"Scuffgate"
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- SunSunSun0
CanHasQBN, you should go work for them. You'd be good at the quality control. I agree with all the small details you've mentioned. Nothing wrong with making things as beautiful as possible.
Steve was pretty OCD about the small details like this anecdote I'm sure everyone's read:
One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.
After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.
Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.
"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".
Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".
I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?
"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.
"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"
Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.
Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.
But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.
- You know, nearly all of those design inconsistencies were implemented with Steve at the helm. Just sayin'monospaced
- You're probably right Mono. Just seems like there are a lot more slipping through the cracks...SunSunSun
- autoflavour0
dont have one, but i played with one yesterday at a shop..
it was side by side with the 4S (which i do have)and at first i was like, what is all the fuss..
but then holding it, it feels so much lighter.. its weird..
if feels like you could throw the 4S at someone and hurt them.. where as the 5 probably wouldnt at all.i always gauge the quality of a phone by its effectiveness as an impromptu weapon
- ernexbcn0
Like it never happened before
- exactly... when Steve Jobs died in 2007 Apple went to total shit. Give 'em 50 years, they're gonna fallmonospaced
- well this didn't happen right out of the box. we've never heard of scratched iphones in the box until now.CanHasQBN
- That was a shitty design tooanimatedgif
- slappy0
Must be hard making that many phones and keeping the quality up.
I made spaghetti for 20 people once, it was way harder than than my usual batch, wasn't as good either..
- when i make spaghetti for myself, it usually ends up being enough to feed 20 peopleprophetone
- I tried making spaghetti once,
I accidentaly created a religionGeorgesII - Zing!nikdaum
- BusterBoy0
Looks like some of the phones were used during the riots at Foxconn.
- CanHasQBN0
^ Everyone has the new iPhone. Just imagine your iPhone 4 but a little bit taller.
- nikdaum0
Fuel for the fire:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/2…
- mantrakid0
ive got a htc phone i bought only one year prior to my iphone 4 and it's going for $10 on ebay...
- mantrakid0
I just sold my 2 year old iPhone 4 for $290 and it was (lightly) scratched up all over the place. Used it heavily on a day to day basis and never used a case with it, never babied it, even let my 3 year old kid play on it whenever he wanted. And even after all that I got $290 for it.. I paid like $280 for it on a 3 year contract when it came out FFS...
Just saying, the phones are popular because they work well, and have value. And they hold their value because they continue to work well for a long ass time.
- ETM0
^
As someone who is capable or criticizing AND praising elements on both sides of the battle, I'll point out that an Android site's own drop tests concluded the iPhone 5 to be better built compared to the Galaxy S3.- I would imagine a lot of phones fair better than the S3. S2 is pretty sturdy though!orrinward2
- yes i speak as an S2 owner. light and rugged.jabblon
- Plus any phone with a changeable battery back plate, will be at a strength disadvantage.ETM
- jabblon0
It's actually quite frightening how badly designed Apple's mobile products are. The photos look great on the website but these things just aren't designed for day to day use.
Crazy fanboys be like, "I don't care that this 500quid phone already came broke coz I'm gunna fuck it anyway."
How about a phone that can withstand being in a pocket and doesn't require a case as standard. e.g. everything else.
- I don't use a case. my 1 yr old 4s doesn't have single noticeable scratch. And I get drunk a lot.ESKEMA
- I think the scuffs look cool, actually. Kind of Bladerunnerish.monospaced
- it is designed for day to day to use. you can drop it from 6 feet and no damage to functionality.BrokenHD
- Scuffs is life. entropy is the rule. Scuffs right out the box is unacceptable though.BrokenHD
- my mobile apple prods have held up without cases for years, still mintscarabin
- orrinward20
I don't really get all the fuss.
So there's been some shoddy finishing on a product. Most of the people complaining about it, from what I can see, are people that don't own it and are therefore unaffected???
As with anything to do with mobile phones these days , I feel the need to validate my opinion by stating that I'm an Android user and have never owned an iPhone.
If I were an Apple customer, I may kick up a fuss if the damage was really noticeable, but I probably wouldn't... Surely Apple would just replace it anyway as it is a blemished product?
- monospaced0
My oh my, how will Apple ever survive scratches and color consistency issues!? This 10 year descent is inevitable. Sell your stock now. Quick, to Android and Windows where everything is perfect and the integrated experience is done right.
- *buys apple stockGeorgesII
- /sarcasmmonospaced
- It's a drop in quality. Why should people pay more if Apple are going to start aligning themselves with lower-tier brands?CanHasQBN
- brands? And, personally I never said Android & Windows are perfect. I hate Windows and have never tried Android.CanHasQBN
- It's better than the old plastic phones, in my opinion. Plus the new one is super rugged compared to previous models.monospaced
- Do you have a new one? Curious to see if this scratch thing is true.CanHasQBN
- I'd love it if they made it out of a single piece of aluminum, like the material and finish of their laptops. It holds up nice.CanHasQBN
- I don't own one and won't ever, probably. If I did, I wouldn't care about scratches either.monospaced
- inteliboy0
Apple are doomed!!! Also the iPod killer is amongst us. Or was that the iPad killer... either way, RIP Sir Jobs!!
- animatedgif0
Knew this would happen as soon as I heard the back was painted metal
- whhipp0
CanHasQBN I agree with you completely... no attention to detail now will eventually lead to further and further disjointedness. Sad, but obvious.
- those inconsistencies were all there and okay'd by Steve too, btwmonospaced
- futuremongolian0
This is hilarious. People buying phones that are damaged out of the box and fanboys defending Apple over what is clearly a massive fuckup and indicative of shitty practices.
- CanHasQBN0
This is what the current Stopwatch looks like (it has never really changed):
And this is what the Stopwatch SHOULD look like based on the other interfaces in the Clock App (I made this in 10 minutes). It now ties in with the World Clock and Alarm:
This is just one example out of many many inconsistencies with their confusing design direction.
There is no excuse for these inconsistencies, especially from a large company like Apple, who employs hundreds of designers and has hundreds of eyes looking at this stuff.
- you sound madmonospaced
- Is that what you say when you realize that someone else might be right? You call them "mad"?CanHasQBN
- Man, if you can't see the blatant laziness going on at Apple right now, you're blind.CanHasQBN
- you act as if when Steve was alive at Apple nothing went wrong, but that's not the case. there were blunders under his watchmonospaced
- Of course there were blunders, but not on this level.CanHasQBN
- They brought no innovations, they took away some useful apps and features, and they couldn't even be bothered enoughCanHasQBN
- enough to fix consistency issues with their UI. There is so much minor shit they should've taken care of, but didn't.CanHasQBN
- i like itBrokenHD
- CanHasQBN0
Why is my outlook fanatical? If 10-12 years ago, someone told you Apple would be bigger than Microsoft, would you have believed them? Who is to say another company won't be bigger than Apple in 10 years? You can't be so shortsighted.
Of course Apple is doing better than ever, but it's because of the momentum that Steve left them with. This momentum will last for years. But it will slowly decline with the obvious lack of innovation and disregard for details that the current leadership is showing.
And one man DID make this company. Before Steve stepped back into leadership, Apple was nothing. As soon as he came in, they exploded.
---
"They keep improving and will continue to release new products that people will love and enjoy and find useful."
---You sound like an Apple salesman. Did they hypnotize you??