enabled wristwatch should look like...