Apple design stumbles

TWiT Shows MacBreak Weekly
#1

I have used Apple products since 1985 and almost exclusively from 2010. The design and production of both hardware and software has often been breathtakingly brilliant but, from time to time, Apple really gets it wrong. I am not that interested in looking back at the various fiascos up to an including Antennagate, I am more interesting in recent and current faux pas and would like to hear from members of the community on this.

For example:
– the location of the charge cable port on the Magic Mouse preventing one from charging and using the device simultaneously
– the butterfly keyboard designed for thinness rather than reliability
– in fact, the entire design philosophy that sacrifices so much utility simply to maximize thinness
– the AirPods and AirPod case designed with the slipperiest possible plastic
– positioning the iPhone volume and power buttons so that when you hold the phone to adjust one you almost always press the other.
Please add your own pet peeves.
Many of these were obvious the first time one used the product and their existence must have been deliberate choices by the design team. Sir Jony deserves all the praise he has received but he should own up to the mistakes too.

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#2

It is my studied opinion that Jony, in his last 3 years or so with the company, was actually harmful with his “thin at all costs” mantra. He cost us battery life in most apple portable devices, and the butterfly keyboard was also a result of that thinking. We couldn’t run high end intel chips at their Max since they would be throttled because of the heat (yayyyy M1) - all of this was thanks to Jony’s obsession with “thinner and lighter” - thin and light is great but ALMOST AS THIN AND LIGHT with great battery life and no CPU throttling is even better!! IMHO :blush:

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#3

I’ve trialed Apple products from time to time but have never been a heavy user. I’d only add my own objective opinion that I’m not a fan of the minimalist design. From an aesthetic point of view, but also to the point that it can sometimes detract from the functionality of the product.

#4

Sticking with Lightning, when the rest of the industry went USB-C.

In fact, when they released the first Macs with only USB-C/Thunderbolt and no USB-A, because that was just for legacy devices, yet the iPhone was still being sold with a USB-A to Lightning cable, so by Apple’s own words, the iPhone had suddenly become a legacy device and remained that way for a few years afterwards…

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