{"id":21466,"date":"2018-05-08T15:41:14","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T19:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=21466"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:08:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T20:08:33","slug":"what-happened-to-apples-whimsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/08\/what-happened-to-apples-whimsy\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happened to Apple’s Whimsy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Cohen<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The iMac debuted 20 years ago this week. It’s not hyperbole to say that it’s the computer that saved Apple and set the stage for Apple’s ascendance to becoming the biggest tech company in the world. All that said, Apple’s lost something in the translation – while the iMac is still a fixture in Apple’s product line, it lacks some essential qualities of that first model. Its personality has changed. The iMac has gotten harder<\/em>. It’s lost the sense of whimsy, fun, and wonder that made the first iMac such a joy to use.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The original iMac was a mass-market computer designed to appeal to consumers, educators, and others that Apple saw as a ripe market. Today’s iMac is orders of magnitude faster and more capable, but as a design exercise, it’s also infinitely more severe<\/em>. Severe in both form and<\/em> function.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Marco Arment<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

It tragically passed away in 2011.<\/p>\n

We all really miss it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

On the other hand, now we have watch bands, Animoji, and Siri jokes.<\/p>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I think that Apple’s increasingly austere take on industrial design has made them better at shipping products that feel almost invisible. I appreciate that. It reduces the hardware to a tool, but not an appliance, yet I think Apple’s products feel even more approachable than they used to because so much of what they make is entirely straightforward. They don’t need to mask the complexity of the software with a layer of gumdrop plastic; in many ways, the software has become simple enough that the hardware can reflect that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Is the software on a 2018 iMac really simpler than on a 1998 iMac? I don’t know how you would measure this, but my gut feeling is that it’s more complex now.<\/p>\n\n

Or, to take a specific example, Time Machine’s restoration interface no longer has a star field. Other than some additional colors<\/a> (more complexity) it works pretty much the same as before, so I don’t see how you can make the case that the star field is no longer “needed.” It just seems like a change in fashion.<\/p>\n\n

Previously: 20 Years of iMac<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2018-08-02): See also: Memoji Apple Leadership<\/a>, Accidental Tech Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2019-09-13): John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Whimsy is coming back.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2020-02-07): Ryan Poolos<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

It has been a long time since Apple had whimsy like this. On the homepage no less. Whoever is driving Apple Arcade inside is doing great.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Cohen: The iMac debuted 20 years ago this week. It’s not hyperbole to say that it’s the computer that saved Apple and set the stage for Apple’s ascendance to becoming the biggest tech company in the world. All that said, Apple’s lost something in the translation – while the iMac is still a fixture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2018-08-02T16:43:23Z","apple_news_api_id":"5525b29d-0b7c-4530-baf3-7bb36d5d9193","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2020-02-07T20:08:36Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AVSWynQt8RTC683uzbV2Rkw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1704,38,1787,992,77,295,1297,30,247,216],"class_list":["post-21466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-animoji","tag-apple","tag-apple-arcade","tag-apple-watch","tag-design","tag-history","tag-imac","tag-mac","tag-siri","tag-timemachine"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21466"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28091,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21466\/revisions\/28091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}