Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I just have one question (AM)

Most of what I have heard about Steve Jobs is all that general stuff you hear about guys like that. Things that come from nowhere and everywhere I guess. He was: a perfectionist; a genius; a tyrant; great to work for; awful to work for; (insert whatever other generic genius CEO thing you like here).But then I heard an interview with his biographer and all those things were kind of fleshed out a bit.


This guy, Walter Isaacson, told a couple of stories that I think, in light of what I want to talk about, highlight the real mystery of Jobs. One thing he talked about was that Steve Jobs' dad really instilled a sense of the importance of perfection and aesthetics whether things were visible or not, so that when Apple made its first computers even the insides of those cute little babies were neater than any mother(board) you'd seen before, chips were lined up and screws chosen for their finish. I mean, dude wanted things just so. Apple is no doubt a producer of beautiful products. Right?!

Another story was about how when Steve had been kicked out of Apple in the eighties the company added arrow keys to the keyboard so people didn't always have to use a mouse. But Steve thought this was bullshit, that people should always use a mouse. And one time, when he was back at the top of the Apple tree, someone asked him to autograph an Apple keyboard and Jobs just ripped those arrow keys off it. Sheesh! You know what? I love arrow keys! Using a mouse all the time is bullshit. That is what is bullshit!

Anyway, I am just telling you this to highlight that, yeah, he was a perfectionist, an aesthete and a guy that wanted things his way. Even though I love arrow keys, I totally think that Apple is great. No doubt. That is why I am so goddamn confused as to how a thing like this was allowed to happen on his watch:




Do you see that font? That font used for the Notes on iPhone? It's disgusting. Here you have this attractive, functional little machine and if you want to write a note it looks like that! Ever since iPhone entered my life this has been tearing at my insides but I kept it to myself. But everything became too much when I saw the font used on iPad2 Notes. Yep, someone thought the font needed a little tweaking. But for some unknown reason instead of making it better they made it worse. You thought it wasn't possible? You were wrong!

2 comments:

  1. Great post. I'm used to it now, but when I used "Notes" on my phone for the first time the choice of font completely bamboozled me. I kept thinking to myself, "really?! REALLY?!" I was literally confused for months.

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  2. Yeah well I got to used to it too, but like I said after seeing iPad font everything got stirred up again.

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