Jony Ive

Jony Ive, Apple’s revered Senior Vice President of Design, is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). The 2014 SFMOMA award will be presented to Ive on October 30th, and Ive will follow a legendary list of previous recipients that includes Star Wars creator George Lucas. In a statement, the Museum calls Ive “our generation’s most innovative and influential figure in the field of industrial design:”

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Jony Ive and Marissa Mayer (right) eat pizza with other industry executives

Re/code reports that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is planning an attempt at persuading Apple to switch its default iOS search engine from Google to her company’s own offering. According to Re/code’s sources, Mayer has built what she hopes will be a convincing arguement in favor of the change.

Yahoo! current powers the weather and stocks apps and Notification Center widgets found in iOS 7 as well as a few Siri functions, such as sports, but lost out on the chance to power Siri’s web search to Microsoft’s Bing. Both Yahoo! and Bing are included as optional search engines in the Safari browser, but the default selection is Google.

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Following friction between top Apple Human Interface Vice President Greg Christie and Senior Vice President Jony Ive, Apple’s hardware and software design is being dramatically shaken up, according to sources familiar with the matter. After adding human interface design direction to his responsibilities in 2012, Ive will soon completely subsume Apple’s software design group, wresting control away from long-time human interface design chief Christie, according to sources briefed on the matter. Previous to this shakeup, all Apple software design has been led by Christie, who has reported to Craig Federighi, and Ive has been attending interface design meetings and providing instruction…

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The UK’s Sunday Timespublished a massive, five-page interview (paywall) with Apple SVP of Design Jonathan Ive today that takes a look at the history and future of Apple from the perspective of the man who designed some of the most iconic devices of the past decade.

In the interview, Ive discusses (among other things) his approach to designing new products, which allows a device’s function to dictate its form:

Ive starts a new project by imagining what a new kind of product should be and what it should do. Only once he’s answered those questions does he work out what it should look like. He seeks advice in unlikely places. He worked with confectionery manufacturers to perfect the translucent jelly-bean shades of his first big hit, the original iMac. He travelled to Niigata in northern Japan to see how metalworkers there beat metal so thin, to help him create the Titanium PowerBook, the first lightweight aluminum laptop in a world of hefty black plastic slabs.

With regard to manufacturers like Samsung “referencing” Apple’s design in their products, Ive called the practice “theft” of “thousands of hours of struggle.” 
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An SEC filing reveals that six of Apple’s top execs were each awarded 35,000 Restricted Stock Units (shares that cannot be immediately traded), with a current value of more than $19M. Of this, $12M is awarded outright, subject only to remaining with the company until at least April 2018, with a further $7M dependent on Apple’s stock performance.

The bonuses were awarded to Senior VPs Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, Dan Riccio, Phil Schiller, Bruce Sewell and Jeffrey Williams. It’s likely that Jony Ive will receive the same, though his stock awards do not have to be reported to the SEC … 
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Image: deskology.com

I have a number of friends who can’t understand why I pay what they refer to as ‘the Apple tax’: the premium paid for Apple products over alternatives that offer much the same functionality.

I can argue about the functionality, of course. The usability, stability and (usually!) security of OS X are all things worth paying for in my view, but I’m not ashamed to admit that aesthetics also matter to me. When I’m going to spend 8+ hours in front of a computer, I’d rather I was looking at something sleek and beautiful rather than something plastic, ugly and a chore to use and understand.

I feel the same way about the other technology on my desk and in my office, but it isn’t always easy to find kit that works well and looks the part too. I can’t help thinking there’s a lot of office technology that could use the Jony Ive touch … 
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The one of a kind, special edition red Mac Pro designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson brought in a whopping $977k at Sotheby’s (RED) Auction this evening in New York. The custom Mac was estimated to sell for $40-60,000, but ended up fetching quite a bit more than its value, as did the majority of the other items sold at the charity auction. Recently, Ive and Newson shared their thoughts on the auction and design in an interview on Charlie Rose. 

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[tweet https://twitter.com/CharlieRoseShow/status/403659673699905536]

The Charlie Rose Show has tweeted that Jony Ive and Marc Newson are interviewed on the show, which aired last night in some markets and is shown tonight in others.

[ooyala code=”NnaG1raDqtQJgUvvrjx6fWautfqKsifC” player_id=”null”]

The two previously appeared in a five-minute video talking about the items they designed for tomorrow’s charity RED auction, which include special editions of the Mac Pro and Leica M camera, and an aluminum desk … 
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Bloomberg claims to have some info on how Apple plans to spend some of the $10.5B it has set aside for capital expenditure over the next year, saying that the investments will span everything from lasers to robots.

Apple is spending more on the machines that do the behind-the-scenes work of mass producing iPhones, iPads and other gadgets. That includes equipment to polish the new iPhone 5c’s colorful plastic, laser and milling machines to carve the MacBook’s aluminum body, and testing gear for the iPhone and iPad camera lens … 
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As we’ve been covering, Jony Ive and Marc Newson have teamed with Sotheby’s to host an auction for Bono’s Product(RED) Charity. The auction, which takes place on November 23rd, is highlighted by several items hand picked by the two world-famous designers. The auction includes one-of-a-kind items such as gold-plated Apple EarPods, an aluminum unibody Leica camera, and a red next-generation Mac Pro.

In addition to the images and online catalog of the products, we thought it would be interested to provide a look at Sotheby’s hardcover version of the catalog. As you can see in the images above, the book has an intriguing front and back cover design that showcase cartoon-like representations of both Ive and Newson. Inside, the catalog provides an in-depth look at the items on auction.

You can see our full gallery of images of the catalog below, courtesy of 9to5 reader Chris:

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We’ve been posting images of various items designed by Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive and designer & friend Marc Newson for an upcoming  (Product) RED charity auction scheduled for November 23 at Sotheby’s New York. The latest was an aluminium Leica M camera designed by the pair, and today we get a look at a one-of-a-kind red next-generation Mac Pro listed on the Sotheby’s website.

The red Mac Pro is expected to bring in 40,000 — 60,000 USD at the auction. While there is no mention of specs for the machine, compare that with $2999 for the base model of the new Mac Pro that Apple announced earlier this week will begin shipping in December. That model includes a a 3.7GHz quad-core Xeon processor, 12GB of DRAM, Dual FirePro D300 graphics, 2GB VRAM each, and a 256GB 22D, and Apple has a $3999 configuration with a 6-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon E5, Dual AMD FirePro D500, and 16GB of ECC memory.

Other items designed by Ive and Newson set to be auctioned off on November 23rd include an aluminium desk produced by Neal Feay Studios, a Steinway & Sons Parlor Grand Piano, a 2012 Range Rover, and the rose gold Apple EarPods. Full gallery of the red Mac Pro below. 
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gLqh8tmPA]

Apple has posted several videos featured during yesterday’s Apple iPad event on YouTube including the ‘Pencil’ iPad Air ad featured above. Check out the rest below:
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Following the interview in which Jony Ives and Marc Newson talked about their collaborative design of the one-off Leica M camera for the (RED) charity auction, the one-of-a-kind desk designed by the two has also been unveiled.

As you might expect, it’s made from machined aluminum, fabricated by renowned aluminum specialists Neal Feay Studio. The design is, though, not quite as minimalist as I’d expected, featuring a mosaic pattern on its surface. More photos below the fold …

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Last month we reported that Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive had teamed up with designer & friend Marc Newson to create one of a kind pieces for Bono’s (Product) RED charity auction scheduled for November 23 at Sotheby’s New York. Those pieces included one-of-a-kind 18k sold rose gold Apple EarPods, and Steinway & Sons piano, and other unique items designed by the pair. Today we get a look at another beautifully designed product set to go up for auction next month.

In the gallery below we get a look at the gorgeous aluminum Leica M for (RED) designed by Ive and Newson that features “a laser machined aluminum body and an anodized aluminum outer shell.” The one of a kind camera took 85 days to create with the team going through 561 models and nearly 1000 prototype parts:
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iOS 7, Apple’s brand-new take on their mobile operating system, has been released to the public and is now available as an over-the-air update or through iTunes.

Below you’ll find a full walkthrough of many of the new features and changes throughout the overhauled OS, including a look at the built-in apps that received the biggest changes.

Before you can dive into everything that iOS 7 has to offer, you’ll need to update your device. You can find full directions for updating in our how-to from yesterday. Once you’re updated, check out all of the shiny new additions to the OS:

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In light of the upcoming launch of iOS 7, designer Stu Crew and other designers have imagined what a version of the OS X operating system with iOS 7 design principles could look like. Crew’s design matches iOS 7 by removing the heavy, metaphoric textures from OS X. The image above showcases a look at a desktop with many of the apps, and you can see how Finder, Calculator, Contacts, and iTunes received inspiration from iOS 7.

With iOS 5, iOS 6 and OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, Apple moved to unify both the feature-sets and user-interfaces of its mobile and desktop operating systems. This fall, due to a leadership change at Apple, iOS and OS X will see different design philosophies. iOS 7 is “flat,” lacks heavy textures, while OS X retains its long-existing silver/metal design, keeps the green felt in Game Center, but drops the leather in Calendar and Contacts.

With integrated experiences and uniformity embedded into Apple’s DNA, it would not be surprising to see OS X look like iOS again in coming years. Below is a full gallery from Crew (in addition to some more mockups from other designers) of what an iOS 7-inspired OS X could look like.

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Apple’s Tim Cook, Bob Mansfield, Kevin Lynch

Apple has begun assembling a team of hardware and software engineering, medical sensor, manufacturing, and fitness experts, indicating the company is moving forward with a project to build a fitness-oriented, sensor-laden wearable computer, according to our sources.

Over the past half-decade-or-so, Apple has experimented with and shelved numerous wearable computer designs. Internal prototypes have included designs that could clip onto different pieces of clothing (like an iPod shuffle/nano) in addition to devices that could wrap around a wrist.

Based on comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook and numerous reports, the wrist is the part of the body in which top Apple executives are currently targeting…

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As noted by several 9to5 readers, Apple has just recently updated its Support pages through Apple.com to better reflect the redesign the rest of the site has been receiving in recent months.  Today’s update provides a new design for the majority of support pages available through Apple.com/support, including: Videos, Manuals, Tech Specs, and Downloads.

Apple used to present these pages using a design that was a few generations behind the rest of the site and displayed links in a search result style list. Today’s update brings a flat grid style layout that allows users to select or search for a product in order to find related manuals, videos, tech specs, etc, but also displays search results by product in the grid layout.

Apple.com’s search result pages also get a cleaner look today to match the recent Apple online store design (pictured below).
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To go along with his complete redesign of iOS, Jony Ive’s official executive title at Apple has been flattened to drop the word “Industrial.” The change is notable as this new title plants Ive’s position as being where the buck stops for the design of all of Apple’s products…

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